The Halls of the Dead is a Logical, Virtuous World featured in Every Heart a Doorway.
Description[]
The door between the Halls and Reality is described as solid oak, which leads into a grove of pomegranate trees. The air smells sweet, and the sky is a black velvet color, spangled with unflickering stars. The grass is wet with dew, and the Pomegranate trees full of fruit.[1]
At the end of the pomegranate fields is a wall of marble, with a tall, imposing door that opens into the actual Halls.[2] There are several marble pillars holding up white walls decorated with friezes and muted watercolor paintings.[3]
The Statues in the Halls of the Dead are employed, and are expected to hold still for days at a time. Serving girls feed them with sponges full of pomegranate juice and sugar.[4] They wear white draperies, and all ages are employed.[5]
Nancy describes the aesthetic of the world resembling the paintings of Waterhouse.[6] Most of the items in the Halls of the Dead are black and white, with colors reserved for those who had earned it, but mostly for the Lady of Shadows and her entourage.[7]
The leaders of the Halls are the Lord of the Dead and his Lady of Shadows, who "had spread their ardor throughout the palace, and all had been warmed by its light."[8] Their throne room is decorated with gray stone, and is a natural vault. Lights and gems hang from the ceiling, and on either side of the two thrones are three statues.
The Halls would sometimes have feasts that lasted weeks, with tons of food, such as unicorn. Mostly, there were silver cups of pomegranate juice; hunger dies quickly in the Halls.[9]
The Room of Souls is completely pitch-black, except for the lights of the souls that go there to work out their restlessness before reincarnation.
There is a River of Forgotten Souls, where there are many magical turtles and a possible doorway to Belyyreka. Many Drowned Worlds border the Halls of the Dead.
Place on the Compass[]
During Every Heart a Doorway, Nancy assumes that the Halls of the Dead is a Virtue and Logic world after reading the introductary chapters of the textbook for the "A Traveler's History of the Great Compass" class, and by using Prism and Confection as touchstones. However, we learn in the multiverse map that her world is actually moderate Wicked. The reason for her incorrect assumption is likely because of what Sumi said about her possibly not being able to see how wicked her world really was.[10]
It is unknown where it places on the Rhyme, Linearity, and Vitus/Mortis sections.
Known Members[]
- Lord of the Dead
- Lady of Shadows
- Nancy Whitman
- Statues
- Serving Girls
- Lady of Shadows's Entourage
- Nadya (temporarily)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- There are many references to Greek Mythology in the Halls of the Dead, the most prominent being the Pomegranates, which were what caused Persephone to remain in the Underworld. It is probable that this is the same underworld, as Nancy references Persephone specifically.[11]
References[]
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 22: Because the air had smelled so sweet, and the sky had been black velvet, spangled with points of diamond light that didn't flicker at all, only burned constant and cold. Because the grass had been wet with dew, and the trees had been heavy with fruit.
- ↑ Beneath the Sugar Sky, page 57: The pomegranate grove was coming to an end around them, the trees growing less frequent as they approached a high marble wall. There was a door there, tall and imposing, the sort of door that belonged on a cathedral or a palace; the sort of door that said "keep out" far more loudly than it would ever dream of saying "come in." But it was standing open, and when they drew nearer, no one appeared to warn them off.
- ↑ Beneath the Sugar Sky, page 58: The architecture was exactly what a thousand movies had told her to expect: marble pillars holding up impossible ceilings, white stone walls softened with friezes and with watercolor paintings of flowering meadows. The colors were muted, whites and pastel greens and grayish pines. They somehow managed not to become twee, but to project an air of solemnity and silence instead. The only sounds were their feet tapping against the stone floor, and the clacking of Sumi's bones.
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 26: When she had been in the Halls of the Dead, she had sometimes been expected to hold her position for days at a time, blending in with the rest of the living statuary. Serving girls who were less skilled at stillness had come through with sponges soaked in pomegranate juice and sugar, pressing them to the lips of the unmoving.
- ↑ Beneath the Sugar Sky, page 61: In their place was a long hall, the sort that belonged in a palace or a museum, its walls lined with statues, all of them standing beautifully still in their frost-white draperies. No, not statues- people. People of all ages, from children barely old enough to have shed their infant proportions to men and women older than Eleanor, their faces seamed with wrinkles, their limbs thinned out by time and trials. There was a certain vitality that betrayed their natures, but apart from that, they might as well have been the carved stone they worked so hard to imitate.
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 40: When she'd gone looking for signs that someone else knew where to find a door, combing through Google and chasing links across Wikipedia, she had come across the works of a painter named Waterhouse, and she'd cried from the sheer relief of seeing people wearing clothes that didn't offend her eyes.
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 66: "I..." Nancy stopped. "He wasn't my master, he was my Lord, and my teacher, and he loved me. I wear black and white because color is reserved for the Lady of Shadows and her entourage. I'd like to join them someday, if I can prove myself, but until then, I'm supposed to serve as a statue, and statues should blend in. Standing out is for people who've earned it." She touched the pomegranate ribbon in her hair- and one piece of color she had earned[...]
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 42
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 34: There had been banquets, yes, feasts that lasted weeks, with the tables groaning under the weight of fruits and wines and dark, rich desserts. She had tasted unicorn at one of those feasts, and gone to her bed with a mouth that still tingled from the delicate venom of the horse-like creature's sweetened flesh. But mostly, there had been silver cups on pomegranate juice, and the feeling of an empty stomach adding weight to her stillness. Hunger had died quickly in the Underworld. It was unnecessary, and a small price to pay for the quiet, and the peace and the dances; for everything she'd so fervently enjoyed.
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway page 56
- ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 52: She'd been gone for six months, from their persepctive. One month for each of the pomegranate seeds that Persephone had eaten, back at the beginning of things.