Death Roll
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Overview
The Death Roll is the Riders Quadrant's formal list of cadets who have died. At Basgiath, its reading in silent courtyard formation serves as the dead cadets' only memorial and the only time their names are spoken in the citadel.
At Aretia, a daily death roll is read in the courtyard for commissioned active riders and fliers killed on the front lines, extending the ritual from cadet attrition to open war losses.
The death roll can also include every active-service member who died the previous day, beyond the typical quadrant list.
Mechanics
After the final name is read, Captain Fitzgibbons commends the dead cadets' souls to Malek. The ritual has no formal silence or closing observance before squad leaders resume ordinary orders.
The morning rolls confirm whether a newly crossed cadet survived the first day after Parapet; Mira stays long enough to read them and is relieved when Violet's name is absent.
When a Basgiath cadet dies, the parents may retrieve the body and personal effects for burial or burning, or leave the task to the school. If the school handles the death, the body is placed under a stone and the effects are burned; the religious rule behind the practice treats keeping a dead loved one's belongings as an offense against Malek.
Uses
The Riders Quadrant uses rolls during Parapet processing, including one after the crossing, so scribes can keep casualty statistics.
The broader active-service roll honors people dying in the war outside the walls and keeps cadets aware that the real enemy remains beyond Basgiath even while internal killing is under moratorium.
Limitations
After Threshing, bodies are gathered for the roll, but no one documents exactly how each cadet died. The Death Roll records the death, not whether the cadet fell to a dragon, another first-year, or another cause.
Basgiath's roll can absorb presumed deaths before bodies are verified. The War Games survivors are first listed as dead, and the entry has to be corrected when they walk into graduation alive.
Known Users
Captain Fitzgibbons reads the Basgiath Riders Quadrant Death Roll and performs its commendation to Malek.
Major Devera reads Aretia's daily death roll in the courtyard.
Important Incidents
During the first month of challenges, almost twenty additional first-year names are added to the Death Roll, and the women's hall already has empty beds for a dozen women who did not live to see August.
The first Gauntlet practice adds more than twenty names to the Death Roll. Violet recognizes over half of them, including Calvin Atwater, Newland Jahvon, and Aurelie Donans.
The Presentation Day Death Roll names Doria Merrill, Kamryn Dyre, Arvel Pelipa, and Michel Iverem, and the shrinking formations make the class's attrition physically visible.
The Death Roll continues after Threshing and is read after squads are rearranged, placing the ritual directly between formation changes and the new riders' flight-field instruction.
A first-year from Third Wing dies after losing her seat during a new flight maneuver and appears on the Death Roll the morning of sparring practice.
The March Death Roll includes Sharla Gunter and Mushin Vedie, recording deaths from signet manifestation as part of ordinary formation life.
At graduation formation, the Death Roll first lists the eight War Games survivors, including Garrick Tavis and Xaden Riorson, among the dead. After they enter alive, Fitzgibbons adjusts the roll and continues with the confirmed deaths, including Soleil Telery and Liam Mairi.
Trysten's name is called after he dies during Gauntlet practice, and Sorrel's name is expected on the next Death Roll after First Squad's interrogation assessment.
After the Basgiath battle, the roll continues to grow because dark wielders who did not escape kill more people through surprise attacks; First Wing, Third Wing, and Claw Section all take losses.
The venin attack inside Basgiath leaves the Infantry Quadrant facing a painfully long death roll, extending the breach's casualty reporting beyond the Riders Quadrant.