Titus Groan first catalyst is the birth of Titus Groan, the heir to Lord Sepulchrave, which interrupts the centuries-old daily rituals which are practiced at all levels of the castle's society, from the kitchens to the Hall of Bright Carvings in Gormenghast's upper reaches. Though he is the title character and integral to the plot, Titus appears only infrequently as an infant during his first two years of life. The second is Steerpike, a ruthlessly ambitious kitchen boy, whose rise drives the plot of "Titus Groan". His escape from the kitchen during the castle celebration of Lord Titus' birth introduces change into
Titus Awakes in the Overlook editions (albeit in both single volume and omnibus). Mills (2005) comments on the irony of the narrator's comment that Titus would never again see Gormenghast Castle, for "even in the first proposed chapter, Titus returns in a dream to Gormenghast and the fight between Swelter and Flay." The textual repetition in the preadventure was commented upon by Chris Sandow, who stated that "[t]he fragments are clearly no more than early drafts". However, it is not clear that the repetition is an error. Early in 2010 Sebastian Peake announced that his daughter had found Maeve Gilmore's notebook MS