Gormenghast (series) a year later with his "Earling" or formal investiture as the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan, after the untimely death of his father Sepulchrave. As Titus is only an infant in this novel, he plays a minor role. The main plot therefore follows the somewhat bizarre inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle, and in particular chronicles the rise to power of Steerpike, a scheming kitchen boy. Steerpike successfully destroys the existing order of the castle by inciting the twin sisters of Sepulchrave, Cora and Clarice, to burn Sepulchrave's beloved library. This event drives Sepulchrave into madness and eventually into taking his own life.
Gormenghast (castle) Qufu in Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius. His descendants lived there for two thousand years, practising obscure rituals worthy of Gormenghast in a sprawling mansion with hundreds of rooms (partially destroyed by a fire in 1877). The eldest son in each generation inherited the title of Yansheng Duke. The last to live in the Mansion was the posthumous son of the 76th Duke (and therefore the 77th holder of the title, just like Titus Groan). Born in 1920, the 77th Yansheng duke was forced to flee to the island of Taiwan in 1937 when the Japanese invaded China. The