Motif · Book 1, Dungeon Crawler Carl

The Syndicate

The interstellar government that owns Dungeon Crawler World and licenses seasons to corporations like Borant; the source of the rules, the common language everyone is suddenly speaking, and — according to a first-floor tutorial guide — the seeding of Earth's culture from outside long before the collapse.

Segment appearances

Chapter 1 — The transformation
Chapter 3 — Da Tutorial Guild
Chapter 4 — The character sheet
Chapter 9 — The Polish McDonald's
Chapter 14 — The premiere
Chapter 20 — Frank Q
Chapter 27 — After the arena
Chapter 28 — The green room
Chapter 29 — Odette off air
Chapter 32 — The pedicure kit
Chapter 33 — Plan Pied Piper
Chapter 36 — Zev
Chapter 39 — The recap
Chapter 42 — The Maestro's show
Chapter 43 — The Maestro explains himself
Chapter 44 — What Donut overheard

Progression

The first voice: the planet seized under Syndicate rules, Borant its regent (ch. 1). Mordecai explains it as the government that owns the game and licenses seasons (ch. 4); Lexis, that it owns the main program and permits private ones (ch. 28); Mistress Tiatha, via Brandon, that it seeded human culture from outside so the tusklings could wear tuxedos (ch. 27). Odette adds that the mud-skipper slur was nearly listed as hate speech (ch. 29); Zev, that Syndicate-member productions cannot be refused (ch. 44).