Motif · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Waking the NPCs

What the dungeon's people know about themselves: Mordecai's distinction between naturals, whose memories cannot be altered unless they sign away their rights, and the printed and imprinted rest, and the question, whenever an NPC seems to know more than it should, of what waking would mean.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 3 — The Over City explained
• Chapter 7 — The lion's heart
• Chapter 14 — The One-Eyed Narwhal

Progression

Mordecai on the third floor: Borant created the NPCs and so owns them, but 'One can't alter the memories of naturals. People who were born in a natural biological process. Not unless they sign away their rights' (ch. 3); elites are never naturals — designed, printed, imprinted (ch. 7).