Motif · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

The gods

'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege.' A war gauntlet that warns it can transfigure a worshipper of the god Grull into the god himself, and Mordecai's solemn insistence that Grull is not real — nor is any god in this game. Zev, in passing, mentions that a hostile government could 'spring for a deity sponsorship.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — Hump Town
• Chapter 2 — The Wasteland through a telescope
• Chapter 4 — The Royal Chariot; Ifechi
• Chapter 5 — Rapid Detox
• Chapter 12 — Dolores Doesn't Splat
• Chapter 13 — Gerbils
• Chapter 14 — Maggie
• Chapter 21 — Ghazi
• Chapter 23 — The winding box explained
• Chapter 24 — Samantha
• Chapter 31 — Emberus, summoned
• Chapter 32 — Acolyte of Emberus
• Chapter 33 — Phase three
• Chapter 34 — Seeding the pond

Progression

What the fifth floor says a god is

A tab to worship Grull; Pawna, goddess of peace, his sister and enemy; 'the other deities tend to notice' (ch. 2). The feral gods: the ones from before the pantheon, banished into the Nothing and driven mad, who come through when a gate closes (ch. 15); Psamathe, a lesser deity, split in two, who lies about who she is (ch. 21, ch. 24); the Celestial Ascendency on the twelfth floor, 'whackadoodle business' (ch. 24); a Celestial Grenade that summons the wielder's god; Algos, god of pain; Enyo's nuns (ch. 14). Sinjin's note on worship — rules, boons, smiting — and Azin's: 'Stay the fuck away from gods' (ch. 30).

Emberus

Geyrun murdered, Emberus blinded, Orthrus lost; a blind god walking the Lacuna (ch. 28, ch. 29); summoned into a biplane's path by a grenade after Carl takes him as his god (ch. 31); two quests, a tithe, a shrine (ch. 32). Gods that fight or mate when they meet outside the twelfth floor and unsummon; a turkey god killed by Prepotente; Ysalte, the Vinegar Bitch, an extinction event Borant blocks (ch. 32, ch. 33). Samantha's mother tears a demon in two for her (ch. 34).