Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

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 16 — Clint and Holger
• Chapter 25 — Fort Freedom
• Chapter 33 — Crawling Through the Ages
• Chapter 54 — The blood bar
• Chapter 56 — Zerzura
• Chapter 68 — Off-worlders

Progression

Carl wonders whether elites like Signet could be made self-aware, as regular NPCs can (ch. 16). Herot's Worn Path Method — show them the lie, show them the seams, a trolley on a worn track — arrives in a Cookbook note that refers to an essay on the nature of NPCs (ch. 54, ch. 56); Herot's claim (ch. 63); Signet, tattoos and all, wants a conversation with the off-worlders at the judges' table (ch. 68); the same strings (ch. 73).