Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

The Celestial Ascendency

The Cookbook's warning: the big gods are always sponsored by some rich prick who paid to play a game called the Celestial Ascendency, contained on the twelfth floor, with its own followers and storyline; Grull is one of its few trueborn heirs. 'The gods are invulnerable except on the 12th and above floors.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 10 — No dinosaurs of any kind
• Chapter 62 — A squirrel with antlers
• Chapter 65 — The Oak Mother's sacrament
• Chapter 76 — Cage Fight Extreme

Progression

'Emberus has returned to the Halls of the Ascendency' after Zockau (ch. 10). Samantha on Diwata's power to give birth to whatever she last naffed — a power supposed to be consigned to the head of the Ascendency, which the pantheon dislikes (ch. 62); Queen Imogen on the first masquerade, held in the Halls of Ascendency by Taranis and Apito for their children, who are constantly vying for control (ch. 65); Diwata returns there after the fight (ch. 76).