Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

The Blood Sultanate

The faction Donut joined by putting on the Crown of the Sepsis Whore in chapter 7: a naga royal house that, Mordecai warns, holds its members on the ninth floor until every other member is dead — and that the Maestro says is almost always the first of the nine eliminated.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 12 — No matter what
• Chapter 42 — Warrants
• Chapter 77 — The mask
• Epilogue — Epilogue

Progression

The crown's clause, recited: no leaving the ninth floor while a royal naga lives (ch. 12, ch. 42); a naga reporter's brother married in (ch. 42); Co-Warlord Donut flagged as its royalty (ch. 77); and the crown on a second head (epilogue).