Character · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

King Rust

King Rust of the Skull Empire, 'who recently arrived in earth orbit': the orc king named on Odette's show, quiet about his son being called Carl's Naughty Little Piggie.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 32 — King Rust arrives
• Chapter 33 — Parlay
• Chapter 34 — The king's message; Rosetta's whip
• Chapter 35 — Volteeg; the dwarves' tunnel
• Chapter 36 — Orren's zero zone
• Chapter 39 — Alliances break; Operation Snake Pit
• Chapter 40 — Little Günter; a dragon chain
• Chapter 62 — A non-team entity
• Chapter 63 — Into the Madness
• Chapter 69 — Interlude — Several days earlier; Interlude — Rosetta; Zarogoths
• Chapter 78 — The Scavenger's daughter is with us now
• Chapter 82 — Ursensus

Arc

Up from the eighteenth floor at the last minute in parade feathers on a hippo-yak, war chief not warlord, with a whip, a Ring of Divine Suffering and a Necklace of Indelible Woe (ch. 32). He waits alone, slumped, crying with rage and grief and laughter, asks Carl about children, describes Formidable's plan for the failsafe, names Architect Houston as the one creature he fears, and asks for a message to his daughter on Earth's behalf (ch. 33, ch. 34). Rosetta takes his head off with a whip as he walks away (ch. 34), presses it to a datapad, and empties his bank (ch. 35). On her own crawl he lassoed a crawler named Brooks through the portal glass (ch. 69). He brought a harem in under a private deal, and three of them reach the eighteenth floor with Li Na's marks on them (ch. 82). His children in orbit die in a yacht (epilogue).