Motif · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

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 1 — Porthus; Welcome to Faction Wars
Chapter 8 — Larracos, City of Dreams
Chapter 20 — Christmas Morning; the Ramp-Up
Chapter 22 — Colonel Boomer
Chapter 26 — Milk; the Empress marked
Chapter 27 — Gavrilo Princip
Chapter 39 — Alliances break; Operation Snake Pit
Chapter 42 — The warlord council; Princess Vinata
Chapter 43 — Odette hosts; 'It's coming'
Chapter 44 — The Beautiful Place; Blood Hunter
Chapter 46 — Operation Snake Pit: the line of succession
Chapter 49 — Bijou, Theia and Khepri
Chapter 50 — The Temple of the Dagda
Chapter 53 — Super Heavyweight Temple Battle Grudge Match Extravaganza
Chapter 54 — The Waffle Maker; Hellik's message
Chapter 55 — Head Banger; Milk
Chapter 56 — Justice Light; the Nest
Chapter 58 — Sultan Rishi the Usurper

Progression

A court of assassins whose Sultana no spy has seen, who vanishes every season through a door (ch. 8, ch. 46); a constitutional monarchy playing its bloody history for tourism (ch. 8); Blood Hunter Holdings (ch. 44); a plan to steal a fleet, leaked (ch. 53); a temple, a trap, a hatchet (ch. 52–ch. 55); a usurper with a treaty (ch. 58). Its assets go to Donut and Katia and then to the Posse (ch. 55).