Motif · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

The gods

'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege.' A war gauntlet that warns it can transfigure a worshipper of the god Grull into the god himself, and Mordecai's solemn insistence that Grull is not real — nor is any god in this game. Zev, in passing, mentions that a hostile government could 'spring for a deity sponsorship.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — Porthus; Welcome to Faction Wars
• Chapter 2 — Hosers and achievements
• Chapter 7 — Donut Holes; the Semeru dwarf
• Chapter 22 — Colonel Boomer
• Chapter 32 — King Rust arrives
• Chapter 44 — The Beautiful Place; Blood Hunter
• Chapter 49 — Bijou, Theia and Khepri
• Chapter 51 — Dark Purpose
• Chapter 52 — The Temple of Khepri
• 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 57 — Thirty-two boxes; the last prisoner
• Chapter 59 — Operation Ruin
• Chapter 61 — The War Mage Rebellion
• Chapter 63 — Into the Madness
• Chapter 64 — The crystal shows itself
• Chapter 70 — City of Broken Dreams
• Chapter 71 — Donkey Kong
• Chapter 72 — Diah
• Chapter 73 — An act of fiendish cruelty
• Chapter 74 — Bijanbi
• Chapter 76 — The Oak Fell
• Chapter 77 — Not yet
• Chapter 78 — The Scavenger's daughter is with us now
• Chapter 79 — Tart
• Chapter 86 — We just need to kill you
• Epilogue — Epilogue: Don't Come in Last

Progression

No celestial summonings in the Ramp-Up (ch. 14); a floor 'neck deep in gods in a few days' (ch. 45). Bijou tendrils, Travel the Path, Welcome Home (ch. 49); Khepri in his own temple, Hellik on the floor, gods pouring from a portal (ch. 52–ch. 55); Meatus and Harpocrates, Yarilo, Eris by battlefield conditions (ch. 59, ch. 60, ch. 63); a Bleached Drake (ch. 63). Golden ogres a god will not pass (ch. 70); a god conscripted, a god killed by a god, the heavens angry (ch. 72, ch. 73); a goddess free and All Knowing (ch. 76); a sponsored goddess frozen by an unmade choice long enough to kill the woman inside her — 'We just need to kill you' (ch. 86); Emberus burning a floor (ch. 87); Eris at a fuel stop (epilogue).