Motif · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Primal engines

Circe's history lesson on the CrawlCon panel: the original council nations 'accidentally tripped the primal engines' and started the chain reaction that overpopulated the galaxy, leaving primal elements to be collected from the pre-seeded worlds; the Hive, who reverse-engineer primal technology, demanded the right to field-test macro-AI-controlled enhancement zones, and the request was put under advisement. A hunter promises to birth a thousand nymphs in the birthing hall of Hive Home two.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 38 — Akuma's account: Herot, Menerva and the Pineapple Cabaret
• Chapter 92 — Chaco on Lamashtu; the AI's history in four parts; Vengeance
• Chapter 93 — The arena: 'I choose Scolopendra'
• Epilogue — Epilogue: Sydnee Iglacia, Prime Minister Victory, Louis Santiago 2

Progression

Akuma: the framework and the macro AI that goes into the engine (ch. 38). The AI's history: they were life rafts for when the collective starved, and 'weren’t meant to do what you think they would do' (ch. 92). Under every horribles mask is a Primal — the people who resolved to end their wars by becoming a collective mind and hunted the refusers; the AI is a cup dipped from their ocean, 'I am her, and she is me', and every sapient mob a drip from the same well (ch. 91, ch. 92). 'Primals. All of them. All the way down' (ch. 93).