Motif · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

The Celestial Ascendency

The Cookbook's warning: the big gods are always sponsored by some rich prick who paid to play a game called the Celestial Ascendency, contained on the twelfth floor, with its own followers and storyline; Grull is one of its few trueborn heirs. 'The gods are invulnerable except on the 12th and above floors.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 35 — Eris and the five-sided coin
• Chapter 38 — Akuma's account: Herot, Menerva and the Pineapple Cabaret
• Chapter 51 — The Scavenger's Daughter blinks; Azra; heat four results
• Chapter 52 — Interlude: Minus; the key, the upgrades, and Chachi
• Chapter 53 — The key to One Fine Pig's garage
• Chapter 83 — The poleaxes; Britney kills Osvaldo; the Cadillac
• Chapter 88 — Interlude: Quasar; the eleventh floor — twenty-three crawlers; Chaco's parade
• Chapter 92 — Chaco on Lamashtu; the AI's history in four parts; Vengeance
• Chapter 94 — Dungeon Boss; the pig in the harness
• Chapter 97 — Eris; the wrong biscuit; the gods leave
• Chapter 98 — W-W-W-Winner; Mark of the Damned; the wrong biscuit
• Epilogue — Epilogue: Sydnee Iglacia, Prime Minister Victory, Louis Santiago 2

Progression

Eris wants the throne (ch. 35); 'All seek the prize on the twelfth floor' (ch. 51); a catch-all goddess does badly there (ch. 53); the Syndicate hopes a crawler kill will start it early (ch. 52); a subjugated god loses half her level (ch. 92). Killing Scolopendra begins it, with the dungeon collapsing twelve hours after a winner (ch. 94); Eris: 'If we let those guys downstairs win the Ascendency, it’s lights out' (ch. 97). The timers are suspended until a winner; Carl means to stay on the twelfth to stop one (ch. 98). An hour's countdown, Outside Intelligences among the players, and the winner 'supreme motherfucker number one' (epilogue).