Motif · from book 1
Borant
The kua-tin corporation licensed to run this season of the crawl: the voice of the daily announcements and patch notes, the Admins who splash into the guild room, and the government behind them — the Bloom, the Party — that Mordecai says is bankrupt and needs the game over fast.
First appears: Book 1
Series arc
As of book 2. The operator: bankrupt, hurrying, and owned by its own government's Bloom. Announcements, Admins and a slur in book 1; in book 2 the printer of NPCs, the author of the eight-day floor, the beneficiary in Carl's private theory of Manasa's death, and the spender of its only veto on 82 Celestial boxes. The Valtay run the next season.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Borant's bankruptcy and the Valtay fleet at the door | B1 ch. 36 | open — Mordecai's whispered politics; Odette: the next season is the Valtay's. |
| Whether Manasa's death served Borant | B2 ch. 20 | open — Carl's theory, in chat only; Mordecai bans all talk of the outside. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 1
The operator, seen as announcements, Admins and a slur. Book 1's politics, delivered in a whisper (B1 ch. 36): the Bloom controls the kua-tin government, the system is bankrupt, and Borant needs the season over fast. Odette's addendum (B1 ch. 48): a Valtay fleet is parked outside the Borant system, and the next season will be theirs.
Through book 2
Owner of the NPCs it prints (B2 ch. 3); author of the eight-day floor; warning its shopkeepers in a newsletter to be extra careful not to anger crawlers (B2 ch. 21); the beneficiary, in Carl's private theory, of Manasa's death (B2 ch. 20); and the spender of its only veto on 82 Celestial boxes (B2 ch. 26).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 17/48 | 1–2, 4–5, 14, 20, 28–29, 33, 35–36, 39–40, 42, 44, 47–48 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 9/26 | 3, 7, 12, 14, 19–21, 25–26 · the book's own page |
By book
Borant in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
The corporation's name is in the welcome text (ch. 2) and its voice is the daily announcement: patch notes, toilet bugs, the stasis rule (ch. 14), a language patch ('Sorry about that, New Zealand'), the Blender Fiends withdrawn (ch. 20), six days instead of ten and the Rage Elemental penalty (ch. 31), safe rooms closing early (ch. 39), the stairwell exploit patched (ch. 44). Its people are Zev and Mukta; its slur is mud skipper (ch. 29). Mordecai's whispered briefing (ch. 36) is the politics: the Bloom, the Party badges, a bankrupt kua-tin system that needs the season profitable and over, and 'the kua-tin government is working extra hard to get you killed.'
Borant in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
The corporation that owns the NPCs it prints (ch. 3) and cuts the floor to eight days (ch. 2). Its floor announcement zeroes the experience for killing citizens and gives city guards 'a slight boost in stats' (ch. 7), which Carl remembers at the magistrate's stairs (ch. 18). Mordecai reads its newsletter between the lines: warn the shopkeepers, the crawlers are getting too strong (ch. 21). Carl's chat theory that it engineered the Skull Empire's murder of a Valtay asset (ch. 20). It burns its one veto of the season on 82 Celestial boxes (epilogue) and is 'on the hook' for the one already opened.