Motif · from book 1

The Skull Empire

One of the oldest and largest Syndicate governments, orcish, mawkish, and — through Prince Maestro's show and his boast that his family's Skull Clan has won six of the last ten Faction Wars — the first outside power to take a personal dislike to Carl. King Rust is in Earth orbit by the end of the book.

First appears: Book 1

Series arc

As of book 3. An enemy acquired on a talk show. By the end of book 3 its crown prince Stalwart has tried to execute Carl from orbit; its queen consort died on a yacht the Valtay destroyed; its disgraced prince Maestro, reported dead on that yacht, is alive in the dungeon and sponsors and drives the war god Grull; and its youngest, Princess Formidable, sponsors Katia and sends her one bolt for a god's eye.

Open threads

Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.

Thread	Opened	Status
The Crown of the Sepsis Whore and the ninth floor	B1 ch. 7	open · B3 ch. 15 — D'nadia's gift is addressed 'to Princess Donut of the Blood Sultanate.'
King Rust's deity sponsorship, and the Grull gauntlet	B2 ch. 26	open · B3 ch. 33 — The sponsor turns out to be the Maestro, not the king; Grull summoned twice and ejected.
The Maestro is alive, and drives Grull	B3 ch. 33	open — 'my brother had already brought me into the dungeon.' A third humiliation.
Carl's challenge to Prince Maestro	B1 ch. 43	resolved · B3 ch. 33 — The Maestro was never dead; he loses to Carl a third time, from inside a god.

All threads: Open threads.

Through book 1

An enemy acquired by accident on a talk show. King Rust is in orbit at the end of book 1; the Maestro means to be on the ninth floor.

Through book 2

Its crown prince tries to execute Carl from orbit and kills a Valtay singer; its queen consort and disgraced prince die in the reprisal; its king buys a god (B2 ch. 19, B2 ch. 20, B2 ch. 26). Carl's speech has made him its public enemy and, in his own reading, its dupe's dupe.

Through book 3

A sister who sponsors Katia and sends a bolt that pauses a god's invulnerability for fifteen seconds; a brother everyone thought dead who drives Grull (B3 ch. 12, B3 ch. 29, B3 ch. 33).

Where they appear

Book	Chapters they are in (of the book's)	Where
1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl	4/48	Ch. 43, Ch. 44, Ch. 47, Ch. 48 · the book's own page
2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario	3/26	Ch. 19, Ch. 20, Ch. 26 · the book's own page
3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	5/35	Ch. 6, Ch. 11, Ch. 12, Ch. 29, Ch. 33 · the book's own page

By book

The Skull Empire in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl

Introduced through its least impressive member (ch. 42–ch. 43): Prince Maestro, whose family were 'there when the Syndicate created the crawl,' whose Skull Clan has won six of the last ten Faction Wars, and who will lead them on the ninth floor. Zev sizes the thing (ch. 44): the Orcish Supremacy is a lemonade stand and the Skull Empire is Wal-Mart, one of the oldest Syndicate governments, not known for measured responses. By the epilogue King Rust is in Earth orbit and his spokesman is asking the galaxy to stop calling his son Carl's Naughty Little Piggie.

The Skull Empire in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario

The Maestro disowned (ch. 19); unrest at home over the Pork Boy Snick (ch. 19); Carl's frog speech; a pulse from Prince Stalwart's yacht that kills Manasa; the yacht destroyed by the Valtay with Queen Consort Ugloo and the Maestro believed aboard (ch. 19, ch. 20); King Rust with one heir left and a deity sponsorship bought, 'an attempt to get to you' (epilogue). Mordecai's plan to keep the Skull Clan targeting the Sultanate has become something else.

The Skull Empire in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Princess Formidable sponsors Katia and sends a bolt for a god's eye (ch. 12, ch. 29); the Maestro is alive and drives Grull (ch. 33); 'rest well, mom.' The Skull Empire's expansion, in a mob card, hunted the Lepus to near-extinction (ch. 6).