Motif · from book 1

Carl's family

'After a stint in the US Coast Guard, I ended up working as a marine tech.' What Carl says of himself in the first chapter, and what leaks out after: a mother who locked him in the basement with his father's Frogger machine whenever his father's friends came over, and who left; a heavily tattooed father who laughed at him, broke his slingshot and never replaced it, and drove on past a wrecked moving truck saying it was a shame.

First appears: Book 1

Series arc

Through book 4

A sudden memory of his father angry, soon after his mother left them and a month before his father left him: a fish tank smashed, mollies on the floor (B4 ch. 11).

Through book 1

What Carl says of himself in the first chapter and in three asides — the basement and the Frogger machine (B1 ch. 6), the moving truck his father drove past (B1 ch. 26), the slingshot his father broke (B1 ch. 32): 'After a stint in the US Coast Guard, I ended up working as a marine tech' (B1 ch. 1); a coast guardsman aboard a cutter as a technician, never face-to-face with real law enforcement and not in a physical fight in years (B1 ch. 2); Bea's father a lawyer out of Yakima (B1 ch. 8).

Through book 2

The circus on his fourth birthday, when his mother had briefly left his father for her parents' place in southern Texas — a memory recovered from a shoebox of photographs under his parents' bed (B2 ch. 10); his father's shelf of westerns, read in secret (B2 ch. 5).

Through book 3

No dog tags in the Coast Guard (B3 ch. 2); the one day his father was physically abusive, a belt and soaked underwear (B3 ch. 7); his mother's hand at the edge of the Grand Canyon on the way back from Texas, his father waiting in the car (B3 ch. 15).

Where they appear

Book	Chapters they are in (of the book's)	Where
1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl	7/48	Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 6, Ch. 26, Ch. 32, Ch. 41, Ch. 42 · the book's own page
2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario	12/26	4–12, 17, 19, 23 · the book's own page
3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	4/35	Ch. 2, Ch. 4, Ch. 15, Ch. 25 · the book's own page
4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods	7/35	Ch. 2, Ch. 5, Ch. 11, Ch. 16, Ch. 17, Ch. 33, Ch. 34 · the book's own page

By book

Carl's family in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl

'After a stint in the US Coast Guard, I ended up working as a marine tech' (ch. 1); a coast guardsman aboard a cutter as a technician, never face-to-face with real law enforcement but trained in hand-to-hand combat (ch. 2); Bea's dad a lawyer out of Yakima (ch. 8). Of his parents: a mother who locked him in the basement with his father's Frogger cabinet while his father's friends drank (ch. 6); a mother who left, and a father last seen laughing at him over 12 years ago — 'Not since he'd abandoned me that day' (ch. 13, ch. 21); a father who drove on past a wrecked Penske truck (ch. 26); his mother's promise the day she left that it would be okay — 'It had been a lie then' (ch. 41). What Carl says of himself, and no more.

Carl's family in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario

The circus on his fourth birthday, when his mother had briefly left his father and run to her parents' in southern Texas — peanuts and cotton candy and hay, a memory recovered years later from a shoebox of photographs hidden under his parents' bed (ch. 10); a father with a shelf of Louis L'Amour westerns Carl read in secret (ch. 5).

Carl's family in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Dog tags were not worn in the Coast Guard (ch. 2); his father's books (ch. 4); the one day his father was physically abusive — a belt, and underwear soaked through (ch. 7); his mother's hand at the edge of the Grand Canyon on the way back from Texas, his father waiting in the car (ch. 15).

Carl's family in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods

A sudden memory of his father angry, soon after his mother left them and a month before his father left him to fend for himself: a helmet ripped off, a fish tank smashed, mollies on the floor (ch. 11).