Motif · from book 2
Waking the NPCs
What the dungeon's people know about themselves: Mordecai's distinction between naturals, whose memories cannot be altered unless they sign away their rights, and the printed and imprinted rest, and the question, whenever an NPC seems to know more than it should, of what waking would mean.
First appears: Book 2
Series arc
Through book 4
Former crawlers with contracts, like Mordecai, are valuable; they are not wasted in a city that is razed every season (B4 ch. 34).
Through book 2
Mordecai on the third floor: Borant created the NPCs and so owns them, but 'One can't alter the memories of naturals. People who were born in a natural biological process. Not unless they sign away their rights' (B2 ch. 3); elites are never naturals — designed, printed, imprinted, and as far as they are concerned this is their real world (B2 ch. 7).
Through book 3
Herot's essay at the back of the sixteenth Cookbook on the nature of the NPCs — the 'Worn Path Method': break the fourth wall, ask them questions, challenge them when they don't know what they should, 'Be kind but firm.' — which Carl reads a few paragraphs of and means to finish (B3 ch. 17).
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 3/26 | Ch. 3, Ch. 7, Ch. 14 · the book's own page |
| 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | 3/35 | Ch. 13, Ch. 17, Ch. 32 · the book's own page |
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 1/35 | Ch. 34 · the book's own page |
By book
Waking the NPCs in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Waking the NPCs in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
Herot's essay at the back of the sixteenth Cookbook on the nature of the NPCs, and her 'Worn Path Method' (ch. 17).
Waking the NPCs in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
Former crawlers with contracts, like Mordecai, are valuable and are not wasted in a city about to be razed (ch. 34).