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 · Seen for what it is: Book 6
Series arc
In hindsight, after book 6
The thread is older than its name. Mordecai's throwaway on the third floor — naturals, whose memories cannot be altered 'unless they sign away their rights' — and Herot's half-read essay on the Worn Path are what the eighth floor's Night Wyrm scene reaches back for: Carl remembers the conversation himself, 'thinking back on the short conversation we'd had way back when we'd entered the third floor.' Tagg's 'They're becoming self-aware. All of them,' Herot's contagion proving true, and fifty thousand former crawlers inside the Homecoming Queen turn a rule of the game into the series' political question.
As of book 7. Mordecai's rule on the third floor, five books of NPCs who know too much, a floor's problem in book 6; in book 7 the NPCs fight from the beginning and remember dozens of seasons, a shopkeeper who killed a shopkeeper confesses the ice elves, a stripper wonders why he does not remember, a game guide's brain is wiped to his last day, and a whole city of them is sent to the twelfth floor so that both teams can live.
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).
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 5
Through book 6
Juice Box her own team (B6 ch. 22); a spider who knows everything (B6 ch. 26); 'I was almost done' (B6 ch. 32); 'two of thousands', naturals with rights signed away (B6 ch. 34); 'They starve us' (B6 ch. 42); Ossie's suspicion that they lie about where NPCs come from (B6 ch. 34); a Former Crawler card torn (B6 ch. 72).
Through book 7
Trace
The thread line by line, in reading order: its presence before anyone could see it, and the lines that made it legible. Each line is verbatim from the cited book.
| Where | The line | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Book 2, Ch. 3 | “Borant created them, so they own them. One can’t alter the memories of naturals. People who were born in a natural biological process. Not unless they sign away their rights.” | Mordecai's rule, the one Carl will remember on the eighth floor. |
| Book 2, Ch. 7 | Elites are never naturals. They are designed, printed, and then imprinted […] As far as they’re concerned, this is their real world.” | Elites are never naturals; as far as they're concerned, this is their real world. |
| Book 3, Ch. 17 | A crawler named Herot had written the 16th edition of the cookbook, […] She had a theory she called, “The Worn Path Method,” […] I’d only read the first few paragraphs so far. She claimed that breaking them out of their reverie was cruel, but also necessary if one wanted to survive. | Herot's method, read a few paragraphs deep. |
| Book 4, Ch. 34 | But they were all NPCs, and none of them were former crawlers, […] Former crawlers with contracts like Mordecai were valuable. They didn’t waste them in a city that was razed every season. | Who is wasted and who is valuable. |
| Book 5, Ch. 16 | I wondered on that […] If there was a way to make Signet and other elites self-aware, just like with regular NPCs, and what that would mean if it happened. | Carl wonders whether elites can be woken. |
| Book 5, Ch. 54 | (See my essay on the nature of NPCs for more insight on how conquering areas may be utilized to forward my Worn Path Method of enlightenment.) | The Cookbook keeps pointing back at the essay. |
| Book 6, Ch. 21 | “They’re becoming self-aware. All of them,” Tagg said. “It’s going to be impossible for anybody to win.” | A Faction Wars warlord's complaint on the eighth floor. |
| Book 6, Ch. 26 | But, still. Herot’s hypothesis that self-aware NPCs were highly contagious seemed to be true. | The hypothesis confirmed. |
| Book 6, Ch. 34 | “I don’t know,” I said. “Unless they tell us, I don’t think there is a way to know. […] Mordecai said it was illegal to change the memories of natural people. That’s what he called them. ‘Naturals.’ | Carl reaches back to the third floor. |
| Book 6, Ch. 34 | Actually, no, I remembered, thinking back on the short conversation […] when we’d entered the third floor. I was pretty sure he’d added, “Unless they signed away their rights.” | The clause he had forgotten. |
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 |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 6/78 | Ch. 16, Ch. 25, Ch. 33, Ch. 54, Ch. 56, Ch. 68 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 8/74 | Ch. 19, Ch. 21, Ch. 22, Ch. 26, Ch. 33, Ch. 34, Ch. 51, Ch. 73 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 22/89 | 1, 10–11, 15–16, 20, 26–27, 29, 32, 34–35, 43, 56, 63, 79, 81–82, 85–88 · 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).
Waking the NPCs in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
Carl wonders whether elites like Signet could be made self-aware, as regular NPCs can (ch. 16). Herot's Worn Path Method — show them the lie, show them the seams, a trolley on a worn track — arrives in a Cookbook note that refers to an essay on the nature of NPCs (ch. 54, ch. 56); Herot's claim (ch. 63); Signet, tattoos and all, wants a conversation with the off-worlders at the judges' table (ch. 68); the same strings (ch. 73).
Waking the NPCs in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Attendants are almost all high-value former crawlers (ch. 19); Herot wonders how the Worn Path Method will work on the deeper floors (ch. 21); Tagg says they are becoming self-aware, all of them, and nobody can win (ch. 21, ch. 22); Juice Box is her own team (ch. 22); Herot's hypothesis that self-aware NPCs are highly contagious seems true, and a spider knows everything (ch. 26); 'We were doing them a favor', Carl thinks of killing Astrid, then of the kids Mordecai is fostering (ch. 31); 'I was almost done' (ch. 32); how many in the club are former crawlers (ch. 33); a Cookbook writer's third re-read of Herot's essay, and Katia learning that Astrid was a former crawler and a mother — naturals with rights signed away (ch. 34); 'They starve us' (ch. 42); a Former Crawler card (ch. 72); Agatha's memory (epilogue).
Waking the NPCs in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
This time the NPCs fight from the beginning; the Jatismara remember dozens of seasons; 'some shopkeepers are different' (ch. 7, ch. 8). Juice Box's people are their own (ch. 9); Justice Light's confession and the ice elves (ch. 56); Bucket Boy's shame at not remembering (ch. 69); Tipid's brain wiped to a game guide's last day (ch. 82). A city of NPCs sent to the twelfth floor so that both teams live (ch. 85).