Motif · from book 1
The Krakaren
A second-floor neighbourhood boss in book 1 — a clone of a 'cosmic octopus collective' running a moonshine pyramid scheme, whose description says there are many of her — and, on the fourth floor, the floor's engine: a Krakaren borough boss brewing the mobs' race-specific opiates in the drug dens at every fifth station (a different one at each, Imani guesses), ghouls as her failures, clones hatching from stage-three monsters, and an eruption from under every stairwell room at self-destruct. Mordecai, reading the floor's map: a real collective mind spreading through the universe, better translated as the Apothecary, which Borant has drawn as a caricature.
Race and class, since book 1: Krakaren
First appears: Book 1 · Seen for what it is: Book 3
Series arc
In hindsight, after book 3
Read after book 3, the second floor's moonshine boss is the first sighting of the thing the fourth floor is about. Book 1 gives the caricature — a collective mind that gets stupider, a Prime that births two for every one killed — and Carl's guess under the corpse that the collective is real and the bosses lampoon something the audience knows; Mordecai smiles and will not name her weakness. Book 2 has two reminders. Book 3 puts Krakaren borough bosses at the drug-den stations brewing the mobs' drugs, hatches her clones from stage-three monsters, and has Mordecai read the floor's map: a real creature, a collective mind spreading through the universe, better translated as the Apothecary, drawn as an addiction by Borant over the Plenty's own tunnels. The Trace has the lines. What the real Krakaren wants, and why the Syndicate fears it, the books have not said.
As of book 7. A boss in book 1, a collective mind in book 3, the Apothecary in book 5, the traitor Primal in book 6; in book 7 the Apothecary sends Donut a purple pillow and a weapon mount, is trusted by Porthus for a reason he cannot say and feared by Rosetta as 'a tentacle monster that takes over minds', and knew Justice Light's plan. Her banished prime brews hell-kissed potions in the Nothing for a war she considers inevitable, and her in-dungeon ambassador Paca sells them to the war mages with the Gate in her stomach.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The Krakaren, real and spreading | B3 ch. 30 | open · B7 ch. 69 — Porthus trusts her for a reason he cannot say; Rosetta calls her a tentacle monster; Paca is her ambassador; a benefactor box arms Donut. |
| Two kinds of Residual, and a hidden upgrade | B6 ch. 73 | open · B7 ch. 69 — Agatha is the rarer kind, in line with the Nebulars; the Apothecary's thousands the other; Fopsy's shutdown theory. |
| Porthus's plan: the Apothecary's reason, the Impetus Point, and Menerva | B7 ch. 69 | open — A generation ship for the families, the goats and the forbidden gate; a reason the Apothecary helps that Porthus will not say lest the AI and then the Eulogist learn it; a missing crawler named Menerva from his own crawl. In the epilogue: the Open Intellect Action Network and 'stop the crawl or else'. |
| Krakaren Prime in the Nothing, preparing for a war | B7 ch. 71 | open — Hell-kissed Conscription potions brewed by a banished Prime who 'prepares for a war she considers inevitable', sold by the in-dungeon Krakaren's ambassador Paca; they work on floors 9, 12, 15, 17 and 18. Carl spent his duplicate on Lucia; Li Na's went into a god. |
| Agatha: a residual of the Eulogist's kind, to be found on the tenth | B7 ch. 78 | open — Warlord of the Rebellion by system fiat, author of the action items that restored the original rules, removed for abandoning her post; she jumps to the Waiting Room and reappears outside open stairwells. Fopsy: she means to end the Ascendency and trigger the shutdown before the spreading AI threatens the Eulogist. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 1
Krakaren Clone, level 10, the neighbourhood boss of the second floor's stairwell quadrant (B1 ch. 34), running a moonshine pyramid of clurichauns and laminak managers (B1 ch. 32); Carl takes her for a 'cosmic octopus creature' crossed with an anti-vax suburban mom (B1 ch. 35). The first boss to leave its room, beaten by an immunity recipe and a zombie carrying a lit jug (B1 ch. 34, B1 ch. 35). Her card says there are many of her and a Prime that births two for every one killed (B1 ch. 34); Carl suspects the collective is a real thing the bosses lampoon, and Mordecai smiles and will not say her weakness (B1 ch. 35).
Through book 2
Through book 3
The floor's engine: Krakaren borough bosses at the drug-den stations brewing the mobs' opiates; the ghouls its failures; the clones that hatch from stage-three monsters its children; an eruption from under every stairwell room (B3 ch. 12, B3 ch. 27, B3 ch. 31). Mordecai: a real collective mind, better translated as the Apothecary, caricatured by Borant (B3 ch. 30).
Through book 5
Through book 6
The Apothecary as the traitor Primal in Agatha's feed (B6 ch. 73).
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 1, Ch. 32 | “See Krakaren or one of her downline consultants and learn how you can Rev-Up your life today!” | A brochure on the second floor: the boss as a multi-level marketing scheme. |
| Book 1, Ch. 34 | First off, this isn’t the Krakaren. This is a Krakaren. For every one that is killed, Krakaren Prime births two more. | Her card: there are many of her, and a Prime somewhere. |
| Book 1, Ch. 34 | Part of a collective mind intent upon destroying any semblance of scientific progress […] the Krakaren is the only communal brain entity in the galaxy who actually gets stupider as time moves on. | The caricature in the AI's own words; Mordecai's book-3 reading is that the caricature is Borant's. |
| Book 1, Ch. 35 | I suspected the Krakaren “collective” or whatever they called it was a real thing. Sort of. | Carl's guess under the corpse: the bosses lampoon real interstellar creatures for the audience. |
| Book 1, Ch. 35 | I asked him what her weakness was, and he smiled, telling me he wasn’t allowed to say, […] It wasn’t the last we’d see of that particular boss. | Mordecai will not say her weakness. |
| Book 2, Ch. 15 | That Krakaren bitch said no more of the stuff was being made this season. | Quint, over a bottle of her moonshine. |
| Book 3, Ch. 27 | The creatures of her world thought of her as an apothecary. She could cure all ails. | The AI's story time as the clones hatch: a creature who could brew anything in her stomach and wanted a child. |
| Book 3, Ch. 30 | The Krakaren is a real creature. It is a collective mind, and it is spreading throughout the universe. | Mordecai, over the floor's map: a better translation is the Apothecary; the dungeon's version is a caricature. |
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 6/48 | Ch. 32, Ch. 34, Ch. 35, Ch. 37, Ch. 39, Ch. 41 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 2/26 | Ch. 6, Ch. 15 · the book's own page |
| 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook | 14/35 | 10, 12, 15, 17–18, 24, 26–32, 34 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 11/78 | 11, 16, 31, 33–34, 43, 57, 63, 66, 76, 78 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 2/74 | Ch. 2, Ch. 73 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 11/89 | 3, 11, 28, 44, 69, 71, 75–76, 78, 86–87 · the book's own page |
By book
The Krakaren in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
Krakaren Clone, level 10, the moonshine boss of the second floor's stairwell quadrant (ch. 32–ch. 35): a communal brain that gets stupider, crossed with an anti-vax suburban mom, running an MLM of unvaccinated clurichauns and laminak fairy managers. The first boss to leave its room, through the walls. Beaten by a recipe — a fairy corpse blended into moonshine for immunity — and a zombie carrying a lit jug. 'For every one that is killed, Krakaren Prime births two more' (ch. 34); Mordecai smiles and will not say her weakness, which means she is not finished.
The Krakaren in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
The Krakaren in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
A borough boss brewing race-specific opiates at every fifth station, per Imani (ch. 10, ch. 12); 'a Krakaren nest' per Growler Gary (ch. 26); a story-time description when the first stage-three monster hatches — a lonely creature who could brew anything and wanted a child, the ghouls her failures, these her clones, the collective mind to come (ch. 27); Juvenile Clonelings, monkey-sized, screaming, caustic (ch. 31); a neighbourhood boss slopped across a platform (ch. 32); and the eruption from under every stairwell room (ch. 31). Mordecai: real, spreading, better translated as the Apothecary, and caricatured by Borant for politics (ch. 30).
The Krakaren in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
The Apothecary sponsors most of the top ten (ch. 16); its cloaked spokeswoman overrules a moderator and is feared by a stadium (ch. 33); its box for Carl is a recipe Mordecai has chased for fifty cycles and a drawing of Mongo (ch. 43); every later box is for Donut (ch. 57, ch. 63); its tiara and its beanie decide the party (ch. 72, ch. 76). It knew what was going to happen to Katia (epilogue).
The Krakaren in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
The Apothecary and the Plenty are probably on the showrunners' list for providing the means of Prepotente's break — though Carl thought they were losing ungodly amounts on benefactor benefits, and Mordecai calls it a political maneuver to make them a lot of money (ch. 2). Her agents were ordered to kill themselves if they missed the dungeon, and Agatha, no agent of hers, reads 'the traitorous Primal' feed from a stolen body (epilogue).
The Krakaren in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
The Apothecary sends a purple pillow (ch. 3); the Paulie incident was 'one of several actions' that brought the crackdown on the non-profit (ch. 11); a tentacle monster that takes over minds, Rosetta says, whom Porthus trusts for a reason he cannot tell (ch. 69). Krakaren Prime brews hell-kissed potions in the Nothing for a war she considers inevitable, and the in-dungeon Krakaren sells them to the war mages (ch. 71); Paca is her ambassador (ch. 76, ch. 78); a benefactor box for Donut (ch. 75, ch. 86). The Apothecary knew Justice Light's plan (ch. 87).