Motif · from book 3

The Celestial Ascendency

The Cookbook's warning: the big gods are always sponsored by some rich prick who paid to play a game called the Celestial Ascendency, contained on the twelfth floor, with its own followers and storyline; Grull is one of its few trueborn heirs. 'The gods are invulnerable except on the 12th and above floors.'

Retainers, locked deities, the Thorn Room and the prize, in the mythology: the pantheon.

First appears: Book 3

Series arc

As of book 8. The machinery of the twelfth floor since book 3, its rules reaching down in book 7; in book 8 it begins. Eris wants the throne; a subjugated god loses half her level; killing Scolopendra starts the games, with the dungeon collapsing twelve hours after a winner; Eris: 'If we let those guys downstairs win the Ascendency, it’s lights out.' The AI suspends every timer until a winner, puts Outside Intelligences on the field, and gives the galaxy an hour's countdown; Carl means to stay on the twelfth to stop one.

Open threads

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

Thread	Opened	Status
Donut as the Oak Fell, Champion of Nekhebit	B7 ch. 76	open · B8 ch. 61 — 'The Oak Fell lives up to her name,' through Mordecai's hood, the second of his prophecies; Donut's claws on one paw are celestial and permanent, and their glow cannot be switched off (ch. 9).
Eris, unsponsored and free, in the galaxy	B7 ch. 76	open · B8 ch. 97 — Eris is level 251 on a meat cart with an offer and a coin (ch. 35); in the arena she says four of her mother's five pieces are present and shows her true form: 'You are chaos incarnate.'
Justice Light's trap: the Nothing broken into the Ascendency, Sheol and Scolopendra's lair	B7 ch. 87	open · B8 ch. 28 — A Plenty goat: the trap loosed the Nothing's inhabitants onto three floors — the weakest to the twelfth, nothing seen of the fifteenth, slaughter in Club Scolopendra where the Kyryap and Krakaren Prime are.
The Ascendency begins, with the timers suspended until a winner	B8 ch. 99	open — An hour's countdown; the winner 'supreme motherfucker number one', stronger than the AI by design; gods, crawlers, Agatha, Juice Box, Akuma, Samantha and the Unwashed among the contenders; Carl means to stay on the twelfth and stop anyone winning until everyone is out (B8 ch. 98).

All threads: Open threads.

Through book 3

The Cookbook's warning: the big gods are sponsored by rich pricks who paid to play the Celestial Ascendency on the twelfth floor (B3 ch. 32); Grull one of its few trueborn heirs (B3 ch. 33).

Through book 4

The halls on the twelfth floor and their whackadoodle business (B4 ch. 24); a rich guy's country club (B4 ch. 24); Emberus a candidate for the Celestial Throne, Taranis its regent (B4 ch. 31, B4 ch. 32); demons captured during the original Ascendency (B4 ch. 34).

Through book 5

'Emberus has returned to the Halls of the Ascendency' (B5 ch. 10); the first masquerade held there (B5 ch. 65); Diwata returned (B5 ch. 76).

Through book 6

A goddess's bargain in a hidden channel: Adjutant, votes, the twelfth floor (B6 ch. 17); Mordecai on retainers, a council seat and the bookies (B6 ch. 19); crawlers waking gods for the players above — Yemaya, Semiramis, Nekhebit (B6 ch. 25, B6 ch. 36); Odette in as Nekhebit; Ysalte wanting a prince of hell as her retainer (B6 ch. 66).

Through book 7

Pilots forced into their gods (B7 ch. 61); a Ceremony of Chaos (B7 ch. 66); a city landed in its cotton fields (B7 ch. 85); the Nothing draining in (B7 ch. 87).

Through book 8

Eris wants the throne (B8 ch. 35); 'All seek the prize on the twelfth floor' (B8 ch. 51); a catch-all goddess does badly there (B8 ch. 53); the Syndicate hopes a crawler kill will start it early (B8 ch. 52); a subjugated god loses half her level (B8 ch. 92). Killing Scolopendra begins it, with the dungeon collapsing twelve hours after a winner (B8 ch. 94); Eris: 'If we let those guys downstairs win the Ascendency, it’s lights out' (B8 ch. 97). The timers are suspended until a winner; Carl means to stay on the twelfth to stop one (B8 ch. 98). An hour's countdown, Outside Intelligences among the players, and the winner 'supreme motherfucker number one' (B8 ch. 99).

Where they appear

Book	Chapters they are in (of the book's)	Where
3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	2/35	Ch. 32, Ch. 33 · the book's own page
4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods	5/35	Ch. 24, Ch. 28, Ch. 31, Ch. 32, Ch. 34 · the book's own page
5 — The Butcher's Masquerade	4/78	Ch. 10, Ch. 62, Ch. 65, Ch. 76 · the book's own page
6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride	19/74	0, 11, 15–17, 19, 25, 36–37, 48, 51, 54–55, 58, 61, 64, 66, 72–73 · the book's own page
7 — This Inevitable Ruin	15/89	19, 43, 49, 53, 55–57, 60–61, 66, 69, 76, 85–87 · the book's own page
8 — A Parade of Horribles	12/99	35, 38, 51–53, 83, 88, 92, 94, 97–99 · the book's own page

By book

The Celestial Ascendency in book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

The Cookbook's warning: the big gods are sponsored by rich pricks who paid to play a game called the Celestial Ascendency, contained on the twelfth floor, with its own followers and storyline (ch. 32); Grull, 'one of the few trueborn heirs to the Celestial Ascendency' (ch. 33).

The Celestial Ascendency in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods

The halls of the Celestial Ascendency on the twelfth floor and their whackadoodle business (ch. 24); Mordecai: the pantheon as a rich guy's country club, Larracos and the Ascendency used as a fifth-floor plot point (ch. 24, ch. 28); Emberus, who 'strongly feels he is the best-suited candidate to ascend to the Celestial Throne', Taranis its regent (ch. 31, ch. 32); the demons captured during the original Ascendency (ch. 34).

The Celestial Ascendency in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade

'Emberus has returned to the Halls of the Ascendency' after Zockau (ch. 10). Samantha on Diwata's power to give birth to whatever she last naffed — a power supposed to be consigned to the head of the Ascendency, which the pantheon dislikes (ch. 62); Queen Imogen on the first masquerade, held in the Halls of Ascendency by Taranis and Apito for their children, who are constantly vying for control (ch. 65); Diwata returns there after the fight (ch. 76).

The Celestial Ascendency in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

A goddess's bargain in a channel the system cannot read: Adjutant, votes, the twelfth floor (ch. 17); Mordecai on retainers, the council seat and the bookies (ch. 19); Semiramis re-ascends, and Carl understands the crawlers are waking gods for the players above (ch. 25); Odette as Nekhebit, nobody's retainer (ch. 36); Ysalte wanting a prince of hell at her side (ch. 66).

The Celestial Ascendency in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin

Odette onboarded as Nekhebit (ch. 43); fifteen light gods with temples in Club Vanquisher, and Travel the Path (ch. 49); the ogres who hold the Basilica door (ch. 55); a court where someone is killing sub-pantheons (ch. 57). Ferdinand's action item forces sponsors to ride their gods (ch. 61); Eris's Ceremony of Chaos belongs to its throne (ch. 66); the shutdown triggers when it ends with no crawlers left (ch. 69). A city lands in its cotton fields on a convent of nuns (ch. 85, ch. 86); the Nothing drains into its halls (ch. 87).

The Celestial Ascendency in book 8 — A Parade of Horribles

Eris wants the throne (ch. 35); 'All seek the prize on the twelfth floor' (ch. 51); a catch-all goddess does badly there (ch. 53); the Syndicate hopes a crawler kill will start it early (ch. 52); a subjugated god loses half her level (ch. 92). Killing Scolopendra begins it, with the dungeon collapsing twelve hours after a winner (ch. 94); Eris: 'If we let those guys downstairs win the Ascendency, it’s lights out' (ch. 97). The timers are suspended until a winner; Carl means to stay on the twelfth to stop one (ch. 98). An hour's countdown, Outside Intelligences among the players, and the winner 'supreme motherfucker number one' (epilogue).