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 8: Krakaren · Floor boss
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 8. A boss in book 1, a collective mind in book 3, the Apothecary in book 5, the traitor Primal in book 6, a brewer in the Nothing in book 7; in book 8 two things. The Apothecary, in the AI's history, is the last physical Primal, not truly alive since the final attack; Krakaren Prime, whom a Plenty goat on the show calls 'a parody of our partner', is the eleventh floor's boss, level 235, brought to the arena for what someone else is planning — and Taranis tears her tentacles off and takes her, as a piece of Apito, to his temple.
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 · B8 ch. 92 — The Apothecary, the Krakaren, is the last physical Primal, engineered to meld, who joined the resistance, took the brunt of the final attack and emerged from a millennium's cocoon as what she fought; she sheds Residuals; many believe she stopped the attack (ch. 99). |
| Two kinds of Residual, and a hidden upgrade | B6 ch. 73 | open · B8 ch. 92 — The AI's history: the Eulogist's security instance sheds Residuals — 'Agatha’s team' — and the Apothecary sheds them too; macro AIs are Residuals from a higher branch. |
| Porthus's plan: the Apothecary's reason, the Impetus Point, and Menerva | B7 ch. 69 | open · B8 ch. 38 — A Menerva named: a former crawler who built the seventeenth floor and the Pineapple Cabaret with Herot and runs the Backstage Death Maze (ch. 55); book 7 names Porthus's missing crawler Menerva (ch. 69), but this book does not say she is the same woman, and Rosetta knows the name and will not say. |
| Krakaren Prime in the Nothing, preparing for a war | B7 ch. 71 | open · B8 ch. 97 — Krakaren Prime is in Club Scolopendra (ch. 28), then the level-235 floor boss atop the arena's tree, brought for 'what you and someone else are planning' (ch. 94); Taranis, taking 'two' of his mother's pieces, leaves with her and Samantha (ch. 97). |
| Agatha: a residual of the Eulogist's kind, to be found on the tenth | B7 ch. 78 | open · B8 ch. 92 — Agatha is not found on the tenth: 'Things that Agatha can and will wake' in the Cabaret (ch. 38); vanished, which makes Carl nervous (ch. 73); 'Residuals. Agatha’s team'; among the Ascendency's contenders (ch. 99). |
| Sponsorship: who is still bidding | B8 ch. 41 | open — The program has thinned to a contested auction for Donut's open slot, a rich asshole's bid on Tupa, an unsponsorable Eris and a Syndicate soother who came down under his dead brother Linus's name (B8 ch. 52, B8 ch. 72); the last benefactor box was the Apothecary's, for Donut, in the war. The Plenty sponsored Carl 'at the behest of our partner', whom Gamori does not name (B8 ch. 29). Whether the sponsors bid again past the eleventh floor, and what the Apothecary wanted for its boxes. |
| Four of Apito's five pieces in the arena; Taranis takes two | B8 ch. 97 | open — Eris: 'Four of her five pieces are in here right now'; 'Our mom is going to be so pissed when she fully comes back from the dead.' Taranis takes Krakaren and Samantha to the temple to make her whole and is missing a piece (B8 ch. 99); Samantha slips away to kill 'THE DEMON MOTHER LADY AND HER JERK SON'. |
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
Through book 8
A Plenty goat on the show calls Krakaren Prime in Scolopendra's club 'a parody of our partner' (B8 ch. 28); the AI brings her to the arena as floor boss for what someone else is planning (B8 ch. 94); Taranis tears her tentacles off and takes her, as a piece of Apito (B8 ch. 96, B8 ch. 97), and she is at his temple in the epilogue (B8 ch. 99).
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. |
| Book 3, Ch. 30 | There’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory that they use Krakaren technology, and it’s all a ploy to get everyone into the Krakaren collective. | Mordecai ties the Plenty's tunnels to the Krakaren. |
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 |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 11/99 | 28, 86, 91–99 · 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).
The Krakaren in book 8 — A Parade of Horribles
A Plenty goat on the show calls Krakaren Prime in Scolopendra's club 'a parody of our partner' (ch. 28); the AI brings her to the arena as floor boss for what someone else is planning (ch. 94); Taranis tears her tentacles off and takes her, as a piece of Apito (ch. 96, ch. 97), and she is at his temple in the epilogue (epilogue). The AI's history tells the Apothecary's: the last physical Primal, born near the end and engineered to meld, who joined the resistance, took the brunt of the final attack so nascent life could live, was cocooned a millennium and emerged as the thing she had fought; she sheds Residuals too (ch. 91, ch. 92). Sydnee Iglacia: many believe she is the one who stopped the nine-tier attack (epilogue).