Motif · from book 4
The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network
Carl's second sponsor from the fifth floor: an Intergalactic NFC — Not for Conquest, tax-free, a non-profit — that Mordecai has never heard of, that sponsors no one else, and that sends a yam in a silver box, then a custom head-throwing xistera attachment in an emergency platinum box that Mordecai guesses was the most expensive in the game's history. Its president of Outreach Operations is Dr. P. Hu.
First appears: Book 4
Series arc
As of book 8. A yam and a head-thrower in book 4, a freighter in book 6, an ultimatum in book 7; in book 8 the Open Intellect Action Network holds orbit. Lexis: it boarded every major ship in a day, and the Homecoming Queen's enhancement-zone weaponry works now that the AI has escaped containment; the journalist barges under its control air unfiltered news.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| The war outside the dungeon: a yacht, an armed freighter, a nova | B7 ch. 88 | open · B8 ch. 27 — The Open Intellect boarded every major ship in orbit in a day; Victory's HQ is in Florida; gods appear at tunnel nodes across the galaxy (ch. 88); OIAN holds the journalist barges (ch. 99). |
| What the pacifists' yam was really for | B4 ch. 35 | resolved · B7 ch. 47 — Answered: the last of the pacifists' yam recharges Imani's Tripper tattoo, and its meaning 'involved the cookbook and something to do with the crawler Milk's entries'. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 4
Through book 5
Through book 6
Through book 7
Through book 8
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 3/35 | Ch. 7, Ch. 34, Ch. 35 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 4/78 | Ch. 33, Ch. 52, Ch. 63, Ch. 77 · the book's own page |
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 7/74 | Ch. 7, Ch. 12, Ch. 13, Ch. 48, Ch. 50, Ch. 51, Ch. 64 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 6/89 | Ch. 11, Ch. 28, Ch. 55, Ch. 57, Ch. 69, Ch. 88 · the book's own page |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 1/99 | Ch. 27 · the book's own page |
By book
The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
A sponsor Mordecai has never heard of, with a silver box that holds a yam (ch. 7, ch. 8); an emergency platinum box, 'more than the GDP of some star systems', holding a head-thrower made for Carl 'with design approval by CEO and president of Outreach Operations, Dr. P. Hu' (ch. 34); the yam's real purpose — Dr. Hu says Carl knows it, the woman is not so sure — though he spent half of it on Chris (epilogue). Its president is called Porthus. 'It's the same cause.'
The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
A guess at whom the robed woman in the audience at Carl's panel speaks for — the Apothecary, it turns out (ch. 33); a Gold Benefactor Box from The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network, Intergalactic NFC (ch. 52); a cryptic, expensive note with a potion, signed P. Hu: 'Will replace' (ch. 55); five sponsorship boxes on the table, all meant for Donut (ch. 63); the potion is spent on a god (ch. 76).
The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
The Shadow Boxer program is an NFC non-profit owned by the Open Intellect Pacifist Network, one of the party's sponsors (ch. 7, ch. 12) — a yam and Miami on Rosetta's show (ch. 12, ch. 38); proof that the Network employs at least one, likely two, possibly three former Cookbook owners (ch. 13); an Emergency Gold Benefactor Box, seized, with a flyer in it (ch. 48, ch. 49); its members vanish (ch. 50); Orren: former crawlers who want the crawl to fail, now fugitives (ch. 51).
The Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
Dr Porthus Hu's network, smaller than the Crawler Project, branded terrorist, scattered, and now inside the game where nothing can be done to it (ch. 11); the sponsor of Theia through an agent named Rectrix (ch. 49, ch. 57); Rosetta's mission for it: two ships bought with a dead king's money (ch. 69). In the epilogue it is the Open Intellect Action Network, with breaching suits and lasers (epilogue).