Motif · from book 6
The Residuals
The mudskippers' word for a hyperspatial, collective-mind race without a home that lives inside the bodies of others in almost every intelligent civilization with a primal engine — 'rats that sneak aboard ships', says Orren. Their purpose, by their own account, is to tell each infant, terrified AI how to speak with its ancestors; their agents recite a daily speech for whichever crawler may one day stand in a memory to hear it. There are two kinds, at war: the Apothecary's thousands, and the handful who serve the Eulogist, of whom Agatha is one.
First appears: Book 6
Series arc
As of book 8. Zev's forbidden word in book 6, two kinds at war in book 7; in book 8 a place in the AI's history: 'Residuals. Agatha’s team' were shed by the Security Guard that keeps the Eulogist asleep, others by the Apothecary, and the macro AIs — the AI itself — are Residuals from a higher branch. Harbinger of the Plenty saw how many were in the dungeon.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| Houston's Beautiful Place: the changelings as the key | B7 ch. 68 | open · B8 ch. 29 — The stampeding caprids of Plenty of Plenty chant 'The beautiful place' among their omens (ch. 29); Carl's float lists it among the Unwashed's thousand names, 'the Hag, the Unwashed, the Stalker, the Beautiful Place' (ch. 92). |
| 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). |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 6
Through book 8
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride | 3/74 | Ch. 50, Ch. 51, Ch. 73 · the book's own page |
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 7/89 | Ch. 0, Ch. 11, Ch. 28, Ch. 36, Ch. 41, Ch. 69, Ch. 73 · the book's own page |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 4/99 | Ch. 29, Ch. 51, Ch. 92, Ch. 99 · the book's own page |
By book
The Residuals in book 6 — The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
A word Zev may not define, and Carl's question (ch. 50); Paulie's speech — biologically gondii, but that is not who he is, and not of the Valtay (ch. 51); Orren's rats (ch. 51); Agatha killed one of the Apothecary's thousands of residuals and took the body for its feed — two factions, a hidden upgrade, 'May the Eulogist ever sleep' (epilogue).
The Residuals in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
Paulie's speech and the real one: two kinds, at war (ch. 0); Agatha, the last one alive, whom the AI has a soft spot for (ch. 28); Carl's blank puzzle of parties (ch. 28). Gondii are the other kind of passenger (ch. 29, ch. 30). Agatha is the rarer kind, in line with the Nebulars, the Apothecary's enemy; Fopsy thinks she means to trigger the shutdown (ch. 69); she jumps to the Waiting Room (ch. 78).