Motif · from book 1
The gods
'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege.' A war gauntlet that warns it can transfigure a worshipper of the god Grull into the god himself, and Mordecai's solemn insistence that Grull is not real — nor is any god in this game. Zev, in passing, mentions that a hostile government could 'spring for a deity sponsorship.'
Every god the books have named, their family and enemies, and the mythology: the pantheon.
First appears: Book 1 · Seen for what it is: Book 2
Series arc
In hindsight, after book 2
Read after book 2, the gauntlet's warning and Mordecai's solemn aside in book 1 are the first two mentions of a mechanic the series keeps deferring. Book 1 has the line ('There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege.') and a throwaway from Zev about deity sponsorship; book 2 has Mordecai putting the subject off twice, a Divine Guardian on the twelfth floor, an elf cult's Oak Mother, and Odette's parting warning that King Rust has bought a god — probably Grull — to get at Carl, and that Mordecai's experience of the subject is 'unfortunately.' The Trace below has the lines. What the in-game gods are is still unexplained; who pays for them is not.
Through book 1
Three sidelong mentions: the Grull gauntlet's warning and 'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege' (B1 ch. 25); Eris, Goddess of Chaos, named on a Krakaren clone's card (B1 ch. 34); Zev's 'if they spring for a deity sponsorship' (B1 ch. 44). Nothing that reads as a thread yet.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege' | B1 ch. 25 | open · B2 ch. 26 — Deferred twice by Mordecai; a god has now been bought against Carl. |
| King Rust's deity sponsorship, and the Grull gauntlet | B2 ch. 26 | open — A god bought to get at Carl — probably Grull, whose gauntlet Carl wears. |
| Mordecai's 'unfortunate' experience with gods | B2 ch. 26 | open — Odette's aside says Mordecai has a lot of experience of gods, unfortunately; what kind she does not say. |
All threads: Open threads.
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. 25 | "Warning: if you use this weapon to strike adherents of the war god Grull, you have a 1.5% chance to transfigure your target into the deity himself. […] You don't want to do that." | The gauntlet's card. A god that can be summoned by accident, in an item Carl is still wearing at the end of book 2. |
| Book 1, Ch. 25 | "There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege." | Mordecai, suddenly solemn, answering Carl's 'Does that really make a difference?' Read after book 2: a description of deity sponsorship before anyone names it. |
| Book 1, Ch. 44 | "Not until the sixth floor. Or if they spring for a deity sponsorship this season." | Zev, listing what a hostile government can do to Carl. The mechanism, named in passing. |
| Book 2, Ch. 3 | "That's a whole different thing, and those don't appear until the fourth floor. I'll explain that later." | Mordecai's first deferral, when Carl asks about gods on the walk into the Over City. |
| Book 2, Ch. 17 | "Gods and goddesses. In-game deities. We'll get to what they really are later." | The second deferral, mid-lecture on Apito. 'What they really are' is the phrase to hold on to. |
| Book 2, Ch. 26 | "And King Rust has apparently just spent a lot of money on a deity sponsorship." | Odette's warning. The privilege has been paid for, by the man Carl called a pussy on live television. |
| Book 2, Ch. 26 | "He has a lot of experience in the subject, unfortunately." | Odette on Mordecai and gods. The thread joins Mordecai's own. |
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 2/48 | Ch. 25, Ch. 44 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 6/26 | Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 7, Ch. 17, Ch. 20, Ch. 26 · the book's own page |
By book
The gods in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
Two mentions, both sidelong. The Enchanted War Gauntlet of the Exalted Grull warns that striking a worshipper of the war god has a 1.5% chance of transfiguring the target into the god himself, and Mordecai, suddenly solemn, adds that Grull is not a real god — 'There are no gods here. Just those who pay for the privilege' (ch. 25). Zev, listing what other governments cannot do to Carl before the sixth floor: 'Or if they spring for a deity sponsorship this season' (ch. 44).
The gods in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
'What about gods?' — 'That's a whole different thing, and those don't appear until the fourth floor' (ch. 3). A Divine Guardian on the twelfth floor, a Country Boss (ch. 7). Mordecai defers again on 'in-game deities. We'll get to what they really are later' (ch. 17) while explaining Apito the Oak Mother; her antichrist, the Oak Fell, comes in chat (ch. 20). Odette, off air: King Rust has bought a deity sponsorship, probably Grull; be careful with the gauntlet; Mordecai has a lot of experience in the subject, unfortunately (epilogue).