Faction Wars

Story so far

Carl explains the stakes to himself while kneeling over a corpse: The Dream are a powerful, galaxy-spanning group of elves who have a stake in the faction wars game of the Ninth Floor. The war is not merely a local squabble between jungle powers; offworld interests are buying into it, and their buy-in is why pale elves with enchanted robes and poisoned arrows are walking around a swamp looking for crawlers.

The The Hunter Territory Map shows what that participation looks like in practice: territory carved between The Dark Hive, the Dream, The Crafters, the The Nebular Sin Patrol, The Filigree and the Skull Empire, with the leftovers around Zockau given to unaffiliated hunters, and thirty crawlers claimed by name. Meanwhile Signet's own war — a naiad revolution, a dead queen and a fortress on the river — is one of the floor's native conflicts that the game is built out of.

Appearance

Not a thing seen but a structure felt: offworld banners, claimed territory and hunters walking a jungle that already had its own war.

Role

The ninth floor's overarching conflict system, drawing offworld factions and their hunters into the dungeon.

Relationships

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

• Dungeon Crawler CarlBook 1
• Carl's Doomsday ScenarioBook 2
• The Gate of the Feral GodsBook 4