THE CRAWLER'S COMPANIONpatch notes for the apocalypse

The Borant Corporation

First seen: Book 1, Chapter 1

Assigned regency over Earth's solar system by the Syndicate; controls broadcast and exploitation rights over the World Dungeon.

GalacticPlanetary RegentKua-Tin OwnedAdmin DeathsRulingLeadership

Connections

The Syndicate:

Appeals the AI's ruling that Carl, Donut, and Katia's magical detonator was exempt from both precursor bursts, and loses; a Syndicate court rules the resulting achievements and rewards are owed. Borant burns its single free per-season veto to reverse the prize ruling anyway, unprecedented this early in a season, then quietly patches out both the Hadji and Bandit upgrade achievements that same night and files a fresh appeal against the 82 still-unopened Celestial boxes from Quan Ch's double-upgraded Bandit AchievementB2C26

Licensor; Borant keeps the dungeon only as long as it follows Syndicate rulesB1C1

The Bloom:

The party controlling its home government now pressures it to end each season quickly, despite most of its own revenue only unlocking once a season closesB1C36

Valtay Corporation:

Keeps control of the crawl after Valtay becomes its 51% owner under an automatically executed court rulingB5C19

Cooperates on legal grounds: Valtay sends an attorney to help Borant defeat a Skull Empire lawsuit once Carl's own Skull Empire stock moves the suit into a different court; neither company likes the plaintiffB4C34

Pursuing a debt collection from the Borant System through the courts; the courts have so far upheld Borant's own bankruptcy-protection rights, per TuckerB2C19

Death Challenge:

Files a formal appeal against the system AI's own 50-to-1 odds against Carl, arguing it responded too slowly adjusting the spread once betting shiftedB3C35

Loita:

Announces, through her, tighter controls on interview information and a ban on offering crawlers food or drink outside the dungeon after an illegal-buff scandalB3C35

Orren:

A Syndicate liaison, not a Borant employee, sent to investigate Loita's death; bans third-party crawler teleportation for the rest of the floor afterwardB4C19

Mordecai:

Per Mordecai, tolerates individual crawlers doing suicidal, stupid things, but gets alarmed once the whole population is at risk, and won't offer the same leniency once every sponsorship on the floor has closed outB4C33

History by chapter
Book 1
Chapter 1
  • TAG Galactic: An alien corporation operating under Syndicate license
  • TAG Planetary Regent: Assigned regency over Earth's solar system; owns the broadcast rights
  • RELATIONSHIP The Syndicate: Licensor; Borant keeps the dungeon only as long as it follows Syndicate rules
Chapter 2
  • TAG Kua-Tin Owned: Principal owners are the fish-like dominant species of the Borant System
Chapter 36
  • RELATIONSHIP The Bloom: The party controlling its home government now pressures it to end each season quickly, despite most of its own revenue only unlocking once a season closes
Book 2
Chapter 19
  • RELATIONSHIP Valtay Corporation: Pursuing a debt collection from the Borant System through the courts; the courts have so far upheld Borant's own bankruptcy-protection rights, per Tucker
Chapter 26
  • RELATIONSHIP The Syndicate: Appeals the AI's ruling that Carl, Donut, and Katia's magical detonator was exempt from both precursor bursts, and loses; a Syndicate court rules the resulting achievements and rewards are owed. Borant burns its single free per-season veto to reverse the prize ruling anyway, unprecedented this early in a season, then quietly patches out both the Hadji and Bandit upgrade achievements that same night and files a fresh appeal against the 82 still-unopened Celestial boxes from Quan Ch's double-upgraded Bandit Achievement
Book 3
Chapter 35
  • RELATIONSHIP Death Challenge: Files a formal appeal against the system AI's own 50-to-1 odds against Carl, arguing it responded too slowly adjusting the spread once betting shifted
  • RELATIONSHIP Loita: Announces, through her, tighter controls on interview information and a ban on offering crawlers food or drink outside the dungeon after an illegal-buff scandal
Book 4
Chapter 19
  • TAG Admin Deaths: Fifteen admins killed by crawler attacks this season alone, not counting Loita, per Syndicate liaison Orren; two or three of them to Lucia Mar
  • RELATIONSHIP Orren: A Syndicate liaison, not a Borant employee, sent to investigate Loita's death; bans third-party crawler teleportation for the rest of the floor afterward
Chapter 33
  • TAG Ruling: After litigation it wins and input from the Syndicate, officially allows the party's bubble-escape method to continue, while starting to block some of the secondary god summons it can trigger; also announces the sixth floor's guild system and a wave of paying third-party tourist hunters
  • RELATIONSHIP Mordecai: Per Mordecai, tolerates individual crawlers doing suicidal, stupid things, but gets alarmed once the whole population is at risk, and won't offer the same leniency once every sponsorship on the floor has closed out
Chapter 34
  • TAG Leadership: Per Zev, the politburo has recently replaced the board of directors as principal controllers; sends a direct quote approving Carl's plan while warning against future antics that hurt sponsors
  • RELATIONSHIP Valtay Corporation: Cooperates on legal grounds: Valtay sends an attorney to help Borant defeat a Skull Empire lawsuit once Carl's own Skull Empire stock moves the suit into a different court; neither company likes the plaintiff
Book 5
Chapter 19
  • RELATIONSHIP Valtay Corporation: Keeps control of the crawl after Valtay becomes its 51% owner under an automatically executed court ruling