York

This article contains unmarked spoilers for Book 3.

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"You are me. That is who this book finds."^[1]

York is a former Crawler, poet and the author of the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (10th Edition).

Description

Carl mentions how York wrote page and pages of rambling philosophical essays he can barely understand. ^[2]

Cookbook Entries

Reading the words of those who have come before me, I know them. You, reading this. I know you, too. You are me. That is who this book finds.

I have been alone my whole life. I have been surrounded by my hive, yet I have been alone. That is okay, I now know. It is acceptable to have your own thoughts, your own mind, despite what they say. But it is also acceptable to be alone and want the strength of the hive. There is no shame in that. No contradiction. That is what this book attempts. To make a hive of those who will never cross paths, except in these pages.

Yet sometimes this book is not enough. You sometimes want more. You want to belong. Again, there is no shame. There is no shame in wanting to be alone yet also wanting the comfort and the strength of your brethren. But more importantly, there is no shame in wanting to protect those who are your hive, even if you never knew them. For they are yours, and they are being taken. It is us or it is them. There is consolation in dying in the pursuit of justice, no matter how small or big that death is.^[3]^[1]

Story

Book 7

York is a Tenodera, a flightless race of mantids that were smaller physically than the larger mantid races. Most mantids openly spoke of exterminating him and his kind, as they could crossbreed, and they feared what would happen should the tenodera mix en masse.

During his crawl, he felt a lot of anger as his fellow crawlers were picked off, but also at the fact that he’d never really fit in, because of his strong individuality. He was never part of a team, despite being part of a hive. He felt that he had failed to strike back against the bureaucratic, alien machines that had subjugated him and his hive, because he was unable to stop acting alone. The stronger he grew as a crawler, the weaker he felt. And the weaker he felt, the angrier he became.

Somewhere around the 9th floor, an emotional numbness spread through York. He attributed it to something locked deep in his tenodera DNA. His warrior ancestors had been specifically bred to be without emotion, a long time before wars were fought with tanks and bombs and drones, and the military hardware substituted the chemicals their queens of old would drill into their brains.

This numbness was something York struggled against ever after. He would actively volunteer for missions others would consider horrific, just to see if it would unlock some emotions. He hid his lack of emotions from others, even close allies like Rosetta and Boomer. In the chaos following faction wars, he blew up a ship filled with children, including the new king of the orcs. Even that didn't pierce the numbness.

York took a deal at the end of the 10th floor. He worked as a Game Guide and Guildhall Instructor in the Poetry guild. Exited the dungeon and spent the following years in self-reflection and contemplation.

He went on to become a Captain in the resistance organisation, The Open Intellect Action Network.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Dinniman, Matt. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Chapter 15)
↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Chapter 15)
↑ Dinniman, Matt. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 (p. 237). Dandy House. Kindle Edition.