Caprids

The goat-like species Liaison Harbinger belongs to. Lexis briefs Carl that Harbinger is an anomaly and most caprids are nothing like him: eccentric, generally good-natured, and strange in ways a crawler has to get used to. They are not a collective mind, she says, but they are a herd, and it can be hard to tell the difference. Their breeds mostly mirror Earth's goats, and the dozen who judge Carl and Donut run from a four-foot figure in dark robes to large, dark, evil-looking specimens.

Book 8 appearances

• Chapter 27 — Lexis briefs Carl and Donut on caprid customs before the show, including the interlocution format and the herd's habits. Donut assumes a hostile interview based on Harbinger; Lexis says he is the outlier.
• Chapter 28 — A dozen of them judge Carl and Donut from a ring of shadow, more than half of them the large satanic-looking breed. Being asked a question by one is a compliment; being judged worthy earns an invitation to walk amongst the herd.
• Chapter 29 — A full herd panic runs its course live on air — one goat wailing, two keeling over stiff-legged on their backs, then every caprid in the room bolting as one through the wall, techs and previously invisible assistants included. Carl recognises the escalation pattern from real goats, and learns the snot-choked collapse is a species trait rather than a Prepotente one.
• Chapter 69 — Carl thinks of how they reacted when they learned the gods were leaking, and accepts Rosetta's point that reverse-engineered stories are how religions get built.
• Chapter 70 — The Midnight Epicure was designed as a scare story about the caprid race for non-caprid children when caprids first integrated into Syndicate culture, and the race adopted it as a symbol of hope.

Related entries

• Harbinger (Character)
• Botis (Character)
• Bathin (Character)
• The Plenty (Character)
• Lexis (Character)
• Interlocution (Lore)

Browse

• All Characters
• Everything debuting in Book 8, Chapter 27
• All of A Parade of Horribles