Note: this is part 2, updated after Wicked Problems. To go through every book before this one, check out the original article here.

Wicked Problems sees dozens of characters and plots crashing together in an Avengers Infinity War style story - and it seems like Craft Wars #3 will see even more. Therefore, an update to my mindmap / delusional-red-string-conspiracy-wall seemed necessary.

Yes, this has been on my wall since February. I meant to take it down, but it actually looks pretty cool in person (even my aunt who cannot make sense of fandom or this site thinks it looks great).

Some disclaimers before we get started:

• The new Conspiracy Wall ™ contains characters and therefore spoilers for all books including Wicked Problems.

• Characters were chosen because of * vibes * rather than necessarily being the most significant in their individual book. They are all fairly consequential, but if I included every point of view character, for example, this would become even more insane than it already is and frankly I don’t know if I have the wall space. Explanations for inclusion or exclusion are in each section below.

• Originally I had different colours for types of relationship, but that was messy and expensive. We have red for the last post, and now blue.

• This has been done entirely from memory so if anything is missing, mea culpa.

• I do, however, have different colours for the types of power wielded by each character. Some characters could go in multiple categories, but this isn’t what we’re going for. This was for visual interest as much as anything, but if you want to know the breakdown here you go:

Now that’s all done, let’s get going.

New characters for Wicked Problems

This is slightly mis-titled as there are no BRAND new characters on the wall. There are, however, two characters that did not have the main character vibes required for the Conspiracy Wall ™ version 1, but came back with a vengeance in Wicked Problems.

Let’s get started with my previous least favourite character, who Gladstone has somehow managed to redeem in my eyes: Mal Kekapania.

(If you’re reading this without having read the book, hey, yes, Mal is alive and also back.)

Two Serpents Rise, the only prior book in which Mal has appeared, is a fairly self-contained book with limited characters (see summary here), so her links with characters are equally limited. She is in a relationship (ish) with Caleb, is colleagues (ish) with Kopil, and fights against (ish) Temoc. Teo is aware of her but doesn’t ever interact, to my recollection, so she doesn’t get a blue line.

And that’s it for pre-Wicked Problems Mal.

So, let’s move on to Wicked Problems! I’m using Mal as a bit of a shorthand for all the Arsenals, as their links are identical to hers, so keep that in mind too.

Throughout Wicked Problems Mal primarily works with Dawn and Temoc. She and the Arsenals are pretty major players, but don’t really interact with other major characters until right at the end when everyone comes together in the big battle at Heartstone. I haven’t connected her to everybody in the fight (should I? let me know) but towards the end when Kopil crushes her in a marble Elayne and Tara are present.

Our next new-to-the-wall character is Eberhardt Jax. This tech billionaire first showed up in Ruin of Angels, but played a small enough part that I kept him off the wall.

Now? Well, now he’s clearly helping to engineer the end of the world so he’s getting a place on the wall.

We mostly see Jax through Kai’s POV in Ruin of Angels, but in through his work he is connected to both Tara and Ley. Not on the Conspiracy Wall™, but for future reference, he is also connected to the Iskari and Alethea Vane in this book.

Jax shows up quite early in Wicked Problems, though after the inciting incident he’s off page for most of the book.

In addition to rekindling his connection to Kai and Tara, at the spirecliffs Jax meets Caleb and Abelard, and is closely connected to Dawn (or, at least, the Craft-god-thing that Dawn is becoming). Through some proxies, he is also connected to a bunch of other characters - but, that’s for a future article, not this one.

The rest of the gang

A lot of characters feature in Wicked Problems, though not everybody I expected. We don’t see the delvers, though Ley and Zeddig get a mention in one of Kai’s early chapters; we also don’t see Cat or Raz, nor Tara’s mother Valentine, all of whom are in Alt Coulumb. Connor gets a mention, but no page time - another surprise for me given his centrality in Dead Country - and the Blue Lady gets one small mention early on, but there’s no sign of Izza.

I think many, if not all, of these characters will show up in Craft Wars #3. Gladstone said in an email announcing that there will now be four Craft Wars books that there was meant to be an additional section in Wicked Problems, which has been expanded into a new book in the series. As Dawn is raising the Badlands at the end of Wicked Problems, not to mention the whole vampire thing, I think we are almost guaranteed to see Connor, Valentine, Raz and Cat in Craft Wars #3. Less sure of the delvers, and even less sure what’s going on with Izza and the Blue Lady.

But we get everyone else - including minor characters, like my beloved Zack, who don’t quite merit space on the Conspiracy Wall™.

Long story short, everyone connects. I couldn’t work out how to break it down by subheading, so you’re getting everybody at once.

In the first part of the work, we see the following:

• Caleb and the Two Serpents Group are trying to save the spirecliffs, and the goddess Ajaia. In this work Caleb and Kai have met previously (and meet again, much to each of their distaste).

• Dawn has snuck into the delegation going to see the shard, and thus Dawn connects with Caleb and Jax.

• Tara shows up to help with the spirecliff situation, bringing Abelard with her. Thus, Abelard meets Caleb, Kai, and Jax. Tara has already met all of them on-page.

• They all split up and go about their separate quests. As mentioned in the Mal section above, Dawn connects with Mal and Temoc and they start working together.

• In Chartegnon, Seril (using Shale as an avatar) works with Kai, so the three of them are connected.

• Caleb and Abelard end up in Dresediel Lex, and there Abelard meets Kopil, Teo, and Mina.

• Things start to coalesce in DL, so we also have Dawn meeting Elayne Kevarian on the beach. Elayne already knows Mina, Abelard and Caleb, but she sees them again here too.

• In the final fight and its aftermath, Caleb channels Kos’s power, making Caleb a sort-of priest of Kos. Teo also works with Abelard to save Dawn, connecting Teo and Dawn.

I think that’s everyone so far. Arguably, Teo could connect with Mal but I can’t recall if they actually interact - and also I’m not currently in the same location as the Conspiracy Wall™, so any changes will have to come later.

I considered adding the Arsenals, Grimwald, Clarity, and the Serpents. I chose not to partly for space, and partly because I’m holding off for Craft Wars #3 to see if any new and interesting connections happen there. Denovo’s name getting gradually covered was accidental, but welcome.

So there we have it! My wall looks even more unhinged than it did before, but that’s half the fun of it. One year to go until Craft Wars #3 and the next iteration.

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