Carl

First appearance: Book 1 - Dungeon Crawler Carl · Class: Compensated Anarchist · Race: Primal

Who is Carl?

Carl is a 27-year-old Coast Guard veteran who worked as a marine technician "fixing electrical systems for rich assholes and their party boats." He shared a two-bedroom apartment in Seattle with his girlfriend Beatrice and her award-winning show cat, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk. Then Beatrice cheated on him. Then Carl was outside in the middle of the night in his boxers chasing the cat. Then the world ended.

Every man-made structure on Earth collapsed at 2:23 AM Pacific Time on January 3rd. Carl survived because he was outside. In the freezing cold. In his underwear. Wearing his ex-girlfriend's too-small pink Crocs. This is the most important piece of character development in the series because Carl's wardrobe situation never fully resolves.

What makes Carl dangerous?

Carl is not the strongest crawler. He's not the smartest. He's not the most charismatic (that would be Donut, aggressively). What Carl is: resourceful, stubborn, and very good at blowing things up.

On Floor 3, he selects the Primal race and the Compensated Anarchist class -- described by the System AI as "a trapmaking, bomb-making, social-media dynamo who will happily throw a Molotov through a window one moment and step in front of a camera to plead for the violence to stop the next."

He is the 25th holder of the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, an underground guide passed between crawlers containing unauthorized survival intelligence. The Cookbook is invisible to the show's producers and viewers but visible to the System AI, which has opinions about Carl's slow progress in actually using it.

The feet situation

The System AI has a foot fetish. This is not subtext. This is text. After Carl stomps a goblin barefoot on Floor 1, the AI awards him the "Podophilia!" achievement. After he does it five more times, it awards "This Little Piggy Went to Market!" and calls itself "daddy." The entire dungeon groans when Carl crushes an enemy named Ralph with his foot.

The AI gives Carl the Enchanted Pedicure Kit of the Sylph, which makes his feet invulnerable but requires him to stay barefoot. This is a genuinely useful buff that also forces Carl to be a Magical Barefooter for the rest of the series, much to the AI's delight.

On Floor 5, Carl avoids stepping on a wave of frenzied gerbils, which the AI interprets as a personal rejection. The AI responds by sending an endless wave of gerbils until Carl gives in and stomps fifty of them. He receives the achievement "You're the Reason Why Daddy Drinks!" The relationship between Carl and the AI regarding his feet is the longest-running gag in the series and shows no signs of resolving.

The underwear situation

Carl enters the dungeon wearing boxer shorts, a leather jacket, and pink Crocs. He eventually receives Enchanted BigBoi Boxers (white with red hearts). He appears on intergalactic television in toilet-paper underwear. At the end of one floor, magical interference forces everyone to unequip enchanted items. Carl has no non-magical clothing. He finishes the floor naked.

Donut's assessment of the wardrobe: "I will not be presented to the universe in such a fashion. Beautiful cat, Blorg. But why isn't her bodyguard wearing pants?" Carl points out that Donut isn't wearing pants either. Donut: "I'm a cat. Cats don't wear pants."

Carl's voice

Carl narrates the series in first person with the weary, profane cadence of a man who is deeply tired of everything that is happening to him but refuses to stop fighting. His catchphrase -- "Goddammit, Donut" -- was adopted by the alien audience before Carl even realized it was happening. The Fandom wiki has a dedicated page listing every instance. There are over 181 documented uses across the series.

In the audiobook, Jeff Hays voices Carl with what started as a Patrick Warburton impression and evolved into its own distinct voice. "His voice has changed quite a bit over the series," Hays has said. "The Warburton thing is just kind of a shadow now. Carl has his own voice."

For full plot details and spoilers, visit the spoiler zones. For theories about Carl's endgame, the river, and the System AI's plans for him, check the theories section.

Key relationships