Dungeons are a critical part of any Fantasy World. They are the embodiment of the unknown and are the crucible in which legends are formed. Adventurers, heroes, and fools journey into dungeons seeking fame, glory, or greater personal strength. While some succeed and are amply rewarded for their efforts, others perish meaningless deaths within.
Every denizen of a Fantasy World will be quite familiar with dungeons in the abstract, and much has been written about specific dungeons – the layout, distribution of monsters, and historical loot – but little research has been done on the nature of dungeons themselves. What are they, and why do they exist in Fantasy Worlds? That is the topic that has piqued my interest. But first, let’s review some common knowledge.
Common Knowledge
Dungeons are separated into different floors. At a minimum, each floor is connected to the floor above and the floor below, but floors can also connect to other floors many levels above or below via tunnels, crevasses, or various magical means. Each floor can have its own environment and ecosystem – some are bountiful forests, others are dark swamps, and some even resemble inland seas.
Each of these ecosystems are inhabited by monsters unique to that floor who are well adapted to the environment. The strongest of these monsters will be what is called a “floor boss” – an individual of much greater strength that guards the path to the next floor. Floor bosses are highly territorial and will engage anyone who enters its territory regardless of relative strength. At times, floor bosses will have weaker monsters as minions that work in concert with the floor boss to maintain local dominance.
There is no limit to the number of floors a dungeon can have. The largest have been found to have over one hundred floors. Due to the non linear increase in monster strength on higher number floors, it may be impossible for humanity to ever truly know the limit of floors a dungeon can possess. Similarly there is no theoretical limit to the surface area of a dungeon floor. The smallest one room dungeon floor might be 1m2 whereas a truly labyrinthine floor could be upwards of 100km2.
…tbc
