Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - DUNGEONS

First of all some info about the origin of the word.

The word origin from the Middle English "dungeon, dungeoun, dongoun, dungoun, dungun" and apperantly is a merger of the old french "donjon" (castle keep) and the old english "dung" (a subterranean chamber; a prison) and the most use of this word were for indicate the prisons that normally where underground the castles.

In fantasy is used for indicate a structure that met the following requirement:

* There are monsters, this point imply that in the structure are present monsters of various type, normally the strenght of the monsters are "equal" to the depth of the dungeon so more easy monsters are at the beginning while more difficult one are in the deepest part.
* Have a structure that have various "floors", dungeons are divided into various levels, there is no fixed rule about their number so a dungeon can have 10 or even 100 floors.
* There are "rooms" connected between each other via "passages", dungeons are a net of rooms and tunnels that connect them where is possible encounter monsters or find objects.
* There are chests or other type of containers where items can be found, this is another common trait, is common found chests, bags and other things that can have inside items, sometimes is possible that what is found are properties of other adventurers that died before or are things that were left behind.
* There is a core and/or an important room somewhere, usually they are located in the deepest part but if the zone in question is hide then can be everywhere. The number of hidden rooms can be influenced by the size of the dungeon and by the "sadism" of the one that make it.
* There are various type of traps, every dungeons have traps and there are various type:
	+ *Spikes/Needles*, they are basically pointed things that come out from walls, ceiling and/or floor and can be in the form of bullets, like darts that are shoots, or in the form of extensions like spears that come out and not shoot.
	+ *Monster House*, this trap is an entire room that seal/shut itself and spawn large number of monsters with the only objective of kill whoever is inside the room.
	+ *Chest*, is possible that some traps are activated by opening them, the chest itself is a trap like one that explode once it's open, open the chest that summon an horde of monsters, etc.
	+ *Pit*, this a classic trap where the floor open and let the victim fall in a pit that can have spikes, monsters or nothing.
	+ *Falling cheiling*, they are traps where the room close and the cheiling fall or slowly come down for crush the victim.
	+ *Curse*, they are magical traps that "debuff" the victim so that is more vulnerable against the other dangers of the dungeon.
	+ *Magic Attack*, they are attack spells that are think for damage or kill the victim. Here I listed some of the common one but any author can create his/her own traps.
* There is an entity that rule the location that normally is called "Dungeon Master", the race of the DM can be anything from a monster to a demon lord to a normal human, contrary to what some people can think the presence of a DM is necessary in a dungeon but this is something I'll explain later.

While listing the elements I tried to make them more generalized as possible because I saw different type of dungeons, in fact the classical one is something that extend underground but I saw too dungeons that take the shape of a tree so say that a dungeon extend itself only in one direction or say that there is a precise pattern is wrong.

Since I listed the main elements that compose a dungeon, what is left is explain some specific parts that I need expand.

About the monsters, I said that inside a dungeon is possible found various type of monsters but it's not like we found ALL the type, when creating a dungeon we need to take under consideration the type of dungeon and the dungeon master, for example a tree like dungeon with insect monsters will never have the natural predators of insects like avians monsters that eat them.

About the structure, as I said before a dungeon is a structure where are present floors, rooms and corridors.

The classical dungeon is an underground net of rooms and corridors and I said that there are dungeons too that are like trees but thanks to the freedom an author have, we can make dungeons of flying island connected by brigdes, underwater dungeons where the rooms are bubbles and the corridors are submarine currents or even flying dungeon where the rooms are clouds.

About the chests and items, they are a classical trait of the dungeons but why they are inside that places? Well, first of all we need to think that dungeons have "meanings", in other words they have a function on their own.

Dungeons are made with various functions but what we need to keep in mind is the reason of their creation and how they work... well, the thing is that items are spawned for the only purpose of attract humanoid race, I'm sure that said like this don't mean nothing so let's take a step back and start with how a dungeon act, is made and how things spawn inside of it.

**HOW DUNGEONS ARE MADE**

Dungeon are artificials, in all the stories you found dungeons that are always made by someone or something using some kind of spell or item like an artifact but there are some made using manual labor, if they have a natural appearance is because the one that made the dungeon decided that or because is using something natural as base, like a cave system, and modified it for its purposes.

I personally though how a dungeon can spawn naturally but the result is incomplete and now you'll understand how and why... basically we start with a monster that absorb large quantity of magical energy and fell into coma changing into what will become the dungeon core, after that the new core create a net that start to form the rooms and the verious passages, the core itself is "stupid" so is unable to shape well the dungeon and it is for this reason that I said that the result is incomplete... and it's now that the dungeon master appear, basically the first DM is something that is attract by the core and once entered into contact with it, the DM create a connection, from this the DM become more smart in the case of animals and start to understand what the dungeon need and so it start to change it depending on what is need.

**HOW MONSTERS SPAWN INSIDE A DUNGEON**

Dungeons basically are like living beings, since they grow and "eat", but how all the process work? Quite simple... dungeons generate monsters inside them as some kind of defensive system, if this is not done then the core will be exposed to any kind of attack.

New dungeon normally attract beings from the outside and kill them, probably for new one without monsters, the killing is done by the dungeon master.

After the death the dungeon absorb the energy and the bodies of the beings that die inside it and use that "resources" for create new monsters and grow.

I can't say the exact method the monsters are generated simply because is never clearly said anywhere, in a story I saw that, for that author, monsters use particular monster only tunnels for move from where they generate to the rooms but the exact method is not said, the main method I can think is that dungeons use some kind of black hole monster spawner.

A little note about the monsters spawned inside a dungeon, during my researches I noticed that they basically are like made in series, so is possible that the way they are made is something like industrial and not natural.

**HOW ITEMS SPAWN INSIDE A DUNGEON**

First of all we need to make the difference between them:

* Lost, they are items that were lost by adventurers during their exploration like a weapon while running away from a monster.
* Remains, they are items that where left by dead explorers, usually the body is not found because was eat by the dungeon or by the monsters.
* Left behind, they are items that were take inside by explorers but then they left them where they are found. The reason behind left an item can be anything from simple "I can buy a new one" to "I forgot that but nevermind".
* Spawned one, they are items generated by the dungeon, my theory is that dungeons absorb and analyze samples of what is left by the adventurers and then become able to replicate it as much the resources make it possible but this don't explain the variety so here enter a little common thing that is said about dungeons, that they eat the souls of the ones that die inside them... personally I don't like this because I think that there must be a balance between the souls in the world of the living and the souls of the death... Putting aside what I like and dislike, dungeons enter in contact with the souls of the dead and maybe enter in contact with their knowledge becoming able to produce too items that they know well enough. This are all my speculation so whoever read it is free to say its own opinion.

**THE FUNCTIONS A DUNGEON CAN HAVE**

Dungeons don't have a fixed function since is their creator that choice it but let me list some of them:

* *Training*, is possible create a dungeon with the sole purpose of create a particular training field for people.
* *Prison*, when something powerfull and dangerous is defeated or sealed the last thing one desire is that it's set free so create a dungeon and put that thing in the deepest part so that is difficult try to free it make sense.
* *Vault*, some greedy people that is dying may think that don't want to have their trasures at the hand of the first guy that walk there so they make a dungoen for keep their fortune there.
* *Tomb*, I know what some people can say but create a dungoen only for be the grave of someone is something that can happen expecially if the world offer to resurrect people of let them become undead monster under the control of something.

This are the reasons that come to my mind but the freedom granted to the authors can create other reasons.