In Favour of Repetition

It bears repeating.

It bears repeating.

In Qal Ashen, there are two kinds of dungeon: refuges and sacred places. The former are places where things were hidden from the wrath of the Cruel Nine, and in them, you will find remnants of humanity, forgotten things, magic items, blasphemies, the too-living or the restless dead, and archaeology. The latter belong to the gods and are not always designed for human passage. In those places, you will find demons, sacred ones, demigods, deadly thresholds, and theodicy. The largest of the former is the Underworld, the largest of the latter is Heaven. 

In Firmament, there are two kinds of dungeon: temples and castles. In temples, a supernatural or heavenly power is venerated, and their title or other mythic attributes change the space. In temples, you will find otherworldly powers, monsters, spirits, magic, forbidden truths, and possibly death. In castles, a worldly or heavenly power projected or is projecting forth their will, deeds, and weltanschauung. In castles, you will find the remains of great deeds, Heraldry, hubris, best intentions gone wrong, possibly death, and almost certainly Signatories looking to explode the weltanschauung with fire before it can cause any damn trouble. 

In Aclas, dungeons are divided by verb: delves and heists. Delving is quasilegal, ideologically supported, glamorous to academics, enlightening to the arts and sciences, attracts newspapers for a story or two, is lethal as hell, and reveals truths about the word. Heists are illegal, loved by the common folk, sexy as hell, personally enriching, make all the front page headlines the next day, are merely dangerous, and definitely get you in further trouble. 

In Aesalinth, there are two kinds of dungeon: relicts and projects. Relicts are left behind from an old ordering of the world, and projects seek to create a new ordering of the world. You can’t dungeon-delve the current order of the world - people live there. 

In Karpos, most adventure happens in the court or in the forest. However, we may recognise the form of the dungeon in what the fairies build - to hide from the petrifying sun, they construct labyrinth delves beneath the soil using their close familiarity with stone. Like everything else, the greatest and cruelest fairies, the dwerrow, make the greatest and cruelest labyrinths. Their castle homes are the largest examples, each tuned to their specific madnesses. 

On the Sovereign Sea, there are two kinds of matters requiring your attention: investigations and explorations. Investigations happen inside civilisation, involve tragic circumstances, feature occult forces, and are a matter just for us. Explorations happen on distant shores, involve rivalry and mystery, feature lots of strange things, and ought to feature in your next book, madam. 

In Invisible Hands, every city has a dungeon, which must be plumbed to save the Economy.