The Descent
Not a monster waiting at the bottom of the dungeon. The dungeon itself, and everything in it, hers. She does not hate you, has never hated any of the hundred who came before you. She is only hungry, and you are the first thing in a thousand years she has found that she cannot eat.
The Named World
| Valdren | The human kingdom of the god's realm. Its edge was the first thing the descent swallowed. |
|---|---|
| Homura | The eastern empire across the sea, Kagetsu's homeland. Same world as Valdren. |
| the Whispering Boughs | The elves' eternal forest, Sylvara's home. Gnarlroot was its eldest tree. |
| the deep dominion | Vaelgor's demon realm beneath Valdren, the first part of the god's realm Nyxara ever took. |
| Isvaar | A world that was never yours. Nyxara ate its sun first, then the world itself, proof she has done this before. |
| Ashkar | A hell world she has been eating for a thousand years and has never finished, because its sovereign refuses to be kept. The Infernal biomes are Ashkar. |
| the Light Above | What the kept, deep in the dark, call the god. |
The Six Acts
Act 1: Verdant Ruins
The trees close overhead and the light goes green and old, older than a forest this young should be able to grow. Roots run down at an angle no living tree chooses, straining toward something under the soil that pulls harder than water ever does. You feel the ground tilt beneath your boots, so slowly you could almost call it patient. Why does the ground keep going down.
Guardian: Thornclad Warden · Boss: Gnarlroot, the Elder Treant
Act 2: Lightless Caverns
The stone here does not answer a torch the way stone should, it swallows the light instead of throwing it back. A throne room waits somewhere below, empty and swept clean, and the walls around it are not rock so much as something rock shaped itself into out of habit. Whatever holds this ceiling up is older than the mountain hiding it. What is the dungeon made of.
Guardian: Gloomfang, the Cavern Sentinel · Boss: The Hollow King
Act 3: The Undead Halls
They stand in ranks that never break, a hundred armors from a hundred years, and not one turns to look at you as you pass. You understand, here, that the dungeon remembers every soul that enters it, and that this was never only a saying. Somewhere in these ranks stood the last hero to carry your legend. Where do the kept go. Is that where you go.
Act 4: The Frozen Reaches
The sky above these ruins is not your sky, and its sun went out long before you arrived, leaving only a cold white memory of daylight. Worshippers still kneel in the ice, praying to a frozen god for a sun that will never return. This world was never Valdren's, it was swallowed once already, from somewhere else entirely. All at once you understand that this has happened before. She.
Act 5: The Molten Depths
The fire here has burned so long it stopped being fire and became the shape of the place. The oldest worlds she has swallowed melt together at this depth, names lost and folded into one furnace. Something enormous moves in the heat below, and it is not part of the dungeon. It is the dungeon, wearing the mountain like a coat. No native champion has ever climbed out. Why not.
Guardian: Cinderback Warden · Boss: Pyraxis, the Molten Lord
Act 6: The Abyss
The walls stop pretending to be stone this deep, and what beats beneath your feet is unmistakably a heart. Standing this close, you understand why every native champion fell here, they were always hers, the instant they stepped below, though the god has never said so. You are native to nothing she owns. That is the bargain, finally visible. What happens to a kept soul when her heart stops.
Guardian: The Hollow Watcher · Boss: Nyxara, Devourer of Worlds
See Biomes & Floors for the full 100-floor structure and Bosses for every fight in detail.
The Six Legends
Ser Aldric
the Unbroken Wall
Vaelgor
the Traitor Flame
Sister Liria
the Last Light of Valdren
Sylvara
Warden of the Whispering Boughs
Kagetsu
the Twice Drawn Blade
Brakkar
the Red Tide
See Classes for each legacy's full stats, abilities, and talent tree.