Saga of the Soul Dungeon

“Humans are possessed, to some degree, with the power of foresight. Yet we so often learn things the hard way, through disaster.”

-David Grinspoon

“I know of few human nations that do not have arrangements of the Adar. That we are one of them is a disgrace. The Adar have little use for material wealth, and their agreements are onerous only to those that would not enforce them. Our nation then, courts disaster, not out of material concerns, but out of pride.”

- From a public letter found multiple locations in a ruined city

Arc 4 – Into the Dungeon

Scholars argue over the true purpose of dungeons. This is hardly surprising, scholars will argue almost anything. However, the true danger of dungeons is rarely disputed. The dungeon break.

By definition, a dungeon break is characterized by a mass exodus of monsters from a dungeon into the outside world. The average layperson may consider this as the only factor. It is not. A dungeon break has several other characteristics:

First, a dungeon’s monsters are altered on a fundamental level.

To understand this we should ask a fundamental question. Why don’t dungeons send monsters out of them all the time? Properly utilized this might be an excellent strategy.

The most simple answer, as far as has been determined, is that they cannot.

Monsters have large amounts of mana in them by virtue of their growth inside a dungeon. This mana alters them and makes them more powerful, but it also almost always makes them unsuited to live outside the dungeon. Rarely, monsters do wander out of dungeons and survive. And, should a suitable breeding pair escape within a reasonable time frame, or a monster with a more unusual, but feasible, method of reproduction escape and survive, they may spread to the surrounding environment. The stronger the monster, the less likely it is to survive.

During a dungeon break, the monsters are stabilized in some fashion. It is not single pairings which escape a dungeon, but thousands of varied monsters that spread out into the surrounding environment. Not only does this introduce new threats into the surroundings, but the monsters push existing animals and monsters out of their habitats, precipitating a mass migration.

For a short time the monsters continue to breed as rapidly as they would have in their old dungeon environment, compounding the problem.

And this also leads us to the next characteristic of a dungeon break.

Second, the dungeon monsters continue to prioritize humans as prey.

For several years after their escape dungeon monsters continue to attempt to kill any humans that they sense. This has a notable exception, pregnant females will wait until they have given birth before attacking, and juveniles will likewise wait until they are fully grown.

An ideal scenario for a dungeon break, if such a thing can be said to occur, is as far away from humans as it is possible to get. This mitigates both the danger of the beasts displaced by a dungeon, as well as from the new monsters.

If, however, a city is nearby, it will almost always end in disaster. The beast wave may or may not prove to be a disaster for the city, but it will disrupt travel around the city at the least, and any city which is unable to protect their croplands should expect them to be utterly consumed and trampled.

After that come the monsters themselves. If any monsters from the dungeon break finds a human city, they will all converge on it. The method they use to communicate is unknown, but it is effective. It is suspected that they are still connected to the dungeon in some way.

And this is because of the next trait.

Third, dungeon’s continue to produce monsters and send them out once a dungeon break has begun. And, even if the monster’s outside have been slain to the last, the new monsters that emerge from the dungeon will still attempt to attack the largest concentration of humans that they have found.

This makes a dungeon break an ongoing disaster, only ended by a few circumstances.

Fourth, a dungeon break is ended in a few ways.

First, and least preferred, is for a dungeon break to end on its own. In this case the area around the dungeon entrance must become completely saturated with monsters from the dungeon. For as long as something is continuing to reduce the population, whether that be powerful existing monsters in the area, harsh environmental factors, etc… the monsters will continue to be produced.

It is widely believed that this may be a deliberate choice by Yamash to repopulate the world in case of cataclysm. Numerous disasters have befallen the world, yet monsters, animals, and plants continue to thrive. And has been noted in other works, this is facilitated by the ability of monsters to adapt into normal animals and plants.

The dungeon break will also not end until no humans exist within several hundred to thousands of miles of the dungeon. The more powerful the dungeon, the wider the radius required. For this to happen any cities and settlements within must be empty, whether that be by evacuation, or, more likely, eradication.

If a dungeon break ends in this fashion the dungeon will collapse. It will eventually reemerge, though it may appear anywhere in the world. The timing is equally uncertain. Many dungeons, when they reemerge, are from eras that are no longer known. This makes dungeons essential for reacquiring knowledge of previous civilizations.

The other way for a dungeon break to end, is for a group of adventurers to successfully delve into the dungeon and make it all the way to the end of the dungeon. However, while this will prevent the dungeon from sending out any new monsters, it does not eliminate any monsters that have already exited the dungeon.

However, those monsters that have already emerged to stop prioritizing humans and begin to act like wild monsters. This presents its own problems, as the surrounding biomes are forced to adapt to new monsters for the long term, as are those where displaced animals and monsters now attempt to integrate.

The most reasonable question then becomes, how do we prevent dungeon breaks.

The simplest is ensuring that all dungeons are delved thoroughly and regularly by parties of adventurers. A dungeon that is delved this way will almost never erupt into a dungeon break.

The Adar are also capable of both reducing the odds of a dungeon break, and telling what needs to be done to prevent one when it is eminent in the rare case where delving it is not enough.

This alone would be sufficient for human nations to treat with the Adar. However, the fact that the Adar sent to humanity are able to detect when a dungeon is birthed or reemerging is invaluable. The dungeon break of a newly birthed dungeon is at least a minor disaster. The dungeon breaks of reemerging dungeons have destroyed nations.

- From the Introduction of “Dungeon Breaks: A Treatise on Known and Suspected Cases”