The Abyss
Opening of the Gates
The Pit. The source of all magic on Earth. Fortunes and misfortunes are found and made here. Depending on who you ask, it's an artificial antechamber to the true form of magic, the gateway into the afterlife or even the entrance to the home of the Gods. A mysterious universe, sub-universe or multiverse made up out of magic.
But there are facts known about it. The Abyss is a psychosomatic space or place with a history. That means, it moulds itself after the expectations of the visitor. Old parts of the Dungeon, from when humanity first discovered magic spawned as natural caves and rock formations. Newer parts of the Abysm, from during and after the bronze age spawn as rooms, hallways and sometimes even underground cities. These structures take on the architecture of various cultures throughout human history. The mental reflections of travellers into the Depths subtly shape it over millennia.
Geography
The Dungeon unfolds itself to visitors as interconnected ‘rooms’, of which there are three types; the anchored room, the delocalized room and the vaporous room. The strange magic in the Abyss' many rooms doesn't show itself until you leave a room, and close the door behind you. Keep this in mind, because it's important.
The anchored room can be seen as a solid room. They have a locked position compared to other rooms, and only catastrophic magical events have the potential to move them. These anchored or entangled rooms can be mapped and are commonly used for travel. After all, moving from one anchored room to another anchored room acts just like moving around on Earth.
The delocalized room can be seen as a liquid room. Leaving such a room means you cannot be sure of your location because these rooms can move around. The more delocalized rooms are located in proximity, the more random and chaotic moving between them becomes. They begin to act like bodies of water, from still lakes to storming seas. Mapping delocalized or diffused rooms that are ‘landlocked’ between anchored rooms is only really possible in probabilities. Mapping delocalized rooms that form large bodies of ‘water’ is impossible. As such, it's best to travel through delocalized, or floating rooms with the help of a navigator that can chart a course. If you accidentally enter a delocalized room, you can often backtrack. Most diffused rooms do not meander very fast.
Finally there is the vaporous room. This can be seen as a gaseous room. Leaving a vaporous room means you are screwed. In fact, entering a vaporous or loose room means you are screwed - because you cannot backtrack. The moment you close the door behind you, whatever was behind that door has already changed. There is no way to know where a vaporous room will lead, it is truly random. Distances become meaningless, and you might move only a few rooms forward, or several times the circumference of Earth forward. The only time you want to step into a vaporous room is when you already have nothing to lose.
And it gets worse. The basic model of three types of rooms doesn’t include the exceptions to the rules and oddities out there. And there are many. There are rooms that loop in on themselves. You enter, and you never get out. Some rooms change internally, instead of just moving around in perspective to each other. The speeds of these changes may be glacial. You might discover a small alcove that has grown slowly over hundreds of years. But they can also be so fast that you get killed by growing or shrinking walls and floors. Rooms in the Maze do not necessarily follow the dictionary definition of a room - not every room has a door. And not every door leads to a new room. Individual walls and doors can be anchored, delocalized or vaporous. For example, an anchored room might contain a delocalized wall, which manifests a hallway that rapidly becomes vaporous the further you move from the anchored parts of the room.
Fauna & Flora
The Abyss doesn't just consist out of lifeless empty rooms. It manifests many impossible magical things, and sometimes these impossibilities allow life to thrive. Replicated sunlight, endless flows of water, good soil. Life found in the Dungeon doesn't need very much. And this life can come from the outside, animals and plants finding their way into the Void, but sometimes life also comes from inside. Strange organisms thought extinct, only found as fossils can be found stalking the halls and caves of the Abyss. No one knows how the Labyrinth works, but it clearly has a connection to ancient aeons. And sometimes you will find beasts and plants that never existed except in thought, dreams and nightmares.
Most of these lifeforms live in massive caves, large enough to count as a province, a country or perhaps even a continent. Powered by a pseudo-sun high up on the ceiling, and a water cycle, these places are indistinguishable from Earth itself if it wasn't for the exits into the Maze alongside the borders of the cave. Forests, swamps, deserts, oceans, river deltas, what exists or has existed on Earth also exists here in the Depths. Outside these caves, there isn't very much life to be found. But it's not uncommon for some species, especially some of the stronger or smarter creatures, to stalk through the dark, opening or smashing open doors. Still, the main bulk of life inside the hallways and rooms are fungi and various kinds of cave-dwelling amphibians, fish and arthropods.
Alternative Name(s)
“dungeon”, “abysm”, “pit”, “expanse”, “maw”, “sanctum”, “tomb”, “depths”, “maze”, “void”, “chasm”
Type
Dimensional plane
Included Locations
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