Not much is actually known of how the Dungeon cores came to be. Some of the oldest of the Elves claim to have lived through the period when they were first discovered, but not even they know how or why they came to be.

What is known, is that prior too roughly 2,000 years ago, Dungeons were not present upon our world. There may have been caves and locations where monsters, creatures and hostiles may have naturally congregated, but these places were entirely natural, sources where the lines of mana were close to the surface, which would attract the attention of unsavoury abominations, fueling their growth to become a blight on the world of Men, Elves, Dwarfs and several other sentient races.

And in those before times, a war was being waged, as it is naturally the case in world changing events. No one knows how this war started, or why, only that this was a war for the very survival of the species of this world, for if they lost, this world would become a barren place. It was a war fought against a foe, which was seeking to destroy all traces of the force known as Mana, the natural life force of a planet. They came pouring out of interdimensional gates the size of mountains, a veritable flood, a never ending torrent.

In a act of desperation, the major factions of the surviving races hatched a plan, something so desperate that I could bring about the end goals of the invaders, but still allowed a chance for our world to survive, for us to survive. The greatest minds of the times, the Mages and Sensitives proposed to surpress the Mana, to force it so deep into the earth, that none would be able to wield it, that I would no longer have an effect of our lives, for many years, if not centuries. And the hope was that if they were successful, the portals would close, and the invaders could be finally ended.

And so thousands of Mana wielders gathered, planned the grandest Meta-Mana formation ever devised. But once the calculations were finally completed, a problem of the direst nature was discovered. The power requirements to surpress the natural Mana of the world were devastating, literally. The deeper that the Mana receeded from the surface, the more power was required, both in the compression, and in setting up the necessary barricades to stop it raging back forth. A critical point would be reached, where the wielders would no longer be able to use the mana of the world, but must rely on their very lifeforce to power the Meta formation. One by one, they would have to drain themselves to death, until the portals were closed.

Needless to say, the formation was successful, but the cost was mighty indeed. Only a handful of wielders survived, and they were but the weakest and meanest of the wielders. But something incredible also happened. As soon as the last wielder fell dead in giving of themselves to the formations, when the mana was sufficiently sealed, the portals indeed closed, having seemingly tied to the mana of our world. But not only did the close, but the invaders left, began dying, as if starved of air. Within minutes, hundreds of thousand lay dead, as if they were not sustained as were are, but required the nourishment of mana. And something extraordinary then happened. The corpses of the invaders began to dissolve, like becoming dust and being swept away with the wind (as multiple witness accounts attested to). All that was left were the survivors, and the bodies to their dead.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

But with absence of mana, and with no way to unseal the barricades keeping it locked away, our world began to change. Magic became a mere bedside story told to children, of a time when dragons walked to world, when many wonderous sights and achievements were common, when even the humblest of peasant could become wielders of the mighest arcane spells, and all that was required, was hard work and time. But now, all of the beings that relied on the life giving mana began to die, slowly drifitng from this world, to become legends. Dragons no longer roamed the air, the loss of the fairies caused the death of many hundreds of plants and trees. People now became sick frequently, as the mana was no longer sustaining the seemingly endless health that they enjoyed before.

The Elves, while still surviving, became much fewer than they were before, retreating to small pockets of the world. The Dwarves lost the magic of their works, and became less for their inability to cast enchantments into their creations. Instead to became common blacksmiths and masons, even if their works were still works of mastery, they no longer brought the joy of the past. All of the worlds races seperated, retreated back into isolated groups.

This period, known as the Age of Desolation, lasted for many years. Some of the surving records allude to it nearly being in the magnitude of nearly 500 years.

They literally in a course of one day to the next, cubes of the purest, clearest diamonds appeared all around the lands of the world. Nobody saw if anyone or anything placed them, no one saw if they grew from the ground. In a blink of the eye, a turn of the head, these Diamond blocks just appeared.

And when they were discovered, many came and explored for other cubes. Many people tried to prize the cubes from the ground, most likely thinking themselves rich beyond repair. But not a single being could so much a budge a single one of these cubes even a millimetre. Some tried wrap ropes about them, and convince many other to join them and pool the strength to remove the stones. Some tried to excavate underneath the rocks, but the Diamonds simply remained where they were, seemingly hovering in mid-air.

Until one individual would come up to one of the cubes, then in a instant, they would be gone, the Diamond blocks would then sink into the ground, and the first of the Dungeons appeared. And from these Dungeons, mana once again came back into the world. And a golden age was ushered in. But the mana didn't come back to all of the world, more like the Dungeons were generating the mana itself.

They would come in the forms of caves, buildings, temples, glades. Many were their forms, but all who entered would forever more be transformed. Some would become the Mages of today, some would become warriors without compare, healers, rogues, assassins, tamers and more beside. But the majority instead became something else. They became food for the Dungeon, swallowed whole to never appear again.

It turned out the Dungeon could infuse an abudance of mana into a individual, granting them, once again, the abilites of mana, however their forms would transform it.

So remember, enter in at your own risk.

Foreword in the Dungeon Manual written by Clarence Clothespin, Historian First Class.