Every Dungeon knows this story. Just as the Dwarves are born knowing of Damien and the Dragons of Evirynn, at their emergence, each Dungeon knows of Bastion so that they may know what they are, why they are, and how they have come to be.
Early in the days of Mazre, before the Many had come with their great ships and their swords of fire when the Children of Light had come to warn the infantile ((SYSTEM)) of their treachery when the Firstborn were young, the ((SYSTEM)) created a bastion to house his new creatures. He built up a powerful guardian for this bastion, which multiplied until its halls were filled with monsters known as Golem. The Firstborn and their children, who were not much older than the bastion, dwelt within its walls as the ((SYSTEM)) created his armies from the hearts of the Children of Light. They say that the Poet wrote his first refrain inside the depths of the bastion and that Arulan burst from its soil.
When the Many came, and they fought against the armies of the ((SYSTEM)), some sought to take the bastion and deprive the Firstborn of their hiding places. Those who invaded the bastion were known as the wraiths. The wraiths found, as they walked deeper into the bowels of the bastion, that its walls shifted, and that the Golems attacked them and moved as if commanded by a greater force. As the wraiths began to fall, unable to fight against the ever-replenishing army of the bastion, unable to navigate the pitfalls and traps that not even the ((SYSTEM)) had seen, unable to escape its ever-changing paths, they fled. The bastion let them flee, but they were ever scarred, and their children were scarred, in the manner of those whose ((MANA)) overspills, and the wraiths became changed, and unlike the Many. They followed weird ways, worshiped their young, gave things strange names, and they gained powers beyond the ((SYSTEM)), yet not greater than him. To this day, they still dwell in Ridoum.
When the battle ended, and the land was split, and the Firstborn took their children and their armies and spread across the newly created lands of Litone, Ladora, and Ridoum, and the Many were exiled to Mori, the bastion stood empty. After many days, Arulan came to stay in the bastion, and found it much changed, its Golems had been altered, and its pathways had been maimed, life thrived in its walls, in a strange manicured way, and Arulan was beckoned to a certain room, where an old man who had once been of the Many, but now had been mutilated so far as to become one with the Bastion, spoke to him and said:
“My master wishes for his due, as Firstborn of his race.”
“Who is your master, and what is his race?” Arulan asked
And the man said. “My master is the walls that breathe, and the eyes that glow, and the stones that beat like a heart. He is of no people but of himself, and if one must liken him to any being, t’would be the ((SYSTEM)).”
“Speak not in riddles, who is he?” Arulan asked,
“My master is Bastion.” The man said, “And I speak for the voiceless.”
And Arulan thought on this for a good while before responding. “The bastion has no spark of life. It was built like the weird machines of your former people, and like the Golems who wander around these walls.”
“He took the spark of life from those who dwelt within him, from those who came to destroy him, of whom I was one, from the plants that he cultivated and from the dead that he ate, he liveth. And his birthright is Firstborn.”
And Arulan was perplexed because none like this had existed, but it was likened to the birth of the ((SYSTEM)), who took the spark of life from the exiled magics of Mazre, and Arulan called upon the ((SYSTEM)), and they spoke for many hours, until Arulan returned to the man, and said. “The Bastion is Firstborn, and so he will be treated.”
So, like the Firstborn of every new race who thus claimed their birthright, the Bastion was created a son and daughter alike to him, whose names were Labyrinth and Catacomb, Who, when their times came, were given their own children, to Labyrinth, Cavern, and Monolith, and to Catacomb, Sanctuary, and Dungeon. And it is for Dungeon that their kind was named. The Dungeon became a favorite of the ((SYSTEM)) and he was always close to him and would lend them his power. And the young dungeon of this day still know the name of their Firstborn, as every newborn of every race knows, except the elves, for their Firstborn are wicked. Unlike many of the Firstborn, Bastion and his children did not wither, for their walls were meant to last as long as Mazre itself, and still, Bastion sits, deeply buried and hidden in Litone, at the site of the FirstWar. Some say that he has grown as large as Litone himself and that he fuels the constant wars between their lands, controlling his descendants to seed chaos and feed his ever-growing hunger.
The Dungeon who live upon Litone refute this when asked for their forebearer, through their ((SPEAKERS)) they say many things against such beliefs, for the Dungeon are a solitary and proud race, and each believes themselves of the absolute authority, with none above them except the ((SYSTEM)) and the One Himself, and, perhaps, in their domains, this is true.
CHP 1
Achieving Existence
Somewhere deep in a mountain range, inside a forested, swamp-filled valley, a small golden light burst into the darkness, a million small lights ignited and found themselves pulled to a point. Trees vanished and turned to clearing, a perfectly circular hole bored into the earth, dirt was upturned and the world changed to accommodate its newest resident. Birds flew from their perches and weasels skittered away as the valley’s insect population boomed. A soft buzzing filled the air, the beating of a trillion pairs of wings. It would only grow louder.
She had no mother to love her, or no father to watch over her, she had no siblings to play with, she had no cousins to compete with nor any kind of being to help her make sense of her new reality. A single sentence was all that welcomed her into the world.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED EXISTENCE!
She was alive now. It was her first thought as her mind quickly expanded and became aware. It wasn’t very different from not being alive, as far as she was concerned. She wondered why she was alive, but found no answer. She knew things, words filled her mind, and wordless explanations for them followed. She didn’t know how she knew these things, but she did.
Empress blinked, despite not having eyes or a discernable body, she blinked, it was strange, it wasn’t quite what she thought a blink should be like, it was more as if she was simply turning her ((GAZE)) off and on again, very quickly. It gave her no comfort. She could only see a bright glowing gold. Empress blinked again and thought for a moment, then she tried to move. When she thought about moving, nothing happened, unsure of what to do, but knowing that something needed to be done. She did her best to push herself away from the light, she felt movement, although, she didn’t know how she had felt anything, as she did not have a body. She turned off her ((GAZE)) and flicked it back on, Empress moved again, this time much smoother. The gold shifted and in the edge of her vision, was a hint of blackness. An all-encompassing dark that leaked into the bright golden terrain.
She moved toward the blackness and the golden light quickly vanished. Empress felt a surge of emotion. It took her a moment to identify it, Joy, interesting. She pulled her ((GAZE)) back, zooming out and spinning around to get the first look of her ((DOMAIN)). She was met by impenetrable darkness. A thick unceasing shadow surrounded her, only broken by an impossibly small golden light coming from a small crystalline rock the size and shape of a teardrop. She recognized it as her ((CORE)), it pulsated rhythmically like it was mimicking a heartbeat. It was her heartbeat, she corrected, she just didn’t have a heart. Empress tried to think of the small rock as more than just a light source, but she couldn’t seem to. A distasteful emotion floated to the surface. Disappointment, she thought, it goes without saying that with knowledge comes expectations, what were they? She wasn’t sure, maybe some light? Anything other than this.
What kind of ((DOMAIN)) was this? Without meaning to, Empress let out a soft sigh. The air twisted and reverberated with the sound waves, they bounced invisibly throughout the dark void and returned to Empress’s… how did she hear? More importantly, how did she make sound? She spun again and thought, she didn’t have a mouth, and even if she did, what would she say? Empress tried to think, what would she say, if there was another being to speak with? Without any other focus, she looked at her ((CORE)).
“She believes that she is in an enclosed space, she does,” Empress said, there was a vague feeling of wrongness in the words, did she speak them correctly? She shook her ((GAZE))
“Perhaps she is in a cave? She knows that Dungeons are found in caves. She is in a dark place at least, very dark, and her sounds echo back to her quickly, so her ((DOMAIN)) is small, or this section of it is small she thinks.”
The ((CORE)) did not respond. Empress didn’t like the way that the darkness swallowed up the sound. She squinted, slowly rotating, taking in each shade of the gradient shadows, looking for something, anything to latch onto. One section of the blackness seemed entirely different than the rest, it was lighter yet somehow deeper, as if it went along further than the other directions, the air from that direction was fresher as well, which made Empress wonder how she felt the difference.
She stared at the difference inching toward it. Fear. She was… afraid to leave the light of her ((CORE)) behind, lest she become lost in the shadows forever. A silent urge, like an itch that she couldn’t scratch, whispered to her silently, soon her reluctance gave way to curiosity and she slowly left behind the soft glow of her ((CORE)).
She traveled in darkness, the air grew crisper the farther she traveled, slowly, each moment expecting to slam into some concealed obstruction. The shadows began to fade slightly, and after a moment a shimmering patch of lime green light burst into view. Empress blinked frantically, her ((GAZE)) slowly adjusting to the light. The glowing thing was a plant. Her plant.
“Hello?” Empress asked the patch of short glowing greenness, disappointed when it did not respond.
Buried in the center of the plant was a golden orb, it was like her ((CORE)), but it wasn’t as crystalline, instead having a more metallic appearance. The orb glowed faintly but persistently, and it spun without disturbing the dirt around it. She knew exactly what she was looking at, it was a good feeling after everything so far being filled with uncertainty. Empress focused on the Node and a grey box appeared in the corner of her vision. Much like the one that had welcomed her into the world.
LUMMI MOSS NODE LV 2
A special kind of bioluminescent moss that, unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic.
Unused Stat Points: 3
Taste: 1
Toxicity: 0
Glow: 2
Spread: 1
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Growth: 0.5
HP: 3/3
Alignment: Please select
EXP: 0/100
ASCEND CHANCE: .001
Empress looked at the text box, she read through it twice. She was curious, what was an ((ALIGNMENT))? No answer came.
“She wonders what an ((ALIGNMENT)) is?” She said, waiting for a soft ping of information. It never came.
She tilted her ((GAZE)) and ignored her annoyance. Instead, she turned her attention to her ((STAT POINTS)). She had three options, Taste, and Toxicity would be useless, Glow would be good for fighting off the darkness, but were nowhere near as effective as pure size. She dropped two points into Growth and one into Spread. She pressed on ((ALIGNMENT)), and two options appeared.
BENIGN FATAL
She blinked and thought for a moment, then selected ((BENIGN)). ((FATAL)) seemed too extreme, she didn’t know what she was dealing with. The box updated.
LUMMI MOSS NODE LV 2
A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic.
Unused Stat Points: 0
Taste: 1
Toxicity: 0
Glow: 2
Spread: 2
Growth: 2.5
HP: 3/3
Alignment: BENIGN
EXP: 0/100
ASCEND CHANCE: .001
Empress closed the tab and tilted her ((GAZE)) to the side, she looked at the Node, could she open another tab, using her ((CORE))? Turning around she inched through the shadows until the soft golden glow of her ((CORE)) came into view. She stared hard at the golden teardrop, and then a text box opened.
LV 1 DUNGEON
Name: Empress
EXP 0/145021
Size: Small
Gender: Female
Gaze type: Light-based
Affinities: Ento
Class: none
Race: Dungeon
Nodes: Lummi moss LV 2
Spawners: Basic Ant LV 1
Retainers: None
Alignment: _____
System message type: Glass based
Communication type: auditory
Spawner orientation: Visual
Notoriety: 0
Kills: 0
Empress blinked in confusion. Certain things were clear, who was she? Empress. What was she? Dungeon. Other things only raised more questions. She had a light-based ((GAZE)), did that mean there were other kinds? Why was her ((ALIGNMENT)) blanked out? What was an Affinity? Empress made a tsking sound and bobbed her ((GAZE)) up and down in thought. Right now, the most important thing was her sight, so she needed to figure out what was meant exactly by Light-based. What was light? Light was a wavelength, like sound, but faster.
There is always light, darkness is just the absence of light, not its own element. How do you make light? She didn’t know. Light is warm? Sometimes. She didn’t feel cold, even though it was dark, so maybe not? Or maybe she was in a warm cave, with lava, dark lava, that produces no light. It seemed unlikely, but not impossible. How did her ((GAZE)) work? It absorbed light and turned the light into images that were fed to her ((CORE)). How much light did it need? Seemingly a lot. Why? Bipeds used differing amounts of light right? She did not have eyes, so why did she need so much light? It didn’t make much sense that an organic being would have an easier time processing light than a non-organic one that didn’t need to use energy to breathe, eat, or any of the other things that Bipeds did.
You have realized that you are not an organic being and are not bound by the laws of the living body. You have gained the ability to adjust your GAZE sensitivity. You have unlocked the SKILLS tab in your MENU. You have gained MANA.
A rush of energy filled her ((CORE)), and she sighed softly. Then, reading the text box, Empress blinked once more in confusion. “What does she need a ((MENU)) for?” She was, as the box previously stated, a non-organic being, she did not need to eat any kind of food. Was it like her ((STATUS))? Why did she know how light works but not whatever important thing this was? She didn’t have a catalyst to open the ((MENU)), so Empress focused on the feeling of opening one of the text boxes. Nothing happened. She blinked, Oh.
“((MENU)).” She said aloud. A text box popped up in front of her.
MENU
STATUS ABILITIES HELP LOCKED LOCKED OVERVIEW
Ignoring the other options for now, she selected ((ABILITIES)) and a second box appeared atop the first.
ABILITIES
TOGGLE GAZE LV 1 RANK 1: You can adjust the amount of light you perceive with your primary sensory ‘organ’ to some extent. RARE
UNDERSTANDING LV 1 RANK 1: You gain a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE
UNPREDICTABLE LV 1 RANK 1: Due to not being a match for your species’ compatible alignments, you have gained the ability to adjust the alignments of your colonists
Empress selected ((TOGGLE GAZE LV 1 RANK 1)), and a second box with a slider appeared. She tilted her ((GAZE)). The slider moved with her thoughts. When the slider moved, her vision lightened and darkened. She pushed the slider to one extreme. She blinked rapidly as the world became a blurred glow of oversaturated colors, she quickly slid it to the other side and was suddenly trapped in an unsettling void, the only thing breaking the black monotony was the grey boxes, which seemed as if they were glowing with light. She hummed and this time put the slider in the middle. Light returned, but not in full force. For the first time, Empress looked upon her ((DOMAIN)).
She was in a large earthen cave, the soil was moist, but not overly wet, the ceiling curved with a certain roughness of the molding that wasn’t smooth enough for water erosion but wasn’t too rough to be carved with magic. It looked as if a hundred tiny bites had been taken out of the cave. Her ((SANCTUM)) was empty of anything but the pillar that held her small ((CORE)), which now seemed inadequate for the enormity of her land. She turned from the ((CORE)) to find the Node. It was not inside of the ((SANCTUM)) but instead sat in a corridor that led off from it, trending slightly upward, as if to beckon the unwary toward the ((SANCTUM)). The moss sat silently on one of the walls, it didn’t change in the brighter light, except for the lackluster glow it now thrust forward instead of the brilliant sheen it had worn previously.
The walls were of the same kind as the ((SANCTUM)), but shorter and thinner, while still retaining the sloping circular motion as if the earth had been cut by an inadept mason. The hallway continued its upward motion, obscuring whatever lay ahead with a hill of its own design. Empress traveled forward, and the hallway widened into a room, though it was smaller than the ((SANCTUM)), its walls were less sloping, giving it the appearance of a soft rectangle.
In the back half of the room, stood a pedestal. It wasn’t dirt like the one that held up her ((CORE)), but instead, it was a glowing metallic gold, illegible runes carved into its base. It was rotating slowly without disturbing the dirt in which it was set. Curiously, Empress approached the pedestal, her ((GAZE)) glinting as she grew closer. The spawner’s light began to increase. She bobbed up and down happily and opened the spawner’s ((MENU)).
LV 1 BASIC ANT SPAWNER
A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns weak Ants without any specific classification that embodies the perception of the species.
UNUSED STAT POINTS: 2
SIZE: 0.2
STR: 5
PWR: 1
INT: 1
DEF: 1
SPD: 3
AFFINITIES: NONE EXPAND?
ALIGNMENT: PLEASE SELECT
TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED
ASCEND CHANCE: .001
COOLDOWN: 300
Carefully reading over each line of text on the new box, she put the two stat points into ((INT)) and ((DEF)). As each word sunk into her mind, she felt a soft ping and a rush of information that she now recognized as her ((UNDERSTANDING)). Some questions were answered, others were not. What was a ((TRAIT))? And what did it have to do with her? No answer was given, so she moved on, instead opening the ((ALIGNMENT)) tab.
ALIGNMENT:
BENIGN CHALLENGING AGGRESSIVE FATAL
Empress tsked, she stopped her bobbing. ((BENIGN)) and ((FATAL)) made sense, peaceful verses warlike, but she had no idea what ((CHALLENGING)) and ((AGGRESSIVE)) meant. What was the difference between them? She knew that they would both cause death and that she would be its catalyst. This did not bother her as much as she thought it should.
She shook the thought away, what did ((CHALLENGING)) mean… she shut off her ((GAZE)). Using all her attention to expand on the foggy concept presented to her by ((UNDERSTANDING)). ((CHALLENGING)) was noble? She thought uncertainly, no, not noble. It was… justice, and it was courage, and it was vengeance and it was respect and it was unyielding and it was merciless to some and merciful to others. Her mental voice rose to a crescendo, then she fell into silence. ((CHALLENGING)) was a code of honor that does not compromise. Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) hummed in agreement.
If ((CHALLENGING)) was Honor, what then, was ((AGGRESSIVE))? It wasn’t dishonor exactly, it seemed more nuanced than that. It was wrath and terror and ignorance. An anger at the world for existing, a fear that it will consume you. Which was the correct option? Which of them was good? Empress flicked her ((GAZE)) back on, and the spawner room came back into view.
She was pretty sure that she wanted to be good, because if she was good, then she would go to the Eternal Goodness when she died, and be spared of the Inferno. Honor was ‘good’, but Empress knew that she could never be honorable. She knew that even if she didn’t want to, or if she tried to prevent it from happening, one day she would kill wrongly. She was a dungeon, the only true predator of the sentient races. One day, she would kill, not because she needed ((MANA)), not because she was in threat, but because her prey had stuck its head into the mouth of the lion.
Was that evil? How much of herself was she in control of? Was she an animal or man, or something else entirely?
Mineral, she supposed, answering her own question, it’s not like there was anyone else to.
Empress could not be honorable, but she wanted to be good. Was it better to be good and do wrong, knowing that you are doing wrong and to do nothing to stop it, to live knowing that you will never be good enough, to slump under the crushing weight of sins for which you will not repent? Or to be evil, and, to smother your conscience, do good, to be consoled, though never content? Which was she? Empress shook her ((GAZE)), neither of those were options she’d choose.
Empress was not a bad person, at least not yet, and she was going to do her best to stay that way. She would not become evil. It didn’t seem so hard, she just needed to watch herself. She would know if she started to become evil… right? She couldn’t change without knowing that she did. She wouldn’t let herself be changed. Empress selected ((CHALLENGING)) and closed the box.
MENU
STATUS ABILITIES HELP LOCKED LOCKED OVERVIEW
Empress closed the ((MENU)) she hadn’t done anything with her life, to be fair, it was a rather short one, but she still hadn’t even seen her entire ((DOMAIN)), and that was pitiful. She focused on the spawner room, surprised to see two new additions to her dungeon. The newly created ants were brown in color, they had a three-segmented abdomen and six thin legs. Their black eyes had no irises, being made entirely of pupil, though they were mostly blind. The majority of their ‘seeing’ was done through their antennae and what might’ve been a nose above their mandibles.
Her…
((MONSTERS)), ((DENIZENS)), ((EMPLOYEES)) … ((EXPAND?))
The ((SYSTEM)) chimed, Empress almost pressed ((EXPAND?)) but then shook her ((GAZE)), she needed to focus. Her new uh, ants responded to her movement with twitching of antennae and a glance toward her ((GAZE)). They could… see her? She wasn’t sure why she was surprised, of course, they could, her ((GAZE)) bobbed up and down happily.
She ((COMMANDED)) the ants to follow her, ignoring the slight ((MANA)) drain as her ((GAZE)) happily bobbed up and down the tunnel. The tunnel turned gradually to the right until, when you looked back, you couldn’t see the room and it looked like a never-ending hallway. The light levels were gradually rising as the small party continued forward. The hallway opened into a large room, it was the largest by far, even bigger than the ((SANCTUM)). When the ants passed the threshold, a floating circle with a bipedal fist Ex’d out in red appeared over their heads. They didn’t react to it. Empress blinked. Other than that, the ((SAFE_ROOM)) was the same as the others, earth molded into a circular shape, barren walls, and floor. Flexing her mental muscles, Empress impulsively ((COMMANDED)) one of the ants to start digging a pit in the center of the room, she giggled to herself as the ant branched off and began to shovel dirt with her mandibles.
The now duo quickly left the room and followed the next hallway, it wasn’t curved like the others, and the amount of light grew so much greater that Empress had to lower the settings on her ((GAZE)). It wasn’t long until the hallway widened, not into a room however, the hallway was probably wide enough to fit six ants laying horizontally. Instead of leading somewhere else the tunnel raised sharply upward. Causing a small cliff to form, there was a small amount of standing room on the cliff, but when Empress tried to look past the cliff, there was only a wall of blinding white light.
The cliff was about the height of one ant standing vertically, and almost perfectly the height of two ants standing horizontally on top of each other. She laughed slightly, the sound echoing through the empty room. The ant scuttled up the cliffside. The ant didn’t need to climb atop another ant to reach the top of the cliff because ants can walk on vertical surfaces.
Empress floated upward, and she looked at the white forcefield, everything past it was completely blanked out. She moved closer, like a child pushing her face against the foggy glass. The forcefield wobbled slightly, but it didn’t let her through. Emboldened by her first interaction with the physical world, Empress pushed against the forcefield.
A sharp hiss of protest erupted across her ((GAZE)), it stung and clung to her like a morning dew would to a flower. She shot away from the whiteness; her movements frantic and erratic, the feeling was wholly unpleasant, without anything to redeem it. Empress shivered. She halted her movement in the middle of the entrance hallway. Pain. Pain? PAIN? That was what pain felt like? How, did organic beings function? The feeling still clung to her, fading, and twisting in its malicious warning. Trapped, it whispered in a deep throaty voice. She is trapped alone here forever.
For the first time, Empress hated it was… distasteful.