The Weird Evolution of Fantasy Dungeons

Comments · 758

• TH

  @TheTaleFoundry · 6 months ago · pinned

  Get Nebula using our link for 50% off an annual subscription! <a href="https://go.nebula.tv/talefoundry">https://go.nebula.tv/talefoundry</a><br><br>Click here to watch Abitfank&apos;s A Bit Obscure: <a href="https://nebula.tv/abitfrank/a-bit-obscure?ref=talefoundry">https://nebula.tv/abitfrank/a-bit-obscure?ref=talefoundry</a>

  48

• ZY

  @Zypheit · 6 months ago

  The word &apos;dungeon&apos; actually comes from &apos;donjon,&apos; literally &apos;master&apos;s tower,&apos; which originally referred to the highest tower in a keep, since that was the most secure location. Then when construction methods improved so that fortified keeps could have underground rooms, that underground area became the most secure part of the keep, fulfilling the role of the dungeon. So even the straightforward, practical, underground dungeons aren&apos;t really dungeon-y.

  191

• WR

  @wraith7989 · 6 months ago

  I ran a D&amp;D campaign where the players all worked for a dungeon building corporation. &nbsp;Their jobs were to capture the creatures that would inhabit dungeons, recover items or materials needed for traps or whatever was needed to help the company fulfill the contracts.

  820

• XX

  @xXDarkflowerXx · 6 months ago

  In Dungeon Meshi they basically explained in a flash back that Dungeons are basically magic eco systems. They grow and change based on the natural magic in the environment.

  908

• VY

  @vylbird8014 · 6 months ago

  Fun notion: In the satirical novel Orcanomics, dungeons exist simply because civilisation is old and over the millennia countless aspiring overlords have built secret bases, dragons have built hoards, powerful rulers have sought to be buried with their treasure, and so on. Such places tend to be built with traps to protect the treasure, and stocked with not-too-intelligent minions to guard it. When the overlord dies or is killed, the dungeons is often lost to obscurity until some team of heroic adventurers bravely enter to vanguish the ancient evil and help themselves to everything of value.<br><br>The driving premise of the novel is that these dungeons are non-renewable. Once adventuring became a thriving industry with an organised business model, it became easy money for people with combat experience and some backing money for supplies to form an adventuring team, seek out a dungeon, and raid it for the loot. A whole industry was built around this - not just the adventurers but all the weapon manufacturers, potion brewers, tavens and local adventurer support guilds. All of this enabled by a financial modernisation in which anyone may invest their money in a bank which will then use this capital to finance an adventuring team with training and supplies. A crisis threatens the kingdom - as the economy has become highly dependent on this dungeon extraction industry, the supply of un-looted dungeons that took thousands of years to build up is being quickly depleted leaving adventurers to go after ever-smaller, poorer dungeons. Increasing levels of financial abstraction are being used to mask the decline of actual revenues from the public, but those in charge know that collapse is inevitable unless some desperate action is taken.

  283

• AL

  @alexanderwsm6296 · 6 months ago

  To be fair, in the concept of modern video games and table-top games &quot;dungeon&quot; just means a labyrinth with monsters, treasures and puzzles. As opposed to &quot;a set of cells under the castle that are used to hold prisoners or stock supplies&quot; that it was originally IRL.<br><br>You can find similar gradual transformation of meaning for words like &quot;arcade&quot;, &quot;level&quot;, &quot;quest&quot;, &quot;RPG&quot;, etc.

  440

• BR

  @BrewerM23 · 6 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T6tbF5eGD4&amp;t=600">10:00</a> Honestly, Dungeon Meshi feels like someone thought about a Dungeon as much as you have, and decided to have one that made *sense*. &nbsp;Or, well, as much sense as &quot;A Wizard went insane and sunk a castle underground&quot; can make anyway. &nbsp;But there&apos;s an internal logic to the dungeon there that&apos;s usually absent from other Dungeons.

  103

• KI

  @kingvideogames · 6 months ago

  It was me; sorry. Got drunk one night and ended up in the seven dwarves club, and got challenged to build a fantasy dungeon.

  508

• RA

  @raptonsoul2557 · 6 months ago

  I remember talking to a friend about this, a major element we noticed is how a lot of media has underlying mythology of it, it’s not exactly what the video was looking at but a journey to retrieve something important then return to the surface with it is a common cause for dungeon diving and relates to stories of the underworld

  103

• ZE

  @zennistrad · 6 months ago

  One of the &quot;dungeons&quot; in AD&amp;D was a flying saucer.<br><br>They got real weird REAL fast.

  150

• BR

  @brimstone6665 · 6 months ago

  It finally CLICKED<br>THANK YOU<br>Dungeons...are...PRISONS<br>The monsters? The prisoners. The boss key? Unlocks a CELL DOOR<br>The Labyrinth and Traps? To stop the MONSTERS from ESCAPING<br>Treasure? Confiscated from the MONSTERS!

  73

• BA

  @bahesb2419 · 6 months ago (edited)

  Friendly video recommendation:<br>Are pure evil villains allowed to love?<br><br>I‘ve noticed that most pure evil villains always have someone they care for or at the very least respect in their own twisted ways.<br><br>Dio: Considered one of the most evil villains in anime and yet he respected Jonathan, loved his mother and had a genuine friendship with Pucci.<br><br>The mastermind of danganronpa: They forced the main cast to participate in the killing games because they actually loved them (it sounds insane and I would have to elaborate <b>why</b> they would put them all in the killing game in the first place then, but I would have to tell more about them as a character and spoil the suprise)<br><br>Art the clown: probably the most brutal slasher villain ever created and yet has a genuine friendship with the entity that keeps reviving him and helps him in his killings.<br><br>Doflamingo: While 100% a monster, he still misses his brother, as his death still haunts and distress him deep down.<br><br>Bill cipher: Book of Bill revealed that bill actually was genuinely fond of ford and it’s shown in a subtle way in the show when he turned everyone in weirdmagadon in grey stones but turned ford into a golden statue for him to have.<br><br><br><br>I wonder, do those villains truly have the right &nbsp;to be called PURE evil, if they can actually form their own way of care for another? Cause to me, pure evil means being devoid of any positive trait, especially care for another.

  215