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Fantasy dungeons come in all stripes. Some are fantasy castles way up in the skies, only accessible by taking a ride on a flying creature. Others are found in the depths of the forest or deep within erupting volcanoes. One of these places is none other than the monster-plagued dungeon of darkness.
The dungeon of darkness is home to the servants of evil, who waged a brutal attack upon it sometime ago. After eliminating every vestige of good within, they turned it into a place drenched with darkness. It is a cold, cruel place teeming with evil and only those with the intestinal fortitude of good can withstand the darkness.
As it stands now, the evil dungeon is one of the strongholds for those who serve the villain. The malevolent energy brimming within warped the dungeon, giving it the appearance of a place where you can just feel the darkness oozing out. Many designs for this place use black, which symbolizes evil, to reinforce the notion that it’s where the villain’s minions dwell.
The inside of the dungeon of darkness is full of things that make your hair stick straight up. It’s full of despair and it’s meant to make you feel like there’s just no way you can restore it to its original glory, before it fell under the thrall of the dark side. You just want to run out but you have no idea how to get back to the entrance.
With the evil dungeon a strategic area for malevolent forces, it’s full of creatures who do their master’s dark bidding. They wander its halls and rooms constantly on the hunt for unwanted guests so they can kill them without thinking twice.
Believe it or not, this is the thirteenth article in the series covering the various types of fantasy dungeons. If you want to read more, they can be found on our blog page.
It’s quite easy to spot the dungeon of darkness from afar. From a distance, you see a large black structure that dominates the landscape and you have a hard time tearing your gaze away. As much as you want to turn away and run in the opposite direction, you feel a pull, as if it’s calling out for you, and before you know it, you’ve ended up at its footsteps.
The evil dungeon must be in an area that holds strategic value for the villain and his underlings. The place could hide a powerful object that he desires or is a location where he can dispatch his forces to invade other areas without fearing it’ll be attacked. In some cases, the dungeon is found in a central area or a place that already has an affinity with evil.
As for the design, there’s several different styles you can use for the dungeon of darkness. The first one is to use a tower or a large, tall building. This design enables those who live inside to spot approaching enemies from a great distance which gives them more time to move quickly to stop them. In this vein, the tower is tasked with guarding something, whether it be the area it’s in or something the villain considers far more precious.
The second style for the evil dungeon is a castle. Considering that it’s a stronghold for the servants of the darkness, the castle makes it difficult for their enemies to gain access to without them knowing. Furthermore, it’s a strategic powerhouse, filled to the brim with many weapons like swords and bows and arrows.
Religious structures are the third style you can use for a dungeon of darkness. Evil loves to make perversions of all things good. Converting a holy building into one that worships the darkness is their way of mocking the deities of the world.
You’ve entered the evil dungeon, despite knowing what’s waiting for you inside. As you survey the first room, you feel all the malevolent energy emanating from every corner of the room. All that vile energy makes your blood run cold and you just want to get away from this place.
However, as you turn, you see that the entrance is no longer there. The dungeon of darkness trapped you and you have no choice but to muster up your courage and face everything it’ll throw at you. You see skulls and maimed bodies scattered all over but you have no idea if they’re from people who wandered inside from the outside and lost their lives or if they’re from the monsters roaming around.
Dark colors line everything in the evil dungeon, from the ceiling all the way to the floor. Paintings depicting skeletons, monsters, or the Dark Lord himself hang on the walls and you feel like you’re being watched. The cold floor has holes, allowing you to peek at what’s lurking below you.
And every now and then, you hear a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere in the dungeon of darkness. It’s almost as if someone is being tortured somewhere and each time you hear it, it sends chills down your spine. You want to help whoever’s making that scream but you have no idea where it’s coming from. Little do you know that it’s a trick the dungeon is playing on you to make you afraid.
Many rooms within the evil dungeon have little to no light, being nearly covered in darkness. The pitch-black makes it impossible for you to see what monsters or traps are in front of you. The darkness plays upon your fears, as your imagination runs amok and you must go to great lengths to regain control.
As a citadel where malevolent forces gather, the evil dungeon is full of monsters loyal to the Dark Lord. They’ve been assigned to keep the dungeon under the control of the dark side. Many different servants roam its corridors and rooms and fighting them requires great courage, for they’re consumed with nothing but evil.
One acolyte you will definitely see in the dungeon of darkness is that of the loyal soldier. Ranking low on the hierarchy of those serving the villain, the grunt soldier is tasked with patrolling the area and keeping it safe from undesired guests. Variants of the loyal soldier use different weapons like swords and bows and arrows.
Next up in the evil dungeon, you have elite soldiers. Considerably more important than the grunt soldiers, they guard areas vital to maintaining control of the place and they’re clad in armor all over. Their weapons pack a heftier punch as they carry stronger versions of the ones the grunts do.
Besides the soldiers, you have monsters who carry out their master’s will in the dungeon of darkness. They’re considered the villain’s pets and there’s many different kinds. Some are four-legged like wolves, multi-legged insects like centipedes, and so on. There’s even flying creatures like birds and bats!
Let’s not forget about the sorcerers. With the power to disappear at will, they pose one of the greatest threats you’ll face in the evil dungeon, as they can appear right behind you without you knowing! Specializing in elemental magic, they use their powers to stop you in your tracks.
To top it all off, the boss of the dungeon of darkness is one of the Dark Lord’s valued servants. Given command of the place, the boss’ singular goal is to prevent any would-be heroes from reclaiming it in the name of goodness. The big bad can be anything from witches to armor soldiers to serpents. There’s a lot of different routes you can take!
The dungeon of darkness is one of the most twisted places the hero will explore in his quest to free the world from the clutches of evil. Everything he sees inside is a sinister perversion of everything that is good about the world. Only a steadfast resolve and moving forward to face the darkness can he liberate the place and restore it to its original glory.
Being influenced by malevolent forces gives the evil dungeon a warped appearance. You can just feel the evilness emanating from it. As such, many designs use the color black to symbolize evil and the different styles used for it give it an appearance that’s hard to forget.
The outside of the dungeon of darkness is nothing compared to what lies inside. Horrors permeate the place, only amplified by the use of shadowy colors to give it an atmosphere where light comes to die. Whatever vestiges of good that remained have since been purged a long time ago.
To make matters worse, the denizens of the evil dungeon are no pushover. Assigned to protect the place, they’ll do everything in their power to prevent anyone from freeing it, lest they incur their master’s wrath. With their lives on the line, it would be foolish to underestimate them.
If you’re creating a tale where dungeons play an integral role, basing one on the darkness will be a great boon for your story! You can use it to show your audience a preview of what will happen should evil triumph. Additionally, you can feature it as a central part in the war between good and evil and liberating it from the yoke of darkness will initiate a chain reaction that leads to the villain’s downfall.
Don’t you want to create a dungeon of darkness that plays an important role in your story?
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Sunfire
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