Essence

Essence is the breath of the world. It is the energy upon which everything else is made, and to the state all will one day return. Without essence, there could be no life, but life in turn breathes essence into the world, growing upon itself. It is the lifeblood of the world, its greatest gift and most dangerous curse. Where it snarls and tangles, monsters and disasters are born, dungeon carve themselves from the earth, and the power-hungry come seeking its power.

Essence is best thought of as a vast, world-spanning ocean. It is everywhere, with whorls and currents, sometimes shallow enough to wade in and sometimes deep enough to consume nations. In places where it gathers, the world breathes life into all things, and shallows are deserts and badlands. To those who can see it, Essence looks like a flow of golden light, somewhere between smoke and silk, and always in motion. Even to those whom it remains invisible, they can feel its presence where it grows thick, like a warm breath. It is said that Essence remembers everything it flows over, from the wonders of childhood to the horrors of war, and carries it within itself forever after.

The Art of Essence

To most people, it is a diffuse and uneven thing; certainly one that influences their day, but a power they can do little about. Farmers take care not to cull forests and wild plants too much, rulers scourge places where it has begun to amass, but for most everyday people, it is just there. But for those practiced in its use, Essence is a source of power that fuel great feats of strength and sorcery, enabling mortals to challenge the might of gods.

In theory, everyone could learn to use essence. In pratice, though, it's often grueling, expensive, wretched, or all three. Warriors train daily to feel its currents both in the world and around them, until their bones creak. Sorcerers walk the dangerous line between channeling its power through leylines and circles, or being devoured by it. Rare and costly elixirs might allow nobles to see the flow of Essence for a time.

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Snarls, knots, storms, and tangles

In the world, Essence is always in motion, either as subtle currents or crashing waves. When too much gathers in one place, it spills out into the world in terrifying disasters. Many disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes, are born from the clash of Essence into the world, like friction between two forces. Worse, some of these are streaked with unnatural force that make them both unpredictable and impossible. It can be benign, as a rain of flowers, to as destructive as a sentient volcanic eruption.

In other places, the cascade is less immediate. A forest that grows beyond all measure and with unnatural things that happen within it. Misted mountains filled with valuable and essence-laced ore, and things that gnaw on them in the dark. Monsters are born from the fears and memories of the world, shaped by the amalgamation of whatever glimpses is carried by the essence into such a place. Some monsters become so ingrained into mortalkinds memories and experiences that they emerge again and again.

These things can be both a blessing as much as a curse. Essence-spawned and enhanced resources are valuable and useful, and even monsters can be butchered for parts. Nowhere is this more true than with Dungeons.

Dungeons and Dragons

One of the more common phenomena of essence-overload in an area is the formation of a Dungeon. These are structures, natural or constructed, forged from the memories and experiences of an area. They carve themselves out of the ground, starting with the dungeon heart and spreading outwards. It is only when they grow far enough to breach either the surface or some other underground structure that they blossom. Before this, people can have dungeons growing beneath their feet, and never realize but skilled Dungeonologists know the signs.

With every beat of the dungeon heart, Essences pulses through the dungeon and gives birth to monsters to populate it. Like the dungeon itself, these creatures are formed by the memories of the land around it and those carried by the unreliable currents of Essence. A dungeon beneath a graveyard would almost certainly be inhabited by the undead, kept animated by the ambient essence of the Dungeon. The same dungeon might be further flavored by the memories of a hated tyrant from city miles away, and see a fascimile of him rise again.

Read more about dungeons here [when the article is done, at least]