Dogley Dimension

In Dudley's dungeon, the Dogley Dimension is the space between adjacent dungeon levels. It was first presented in the 12 May 2006 strip of the webcomic.

Dogley, Dudley's dog, describes the Dogley Dimension as "the infinite void between dungeon levels" which "does not occupy the same spatial dimensions as the dungeon". As with many other spoilers, the Dogley Dimension was discovered using wizard mode.

The basic concept

The existence of the Dogley Dimension explains why holes in the dungeon floor transport one to a random place on the next level. Any objects here will fall to a random position on the next level as they move back into the normal dimension.

It also explains the generation of monsters; the # symbols that float around sometimes collide and form random monsters, which then fall to a random location. Dogley explains that the Wizard of Yendor uses wormholes through the Dogley Dimension to connect staircases.

Of course, that leaves two problems:

• Dogley reached the Dogley Dimension by level-teleporting to level 4.5 in wizard mode. Why did Dogley not immediately fall to level 5, as all other monsters seem to do?
• Why are we naming this after Dogley anyway, if the Wizard of Yendor already knew of this dimension?

Additional speculations and theories

Use this section of the article to add and edit speculations and theories about the Dogley Dimension, beyond what was presented in Dudley's dungeon. Of course, if this section contradicts something later revealed in the webcomic, someone might have to come here and fix it.

Orc multiplication effect

When the # symbols collide, they can create any random monster, including an orc. However, orcs tend to appear on the level in groups.

The actual explanation for this is a special type of collision called the orc multiplication effect. This produces large groups of orcs of the same type. The orcs appear on one square and fall together, being distributed across adjacent squares as they land in the dungeon.

The normal, single-monster method of generation can still produce single orcs, which is why you occasionally find orcs alone. The orc multiplication effect is most likely a consequence of the effect's preferences for monsters of the round shape that orcs have.

A related effect is the shrieker effect. The creation of a shrieker leaves residue that sometimes interacts with other # symbols to create a purple worm, which has a round shape similar to orcs. The purple worm appears sometime after the shrieker on the same level. The shrieks of a shrieker resonate with the purple worm because both monsters were created from similar material. A shrieker does not always leave residue, which is why some shriekers will shriek and shriek but the purple worm will never appear.

Wormhole redirection

Normally, wormholes connect the down staircase of one level with the up staircase of the level immediately below. However, in theory, it is possible to redirect these wormholes between arbitrary staircases using an artifact known as the "Dial Home Device", for example to jump from Minetown to the Oracle level.

In fact, the wormholes of up staircases are occasionally redirected to other than the staircase immediately above. This may happen if you possess the Amulet of Yendor and are in the Gehennom. That is why sometimes, when you try to ascend, you will just find that you have descended a level or two.

The reason why you never hear about this is because it is much easier to teleport while confused. Also, you cannot create a new wormhole without closing the existing ones, and no one has found a way to close the existing wormholes.

Conclusion

Upon closer inspection, maybe you do not believe in the Dogley Dimension. Maybe you believe that Dogley simply found a wand of draw ASCII webcomic. Maybe we should stop imagining things and pretend that the dungeon is literally made from letters and punctuation.

However, wherever the theory of the Dogley Dimension falls short, there is always some special exception or additional rule to save it.