User:Ais523/Expanded Intro
An expanded introduction to NetHack I wrote, in an attempt to give more insight into how I consider the plot to go. People liked it, so it's here for public viewing…
The Universe was new, and the world had come freshly into being. Marduk the Creator had finished creating the Earth and Sky, Hells and Heavens, and all the Planes of Existence; a good thing too, because the other Gods were getting bored with nothing around to lord it over. His work done, Marduk started to secure his Creation by securing the Amulet of Yendor, that most powerful of divine artifacts, so that it could not be moved via the power of any God.
Before his work was done, though, Moloch, God of all that calls itself Evil, stole the Amulet and, hiding it away in his Sanctum deep under the hellish Gehennom, finished Marduk's ritual, trapping the Amulet forever out of reach of the other Gods. Now unable to move it himself, he gave it to his own High Priest to study; he intended to use its immense power to bring about an eternal Evil Empire, just as soon as he could figure out how to get the blasted thing to work.
Unable to retrieve the Amulet himself, Marduk asked for help from the other Gods, offering ascendance over the other Gods in return for the Amulet. They recruited mortal heroes to help seek the Amulet, but the results were bleak; Moloch's Sanctum was buried under thousands of feet of soil and rock, inaccessible to even the hardiest of dwarves.
Over the centuries that followed, civilisations grew and fell, continents shifted their positions, metropolises were built and collapsed so often people gave up trying to record their names. And all through that time, generations of High Priests studied the Amulet, which stubbornly refused to give up its secret. Could this really be the device that Marduk used to create, well, everything? Or was it just a huge practical joke on a cosmic scale?
Still, something strange was happening. Whether ancient catacombs or newly-dug mines, massive volcanic eruptions or insignificant cave-ins, a lot of activity was going on in the bowels of the Earth. And somehow, almost everything that happened, whether natural or artificial, was contributing to a bizarre coincidence; all the corridors that were dug, rooms hollowed out, and caves opening up, were somehow connecting, as dwarves built stairs and soil built ramps and goblins installed their crude ladders. And this huge conglomeration of varied locations was lining up, wavering like a drunk bullet, but nevertheless obviously pointing more or less directly at the location of the Amulet.
None of the Gods claimed responsibility for this fortuitous event, but it was hard for them to disguise their joy. Eager to win a swankier place in Heaven, they once again put out the call for adventurers, offering immortality to anyone who could retrieve the Amulet for them. Thousands rushed to take them up on such an apparently generous offer; but most of them died in various sad, implausible, and sometimes even hilarious ways, whilst those who escaped - often laden with treasure - gave the massive tunnels their name, the Dungeons of Doom.
The famed deadliness of the Dungeons did nothing to discourage the swathes of fame-seekers who dived into the Dungeons, however, and the legend of the Amulet grew and grew, little needing divine intervention to keep the entrances busy.
And this is what brings us to this tale; you, an intrepid hero/heroine, are setting foot into the fabled Dungeons for your first time. Will you come out loaded with treasure? Become just a statistic amongst the other dead adventurers? Chicken out and run straight back out the entrance? Or perhaps even return the Amulet to the Gods and gain immortality? Only fate, and your decisions, can decide.
Nervously, you descend through the now infamous trapdoor and down the spiral stairs to begin your trek through the Dungeons…
