The descent
Five hundred years ago, the old people of Kamenica say, Perun struck the mountain with a thunderbolt so great it split the rock down to Nav, the land of the dead. The wound is still there. It is called the Ponor, and you are going down it.
What is the Ponor?
A ponor is what the people of the karst call a sinkhole where a river vanishes into the ground. This one has no bottom. Stairs cut into the rock wind down along its wall, and every floor of the game is a stretch of caves and halls curling around the edge of the shaft, which is always there beside you: a gulf of black at the edge of your lamplight, never crossed, never reached.
How deep does it go?
The descent passes through four worlds before it reaches Nav. Each is named in Glagolitic, cut into the stone, as you enter it.
| Floors | Biome | What waits there |
|---|---|---|
| 1–20 | The KarstKrš | Wet gray limestone caves and the ossuaries of the mountain’s shepherds. |
| 21–40 | The Drowned VillagesUtopljena sela | Villages the mountain swallowed, standing in black water. |
| 41–60 | The RootsKorijenje | The roots of the world tree, thick as towers, and the groves between them. |
| 61–100 | The Court of VelesVelesov dvor | Carved, pillared halls, bone-colored and very old. |
| 101+ | NavNav | The land of the dead, which has no floor. The descent never ends. |
The Karst is the first biome in the game; the deeper biomes are in development.
How is the descent built?
- Floors
- Every floor is built new around the shaft: a three-quarter arc of chambers that stays the same while you play and rerolls the next time you start the game.
- Pace
- A floor takes five to thirteen minutes. The stretch between two waypoints is an evening’s play.
- Waypoints
- Every tenth floor has a waypoint idol. Light it once and you can return there from Kamenica at any time.
- Guardians
- In development: the waypoint floors will be held by guardians, and one must fall before the stairs down open.
- Depth
- A hundred floors are authored; after that, Nav goes on forever, and your character can grow to level 99.
What does it look like?
Light is the art direction. You see the Ponor in the warm pool of your lamp and little else: the rock at the edge of it, the eyes beyond it, the black of the shaft. Color is kept for what matters in a fight, like the red of Life, the blue of Mana and the gold of a Unique.
Follow the descent
Ponor is in development. Wishlist it, and get dev updates by email.