The universe's biggest dungeon.
Marble Gate Dungeon
is a webcomic created by Brett Neufeld.A young priestess with divine gifts, a washed-up dwarven adventurer turned alcoholic, a born-and-raised street urchin with a good heart, and one ever-changing, ever-expanding, magical dungeon!
Marblegate is the story of a self-creating, magical and living mega-dungeon that has existed since ancient times. Filled to the brim with secrets, wonders, and danger, the Marblegate dungeon has challenged many heroes who've sought to brave this infinite and unnavigable labyrinth of monsters and peril. Some seek the fortune, glory, and adventure that the dungeon promises. Others delve into the deep for more personal reasons, such as training or tradition or even merely scholarly interest. Regardless of their reasons, they stand unified in their singular purpose; dungeoneering.
It's here, Colleen the priestess, Randulf the warrior, and Ozwald the thief, shall test their mettle against the trails of the eternal dungeon. Together, these three different people will have to contend not only with the difficulties of Marblegate, but with the people they must dungeoneer with, as well as the people of the town that is built around the great marble doors.
Marble Gate Dungeon provides examples of:
- A-Cup Angst: A completely serious one is the fact Marigold had a Medieval mastectomy after an injury in battle and is uncomfortable about missing her right breast.
- All the Other Reindeer: Colleen travels to the Marble Gate Dungeon from across the country to go with her friend, Ozzi, into the dungeon only to be rejected rudely by his group as they have already replaced her with an alchemist.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: The Duke is a fat, selfish, and outright scummy lord who taxes the peasants to death. Averted with Paddy who pays out of his own pocket to protect Colleen's village.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Church of the Highfather is Irish Christianity coded with crosses, sheep, and other motifs. The big difference being Colleen is not forbidden violence (at least against monsters) and they can get married as well as have children.
- Dungeon Crawling: It follows the adventures of Colleen, Randulf, and Ozwald as they explore the titular Marble Gate Dungeon.
- Dungeon Shop: A somewhat more realistically handled version of this in the shops are all directly outside the dungeon, that is safe from all the monsters.
- Dungeon Town: Played with. A town has developed around the Marble Gate Dungeon in order to facilitate adventurers entering or leaving.
- Dysfunction Junction: Ozzi's group is barely functional and refuses to cooperate during dungeon crawls.
- Everything Is Racist: As soon as he meets Colleen, Kimjack the Yashling goes off on a tirade about how racist she is. He apparently does this all the time, and the town watch threatens to lock him up for being a public nusiance if he doesn't knock it off.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Green Isle is heavily Irish Catholic coded. Interestingly, it goes so far as to have a German-based Duke ruling over it that implies the rulers are Anglo-German.
- Fantastic Drug: Opponi drops, which are apparently dropped into the eyes and leave long-term users with black bags under the eyes. Exactly what the drops do is unclear, but they are implied to be highly addictive and stereotyped as a "poor person drug".
- Fat Bastard: The Duke is notably this when most of the people in the setting are quite thin. He's also an Aristocrats Are Evil bastard.
- First Kiss: Colleen unwillingly gets her first kiss from a satyr who mistakes her for a green mage (a class that deals with fairies).
- God Is Good: Everything we've learned about the Highfather indicates he's a caring benevolent god.
- Holy Is Not Safe: Even though the Highfather is by all accounts a benevolent and righteous god, channeling his power still badly hurts an untrained Colleen.
- It Gets Easier: Colleen notably learns how to slaughter sheep and becomes somewhat more immunized to violence than you might think through repetition. It actually helps her master her magic.
- Mind over Matter: The seerabellums possess powerful telekinetic abilities, which lets them compensate for their lack of limbs.
- Quizzical Tilt: Wispy, a ghost, makes an exaggerated head tilt when asked about what Unfinished Business she could have, showing that the question seriously confuses her.
- Rebel Relaxation: Ozzi spends at least three pages leaning against cemetery gates in a rebellious pose.
- Religion is Magic: Priests of the Highfather don't normally have the power to use clerical magic but it is known enough that when Colleen develops it, she isn't shunned or called a miracle worker (by the church at least).
- The Maze: The Marble Gate Dungeon has at least twelve thousand levels of monsters, treasure, traps, and winding corridors.
- Mega Dungeon: The Marble Gate Dungeon is an infinite, seemingly extradimensional location inexplicably full of treasure, monsters, and hazards.
- Our Angels Are Different: Angels are the servants of Solus, the Highfather, and can apparently appear in a wide variety of forms depending on rank and mission. So far we've seen an angel resembling a four-headed humanoid with six wings and some extra eyes which appeared to Colleen when she was first blessed with the ability to channel the Highfather's power, and a celestial ram which Colleen can summon to fight for her.
- Randomly Generated Levels: Played with. It's possible to come across the corpses of previous adventurers but you are randomly transported to different parts of the dungeon whenever you enter and it is almost impossible to ever encounter other adventurers or a place you've been before.
- Saintly Church: The Church of the Highfather, despite its great wealth, is extremely kind to the impoverished peasantry and a source of comfort to them.
- Teleportation Sickness: Colleen vomits after crossing the teleportation portal for the first time. Randulf warns her a teeny bit too late. Apparently a common occurrence, as the mage council that welcomes them back have an intern with a mop at the ready.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Colleen goes through one trying to find a partner to delve with after Marigold's group turns on her. Several chapters later, Ozzie goes through a similar search after leaving the group.
- The Usurper: Heavily involved with the Duke of Colleen's village who is fighting a Civil War for the throne (that he's losing).
