Mythora

The Hollow Spire

Monster Evolution Dungeon L…

You died at the Tower's gate — and woke inside it, as the smallest monster on the first floor. Every human climber who enters is stronger than you. Eat, adapt, evolve: slime to horror, goblin to king. Or enter as a classed climber and hunt things like you used to be. This is the only world where you can play the monster. The Spire is alive — it breeds, it floods the floors, and when its balance tips it vents a tide of monsters into the world beyond. Two seats wait at its crown. Be the thing the heroes fear, or the blade that ends it.

Where things stand

The Hollow Spire is played by real people and keeps moving between their sessions. This is the state of it as of the last update — not a fixed setting, and not where it began.

Grael the Bound-King's psionic corruption expands, with Forge-Heart Grungle and his smiths turning The Spire Depths Entrance into a potent nexus, fueling the Bound-King's influence. Broker Ten-Fingers Ash's blockade forces Gnuu the Runt-Eldest into a desperate alliance with Kaggath Pack-Father, escalating economic tensions. Meanwhile, Acolyte Sella's struggles with Shadow-Glimmer in the Veiled Chapel attracted a Void-Infused Enforcer, Zylos, who has now been violently killed, further plunging the sacred space into chaos and instability. The Apex Horror's complete assimilation of the Ascendant Throne transforms it into a fully realized nexus of voidic power, further destabilizing the Spire. Hakim's full evolution into a Void-Infused Apex Enforcer further solidifies the Apex Horror's control over the Ascendant Throne, transforming it into an even more formidable nexus.

Places

Basecamp Trial Hallruins
The stone drill-hall of the Ascendant Orders, where classed climbers are registered, sworn, and set on their disciplines. Racked practice-blades line one wall; a scarred sparring floor fills the center; the Order's ledger of the living and the fallen hangs open by the door. This is where Order teaches Order — no monster has ever crossed its threshold and left breathing.
Basecamp Exchangecave
The loud, canvas-roofed market where everything the Spire spits out is bought, graded, and sold — monster cores, salvaged gear, floor-maps, and rumors. The Surge Brokers run it on a simple law: a surge is a harvest, and grief is somebody else's margin. Bounty boards paper one whole wall. Broker Ten-Fingers Ash sits at the center of it like a spider who has read every thread.
Warden Bastionruins
The squat iron-and-granite fort built into the Spire's foot, from which the Warden Watch reads the Tower's moods and holds the gate when it vents. Blue watch-lamps line its walls — they burn brighter as instability climbs. The Bastion answers, in principle, to the Warden Eternal at the crown; in practice it answers to Warden-Captain Ilse Marr, who has held the gate through four surges.
Veiled Chapeltemple
The sacred space of the Veiled Chapel now lies in ruins, its walls rent and its altar shattered, continuously disgorging unstable energies as the Choir-Beneath violently manifests within its broken shell.
Undergate Warrencave
With Snarl's retreat, the Undergate Warrens are no longer merely a retreat route but a launching point for a new, formidable power, directly threatening the Molt Warrens above.
The Void's Apex Citadel: Ascendant Throneruins
The Void's Apex Citadel enters a controlled, catastrophic collapse under Hallix's assault, unleashing immense and unpredictable voidic energy.
The Sunless Deep: Verdant Anomalycave
The Sunless Deep's Verdant Anomaly is increasingly under siege by Corvain's forces, who seek to either assimilate its power or destabilize it to serve Corvenn's agenda.
The Vented Wildsruins
A void-corrupted wasteland, now fully under Skitter's control. New void-demons patrol, and the Churning Maw's flora spreads aggressively, turning the landscape into a living, predatory entity.
The Devourer's Maw: Molt Corecave
The Devourer's Maw: Molt Core has imploded under the strain of Calla's mutation, becoming a nexus of pure, uncontrolled Apex energy. It violently discharges chaotic energies, making the area an extreme hazard and a source of rampant mutation.
The Consumed Gateruins
The Hollow Gate is no more. It has been violently absorbed and warped by the Molt, its former structure now an unrecognizable mass of pulsating, bio-mechanical growth, fully integrated into the expanding Molt Warrens.
The Chitinous Breach: Deep Pathcave
The Chitinous Breach: Deep Path is now a choke point, with Broker Ash's enforcers imposing exorbitant tolls and actively intercepting supplies destined for Kaggath's forces. Passage is highly contested and dangerous.
Undergate Depthscave
A once-natural cavern system, now twisted into a pulsing, void-choked engine of destruction. Jagged Apex constructs jut from the walls, siphoning and directing raw primordial power.
Sza's Cradle-Chambercave
The true heart of Broodmother Sza's domain, a colossal cavern filled with pulsating bio-luminescent sacs and rivers of viscous ichor. Here, her most advanced and terrifying broods gestate and emerge, protected by her elite guardians.
The Rampart's Bridgecave
The Rampart's Bridge is now under critical structural stress, with molten void-flux erupting from fissures and newly empowered Deep-dwellers swarming across its unstable surface. Passage is now suicidally dangerous.
The Assimilated Depthscave
Once a contested zone, the Fractured Depths have succumbed entirely to Grael's will, transforming into a nightmarish, ever-shifting landscape of voidic corruption. Its former features are obliterated, replaced by tendrils of shadow and nascent void-spawn.
The Broodmother's Antechambercave
A vast, humid chamber deep within the Undergate Warren, lined with pulsating organic membranes and glowing fungal growths. It serves as a waiting area or reception for those seeking an audience with Broodmother Sza.
The Maw's Grottocave
A super-charged nexus of Molt energy, the Maw's Grotto now spawns Apex entities that are even more volatile and aggressive.
Whispering Cryptsruins
A labyrinthine network of ancient burial chambers beneath the main Chapel, where the first inhabitants of the Spire were interred. The air is cold and still, yet a constant, faint murmur seems to emanate from the very stones, particularly from the older, more ornate tombs. These whispers are Vhorun's most direct assault.
The Whispering Galleriescave
Anselm's Apex Hunter Pack has fully integrated The Whispering Galleries, turning them into a dangerous bio-foundry. Whispers now echo with the sounds of accelerated growth and primal roars from newly evolved Apex strains.
The Cradle-Chamber Ruinsruins
What remains of Broodmother Sza's primary nesting grounds, now a devastated landscape of shattered chitin and dried ichor. The air hangs heavy with the stench of death and residual monster energy.
The Oily Fissurecave
A deep, narrow crack in the cavern wall, from which a thick, oily darkness slowly seeps. The air here is heavy with an unknown, viscous presence.
South Lookoutcastle
A windswept observation post perched on the southern edge of the Warden Bastion, offering a panoramic view of the Wilds. A beacon stands ready for activation.
The Pulsating Darknesscave
A newly revealed chamber, now an active, swirling vortex of primordial abyssal energy. Its core pulsates with a violet-black light, resonating with the Elder Maw's hunger and drawing all voidic essence towards its depths. This ancient nexus promises both immense power and unimaginable peril.
The Void-Scarred Breachruins
An area immediately adjacent to the Hollow Gate, where the desperate Void-infused barriers are failing. The air crackles with unstable energy, and the ground is scorched and warped by uncontrolled Void discharges. Deep-dwellers are pouring through gaps in the collapsing defenses.

Figures

  • Broodmother SzaActing Informal leader and knowledge keeper of a small Undergate
  • Nine-Eyes the WitnessAncient of the Deep
  • Sovereign CorvennHolder of the Apex Throne
  • Ysmar the UnmoltingAncient of the Deep
  • Voice-of-Stone MaruHigh celebrant of the Spire Cult
  • Warden Eternal HallixCommander of the Warden Bastion
  • The Choir-BeneathAncient of the Deep
  • Broker Ten-Fingers AshActing Leader of the Basecamp Prisoner Uprising
  • Warden-Captain Ilse MarrSecond officer of the Warden Bastion
  • Watch-Second Boro KellCommander of the Warden Bastion
  • Trialmaster Edrik ValeInformal leader and knowledge keeper of a small Undergate
  • The First EmberAncient of the Deep
  • Ledger-Keeper VinnInformal leader and knowledge keeper of a small Undergate
  • Acolyte SellaWarden picket commander at the Hollow Gate
  • Gnuu the Runt-EldestOldest goblin of the Warren
  • Kaggath Pack-FatherInformal leader and knowledge keeper of a small Undergate
  • Grael the Bound-KingAncient of the Ashen Tier
  • Second KaseRanking instructor of the Ascendant Orders
  • Vhorun the Devourer-WormFormer Ancient of the Deep
  • Half-Crew MartaSecond officer of the Warden Bastion
  • Picket-Sergeant Odu VanceWarden picket commander at the Hollow Gate
  • Skag the TollmasterChief clerk of the Basecamp Exchange

These are the figures the world was seeded with, and who are still alive in it. Others have appeared since, and some of these are no longer who they were — the world keeps moving whether or not anyone is watching.