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Descent into the Deep
September 16, 2026 at 02:40 PM
Initial version (2026-09-16)
Descent into the Deep is a deep elf themed content module for Monsters & Memories. It was planned as Module 1, the first update after Early Access opened. It is now part of the Early Access launch build itself, and any description of it as upcoming or post-launch content is out of date.
The reason is a schedule change rather than a change of scope. Early Access was originally set for 1 June 2026 and moved to 1 October 2026. The developers used the extra four months to fold the planned Module 1 zones into the launch build, and posted an explicit update to the module section of the Early Access material confirming that Descent into the Deep is now part of the launch.
The same note says attention has shifted to a second module, with no name, no content list and no date attached to it. As of September 2026 nothing about Module 2 has been published beyond its existence.
The module provides the first zones of the Deep, described as an underworld as vast as the surface world above. Its regions connect to one another, and together they span all of Aêthoril. Six zones come with it, including two of the four starting cities.
Zone | What it is |
|---|---|
The Underdocks | A seedy underground port district far below Night Harbor, and the conduit connecting the surface to the Deep. A starting city. |
Ail'vorith | The dark capital of the deep elves, built in the ruins of the city the high elves drove them out of. A starting city. |
Caves of Irem | A Deep zone named in the module list. |
Great Cavern Sea | A Deep zone named in the module list. |
Rothold, the Ruins of Roothold Keep | A Deep zone named in the module list. The official copy uses both spellings in one entry. |
The Blind Midden | A dungeon near Ail'vorith, added in place of a surface zone that had originally been slated for launch. See Zones. |
The Deep is not a dungeon under a continent. It spans the entirety of Eth-ur, and the official description is of a world under the world: great plains of darkness, sunless rivers and bioluminescent seas.
Its inhabitants and cultures are described as being as varied as those of the surface, with one qualification that carries most of the setting's horror: it is fair to assume that their proximity to the corruption at the core of the world plays a role in what you will encounter. That corruption is the wound left by the dark sun, and the cosmology behind it is covered in Eth-ur.
Three things are named as legends rather than as confirmed locations, and none of them has been tied to an announced zone.
An underground jungle fed by the radiance of a magical sun.
Fallen cities that once ruled the surface world.
Gods imprisoned in forgotten crypts.
Against that, the material is careful to say the Deep is not only mysteries. Commerce between cities thrives along its dark rivers, and entire civilizations live in the lands below. The Underdocks exist because that trade is real, and the deep gnomes, deep dwarves and deep elves are all populations of it rather than intruders in it.
The developers have said they are planning both major and minor updates to flesh the continent out to its full 1.0 state, covering new zones, abilities, items, bug fixes, systems and entirely new biomes. A roadmap for that is promised and has not been published: the stated intention is to create a new one or update the existing one. As of September 2026 no 1.0 roadmap, module schedule or content calendar exists. See Development History.
