D&D General Dungeon as Fantasy Bunker

[Shades of Eternity]

The Simple Fact that most nobles and/or royalty would be more likely to live in a Bunker then a Castle in a world with flying monsters and crazy wizards.

Or as we know them...a Dungeon.

What aspects would you need to make "The King's Bunker" to act as a way of protecting them against a wide variety of dangers.

Would less noble use the equivelent of a dragon cellar? Not unlike the storm shelters that Dorothy Gale didn't get to in time to avoid going to Oz.

 

[Reynard]

We live in a world with F-16s and many, many shady leaders (from kings to cartel lords) live above ground.

 

[DEFCON 1]

We live in a world with F-16s and many, many shady leaders (from kings to cartel lords) live above ground.

True... but the one difference is that F-16s have only been in existence for like 100 of the 6000 years of recorded human history. And Castles became a thing way, way, before the F-16. Whereas flying monsters with breath weapons and such have been a thing for the entirety of the 10s of thousands of years of recorded fantasy history of most D&D campaign settings-- in addition to even just regular humanoids with the magical ability to fly and throw spells of mass destruction. And thus the "castle" (and even more evidently the "castle wall") would not have evolved the same way in D&D settings as it has to real-life human existence. "Castles" would look different than they do because they would have had to serve different needs. So I believe @Shades of Eternity is correct in that a more defensible "Bunker" type of building would have naturally evolved as a nobility defensive home rather than a "Castle" in order to better defend the nobles against dragon attacks et. al.

It's why no one builds castles in real-life anymore either for defense... because they can't serve the purpose they were designed for, which is defending the occupants from outside attacks. Specifically because people nowadays would not attack it the same way they used to-- on foot with only trebuchets and rams and the like. Instead... you'd drop bombs on the location, for which the castle (and castle walls) would do almost nothing. So it's a waste of time and money to build them.

 

[AlViking]

But a bunker can't stop creatures that can tunnel through rock, so a bunker just traps you in an enclosed space.

 

[Reynard]

I did create a setting where most of the dungeons in the current era of the game were the remains of "bunkers" during a "thousand year dragon plague" -- no, it did not make any sense, but I wanted a "reason" for dungeons to exist. They were abandoned centuries before the campaign era and had since been occupied by everything from mad wizards to cults to monsters, of course.

 

[Reynard]

But a bunker can't stop creatures that can tunnel through rock, so a bunker just traps you in an enclosed space.

"The Reign of the Sky Wyrms was quickly followed by the Cataclysm of the Deep Wyrms."

 

[Stormonu]

Fantasy castles might just adapt, having roofs that slope away and out towards the outer walls, for example (and/or spikes on the roof to deter flying attackers from landing). Courtyards could be designed or eliminated to impede large flying creatures from easily bypassing defenses. And you still have to bring a significant sized force anyways, and what's to stop the defenders from having their own air (or anti-air) cavalry that can meet you?

In any regard, royalty/nobility might have bunkers built in addition to the modifications fortresses might undergo from above. Permanent Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansions might be the rage, or something as simple as a Demiplane to ride out an enemy assault.

The crafty might not even keep the bunker under where they normally live, perhaps an underground tunnel leads to it away from the obvious above-ground structure or a teleport is needed to reach it. With the latter, you can even have it completely sealed from entry so that the only way in or out is via magic - which is conveniently stored where it can be accessed easily by the defenders and unavailable to attackers.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Bunkers and dungeons should flood. That is why we do not use them that much. I think that in the case of a world where flying creatures were very common, castles would be more landscaping and bunker like towers and less walls and baileys.
I have toyed with the idea that dungeons are soul harvesting engine created by necromancers and every soul killed in a dungeon feed a little bit of power to the necromancer that created it.

 

[Tonguez]

Theres a number of real underground 'cities' on Earth including Petra (Jordan), Derinkuyu (Turkey), Wieliczka Salt Cathedral (Poland), Naours (France) and the churches of Lalibela (Ethiopia) with three of those beginning as mines.

So real world people did dig living areas underground to avoid enemy invasion and theres no reason why fantasy kings wouldnt do the same. The big engineering achoevement for many of these structures was digging wells to collect rainwater and use of ventilation shafts for air flow and chimneys to remove smoke, which then needed to be disguised within surface features so enemies didnt find them.

After that any luxury that a King can have created on the surface, can also be built underground and lit with a whole lot of fires, open skylights or magical crystals

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[zerofor]

This all just makes me think of natural "dungeon" areas like Son Doong cave in Vietnam - enormous (semi)subterranean areas with their own ecosystems. We should borrow from that.