Recently I've engaged again with Dungeon of the Endless, and completed Love Thyself to its full extent. Combining these with memories of Darkest Dungeon, Deep Sky Derelicts and Warhammer 40 000: Mechanicus, an idea came to my mind: Dungeon of the Endless 2.

The setting

During the events of Endless Space 2, an inter-faction, multi-species expedition is sent to Auriga, to investigate the recently discovered tunnel-systems in the planet's crust, full of lost Endless technology and other, puzzling remains. But after a few forays into the tunnels, Isyander's War breaks out and the expedition becomes stranded, cut off from support by the conflict. The expedition has no other choice, but to venture deeper into the ruins in order to find means of staying alive until relief comes.

You take the role of one of the leaders of the scouts, whose task is to lead small parties into the tunnels, searching for ancient technology, archeological finds, resources, and eliminating dangers threatening the expedition. Because you are not alone down in the dark...

Gameplay and mechanics

My vision concerning DotE 2 is mainly pixel-art, but with hand-drawn images during interaction-scenes (similar to Love Thyself). It could also be entirely hand-drawn, like Darkest Dungeon or Deep Sky Derelicts.

What interactions, you might ask? Well, you'll have to interact with the leaders of the expedition, your teammates and the friendlier locals too (more on that later). During the game factions will form and you'll have to navigate the intrigues of the expedition's leadership. You could also become friends with the scouts, alienate, or even romance (some of) them! Same with the locals.

Outside your base-camp, where the preparation and rest happens, the game will have two parts: a bigger map, on which you can plan and conduct your exploration, and smaller scenes, where you have to confront enemies in battles. Your range of exploration will be based on the strength of comms and amount of available supplies (both of wich will inrease during the game). Your 4-6 member party will consists security staff and scientists at your discretion. The latter might not be as capable in a fight as dedicated soldiers, but they might get your party through situations and challanges grunts couldn't hope to solve.

In the tunnels you are going to face constructs and surviving experiments of the long-dead Endless, but also find sentient inhabitants, who's ancestors fled into the deep, when the surface became uninhabitable (left-behind Vaulters, Forgotten, Wild Walkers, Drakken etc.). You'll have to negotiate and make deals with them, but if you are succesful, you can secure their support for your expedition and even recruit some of them into your team. Although be ware of their conflicts, or you might be drawn into their wars.

In terms of combat I'm thinking about something along the lines of DD or DSR: turn-based room-fights, maybe some variations in positioning (extra cover, environmental hazards etc.).

So far that's my concept about Dungeon of the Endless 2. I know that it is far from what Amplitude Studios is currently focusing on, but I wanted to share anyways. Criticism and additional ideas are welcome!

The timeline surrounding DotE and EL is a bit confusing. I believe DotE is when humans first crash landed on Auriga. Somone on the forums stated the comics confirm the narrator of DotE is the original Horatio himself, but that doesn't make much sense. Horatio's lore states that he took all of his money, set out on a grand expedition and found a cloning facility. It is implied that the survivors of the crash on Auriga were from a prison ship, not an expedition. Furthermore DotE takes place before the founding of the Horatio empire, so I guess that would mean that Horatio would have had to get off the planet and continue his expidition. Perhaps there were two crash landings on Auriga, and when Horatio got to the surface he was able to return to his main ship in orbit? I didn't read the comics. After DotE I believe that the Vaulters, and others, returned to the surface which for some reason turned lush again with plant life, which is not how it is depicted at the end of DotE. Then they lived there for a while, but the planet was dying (perhaps the plant life was a temporary thing started by some machine activating then running out of power?), so after some cataclysmic event they flee the planet.

I suppose that means there could be room for more DotE. There could be another taking place at the same time but telling the story of the emergence of the other factions to the surface. That means none of the characters would be human. Additionally I'm not aware that the cataclysm that drove the Vaulters off the planet was really elaborated upon, so perhaps there could be another DotE telling the story of their escape from Auriga. Or they could just make another game retelling the same portion of the timeline like ES and ES2.

Are you implying that the cloning labs were on Auriga?

So if I have this right the Mezzari I suppose were a human empire without FTL capabilities so they weren't very connected. They established a colony on Auriga which was at the time a barren waste land, and Horatio went on an expedition there too? Or the expedition was the colony? Then a prison ship crash landed on Auriga, presumably the Mezzari were dumping prisoners on colonies like how the British dumped them in Australia. Horatio used the prisoners to get what he wanted out of the labs, then left in a non-FTL space ship, which took a long time to reach it's destination. While he was traveling the surface of Auriga became lush and the humans there who predated the prisoners, not prisoners themselves became the Vaulters. Endless Legend takes place. Then the Mezzari empire collapsed. Then Aurgia died, the Vaulters fled, Horatio arrived at his destination with cloning tech from Aurgia and Endless Space starts?

I don't think that's right. Isn't there 2000 years between DotE and ES? Was Horatio in cryostasis for two millennia or did he do other things during that time?

Maybe I should just read the comics and it will make sense.

Our dear @Slowhands respond to some of your question here.
Don't get too worked up over the lore of DoTE, it *may* contain some loophole here and there.

My headcanon timeline I was using while I dreamt up this concept:

Collapse of the Endless civilization. They appear to use 'Raian humanoids' in various roles in The Last Flight of the Grey Owl, so it's entirely plausible that there would be many humans stranded on Auriga among the escaping experiments. The Gray Owl crash-landing there with a small group of Hissho explains the presence of Hikensha as well, as a late descendant of either that group, or of an other which was being experimented on in the Aurigan labs before the collapse.

The environmental collapse of Auriga, which forces the inhabitants underground. The surviving 'Raians', who devolved into a medeival-level society, turn into the Broken Lords (hence Lady Joleri).

A prison ship crash-lands on Auriga in the middle of the 'Catastrophe-phase', delivering the ancestors of both the Vaulters and the Forgotten (Dungeon of the Endless). Horatio, who was combing the ruins in order to find immortality, enlists some of the prisoners' and guards' help and after finding the clonong technology, escapes the planet (Horatio comic).

Auriga heals for a short time and the inhabitants return to the surface. The events of Endless Legend commence. At the end of this short habitable era, two groups of Vaulters (and some fellow travelers) leave Auriga. The first on the Argosy, the second via unknown means. After that another, more severe catastrophe hits Auriga, this time permanently eradicating all surface life. The few survivors take shelter deep in the underground tunnel-system.

The events of Endless Space 2 happen. During this, a multi-species expedition is dispatched to Auriga to uncover its secrets. Isyander's War starts and the events of Dungeon of the Endless 2 commence.

I have been summoned! 

1. There is a thread about the origins of the various humanoids on Auriga here: Auriga humanoids
2. But, basically, it is that the bipeds on Auriga are mixed descendants of the Endless and their experiments ( Broken Lords, Roving Clans, Ardent Mages, Wild Walkers... ) or of the old Mezari colony and/or prison ships ( Vaulters, Forgotten, Mezari, ... ). There were many waves of migration out from the planet Mezan, and the prison colony ship (Success) of DotE is not the same vessel as the Argosy, which is the ship that the Vaulters came in.
3. Horatio was, indeed, part of the Success voyage as he wanted to strip the labs on Auriga for Endless technology. That is explained in the associated comic.

There are some other threads that also discuss this, if you have time to kill, such as this one:

DotE and EL history

We are still working on a universe encyclopedia and timeline that will make sense of all of this; the problem is that the more we dig into the details of all the texts that have been written, the more confused we get...

-Slow