In the course of the game, you may encounter permanent habitations other than communities. These are either ruins, dungeons, or lairs. If you defeat all of the denizens at one of these places, you usually find a fair amount of treasure (gold and items). Once conquered, these habitations have no further value (they produce no gold, you cannot build units there, etc.). Ruins are the largest of these places, usually infested by monsters and loaded with treasure. Dungeons are somewhat smaller, while lairs are the smallest, with (usually) only a few monsters and little treasure.