The story, set millennia in our future, opens on the fictional planet Trinia, where in a network of subterranean caverns toil a population of human slaves overseen by anthropomorphic robots known as Mine-Masters. These humans are led to believe that only their "Mine-World" exists; that above it is a hell more terrible than their present joyless lives; and that their overlord Zygon, who demands that they mine increasing numbers of the volatile red crystals native to Trinia, is a messenger of their Gods (By the way this is from 1985)