THE UNDERDARK
DESCRIPTION - LOCATION - PEOPLE - CLIMATE - FLORA - FAUNA - RESOURCES
DESCRIPTION - LOCATION - PEOPLE - CLIMATE - FLORA - FAUNA - RESOURCES
- Description:
The Underdark is a subterraineal world, found deep underground. It is the all encompassing world of tunnels and giant caverns under the earth, filled with a surprisingly large amount of life in its dark and dismal environment.
Far underground, the endless number of tunnels which run their lengths through the Underdark create a world much more vast than anything above ground. And just as the world is as different above ground, it is the same below. Caverns full of stalactites and stalagmites are highly abundant, some even crealring away into underground cities. Seas of stagnant water can be found in the darkness, and opposite to that, closer to warmer parts of the world, caverns aglow with magma flow.
Location:
Neither can the underdark be found by travelling north, east, south, nor west, but rather, downwards, into the depths of the earth. It is the world below ground.
People:
There are many intelligent races found in the Underdark which form their own societies. Some may include:
Drow
One of the most well known people that populate the Underdark, the Drow are a race of evil elves, driven below ground by their cousins far in the past. Now, their time is spent in violent conflicts with one another and plans against the world above, as the Drow live violent and cruel lives, based around power.
Appearance:
Like all elves, the Drow possess lithe figures, have slender and long fingers, and chiseled features. The skin tone of Drow range from grey to black, and their hair is white, though some usually dye it other colours.
Abilities:
All Drow possess the power of infravision, or commonly called elvensight, which allows them to see in the dark due to the temperature of their surroundings, however, living underground, drow have a further range in this power than other elves. Also, like their above ground cousins all drow possess an innate ability in the art of spellcraft, however, specifically the drow are the very masters of the art. Like all elves, the drow possess a natural resistance to diseases and extreme temperatures as well as some enchantment spells compared to other species.
Society:
Drow society is made up of many noble houses and merchant families, all opposing one another in a struggle for power, as the drow believe that only the strongest may rule. Matriarchal in nature, the females are the leaders of the Drow, and are generally more powerful than any male counterpart. Worshipping their spider goddess, Lloth, drow have an affinity for spiders.
The Drow live in giant cities underground, whose architecture is as wonderous as it is horrible. Feuds between rival noble houses or merchant families are common, usually spilling into wars within the city grounds.
Derro and Duergar
Dwarves, whose homes and strongholds are based underground beneath mountains or rolling hills, are not truely creatures of the underdark, as their strongholds and cities are often not too far underground and they are carefully build, sealed away from the subterraineal world.
However, there are dwarves that live in the underdark. Unlike their cousins, these dwarves are evil, having been driven deep below ground. There are two verieties of dwarves in the Underdark, and those are the Derro and Duergar. Derro, the more vile of the two are charactaristically cruel. Duergar live in the etreme depths, and sunlight provides pain to their vision, which keeps them from venturing above ground.
Appearance:
Derro are duminitive dwarves, smaller than the others. They are short compared to other dwarves, possessing white skin with blueish undertones, sickly pale yellow hair, and pupiless eyes.
Duergar however, are more healthy speciments. Though they live in the far extreme depths, they appear as other dwarves, but for their nasty look. They have grey skin, which gives them their common name of 'grey dwarf', white or dull grey beards, and their heads are usually bald, shaved or naturally.
Abilities:
Like all dwarves, the dwarves of the underdark also do not possess any great skill with spellcraft, being only limited to priests. Derro however, do not worship deities. However, they are very well attuned to their subterraineal homes.
Society:
Derro build their lairs closer to the surface than drow or kuo-toa, but deeper than goblins or trolls. They are led by a leader called a savant, which they readily obey. The derro possess mob mentality, and are never encountered alone.
Duergar however are the same as all other dwarves, but they live much harsher lives due to being in the deep underground.
Deep Dwarves
Unlike the Derro or Duegar, the deep dwarves are not evil by nature, but more neutral. They are the dwarves that escaped deep underground early on in history, and are considered the most isolated of all dwarves, avoiding all outsiders, and also, they consider themselves as the most pure of dwarves, their ways untainted by other influences of the world.
Appearance:
Deep dwarves appear thinner than other dwarves, but possess big bones. Their hair range from red to blonde, their skin range from a light tan to a pale brown, and their large eyes are usually a pale blue. Unlike other dwarves, the females of thise species do not shave and wear their beards long.
Abilities:
Like all dwarves, the dwarves of the underdark also do not possess any great skill with spellcraft, being only limited to priests. However, they are very well attuned to their subterraineal homes.
Society:
Deep dwarves share the same society as other dwarves. However, isolated, they do not readily trust strangers, and often are at war with the other creatures of the Underdark.
Illithid
The great horrors of the Underdark, commonly known as the mind flayer, the illithid are a race of powerful psionic creatures. They often enslave, kill, or even eat the minds of their enemies.
Appearance:
Illithid are humanoid creatures that stand 6' tall. Their skin is muave and glistens with slime. The head of an illithid resembles and octopus; with two white eyes and four tentacles around its maw, a many toothed circular orifice like that of a lamprey.
Abilities:
Illithids are extremely powerful psionic creatures, able to communicate with any creature using telepathy, though they have no spoken language themselves, hisses and clickings will accompany their thoughts. Illithid, like many of the subterraineal creatures, possess infravision. They also possess skill in spellcraft.
The powerful psionics of a mind flayer is able to create a mind blast, a psionic cone of force, which stuns creatures in its are of effect. Also, illithid have many other mind affecting abilities, usually more powerful than any other creature can produce due to their mental prowess.
The tentacles of a mind flayer are extremely powerful, able to rend someone's head open if given the chance so that the illithid may feed on the victim's brain.
Society:
Illithid form communities of 200 to 2000 in numbers, each having slaves which are controlled by a powerful mental connection and will obey their masters without question. The center of a community is the elder brain, a pool of briny fluid that houses all the brains of the community's dead illithid. In this state, the telepathic brains merge together and elder brain is still sentient, it's influence reaching up to 5 miles in radius. The combined telepathic influence of the elder brain rules the community.
The elder brain is not able to attack, but due to it's far reaching telepathic influence, it is able to communicate with the rest of the community, warning it when intelligent creatures enter it's area of influence.
Illithid have no family structure. Their activities are eating, communicating, debating with each other, and forcing slaves to fight in gladiatoral combat.
Svirfneblin
Svirfneblin, or Deep Gnomes, unlike all the other racial counterparts that live in the Underdark, are not evil. Attracted by the lure of gemstones, these gnomes live in the underdark, digging for the precious stones. They are the mortal enemies of drow.
Appearance:
Deep Gnomes are small creatures, about 3' tall with wirey muscles and strong bones. Like all gnomes, they have predominant noses. Their skin is rock coloured, usually grey or brown, and their eyes are shades of grey or black. Generally, svirfneblin have hairless bodies, but females may have some thin stringy hair.
Abilities:
Deep gnomes, like many of the creatures of the Underdark have infravision. Also, they have an innate form of magic resistance and are experts at hiding in their underground environment. Also, like the dwarves, they are highly atuned with their environment, able to detect slopes, depths, and directions underground. Deep gnomes, like many gnomes, are also innate illusionists.
Society:
Svirfneblin have very rigid roles in society due to gender, unlike many other gnomish cultures. The males take the task of mining, soldiering, and almost all other jobs within their cities. Females however are exclusively given the jobs to raise the young and prepare food. Deep gnomes govenment is made up of a monarchy.
Climate:
Subterraineal, the Underdark does not experience weather.
Flora:
The Underdark, being subterraineal, lacks sunlight. Vegetation usually ranges from various species of moss and fungi, though many plants that do not need sunlight also grow in thea areas of the Underdark. Some special forms of plantlife include one such vegitation that grows close to water, letting out an iridescent glow. This usually attracts insects close to the water or small fish, which it catches with a tantacle and slowly devours in its transparent stomach, and others are the various sentient forms of fungi.
Fauna:
There is no place safe in the Underdark for travellers, each creature after another. It is a horrible envirnonment where only the strong survive. In the endless darkness of the underground, horrors await at every turn.
In the labirynth like tunnels, umber hulks, massive creatures with scaley hides and iron like claws bore their way through stone to hunt down prey. Possessing the power to confuse prey when it looks into any of their four eyes, the monster can easily tear adventurers apart in a manner of seconds with sharp claws and great mandibles.
In the open caverns of the deep dark, one can always be attacked by lurkers, a monster similar to a stingray which drops down on top of prey to kill and eat, or the great eye tyrants, beholders, monsters with spherical bodies that float around, one giant eye adorning their body while several eyestalks sprout from the top of their heads, each eye magical in nature.
Or the leftovers of the drow, driders, monsters which use to be drow, but have fallen in disfavor and cursed to have the upper body of their former selves and the lower body of that of a giant spider. Twisted and destroyed, these mindless abominations are commonly hunted by the drow or used as sentries in areas.
In the dark stagnant bodies of water of the Underdark, a vicious race of fishmen called Kuo-Toa dwell, appearing as bloated bodied people with the heads of fish, their limbs short, and their toes and fingers long and webbed. Or worse, the aboleth, a giant plump looking fish 20' in length with three eyes in the front of its head. It possesses four tentacles and a round toothless maw. The moster moves on land with its tentacles, and swims through the waters. However, worse of all, it is a highly intelligent monster that enslaves others for its evil biddings.
Yet, though the underdark houses such monsters, there is more to it that that. In the great arcane depths of the world, there are many portals and tears, open to the denizens of other planes, such as the Githyanki from the astral plane, or the devils from the abyss.
However, not everything is harmful, as the drow have managed to tame species of giant lizards that live underground as steeds in their battles, or a species of musk ox-like mammals with an aversion to light called rothe that live near moss and lichen.
Resources:
A dismal place like the Underdark does not produce vast amounts of food, though most creatures feed off one another and some even canabalize their own.
However, underground, there are many precious gemstones to be found or veins of metals; iron, coal, gold, silver, adamantite, some of the possibilities. Adamantite, on special metal only found in the underdark, is exclusively used by the drow in making their armor, weapons, and cities, as they are the only ones capable of using the metal for craftings such things. It is said that adamantite is the strongest of all metals, but it is never found above ground because of the natural radiation that the Underdark produces, it disintegrates in sunlight instantly and will slowly disintegrate if removed from the radiation of the underdark. Drow, when found on the surface, usually carry armor which are heavily enchanted due to the restriction of adamantite.
