The Underdark

Tales across Tellene are whispered about the Underdark. A place of lightless, subterranean realms that are home to fabled races and ancient, unspeakable things.

The Underdark is a domain of primeval mysteries and never ending war, hidden kingdoms with cruel masters and hopeless slaves, filled with monstrous races that were ancient before humans were born. It is a land where a few lucky merchants have found a lucrative trade, and there are many more that have been slain or worse for their arrogance. So is the reputation of the Underdark and its denizens.

Tunnels in the Underdark extend for miles, some ballooning into caverns thousands of feet across, only to shrink to spaces too narrow for a halfling to squeeze through. The largest cavern halls are often representations of the surface in miniature, with hills, valleys, underground rivers, and lakes.

The Underdark is divided into three levels.

The Upper-Dark: close to the surface, and its residents have considerable interaction with surface races.

The Upper-Dark extends from the surface to a depth of about 3 miles. Varied races inhabit this region, including drow, dwarves, giants, and all manner of goblinoids. Scouts from deeper races often venture into the Upper-Dark in order to trade with or prey on the races native to this area.

Most Upper-Dark inhabitants traffic with the surface world in some way, either trading with or raiding their upstairs neighbors for things they can't get in their native habitat. They also trade with and raid each other. No Underdark community is ever really friendly with another, but Upper-Dark settlements often observe wary truces with their neighbors.

The Upper-Dark's most common import from the surface is slaves. Slavers from evil-aligned cities in the Upperdark make frequent forays into the light to capture new slaves for use as either labor or food. They also trade for textiles, grains, fruit, and weapons. Their exports include raw ore, refined metals, gems, and native Underdark plants.

The Mid-Dark: inhabitants of these ares tend to see surface races as potential slaves.

The Middle-Dark lies between 3 and 10 miles beneath the surface. Larger cities of drow and duergar are in the Middle-Dark. Other inhabitants include lone aboleths, cloakers, derro, grimlocks, and kuo-toas. A few mind flayer outposts are scattered throughout this region as well.

No alliance is permanent in the Middle-Dark. Some communities maintain wary trading partnerships with others, but it is understood that if one party ever grows stronger than the other, the terms of the partnership will change - perhaps drastically. Even in the most open of Middle-Dark cities, newcomers can expect to be challenged physically or otherwise unless they make a pointed display of power upon entry.

Settled communities in the Middle-Ddark commonly send trade caravans and raiding parties to the surface, or at least up to Upper-Dark trading centers. Visitors from the surface are rare and tend to be viewed as potential slaves or food. Caravan travel brings mostly luxuries; staples must be grown locally.

The Lower-Dark: is an incredibly strange place filled with alien societies and bizarre cultures

hostile to those unlike them.

No place on Tellene is as strange and dangerous as the Lower-Dark. This region of the Under-Dark extends from 10 miles below the surface to unfathomable depths and features a degree of strangeness that would drive some surface dwellers insane. Few upper-worlders ever descend to the Lower-Dark, and few of the Lower-Dark's denizens want anything to do with the surface world. Some of the creatures in the Lower-Dark - intelligent or otherwise, aren't even aware of a surface world; others have heard of it but consider it a mythical place.

Why would any creature with intelligence or common sense live in such a terrible environment? Some races have lived here for generation upon generation, and the Lower-Dark is simply their home. Other creatures settle here to take advantage of the Lower-Dark's unique magical properties, rare ores, or shelter from the hated sun. Still others view a sojourn in the Lower-Dark as a temporary solution, since the dead magic areas and hostile territory may be a wanted criminal's most expedient means of avoiding capture.

Of course, not everyone is in the Lower-Dark by choice. Some unfortunates are here because they neglected to research the destinations of the portals through which they ventured. Others have been exiled here from communities in the Middle-Dark, the Upper-Dark, or even the surface world. Some drow matrons get rid of potentially problematic subordinates by sending them on exploratory or expansionistic raiding parties into the Lower-Dark. A triumphant scout returning from the mission into the depths might find her unexpected survival fatally inconvenient to the matron who dispatched her.

Several Middle-Dark races make frequent forays into the LowerDark. Some do so because of expansionistic desires, others because they need the resources, and a limited few because they have something to prove. Grimlocks and orogs often set a coming-of-age trial for their young warriors to mark the passage between adolescence and adulthood. In a typical version of such a trial, the youth is sent into the Lower-Dark, sometimes armed only with a dagger, and told to return with a trophy demonstrating his competence and ability to contribute to the community.

Interspecies and intraspecies strife is the rule in the Lower-Dark. Resources are minimal, and weakness invites extermination. Most of the Lower-Dark's denizens are chaotic, evil, or both. Even the vermin and animals encountered in this area are rarely ordinary, many have been transfigured by crossbreeding or magical interference. Nothing here is normal or simple.