The Dark Below

Overview

Compared to the relative stability and order of the world, the Dark Below is a chaotic and unforgiving place. It is a realm stretching beneath the entire surface of the planet. Its endless tunnels, chasms, passageways are easy to get lost in. Finding one's way through the Dark Below is the primary objective of any traveler brave enough to enter. Tectonic activity causes frequent earthquakes the deeper one goes, which collapses tunnels and creates new pathways.

The Dark Below is home to many monstrous races in Ilisara, including the Inferni and their ilk. Driders, minotaurs, giant subterranean centipedes, and other creatures can be found there. It is inhospitable to outsiders. The Dark Elves and Dark Dwarves have managed to make their homes among its dangerous depths.

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History

In the days of creation, the gods busied themselves with projects on the surface world. Many gods ventured a short distance into the earth. A few, notably Duros, went even deeper. But none of the gods fully understood the crude immensity of the world beneath the surface, least of all the Blood God Arth.

When the world was young, Arth and Vandun sought to remake Ilisara in their image. Vandun convinced Arth to use the legendary gemstone of the orcs, Ultimar, to descend to Ilisara’s core and destroy it. Ultimar’s wielder is given immunity to all harm. Arth agreed and became a conduit for Vandun’s power.

Arth burrowed deep within Ilisara with Ultimar, seeking the planet’s heart. When he arrived, Ultimar shattered under the intense heat, pressure, and radiation of the newly-arcana-infused core. The detonation gravely wounded Arth, and his anguished screams and painful thrashing shook the earth itself. He sought his way to the surface, but alas; the way out had caved in behind him.

For decades, Arth clawed his way through solid rock, his divine blood magic the only thing keeping him alive. He tore through cavern walls, collapsed formations, and split open underground seas in his blind search for the surface. His blood, saturated with divine power, soaked into the stone wherever he passed.

Arth's tunnels gave birth to life that was never meant to be. Ecosystems grew in the dark along his trail, fed by divine ever-bleeding vitality. Creatures mutated in the depths. It is only when Arth chanced close enough to the surface for his screams to be heard that Vandun rescued him, leaving behind a Red Highway of his agony.

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Inhabitants

The Dark Below is the most densely populated hostile environment in Ilisara. Its residents are divided into those who have built civilizations there, and those who simply survive.

The Dark Elves are the most organized surface-origin race in the Dark Below. Driven underground after the Winterheart Massacre, they have carved out cities in the deep rock lit by pale blue flames. These cities are feudal, brutal, and insular. Following the death of Vandun, many Dark Elves turned to Arth for spiritual guidance, making the Red Highway a place of pilgrimage.

Dark Dwarves occupy their own deep territories, largely separate from the Dark Elves. Their relationship with their surface-dwelling Snowfell cousins is complicated and rarely friendly.

Minotaur warbands roam the tunnels freely. They claim no fixed territory and respect no borders. Encounters with them are almost always violent.

The Inferni — demons, cambions, driders, lamia, and their kin — are a persistent presence throughout the Dark Below, particularly in its deeper reaches near the Sunken World. With Calak'mul destroyed, many have retreated further into the tunnels and grown more desperate and dangerous.

Countless other monstrous creatures inhabit the Dark Below's caves, underground lakes, and lightless forests of fungus and pale vegetation.

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The Spread of Undeath

In recent years, undeath has begun spreading through the Dark Below at an accelerating rate. Vampirism in particular has taken hold in the deeper tunnel networks beneath Hellan. Several Dark Elf cities have fallen entirely under vampire control.

The cause is not fully understood by surface scholars, though the expansion of Revalis into the tunnels beneath southern Hellan — and the blood magic experiments conducted there by Queen Hestia Dawnwalker — are believed to have accelerated the spread considerably.