The Underdark

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The Underdark

Tavern tales across Faerûn's sunlit lands whisper of the Underdark, a lightless, subterranean realm that is home to fabled faces and ancient, unspeakable evil. It is a domain of primeval mysteries and unending war, a hidden world of cruel masters and hopeless slaves, filled with monstrous races that were old before humans were born. It is a dank, dismal place of fungus, rot, and slime. It is a land where a few lucky merchants have found a lucrative trade, but where many more have been slain (or worse) for their effrontery. So dire is the reputation of the Underdark and its denizens that mothers caution their children to behave, lest the dark elves steal them away.

The Underdark is divided into three levels. The upper Underdark (Upperdark) is close to the surface, and its residents have considerable interaction with surface races. The inhabitants of the middle Underdark (Middledark) tend to see surface races as potential slaves. The lower Underdark (Lowerdark) is an incredibly strange place filled with alient societies and bizarre cultures hostile to those unlike them.

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Deep Imaskar

Population: 46,187 (Deep Imaskari 100%)
Alignment: LN

The Imaskari civilization was thought lost thousands of years ago, but in truth the surviving Imaskari fled far underground and established the city of Deep Imaskar for themselves and their progeny. Using mighty magic, they managed to conceal their presence from the rest of the world for almost forty centuries. Even now that the Great Seal that once isolated their city from the rest of the Underdark has been broken, the deep Imaskari avoid contact with outsiders, dispatching only the most trustworthy and secretive of spies into the outer world after wiping the location of their home city from their minds.

Deep Imaskar is an entirely self-sustaining city hidden deep in the northeast portions of the Earthroot. Though its population is quite large (for the Underdark), its citizens do not trade with anyone from outside, and they go to great efforts to keep the city's existence secret from its neighbors.

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Maerimydra

The largest drow settlement in the north central portion of Faerun, Maerimydra is a glittering drow metropolis in decline. While still an unquestionable power in the region, its might and influence over surrounding areas has waned considerably in the last several hundred years of relative isolation. For two millennia, the drow of Maerimydra ruled a significant parcel of the surface called "The Land of Upper Shadow." (Known as Shadowdale today.) Power over the region was lost in -331 DR to an army of elves, and while the region changed hands a few more times, the forces of Maerimydra never regained full control.

Now, nearly five hundred years after human rule was established in Shadowdale, drow from beyond have begun to return in force to Cormanthor. The Auzkovyn Clan from High Forest, and House Jaelre from Menzoberranzan among their forerunners. The drow of Maerimydra do not sit idly by while interlopers from other drow communities move into the lands they long considered their own. Scouts and raiders begin to probe outwards once more, becoming an increasing presence in the forest and a thorn in the side of the rival drow.

While Maerimydra is still a powerful city, it remains to be seen if this new generation of excursions, and most recently, an attempt to rebuild the trade roads with nearby Sschindylryn will be enough to save it from eventual torpor and stagnation.

Maerimydra is said to be governed by Reputation Above All. A vicious culture of scheming, manipulation, and betrayal even by drow standards. It is not enough to simply be drow. Though it certainly helps.

More information on Maerimydra can be read here: Melrida's Guide to Maerimydra written by DM Rykka

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Sschindylryn

Sschindylryn is a city that has changed faces many times in a relatively short span of history. It has been the site of ancient Kuo-Toa god-kings, a nexus of portals to rival that of Sigil, the battleground for one of the Underdark's largest wars, the domain of the history's most benevolent Lolthites, and countless other often contrasting or contradicting historical developments. What remains consistent within the city is chaos and change... something that takes an almost supernatural hand in Sschindylryn's development. Having been nearly wiped off the map by war with neighboring Menzoberranzan, the remnants of the city struggle to repair and survive both exterior threats and their own internal predilections.

What is, only is for so long, and then becomes anew. This makes Sschindylryn a hotbed of ambition and plots... for truly, anything can happen here. A rare mutability in the often static underdark.

More information on can be found here: Melrida's Guide to Sschindylryn written by DM Rykka

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Oldonnar

Oldonnar is a small dwarven kingdom established several miles beneath the Alimir Peninsula by an offshoot subrace of shield dwarves known as the Urdunnir.

Formed around the Hidden Gem of the Depths, the Urdunnir have lived in their kingdom in splendid, unchanging isolation ever since its founding.