The Underground of Avarra
The underground is not a single dark country. Root networks, fungal basins, underground seas, magma rifts, and disconnected ancient stations create ecologies, time, and law unlike those of the surface.
Layers
| Layer | Life and politics |
|---|---|
| Rootbelow | Near-surface caves, roots, and underground streams; Gnome, Goblin, and Svirfneblin networks. |
| Hollow Countries | Great domes, fungal forests, and lakes; Drow, Duergar, Myconid, and mixed cities. |
| Ancient Roads | Remains of the Vein Union: fast but unstable passages contested as heritage. |
| Fire Rifts | Magma, elemental passages, Azer, and foundries. |
| Sealed Depths | Poorly mapped areas forbidden because of psionic and ancient remnants. |
Red lines of shared life
Air shafts, water veins, and spore gardens are not merely resources; they support whole basins. Attacking them is treated as a crime against all neighbouring communities. Conflict thus more often takes the form of gate control, worker flight, map theft, and controlled collapse than open war.
Powers and passages
- Nine Lanterns links Nimrûn cities through sound record, misleading tunnels, and common law; the lost Last Glimmer's vote divides its council.
- Kar-Dur claims the old roads as heritage; the dispute between Oathkeepers and Openers is therefore strategic.
- Kor-Dum and Black Anvil draw opposite politics from the same Duergar past.
- Dark Harbour is an underground-sea free city where enemies still trade; Vel-Shaar and Moonbelow represent rival Drow paths.
- First Spore, Fisher Mother, Copper Chimney, and Deep Pulse show how memory, belief, infrastructure, and vibration can each become political power.
Ancient Vein Roads may shorten distance, but their gates can require the right oath, memory, season, or sound rather than a key. Underground travel is not simply going down: it means crossing into a country where air, water, light, sound, and memory work differently.
Region guide
Hollow Ring and Foundry Line is a play area for common-air law, shift pressure and small-settlement networks.