The Undersea

Below the Roaring Sea lies a larger underground sea, connected by sinks hidden by the clouds of water caused by perpetual waterfalls. A labyrinth of passageways, streams, caves, lakes and Dwarven mines. Constantly flooding yet never filled.
Traders and hunters sail this sea in resilient vessels, and the Undersea Dwarves still live here.

Geography

A labyrinth of tunnels, caves, underwater streams, lakes and Dwarven halls. An uneasy balance of the water coming down from the surface and escaping further below make it particularly treacherous to explore.

Ecosystem Cycles

As the water level raises and falls with the thaws on the surface, certain passageways open and close with the seasons. Prompting some creatures to lay their eggs in isolated pools during the autumn or close themselves off in caves during spring.
The traders and hunters similarly adapt their routes and hunting grounds to these cycles, more than one group has been closed off and lost by failing to predict the level or the moment of the thaw.

Localized Phenomena

To the Northwest, the area most affected by The Death of the Opposed, once the most heavily populated in the previous age. It is avoided by even the most daring explorers. There are tales of rock and mud taking monstrous shapes, of the spirits of millions of Dwarves lost dragging the souls of the living who dare get too close and of a darkness that is more than an absence of ligth but extinguishes everything it touches.

Fauna & Flora

All manner of creatures native of underground streams and fallen from the Roaring Sea above have adapted to the new environment. Smaller bioluminescent creatures share the waters with enormous sea lizards and amphibians evolved from those on the surface.

Natural Resources

The many mineral riches prompted the Undermountain Dwarves to expand into this area. Now more difficult to collect than ever the natural veins glitter in the faint lights of bioluminescence, the natural shapes of the veins mixing with the geometric passageways of the Dwarves and their decorations.

History

The Undersea Dwarves rule this sea. Adapting as their mines were flooded during The Death of the Opposed , they constructed resilient vessels capable of sailing on extreme conditions and water elevators to transport them up an down the sinks. They are no longer the mining empire they used to be but their hidden trade routes mean their trading dominion is unmatched around the Drakhanates, Infidel's Archipelago and the lands further to the East, beyond Enlightened maps.

Alternative Name(s)

The Sunken Mines

Location under

Roaring Sea

Related Ethnicities

• Undersea Dwarves