Titanic Deeps

Caves, caverns, and other deep, dark places litter Lasair. Many are inhabited by creatures desiring darkness or to hide from the world. So-called "dungeons", a catch-all for abandoned constructions, can be found all over, whether remnants of the Imperial Era, old depleted mines, or an attempt at settling that never panned out. One thing that these all have in common is that they are relatively shallow. Even the deepest mines - other than the Dwarfs' city of Bastion - barely scratch the crust of the world.
Below all of these "scratches", lying in darkness underneath almost the entire continent, is a vast network of vaulted ceilings, chambers carved deep into the rock, halls with steps as tall as a man. Hidden away from the world, leftover from past millennia, ancient beyond reckoning, are the Titanic Deeps.

Past Domain of Giants

The origin of the Titanic Deeps lay prehistoric history, with the Titans responsible for the formation of the world itself. When the Titans pushed back the primordial elemental chaos, they built a civilization that spanned the continent. When their creations collapsed (including the massive eruption that formed The Great Plateau) most of the giants were destroyed, their constructions buried under the lava.
A handful of the titans, whether through foresight, fortune, or preference, had retreated under the surface of the world. These giants were sheltered from the shattering above, within the vast works they had created below. When their civilization was destroyed, the few remaining found solace and occupation in expanding those works and building what they could. As the world continued to turn far above them, they would gradually build deeper and deeper, leaving behind them elaborately carved and constructed monuments to their history.

Monument to Isolation

The giants were never a particularly social race, and the remainder left from their fall were no different. In fact it's very likely that those which chose to exile themselves underground were the least social of their kind. As such, as these remnant giants dug through the deeps of the world, they invariably separated themselves, growing physically distant as the centuries passed.
If it were possible to map the Titanic Deeps, one would see an interesting sort of spiraling outward, as several "arms" radiate out from a central nexus under the Shattered Peak. Each of the remaining giants created their own worlds, carving halls and monuments and places of rest.

Home to Creation

The Titans were notable for their world-changing acts of creation, none more impactful than their creation of the Dragons and Elves. These species of inherent magic were a crowning achivement for a race that prided itself upon building and creating. The remaining giants have lost none of their desire to create, but unfortunately they are much less skilled at the creation of life when working alone.

As such, the Deeps are littered with small pockets of underground-adapted species, created in bursts of interest and then discarded as they didn't meet what their creator expected. These species run the gamut from dumb rock-eating rodents to fairly intelligent and fierce diggers. Much as the Elves' attempts at life resulted in Goblins, these creations of the giants linger on with varying degrees of success.

Elemental Breaches

There is one major side effect of the forsaken nature of the Deeps. Being deep into the world it is extremely strong in elemental presences of fire and earth. Places such as the Deeps are always somewhat susceptible to incursions by Elementals, and there are places within the Deeps that have become dominated by them. In some places they have not build up enough strength and are actually repelled by some of the more intelligent species fo the Deeps; in others they rage and destroy the leftover structures of the giants.

It is these elemental breaches that put Bastion at such risk. The Dwarfs have unknowingly managed to excavate their way into one of the "wings" of the Deeps, and in doing so have made themselves vulnerable to attacks from Elementals. Their formation of the Bastion Elites keeps the city generally safe, but they are a defense force, and elemental presence otherwise prevents much exploration into the Deeps by the dwarfs.

Reaching the Deeps

There are other places where it is possible to reach some of the higher levels of the Titanic Deeps. Some of the deep reaches of caverns dug out by Ratlings have snuck into small portions. The Firelands and The Desolation have some deep caverns with access created after the fall of the moon fragment during the Dragonscourge.
Nobody alive really knows what exists in the deeps, however. None of the Giants there have been seen in lifetimes. The small bit of exploration that's happened out of Bastion has barely touched on the fact that there is structure in the Deeps. While the dwarfs' curiosity has been piqued by who may have built such things, they have not built up sufficient force to truly probe further past their Elemental problem. Some Mages may have an inkling, but if they do that knowledge is not widely dispersed.
As such, the Titanic Deeps remains, largely, a mystery. It's possible for the brave and powerful to explore some bit of what can be reached, but truly reaching deep to understand what they truly represent would be the quest of a lifetime.

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Page Contents

Creatures Native to the Deeps:

• Giants
• Elementals
• Fire-Eye Diggers
• Grobs
• Deep Urrg
• Boral