Subterraneans

Subterraneans are an ancient intelligent species that lives deep below the surface of Panthea in the endless tunnels of the underworld. Subterraneans are a strong and wise species. They are an ancient lineage, with their civilizations predating human civilization by thousands of years, and their prehistoric halls and archives record details on the ancient underground world before the rise of human civilization. This great wealth of ancient knowledge has been left largely unknown, as the Subterraneans live very deep in the tunnels of the underworld, and they tend to isolate their civilization from surface dwellers. Subterraneans usually live in small city-states, although there are several empires made up of multiple city-states.

Description and Anatomical Features

Subterraneans are related to humans and generally have the same body plan as them, with an upright posture and generally similar anatomy. Subterraneans differ from humans in that they all have pure white skin, they are much taller than humans, being on average 2.5 meters tall. They also have thicker bones and greater muscle mass, making them very strong and paired with their great height makes them imposing and powerful. Subterraneans also have large round eyes in order to see in the darkness of their underground homes better, and they also have much less body hair than humans, but they are still capable of growing long beards, and they have very long eyebrows too.
Subterranean skin and eyes are very sensitive to sunlight, which is part of the reason they almost never travel to the surface, and in the rare times they do, they cover themselves in robes and wear shaded goggles or glasses.

Culture

The Subterraneans are wise and strong, and they have a diverse culture deep in their underground caves. The Subterraneans value strength and wisdom, as much of their culture revolves around lifting and working with heavy metals and stone, and naturally, a culture valuing physical strength developed. Subterraneans are regarded as astonishingly wise philosophers and very talented poets and writers. With their masterwork stone architecture, they construct huge libraries dedicated to preserving their endless volumes of stories, poems and writings on philosophy.
Subterraneans are generally wary of outsiders and are very defensive of their territory. They usually prefer not to allow humans into their cities unless they already trust them, which they usually don't. The rare humans that they trust, they show great hospitality too. Subterraneans rarely ever travel to the surface, and they generally do not go out of their way to interact with humans, greatly preferring to keep to themselves.

Clothing

Subterranean clothing varies amongst the many different cultures that inhabit the underworld, although there are some similarities. They usually wear simple robes and sandals. It's common for all subterraneans to wear many necklaces of precious metals and rare crystals. They also wear metal plates on their shoulders, arms, shins, and heads that are decorated with ornate designs or metal and crystal, and are shaped like armour plates.

Food

Subterraneans generally have a more limited diet than surface dwellers, living entirely in caves. They have access to domesticated giant bats and lizards which they get meat, eggs, milk, leather, and cheese from. They mainly farm a diverse range of different mushrooms instead of fruit and vegetables, and most subterraneans dislike fruits and vegetables, greatly preferring fungus. Subterraneans also hunt down huge centipedes, worms, insects, snakes, spiders, and some fish and crustaceans that live in subterranean lakes. For flavouring, the subterranean people have access to salt, and a few unique spices native to the underworld, although their diet is still comparably bland compared to most surface dwellers.

Art

Subterraneans are amazing painters and sculptors, they are able to capture scenes of their underground home with stunning colour, depth, and detail. They are also masters of sculpting, being able to perfectly replicate the anatomy of the subterranean body and the many creatures they live alongside.

Architecture

Subterranean architecture is made almost entirely out of stone and metal, and some decorative aspects made out of polished crystals. Subterranean architecture is described as beautiful, awe-inspiring, and ingenious. They have mastered many advanced architectural principals that allow them to construct immense underground halls, cities, and tunnels. Subterraneans pride themselves in their craftsmanship and artistic skill, and thus most subterranean structures are constructed with masterfully shaped stone blocks and beautiful metal reinforcements, and crystal windows and designs. The more expensive buildings tend to be built with more precisely made stone blocks, and the cheaper buildings are constructed with cheaper and looser stones. More expensive buildings also have more metal parts and crystal tiles and art. Subterranean houses are generally flat-roofed, but usually, they're built into large towers that extend from the floor of the cave to the ceiling of the cave, and these towers are at the edges of the cave. In the middle of the cave there are usually larger structures such, temples, palaces, amphitheatres, and colosseums. There are also lakes and gardens often in the center of the cave cities.
Larger subterranean structures use many columns and pointed arches in their design. These columns are intricately designed and decorated with crystals and metal at the base and top of the column, and complex columns are often used as a status symbol. Various metals are used on subterranean houses. Door frames, window frames, the base of columns, the edges of rooves, and in the structure of windows. Many metals are used in architecture, such as bronze, krallinite, steel, copper, and brass.
Subterranean architects make great use of the plentiful crystals in the underworld to decorate their structures with beauty and colour. They use crystals of every colour to create decorative floors, doors, columns, decorative tiles, and many other artistic decorations that could be placed on arches, walls, and ceilings. There are also extremely clear crystals which have been used effectively to serve as windows, and there are also transparent coloured crystals that can be used to create something similar to stained glass. Another unique use of crystals is using the many glowing crystals as their primary light source. These glowing crystals come in a variety of colours and brightnesses, and these crystals seem to continuously glow without a power source, allowing for these crystals to be used everywhere as an unlimited light source. Great rows of crystals are hung up on walls, grand crystal chandeliers hang from rooves, and even glowing crystals are used in floor tiles for a unique source of light.
There is great variation among different subterranean cultures in terms of architecture. The most wealthy cultures build their structures out of finely cut stones, metals, and crystals. The stones used can vary greatly, with some cities built with sandstone, orange granite, grey granite, limestone, marble, basalt, and many other stones. The metals in use can also vary, with some cities using primarily iron, and some cities rarely even using rarer metals like gold or silver, although it's almost always a mix of different metals used in different places. Some cities will also build with round arches instead of pointed ones, some use larger stones, some use smaller ones, some are built with rougher stones or more precise ones. A common practice is to carve writing into designs or complex stonework, and this can vary as there are several different alphabets used by various groups of Subterraneans.