Nircota, the Nightlands

"Two moons circle this world. One red one, shining a dim bloody light on the lands below, a poor excuse for day. The second, a white, almost comforting moon that hardly shines through the fog of night. Looking upon the darkness, so rich of night, and no sun. Not a single star upon that sky has shown itself. Truly, a land as abysmal as the ocean's murky depths."

Geography

According to the writings of scribes and accounts of travelers, the Nightlands are akin to ours in that there is solid ground and beasts and great mountains, fields and waters. However, they also tell that little to no plants or plant like things grow here. It is a land of rock and dust. Of rolling hills that often seem to go on forever in some accounts. Water here is salty and bitter, as well as usually frozen in many areas where it is cold and lacks much salt. Many claim it is easy to become lost in the Nightlands due to it's repetitive and dim terrain.

A full Nircota day and night, which lasts roughly 24 hours, similar to the Mundane night and day cycle. Through unknown means, the red moon, which is commonly known as Eye by the Drow of the Realm, dissipates the thick and hazy clouds that cover the Realm from the early night to the late morning. When Eye shines upon the Realm, it is commonly accepted to be a sort of daytime then.

During the night, when Eye falls through the horizon, a white moon similar to ours known as Heart shines through the fog and clouds that cover the Nightlands sky. It is only when Heart shines through the haze, and the clouds become dense does it rain what little fresh water there is. However, also because of this, Moonbridges to the Nightlands are very rare and unpredictable due to how fresh water quickly dries up or is taken in by something else and how Moonbridges can only form by the white light of Heart which must shine wholly and purely to atleast a puddle of fresh water on a full moon.

Fauna & Flora

Of flora, few plants exist here. Scribes who claim to have accounts of them are rare, even more rare are those who have samples of such life. What has been put to paper is that plants are not green but either dark blue or red, some having even been recorded as glowing. However for every plant, there seems to be even more fungi nearby. If a creature should die and lay still in the open, in a few hours, a bed of tiny bristling fungus will have taken root into the corpse, on an extremely quick path to devour it.

Of fauna, many of the herbivores here in this Realm either fly or tunnel, usually feeding off of the plants and fungi rooted in the dead or under the ground. Of carnivores, if they are not air based, they are land based creatures. Beasts made to kill and make quick work of anything that flies or crawls too close. Many predators utilize the sloping terrain to conceal themselves. Even more so use camouflage and stealth to ambush flying and tunneling creatures.

There is very little fresh water to found in the Nightlands, most of which is found in the moisture of the nightclouds or in the depths of caverns and pits below the surface. What creatures and plants live within these underground pits are often mosses, algae and blind crustaceans such as small crabs and shrimp but it would appear these crustaceans continually grow with age. When it rains, it only rains at night when the nightclouds are densest.

Natural Resources

While the Nightlands has many resources unique to it's Realm, too many to just name here, here two notables that can be found in the dark world.

• Cold steel, a product of metal found within the Realms ruins and amid it's more ancient denizens. The formula of creating the mysterious steel is not known to those of our world, and it doesn't appear to be found within the Nightlands dirt. Cold steel is often stripped from the structures and then sold to create expensive items such as weapons and tools as well as refurnishing to be compatible with structures once more.
• Drow items are accepted with incredible greed in normal markets. Anything from an intact comb to the a ceremonial dagger to a scarf is seen as priceless. The mysterious Drow of the Nightlands are seen as ghost like beings from the people of our world. Some accounts claim they cross ours during the full moon, walking amidst our forests and fields, searching for who knows what. While most Drow are ruthless and cunning, some do exist that would rather barter than kill.

Alternative Name(s)

The Nightvale, Darklands, Shadowfell, Nightland

Type

Dimensional plane