The Undervale
Under Valine's surface, a vast region known as the Undervale awaits exploration. Entire cities and nations of deep dwarves, drow, and Illithid. Strange and malevolent creatures who abhor sunlight, including Aboleth, Beholder, and Kuo-Toa also inhabit the subterranean realm. Apart from these strange creatures, it is home to slaves of every humanoid species found on the surface of Valine.
They make coalitions that disintegrate when their objectives diverge or when more lucrative opportunities reveal themselves during a conflict or a trade for resources, magic, or power. In the lands around the warring city-states, deep gnomes, dwarves, and other species can live in relative safety or fight off incursions from their malevolent neighbors.
In the Undervale, only two things matter: survival and annihilating your enemy. Animals living in the perpetually gloomy Undervale evolved darkvision or increased senses long ago to compensate for the absence of light, and as a result, they are frequently averse to light. Glow-in-the-dark rocks, crystals, and mushrooms can be discovered in select areas of the tunnels and caverns. Strange plants come in a wide variety of types, and without the use of magic or potentially hazardous experiments, it can be difficult to determine which are harmful or lethal. Because the Undervale receives no rain, its residents must rely on whatever rainwater does make its way down to their arid habitat. Those who discover water immediately hoard and preserve it with their lives.
During relatively peaceful periods, each city tends to concentrate on producing a small number of products and trading them with its neighbors. Each commercial caravan is composed of several dozen well-armed merchants and troops. At various points along the journey, two or three patrols are stationed ahead of and behind each caravan. Despite the fact that the tunnels are normally silent, it is possible to hear faint noises from animals and hidden hazards in the Undervale by listening to their echoes. Possessing a convenient portal occasionally results in protracted fights between nearby cities, with people of wealthy towns teleporting caravans to their destinations or utilizing existing portals to expedite passage. At peace, towns that earn a bad reputation for murdering or enslaving caravans rather than displaying the necessary degrees of icy hostility and rudeness frequently find themselves shut off from crucial supplies and become easy targets for aggressors.
Geography
Anyone living on the surface is unlikely to be informed about the topography of the Undervale, as little has been extensively surveyed and the longest caverns are miles long. While the largest features are underground lakes, some may be divided by stone that dips below the surface, resulting in quasi-separate areas that can only be distinguished as one body of water by the most meticulous cartographer.
A halfling would struggle to crawl through the narrowest of the Undervale's tunnels, which stretch for miles before expanding into caves too large to see across. In the largest subterranean areas, miniatures of the surface, including hills, valleys, underground rivers, and lakes, are found. The majority of species use natural or magical flight or levitation, as well as wall-crawling mounts such as enormous spiders or some types of lizard, to reach higher levels in this three-dimensional subterranean world.
The Undervale is divided into three distinct layers: dwarves, deep gnomes, Illithid slavers, and Beholder are among the intelligent species found in the upper layer. They have considerable interaction with the surface, whether for trade, raids or conquest. Tolerating darkness is quite easy in this ecosystem due to the relative abundance of water and food.
Residents of the middle region have a tendency to view surface races as inferior and worthy only of slavery or as food. Drow, deep dwarves, cloakers, common Illithid, and Kuo-Toa are just a few of the creatures met throughout this area. Obtaining safe drinking water and adequate meals is difficult.
In the lowest reaches of the Undervale, entire nations and civilizations exist, hostile to anyone who is not like them. The area is populated with Aboleth, cloakers, deep dwarves, and noble Illithid, to name a few. The species this deep, however, must rely on one another to survive. Certain species have developed novel and strange senses as a result of their experience in the dark. Throughout the deepest reaches of the Undervale, several of these malevolent societies hold entire villages of the most wretched humanoid slaves from the surface world.
Fauna & Flora
A gigantic fungus known as Mica lives up to three miles beneath the surface of Valine. The fungus, which is possibly the world's oldest living organism, predates even the dragons. It perishes instantly when touched by natural light. Except for magical attacks, the substance is impervious to all other forms of attack. Historically, little effort has been made to eradicate it, but those who attempted were attacked by Ghost, leading to speculation that Mica holds the souls of the damned. Large sections of the fungus occasionally vanish, revealing ruined settlements or thriving colonies of Myconid in their wake, yet the cause and origin of these disappearances remain unknown.
History
The Undervale's past is just as intricate and rich as that of the surface world. Some of it bears some resemblance to the realms above, while in other respects it is entirely unique. The Undervale was originally home to a variety of indigenous species, but as newcomers from the surface, such as dwarves and drow, arrived, many of these species withdrew underground, fearful of invasion by these invading populations. For instance, the Kuo-Toa are a long-forgotten race to many on the surface, disappearing into legend before historical records were kept.
Due to the lack of evidence, the origin of the Illithid is merely speculation , it is thought to be roughly concurrent with the spread of humans over Valine's surface continents. Many of the demigods' progeny have spread throughout the Undervale, causing major upheaval to the societies in the depths of the world.
Drow villages were discovered in the Undervale almost immediately following Nivian caused their emergence, triggering the Feywar. They occupied a vast stretch of the upper Undervale beneath Briarra prior to spreading throughout the Undervale and becoming embroiled in an endless internal conflict. They are a ferocious and imposing ethnicity, now considered almost an entirely different species to the other elves.
Dwarves have been the surface race who have always had most contact with the denizens of the Undervale, fighting drow and other Undervale dwellers and losing entire clans to the Illithid, only for them to reappear years later as the deep dwarves, imprinted with the savagery of their telepathic enslavers. Additionally, the Illithid bred a subterranean legion of Mul during this time period, which they bred from deep dwarf and human captives. The deep gnomes and a slew of goblinoid species were among those introduced or discovered in the Undervale over time. When Guhvian began scattering his offspring throughout the world, the cloakers quickly carved out territories in the upper and middle regions of the Undervale and began infiltrating the darkest portions of the lower realm.
This cycle of events is well-known to residents of the Undervale nations, but virtually unknown to the majority of surface dwellers. Even surface scholars have a patchy understanding of the history that has unfolded beneath them. Cities struggle over resources, slaves, or just due of their long history of antagonism. Peace can lull an empire into complacency and a misstep can expose an Undervale state to frequent and protracted conflicts that exhaust its resources. Empires on the edge of disintegration are frequently brought down by their the betrayal of a supposed ally. Political machinations destroy states in the Undervale as frequently as military conflicts. Survivors emerge from the disaster, forming their own communities and eventually erecting new cities from the ruins. It is usual for those who dwell on the surface to believe themselves to be more civilized than those who live in the Undervale, yet their own behavior frequently echoes the events of the underground realms.
Type
Underground / Subterranean
Included Locations
Related Reports (Primary)
Related Reports (Secondary)
Related Plots
Comments