a.k.a. the Hollow Realm is the middle level of The Underdark, located three to ten miles below the surface, containing caves so large they hold most cities, kingdoms, seas, forests and others. Its other name might either refer to this or to the dwarven empire that used to be the main point here in its days of glory.
Places of interest
→ Arcane Veins - there are thirteen rare and perilous metals that The Underdark environment managed to create over the years; each holds a special property and each can be useful for ritual casting. Those metals are condensed arcanite, true earth, metamorphic moonstone, drow-silver, chronocoral, golden dragonscale, living heartshards, colder iron, hell-forged bronze, skystone, true lead, shewstone, iconos (description incoming)
→ Caverns of Lost Time - created by the earth swallowing a whole region and burying it in caves, where time pasts differently than anywhere else; dwarves made magical clocks to protect travelers from temporal contortion, but only few of these items exist in the 13th age and the secrets of their creation are gone
→ Chasm of Night’s Breath - the gulf is known to be an impeding obstacle in The Underdark, the paths around take weeks and are guarded by bandits, ghost bandits and monsters - kobolds and harpies; the chasm itself is big enough to have its own weather system and is filled with black fog (that supposedly fills the air at night, creating the darkness), stalagmites and demon cysts (see below) and rising from the depth, supporting many bridges built/stung over the abyss, controlled mostly by dark elves; the fastest and most dangerous way over is flying
→ Dark Temples - shrines and temples dedicated to forgotten Dark Gods, may be abandoned or settled by a priest or a cult, trying to spread their religion, gain new members or simply sacrifice adventures to their deities
→ Demon Cysts - crystals scattered all over The Underdark holding one or more Demons as prisoners, all varying in size, the smallest being the size of a simple gem; even with this imprisonment, they can still reach out with their psychic powers and influence those around, commanding to be freed; some cysts were created naturally, others made by wizards, copying the doing of The Archmage; the spell was later erased by The Diabolist
→ Domain of the Silver Folk - the Drow homeland lies both in The Upperdark and Middledark, majority of the drow cities is located in the latter (Abaethaggar, Chaulssin, Cheth Rrhinn, Erelhei-Cinlu, Eryndlyn, Faneadar, Ithilaughym, Luihaulen'tar, Maerimydra, Orlytlar, Sshamath, Tyrybblyn, Undraeth, V'elddrinnsshar, Waethe Hlammachar, Yuethindrynn)
→ Drowfort - fortress made of obsidian and quicksilver located halfway between Domain of the Silver Folk and Web city (see below) with drow from both of these locations inhabiting it, hanging in a circular cavern suspended by spider webbing. The law of the Drowfort spreads out to many parts of The Underdark, controlling farm caverns, underground rivers or battles concerning monster invasions. To maintain said law and order, the inhabitants keep Drowfort compromise - some serve The Elf Queen, some serve She Who Spins In The Darkness and some serve both, with none of them revealing who they obey
→ Dwarven Ruins - debris of former dwarven network, now filled with drow, orcs, demons, dragons and kobolds; many dwarves are still drawn to the ruins, such as the Reclamation faction can help with its restoration, despite The Dwarven King staying on the surface, others try to locate the Underhome lost wonders (e.g. the Mechanical Sun):
- The Fallen Star - a gemstone of incalculable value
- The Golden-Forge - enchanted to bring smith’s production to life
- The Axes of the Brothers Unbroken - the defenders of the Underhome
- The Runestone Academy - school for dwarves, where they learned to master the sigils of creation
- The Dark Brewery - a place where the Kings beer was brewed
- The Petrified Zoo - in older times, The Dwarven King could command anything realm to turn to stone
- The Seven Oracles - there are seven cursed clans, each having their own ancestral spirits
- The Castle of the Sleepers - heroes rest here until the King calls for aid, they did not answer when Underhome fell
- The Titan’s Armor - with this massive mechanical armor the wearer can fight even giants or sea monsters
- The Gemstone Orchard - garden full of enchanted trees that breed emeralds and rubies instead of fruit
- The Horn of Shaking Land - master of earthquakes
- The Godswheel Temple - where fate turns the cogs of the world
- The Dwarven King’s Crown - crown stolen during the Underhome fall
→ Elemental Erratics - some deeper level of The Underdark hold such a magical pressure it causes portals of other elemental planes to open and unleash some elemental material, making mountains to turn into a volcano, creating new lakes or whirlwinds; they also unleash elementals though
→ The Grand Dismal Sump - the result of foulness accumulation, a marsh of slime, mold, rot and glowing fungus, where strange goo drips from the ceiling and the air is stuffy; among the danger belongs acidic slime, poisonous mushrooms and monsters, no paths are exactly safe. Troglodytes and fungaloids live here
→ The Four Kingdoms of the Mechanical Sun - the Mechanical Sun is an artefact created by the dwarves, a globe of flame providing warmth and glow carried by four golems even after the fall of Underhome, as they follow the last waystone set for them; the sun is desired by four different kingdoms, whose scholars could change the golems’ path, the kingdoms are:
- Magocracy Unfettered - perfect place for those who wish to do magic without The Archmage's control, mages tend to have their own towers where they can experiment (their experiments then usually roam the caves)
- Queendom of Voth - those humans who fled from The Dragon Empire founded this queendom, now ruled by a council of ministers and the Radiant Queen; obviously, the whole queendom hates Talaved Man'Draq't'oran, The Emperor, believing him to be a tyrant
- Reclamation Guild - a group of dwarves that went against The Dwarven King’s orders and want to retake the lost empire; in the current age some dwarves are mistaken and believe they only wish to reclaim its capital city
- The reptilian kings of the Serpent Catacombs - a maze of tunnels with snake folk statues than can be brought back to life with the help of the Mechanical Sun; in the center of the catacombs there is a city called Sthaa, where the serpent folk plan to get their hands on the magical artefact
→ Sea of Claws - the ocean of The Underdark, without wind the only movement is created by creatures that live beneath the water surface; there used to be three kingdoms, but the north kingdom fell along with Underhome due the poison attack, east kingdom got attacked by sea-wraiths who killed everyone there, only the west kingdom remains
→ The Throne Under the Mountain - in the center of the monster-filled ruins of the dwarven city Undercourt, there is a throne that supposedly used to belong to The Dwarven King; actually, the throne is even older than Underhome and likely it was used to have someone (either a god or an icon) chained to it and it being abandoned now is the reason for the world getting to its end
→ Tomb of the Ten Thousand - long ago, The Archmage wished to rescue Great Golden Wyrm from The Abyss by securing all the demons in a magic circle; unfortunately her spell failed, but managed to cast a spell on herself and trapped her body in a crystal, making sure the demons don’t escape. Unfortunately again, the spell consumed her acolytes and apprentices as well
→ Web City - a city of dark elves, ettercaps, humans, dwarves, tieflings, gnomes, fungaloids and giant sentient spiders; the city is built in two parts - upper and lower, each with a temple, one for She Who Spins in Darkness, mostly followed by ettercapes, and the other for He Who Weaves With Joy, his followers tend to be most active during the end of an age