Underdark

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The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in

Polygon called it "one of D&D's most well-known realms".[1]

Use in campaign settings

The Underdark featured prominently in the

demons.[6]

A review for Pyramid refers to the Underdark as "one of the most well known facets of the Forgotten Realms".[7] Much of the literary attention for this deep underworld stemmed from the sourcebooks and accessories for the Forgotten Realms setting, including R.A. Salvatore's novels about the fictional character Drizzt Do'Urden.[3]

The Underdark was also the setting for the expansion pack to the computer game

Hordes of the Underdark, which featured the port city of Lith My'athar, and the mysterious Seer.[8]

Features

The Underdark is a subterranean realm of enormous size inhabited by many different types of creatures such as

drow, mind flayers, and aboleths.[5] It extends far beyond the dungeons created by surface dwellers, and consists of caverns, tunnels and large complexes.[7]

Environment

The fictional Underdark's physical characteristics are based upon conditions in real-world caverns deep underground, except at immense size. Within the context of a game, the Underdark is extremely dangerous, especially to non-native characters and creatures. There are also the usual dangers associated with caverns: claustrophobia, poor air circulation, floor/ceiling collapses and getting lost.

There is no light except for occasional patches of phosphorescent

potable
water is hard to locate.

In the Forgotten Realms setting, the Underdark is permeated with a magical energy the

drow
call faerzress, which is used as a source of energy by the native plant life and which interferes with scrying and teleportation spells.

Araumycos

In the

High Forest between one and three miles under the surface, immune to magic and resistant to psionic energy. Araumycos will sometimes attack intruders with poison, spores, and manifestations that resemble oozes and slimes.[3]

Araumycos houses many other fungal creatures. Travel within it is difficult since many passages and caves are blocked by it and damage regenerates quickly.[3]

Inhabitants

The Underdark is home to many

predators
, races and fantasy monsters, most of which are hostile. These include:

  • Aboleths
  • Beholders
  • Drow
    (dark elves)
  • Duergar
    (gray dwarves)
  • Dwarves
  • Fomorian
  • Illithids (Mind Flayers)
  • Hook horrors
  • Kuo-toa
  • Myconids
    (Fungus-men)
  • Pech
  • Svirfneblin
    (Deep Gnomes)
  • Troglodyte

There is no unified underground government since each individual city-state has a different form of rule. The Underdark economy deals primarily in armor, exotic goods, magic, slaves, timber and weapons. The ethical code of many indigenous races tends toward evil or neutral.

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting,

drow Underdark city Menzoberranzan.[9]

Media

Source books

Game modules

Video games

Parts of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate 3 take place in the Underdark,[10][11] and Icewind Dale II featured journeys through the Underdark. An expansion pack based on the Underdark setting was released for the Neverwinter Nights game series, titled Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. The tilesets which came with the Hordes of the Underdark expansion pack were used in several persistent worlds, most notably Escape from the Underdark.

Notes

  1. ^ This was infravision before the 3rd edition of the game rules.

References

  1. Polygon
    . Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  2. ISBN 0-7869-1743-1
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-7869-3053-5
    .
  4. ^ a b Baichtal, John (February 26, 2010). "D&D's Underdark Describes a Vast and Perilous Realm". Wired. Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  5. ^ a b Bambra, Jim (October 1986). "Open Box". White Dwarf (82). Games Workshop: 2.
  6. ^ Wyatt, James; Baker, Keith; Johnson, Luke (January 2006). Player's Guide to Eberron. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. ^ a b "Pyramid Review: Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark". Pyramid. January 21, 2000. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  8. ISBN 0-7440-0341-5
    .
  9. ISBN 1-57356-155-X
    .
  10. The Beacon News. Aurora, Illinois. Archived from the original
    on June 29, 2014. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  11. ^ "How to Get to the Underdark". IGN. Retrieved November 5, 2023.

Further reading

External links

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