Underdark

Last updated

The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore. It is described as a vast subterranean network of interconnected caverns and tunnels, stretching beneath entire continents and forming an underworld for surface settings. Polygon called it "one of D&D's most well-known realms". [1]

Contents

Use in campaign settings

The Underdark featured prominently in the campaign settings World of Greyhawk [2] and the Forgotten Realms . [3] The concept of a dungeon that spanned a planet was first introduced by Gary Gygax in his D-series of game modules [4] and at the end of the G-series. The Underdark was described in detail in the 1986 manual Dungeoneer's Survival Guide , by Doug Niles. [5] It was also part of the Eberron campaign setting, in which it was called Khyber and was home to evil beings driven deep into the caverns at the end of the age of 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 Neverwinter Nights called 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 fungus; most Underdark inhabitants either have highly developed senses other than sight or have developed darkvision. [note 1] Food can be extremely difficult to find, and much of the natural vegetation is poisonous. In addition, 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 Forgotten Realms setting, Araumycos (Dwarvish, literally meaning "Great Fungus") is an enormous fungal growth in the Upper Underdark under the continent of Faerûn. It is a single organism living beneath 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:

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, R.A. Salvatore created the 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.

Related Research Articles

Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drow</span> Dungeons & Dragons fictional creature

The drow or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of elves connected to the subterranean Underdark in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have traditionally been portrayed as generally evil and connected to the evil spider goddess Lolth. However, later editions of Dungeons & Dragons have moved away from this portrayal and preassigned alignment. More recent publications have explored drow societies unconnected to Lolth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drizzt Do'Urden</span> Fictional character from Dungeons & Dragons

Drizzt Do'Urden is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Salvatore created him on a whim when his publisher needed him to replace one of the characters in an early version of the first book, The Crystal Shard. Drizzt has since become a popular heroic character of the Forgotten Realms setting, and has been featured as the main character of a long series of books, starting chronologically with The Dark Elf Trilogy. As an atypical drow, Drizzt has forsaken both the evil ways of his people and their home in the Underdark, in the drow city of Menzoberranzan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menzoberranzan</span> Fictional setting in Dungeons & Dragons

Menzoberranzan, the "City of Spiders", is a fictional city-state in the world of the Forgotten Realms, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The city is located in the Upper Northdark, about two miles below the Surbrin Vale, between the Moonwood and the Frost Hills. It is famed as the birthplace of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonist of several series of best-selling novels by noted fantasy author R. A. Salvatore. Menzoberranzan has been developed into a video game and a tabletop RPG setting.

Faerûn is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described in detail in several editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting with the most recent being the 5th edition from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more depth in separate campaign setting books. Around a hundred novels, several computer and video games and a film use Faerûn as the setting.

<i>Queen of the Demonweb Pits</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Queen of the Demonweb Pits (Q1) is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game written by David Sutherland. The "Q" in the module code is an abbreviation for "queen". The module, a sequel to the D series of modules, was novelized in 2001.

<i>Descent into the Depths of the Earth</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Descent Into the Depths of the Earth is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game coded D1–2. It was written by Gary Gygax, and combines two previously published modules from 1978, the original Descent into the Depths of the Earth and Shrine of the Kuo-Toa. A sequel to the first two modules, Vault of the Drow, was also published in 1978. All of these D-series modules were produced for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules.

<i>Against the Giants</i> Role-playing game adventure by Gary Gygax

Against the Giants is an adventure module written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1981 for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It combines the G series of modules previously published in 1978: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King. All three were produced for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. In 1999, to recognize the 25th anniversary of TSR, the company released an updated version, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff. Later in 1999, Wizards of the Coast published a novelization of Against the Giants by Ru Emerson.

Dwarf (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional playable humanoid race

A dwarf, in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game, is a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for player characters. The idea for the D&D dwarf comes from the dwarves of European mythologies and J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), and has been used in D&D and its predecessor Chainmail since the early 1970s. Variations from the standard dwarf archetype of a short and stout demihuman are commonly called subraces, of which there are more than a dozen across many different rule sets and campaign settings.

<i>The Crystal Shard</i> 1988 novel by R. A. Salvatore

The Crystal Shard is a 1988 fantasy novel by American writer R. A. Salvatore. The first book in The Icewind Dale Trilogy, it was his first published novel.

Elf (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional humanoid race

The elf is a humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, one of the primary races available for player characters, and play a central role in the narratives of many setting worlds of the game. Elves are described as renowned for their grace and mastery of magic and weapons such as the bow and sword. Becoming physically mature by the age of 25 and emotionally mature at around 125, they are also famously long-lived, capable of living more than half a millennium and remaining physically youthful. Possessed of innate beauty and easy gracefulness, they are viewed as both wondrous and haughty by other races in-universe; however, their natural detachment is seen by some as introversion or xenophobia. They were usually portrayed as antagonistic towards dwarves.

Kobold (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional species in Dungeons & Dragons

Kobolds are a fictional race of humanoid creatures, featured in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and other fantasy media. They are generally depicted as small reptilian humanoids with long tails, distantly related to dragons.

<i>Homeland</i> (Forgotten Realms novel) 1990 novel by R. A. Salvatore

Homeland is a fantasy novel by American writer R. A. Salvatore, the first book in The Dark Elf Trilogy, a prequel to The Icewind Dale Trilogy. It follows the story of Drizzt Do'Urden from the time and circumstances of his birth and his upbringing amongst the drow.

Lich (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Undead creature in "Dungeons & Dragons"

The lich is an undead creature found in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Liches are spellcasters who seek to defy death by magical means.

The Legend of Drizzt is a series of fantasy novels by R. A. Salvatore that began in 1988, and consists of 39 books as of August 15, 2023. They are based in the Forgotten Realms setting in the dimension of Abeir-Toril on the continent Faerûn in the Dungeons & Dragons universe currently published and owned by Wizards of the Coast. It combines the series The Dark Elf Trilogy, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, Legacy of the Drow, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, and other sets into an abridged compilation. Drizzt Do'Urden is the main character of most of the books.

The half-elf is a player character race featured in Dungeons & Dragons and related material.

<i>Underdark</i> (supplement)

The Underdark sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

<i>Menzoberranzan</i> (video game) 1994 video game

Menzoberranzan is a 1994 role-playing video game created by Strategic Simulations (SSI) and DreamForge Intertainment. Menzoberranzan uses the same game engine as SSI's previous game, Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession (1994), and is set in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

<i>Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue</i> Dungeons & Dragons supplement

Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue is a system-neutral supplement to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game published towards the end of 4th edition.

References

  1. ↑ Hall, Charlie (September 2, 2015). "Out of the Abyss: D&D's next campaign goes deep into the Underdark". Polygon . Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  2. ↑ Mona, Erik; Holian, Gary; Reynolds, Sean K.; Weining, Frederick (2000). Living Greyhawk Gazetteer . Wizards of the Coast. ISBN   0-7869-1743-1.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Cordell, Bruce R.; Kestrel, Gwendolyn F. M.; Quick, Jeff (2003). Underdark . Wizards of the Coast. ISBN   0-7869-3053-5.
  4. 1 2 Baichtal, John (February 26, 2010). "D&D's Underdark Describes a Vast and Perilous Realm". Wired. Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  5. 1 2 Bambra, Jim (October 1986). "Open Box". White Dwarf . Games Workshop (82): 2.
  6. ↑ Wyatt, James; Baker, Keith; Johnson, Luke (January 2006). Player's Guide to Eberron . Wizards of the Coast.
  7. 1 2 "Pyramid Review: Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark". Pyramid . January 21, 2000. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  8. ↑ Lummis, Michael; Pleet, Kathleen; Kern, Edwin; Ricketts, Kurt; Burton, Christopher (2004). Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, Official Strategy Guide. Brady Games. ISBN   0-7440-0341-5.
  9. ↑ Jacob, Merle; Apple, Hope (2000). To be Continued: An Annotated Guide to Sequels. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 251. ISBN   1-57356-155-X.
  10. ↑ Cappellini, Matt (November 30, 2000). "Blockbusters Make Christmas Bright". 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

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.