Zul

> *Note: This is player-created lore. Ping @NicoAkira on the Discord if you have questions.*
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Somewhere in the Underdark, one may find the citadel of Zul. Populated primarily by duergar, it's a harsh city filled with a harsh people; it's a simple fact of life here that if you don't use someone to get ahead, they'll use you.

## Government

Zul is ruled by kratocracy—whoever can seize power, takes it. It results in an unstable oligarchy with the few largest and most powerful clans jockeying for power, which changes hands with some frequency.

The clans are often large, a few even with hundreds of members and smaller factions within them, and are related within themselves by blood, marriage, and adoption. Members are expected to remain completely loyal to their clan, always working towards its improved standing, but not necessarily to its other individual members. If one's standing within the clan can be bettered, and the clan's overall standing at least unaffected if not bettered as well, little is off limits.

Political marriages are common, though alliances rarely last, and any tie can be undone. While not unheard of, adoption into clans is uncommon, but bloodlines generally aren't cared for—all that matters is which clan you can claim, and which will claim you. Those belonging to low-standing clans are treated as second-class citizens, while those unlucky few who have no clan at all are below even them.

Standing, wealth, and political clout are nearly synonymous, and the social ladder is simple to climb, though not necessarily easy—gain any one of the three, especially wealth, and the others tend to follow. Lose that wealth, however, and the others go with it, even resulting in expulsion from the clan if you've damaged its standing in the process.

## Spice Trade

While a number of plants and fungus are cultivated in and around the citadel, cave-grown produce tends to be bland. Due to the difficulty of acquiring external spices, the use of such became a mark of status, with the wealthy favoring richly flavored foods—the spicier, the better. The traders themselves, however, occupy an odd spot in society, dealing by necessity with the poorly considered surface folk. That their spices are highly desired has turned them to a necessary evil, their clans wealthy outcasts.

Those caring for surface-dwelling livestock are held in similar disdain as they need to bring their livestock to the surface to keep them healthy. Cave-dwelling livestock exist, but their surface-dwelling counterparts are considered tastier and something of a delicacy, and so those who keep them are considered both a blight on society and traders of precious commodities.

## Clan Ormont

In ages past, a ragtag group of malcontents formed among the lower classes of Zul. This group eventually quit the citadel altogether, an act all but unheard of before or since, and traveled to the surface, forever marking themselves as outcasts and traitors to their clans and former way of life. Together, they became those who went "over mountain," a phrase that spawned the name they came to be known by: Clan Ormont.

The Ormonts built a small village on the mountainside, hidden deep within a bog. Little is known of their lives there, as they kept themselves secluded, the reasons for which are a source of speculation. Some theorize they maintained a sense of superiority over other surface folk. Others say they were fed up with the constant backstabbing they considered synonymous with larger groups. Still others claim that they'd have faced distrust and discrimination in any place nearby and likely wished to avoid such things—if it was a choice at all.

At some point in the late 2200s, an aboleth by the name of Soortach appeared in the Ormonts' village and offered an ultimatum: "Submit alone or fall together." The clan fell. Those who offered any sort of resistance were dealt a swift death, and those who submitted without resistance had their very wills enslaved.

Among the latter group was a young woman named Kalla who, through sheer chance and happenstance, escaped Soortach's influence some sixty years later and eventually made her way to the continent, arriving in New Gork in 2329, at the beginning of season 3.5. Finally putting her past to rest with the confrontation of the Deathstrider, which had become a surrogate for Soortach in her mind, she changed her name to Kalla Burya and remained in New Gork for the rest of her days.