The Underdark

Before the Cosmic invasion The Underdark was known to be a subterranean realm that has existed under Dephiron. This realm consists of a seemingly infinite network of tunnels and caverns that run beneath the surface of the world, spanning across and between entire continents. Its environment is hostile and uninviting to surface-dwellers, and only the bravest of adventurers dare to travel its bleak depths. There is no complete map of the entire underdark since it is always changing with the various creatures carving new tunnels and cave systems as well as some of the races building cities. It has no centralized government either and its divided into various city states where each have their own style of government. The Underdark is a realm that was deprived of sunlight, and those that inhabit it are extremely sensitive and cannot tolerate sunlight. It has very limited essential resources such as food and water. Food was often stolen from the surface as those that dwell the underdark hunt during the night and raid the surface for livestock or whatever those citizens of the underdark could get there hands on. Unsuccessful hunts would result in desperate times meaning those citizens would cannibalize there dead first should they not have enough they will start to cannibalize living. As for water it does not rain in the underdark since it is underneath the surface of Dephiron and some other planes of existence. Water does drip down into these caves slowly forming anywhere from small pools of water to massive underwater lakes that different races and cities fight for as water is hoarded resource.

The Underdark has always been considered somewhat of an underground prison holding slaves and other prisoner surface dwellers that were captured by the inhabitants of the underdark but it was also considered a prison holding the most wicked and evil dark entities that were sealed beneath Dephiron where some are just voices that can be heard from beyond the chamber while others are in eternal slumber unable to wake up and should they wake up part of the seal will be undone. The more powerful entities are sealed in the lowest parts of the Underdark so should they escape these entities must crawl through majority of the underdark to resurface once again. However ever since the cosmic invasion occurred almost all those that inhabit the underdark have fled to the surface as many refuse to talk about the horrors they saw down there as those that have survived have nightmares of what they had to endure almost as if it is just one lasting nightmare. The deeper one goes into the underdark the stranger and more horrifying it gets as some have described it as experiencing ones greatest nightmare through hallucinations however these hallucinations are more than just illusions they seem real. Some have even claimed that those entities sealed in the underdark some have been released while others have awakened from there eternal slumber as there chambers warp and twist the underdark into unimaginable horrors.

## Layers of the Underdark

*There are three official layers of the Underdark within the world of Dephiron while the fourth one is being debated whether it is a layer or something else entirely. Those that reside in the Underdark and the Void Empire agree that the supposed fourth layer is something else entirely, while majority of the surface dwellers believe that the Underdark actually has four layers instead of three. It is also worth noting that the Underdark also exists in different planes of existence known as the Feywild and Shadowfell, however the Underdark is called the Feydark and the Shadowdark respectively.*

* Upper Dark
* Middle Dark
* Lower Dark
* The Void