Deep Roads

There isn't a dwarf alive who remembers the Deep Roads as they once were. They were the network of tunnels that joined the thaigs together. To be honest, it isn't even right to give them such a simple term as "tunnels": They are works of art, with centuries of planning demonstrated in the geometry of their walls, with the statues of the Paragons that watch over travelers, with the flow of lava that keeps the Deep Roads lit and warm. The cloudgazers up on the surface talk of the Imperial Highwaybuilt by the magisters of old, a raised walkway that crossed thousands of miles, something that could only have been built by magic. Perhaps it is comparable to the Deep Roads, although we dwarves didn't need magic.

I suppose it doesn't matter any more. The darkspawn rule the Deep Roads now. When Orzammar sealed off the entrances to the Deep Roads, abandoning everything that lay out there, we handed over the kingdom-that-was to those black bastards forever. To think that there are genlocks crawling over Bownammar now, tearing down our statues and defiling our greatest works! Corruption covers everything we built out there. Every dwarf who goes out and comes back says that it gets worse with each passing year, the foulness spread a little further.

And the cloudgazers think the darkspawn are gone just because they aren't spilling out onto the surface? Huh. One day, when Orzammar is gone for good, they'll find out differently. Those darkspawn won't have anywhere else to go but up, and they'll do it. The surface folk will have themselves a Blight that will never end.

—Transcript of a conversation with a member of the dwarven Mining Caste, 8:90 Blessed

## Background

The Deep Roads once linked the thaigs with one another and to the surface. These subterranean highways were works of unparalleled artisan achievement, with centuries of planning and engineering demonstrated in the geometry of their walls. Statues of the Paragons watched over passing travelers, and channels carried a flow of magma that kept the Deep Roads lit and warm.

During the First Blight, the dwarves were forced to close the entrances to the Deep Roads, abandoning them to the darkspawn. The entrances still exist, but all are sealed by octagonal steel doors decorated with geometric patterns that may form words or patterns. These subterranean highways were works of unparalleled artisan achievement, with centuries of planning and engineering demonstrated in the geometry of their walls. At the height of the dwarven empire, the Deep Roads were busy with constant travelers and merchants, not only from the thaigs, but from the surface. If a citizen of the Tevinter Imperium at its height were to see the Deep Roads today, they would be shocked at the silence and decay that now reigns within.

This once-proud creation is now the source of much lament for what the dwarves have lost. Today, only two thaigs remain inhabited: Kal-Sharok deep beneath the Hunterhorn Mountains and the Orzammar beneath the Frostback Mountains.

How much of the network is still open is unknown, as is how much of the Deep Roads the darkspawn have corrupted. It has been centuries since the darkspawn invaded the surface, but the fact that it takes the darkspawn some time to break through to the surface (and the fact that they have to break through instead of just emerging) suggests that most of the official entrances are well-sealed. Entering the Deep Roads is very risky and there are many legends of travelers going missing in the hills near these entrances.

## Travel

Travel within the Deep Roads is difficult. Many of the caverns leading down have been partially filled in with rock and earth, either on purpose to keep what is down there from getting to the surface, or through neglect and the passage of time. Many smaller tunnels intersect with the Roads themselves, making navigation even more difficult, but sometimes allowing blockages or other obstacles to be avoided. There is air available even in the deepest portions, as the dwarven craftsmen that built the roads created an intricate duct system to supply it. Natural light however does not reach the Roads so channels of magma, slow-burning torches that have been burning for centuries, and other forms of technological illumination are used to provide light. The intersections have dwarven runes carved into walls, which may indicate directions.

Along the network of passages are abandoned way-stations and forts, as well as the empty ruins of thaigs lost to the darkspawn.

In the more ancient parts of the Deep Roads, the walls and floor are covered with a substance of oil and filth - a visible indication of the taint, spread even to the rock itself, by the darkspawn that now inhabit the Roads.