First appearance: Pieces of a King Ep 1 — DӒMMERUNG · watch it on YouTube
The Underdark is the vast realm under the surface, or at least “whatever iteration of it would exist here in The Void.” It holds dwarven bastion cities, drow conclaves, goblin warrens and kobold dens. Its peoples went to war with the world above and built a weapon to win it. That weapon, The Warmind, turned on its makers. By the time Grimnar Stormclaw’s party stumbled into their camp, the Underdark’s survivors were refugees on the surface, fighting for their lives under a single banner.
Description
The Underdark is home to many peoples: drow, duergar, kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, Illithids and the Kuo-Toa, described as “walking fishmen.” Each kept to its own corners. The dwarves had their bastion cities, the drow their conclaves, the goblins their warrens and the kobolds their dens. They also kept temples, which the invaders from above later raided.
Life down there was famously cut off. Its people lived, quite literally, under a rock and were busy with their own affairs, so news from the Overworld never reached them. Even the name of the Grandmaster means nothing to some of them. The war machines that now hunt them carry a family resemblance to the place. The cannons fielded against them are metallic parodies of Underdark war beasts, rolling on a wheeled back limb, steadied by two three-fingered arms, with a gaping mouth like a dragon’s or a troll’s.
History
The Crusade from Above
The trouble began as a simple war of Underdark against Overworld. Surface-dwellers came down into the dark, invading homes and temples in search of treasure and adventure. The Damaranians from above crusaded into the Underdark and put the people of Trissavin Baenerret to the blade. When she was young, before the crusade, she had dreamed of becoming a priestess and a beacon of hope for her people.
The Weapon
The Underdark was losing badly. Every one of its peoples joined a single coalition “under one banner,” and together they made something to help them win. The Illithids and Duergar brought Trissavin word of the plan: a weapon to protect the inhabitants of the Underdark and repel the Damaranians once and for all. She didn’t believe in it, “but what choice did they have?”
The weapon was the Warmind, and it did not stay on their side. In Trissavin’s words, “It stopped regarding us as allies and started to regard us as resources and obstacles. As it stands, the Warmind means to bring us to extinction.”
The Exodus
When the Warmind turned, the peoples of the Underdark fled their homes for the surface. Old neighbours who had once kept to themselves were thrown together. Trissavin described it this way: “dwarven bastion cities were crossing with drow conclaves, Goblin warrens, kobold dens… There wasn’t enough space for all of us and the walls were closing in.”
Strangers in the Camp
By year 10 of the war, the survivors had dug in at an encampment of stone buildings and tents, as told in Pieces of a King Ep 1 — DӒMMERUNG. Kobolds, duergar and drow eyed the newcomers with deep suspicion. A goblin who had just saved the party’s skins slapped Grimnar on the calf and introduced himself: “Name’s Grym, by the way. You’re welcome for the save. Oh, and welcome to the Rust Blood Alliance.”
In Pieces of a King Ep 2 — THE WAR COUNCIL, the camp was busy with drow, kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears and Kuo-Toa hauling crates, digging trenches and raising barricades. When the party walked in, the record scratched and every head turned. Grim hurried them along. Trissavin told them the war’s history. Gund, the chief artillerist, had worked with her “since the beginning.”
Nehebka didn’t soften her verdict: “So you created your own problem.” Trissavin didn’t argue.
“We made our own problem meant to save us. And now it is our damnation.” (Trissavin)
The camp’s isolation from the wider world showed in the kitchen. Muffy read the chef perfectly and confirmed that he truly had no idea who the Grandmaster was. The Underdark had simply never heard the news. Grimnar was taken aback: “This has never happened to me before.”
In Pieces of a King Ep 3 — The Warhead, the war came to Trissavin’s squad directly. A bolter cannon built in the image of an Underdark war beast rolled straight past Muffy, who swung at it and missed entirely. It fired an explosive bolt into Trissavin’s squad. Her drow guards locked their shields into “a metal lotus” around her, and all of them were left standing.
Notable Figures
- Grim: the goblin who rescued the party and welcomed them to the Rust Blood Alliance.
- Trissavin Baenerret: a drow who once dreamed of being a priestess and now fights, with her own squad, in the war against the Warmind.
- Gund: chief artillerist of the alliance, who has worked with Trissavin “since the beginning.”
- The Warmind: the weapon the Underdark built to save itself, now bent on its extinction.