Undercities

Life in the Underhollows, like that on the surface, is focused - socially, politically and spiritually - on the cities. Different lineages have radically different approaches to architecture and civic planning, however, and while very few of the Undercities remain home to just a single lineage, each was built in and retains a distinctive style.   Myconid colonies are established in large chambers within the Caverns. With their love of moisture and warmth, myconids favour chambers with moisture and warmth, and the colonies are typically constructed around stalagmites. and stalactites, as myconids also live and build on the ceilings of their home caverns. The colonies recognise that, in the Underhollows, defence is more important than shelter, and myconids do not have houses, per se, instead raising organic barriers to protect entrances and control movement within the colony. For the most part, the colony's infrastructure is composed of an adaptable, sub-sapient fungal carpet which can be manipulated to rapidly shape into walls and utilities. The colonies are lit by bioluminescent fungi.   For the comfort and privacy of non-myconid diplomats, visitors and residents, the colony will raise sheltering structures using a mechanism of dissolution and deposit by which the fungal infra­structure strips particulates from the stone and reassembles them into a smooth, solid surface. These structures have a delicate, fluted appearance, which some find distressingly organic, and others exceptionally beautiful.   The Derro delvings are deep excavations, often in areas rejected by other lineages for their proximity to foul influences. The delvings are always works of great craft and art. They work with the same attention to detail and finish as any dwarf artificer, but where dwarf holds are built from dressed stone, demo cut back and sculpt the living stone of the Under hollows, carving the walls themselves. While the demo have a reputation for being unkempt savages, their delvings are always immaculate.   Great sinkholes connect the floor of the Coronal Sea to the Underhollows, dark, cold salt water rising into the fathomless, immeasurable pools of the Undersea, home to deepfolk, hunting grounds of the Merrow, and nursery of embryonic sea monsters. It is the deep folk who fashion cities from the stone and coral of the shores of the Undersea. Low towers rise up to house visitors and incomers, while the bulk of the city lies below the lightless waters.   By contrast, Jaskinisse crofts blaze with light, usually the result of small magics. While the deep Gnomes have superb dark vision, they also have an abiding love of light. While they walk the tunnels in darkness, at home they bask in illumination. The same is true of the Kindled vaults, where great sun stones allow the growth of green plants. It is not uncommon for gnomes to occupy the airy spaces of a vault's roof, maintaining the structure in exchange for establishing a croft over the ash elf city.   Lastly, Hollower Holds are lit only by forge hires, the Dwarfs of the deep relying on keen eyes and the dark light of the Underhollows. Here and there, however, metal forged to a master's standard flares as it discharges arcane flux from the strange atmosphere of the Hollows.