From the Heavens, to the Far Deep

From the irradiated wastelands of the surface to the unknown darkness of the Far Deep, the world of Araea is one of extremes. Against all odds, life has taken root beneath the ground in vast caverns and labyrinthine tunnels. The din of civilization echo in polluted and crowded pockets. The bold and the desperate brave the unexplored dark in search of glory and gold. Even after centuries of crawling through the dark, much of Araea remains shrouded in mystery... And peril.
  Araea is a bleak and dangerous world, full of terror and wonder in equal measure. Mankind is not the master of this world, but children fumbling in the dark.
 
 
 
 
 
  The Surface is the land beneath the uncaring stars. It is a world of jagged mountains and wind-swept deserts, of irradiated wastelands pocketed by star-strikes and storms that rage across continents. It is a land where only the bold or crazed seek their fortune.
  The Surface of Araea is a barren place. Water is scarce except in the form of massive glaciers. There are no oceans, only rivers and small lakes or toxic swamps. The most common terrain across the Surface is rocky and desolate. Much of the surface is lethally irradiated, making travel dangerous. Travelers frequently wear charms said to ward of the Blight, typically with poor results.
  In places, the Surface is torn open and break into the tunnels and caverns of the Outer Shell, allowing sunlight to bleed into the dark. These places are links to the surface, allowing the bold to explore the forbidden lands above or life to bloom in these sheltered, sunlit gardens, or allow theSurface to invade the dark and poison to seep in from above.
 

Blight
  Radiation is a constant hazard on the surface. Entire continents of the planets are shrouded by lethal storms and even the most benign lands of the Surface are still tainted with poison. Called "Blight" by the denizens of Araea, it is a poorly understood and frequently fatal phenomenon.
  Read more about Blight

  Despite the dangers, the Surface is not empty. Rare pockets of life thrive along the edges of the glaciers or in unrecognizable forms in the cosmic-blasted mountain peaks and irradiated valleys. Nomadic tribes of exiles and mutants eke out a terrible existence in the wastes, while strange lights in the night herald the arrival of strangers from beyond the stars. Towers of white stone have been sighted deep in the blighted wastes where no one could or should survive.
  Few human structures grace the surface world. Those that do belong either to prospectors, explorers, or star-crazed cults. Greed drives them here, even among all the dangers of the Surface, and they gather in hunting camps or desperate settlements. No matter what walls they raise or lands they claim to own, humanity are only visitors here, at the mercy of the Surface's true masters.
  The Surface is a cold place, with temperatures frequently plunging below freezing all year. Temperatures reach their highest point in the Season of Fire, for a brief temperate climate accompanied by sweeps of heightened radiation and blight-storms. They drop to their lowest in the Season of Dark, when much of the surface becomes encased in ice and darkness.
 

The Howling Plains
  A great stretch of the equator is dominated by a great, flat plain that may in some unimaginable distant past been the bottom of an ocean long since worn down by meteoric barrage and eroding winds. The storms are near-constant now, giving the plains their name. Particularly dangerous are the irradiated dust-storms, with winds that can flay the flesh from bone.

  Just beneath the skin of the world, the Outer Shell goes only a few miles deep below the surface. Halfway between the true depths and the dangerous Surface, it has neither the riches nor unique ecosystem of the Inner Shell nor the blight-riddled host of terrors of the Surface. The caverns here are smaller than those deeper down, with tunnels winding for many miles between them. Like the surface, water is scarce and usually comes in the form of trickling streams or rivers from glaciers that lie above. Those who settle here do so near one of these precious sources of freshwater, sometimes forced to venture to the Above in search of ice.
 
  Other dangers make the Outer Shell a daunting place to live. Earthquakes, meteorite impacts or sudden sinkholes all threaten to crush settlements or cut them off from vital resources. Shifting patterns of radiation cause the Blight to sometimes creeps down into the tunnels or pollute their streams. Still, there are opportunities here for the daring. Most business ventures in the Outer Shell are for the rare resources that can only be found on the Surface. Danger does little to discourage these sorts of enterprises, no matter how many fail.
 
  Deep into the dark and far from the sun, the Inner Shell is the most populated region of Araea. A vast subterranean world, the Inner Shell is home to caverns that stretch for miles, tunnels large enough to fit giants, mushrooms as tall as men, rivers of magma, and subterranean oceans. At the highest points of the Inner Shell, the caverns taper off, and the tunnels become smaller as they approach and merge with the Outer Shell. The opposite is true as the Inner Shell meets the Far Deep, where the caverns grow monumental in size and ever more alien.
 

The Abyss
  While the Inner Shell is home to countless underground lakes and rivers, the Abyss dwarfs them all. An underground ocean of titanic scope and depth, the Abyss is a world unto itself and there is life in the inky black waters.
 

by Marvin Herbring

  Different layers of ore and rock create a rich tapestry of color and texture, painted with lichen and bioluminescent fungi that ooze pools of light in the vast darkness. Quartz and crystal, sometimes growing to enormous proportions, create great and tangled spires, while dying magma vents leave behind vaults of obsidian.
  Temperature and climate vary greatly between the stretch of the Inner Shell from cold, wet, and unpleasant to unbearably hot, with everything in between. Blight is rare in the depths, though not unknown, but the pollution from cities and human filth more than make up for it.
  Cities and villages have grown to fill the space in the forking, twisting tunnels and the large caverns. These settlements are sprawling, disjointed things, separated by chasm or connected through labyrinthine tunnels. But for all their size and industry, civilization remains very much a flickering light, surrounded by a vast unknown dark.
 
 
  Beyond the Inner Shell and following miles of shafts or ancient magma tubes, deep into the world lies the Far Deep. It is an alien world, where titanic cthonic worms to the much-feared mind-hunting Shrikes stalk nameless lands. The caverns and tunnels of the Far Deep are the largest and most expansive, with bottomless chasms and hollow sprawls mingling with rivers of black ice and fire.
  For every truth, there are ten legends about the true nature of the Far Deep and what it contains; from the birthplace of the world to a paradise to those who can push past it. Like the Surface, the Far Deep draws explorers, prospectors, and adventurers with enough coming back with wealth and glory to perpetuate the cycle.