Compared to the relative stability and order of the world, the Dark Below is a chaotic and unforgiving place. It is a realm stretching beneath the entire surface of the planet. Its endless tunnels, chasms, passageways are easy to get lost in. Finding one's way through the Dark Below is the primary objective of any traveler brave enough to enter. Tectonic activity causes frequent earthquakes the deeper one goes, which collapses tunnels and creates new pathways.
The Dark Below is home to many monstrous races in Ilisara, including the Inferni and their ilk. Driders, minotaurs, giant subterranean centipedes, and other creatures can be found there. It is inhospitable to outsiders. The Dark Elves and Dark Dwarves have managed to make their homes among its dangerous depths.
a mutating and deeply flawed jumble of environments and ecosystems, and these surreal flaws in its reality affect all creatures that spend any great deal of time in its depths.
In the days of creation, the gods busied themselves with projects on the surface world. Many gods ventured a short distance into the earth. A few, notably Duros, went even deeper. But none of the gods fully understood the crude immensity of the world beneath the surface, least of all Arth.
When the world was young, Arth and Vandun sought to destroy Ilisara and remake it in their image because the other gods and goddesses did not allow them to shape the world as they saw fit. Vandun convinced Arth to use the legendary gemstone of the orcs, Ultimar, to descend to Ilisara’s core and destroy it. Ultimar’s wielder is given immunity to all harm. Arth agreed and became a conduit for Vandun’s power.
Arth burrowed deep within Ilisara with Ultimar, seeking the planet’s heart. When he arrived, Ultimar shattered under the intense heat, pressure, and radiation of the newly-arcana-infused core. The detonation gravely wounded Arth, and his anguished screams and painful thrashing shook the earth itself. He immediately sought his way to the surface.
Arth’s regenerative blood magic kept him alive for some time. He dragged himself through the earth, bleeding and oozing each time his body scraped another yard forward. The way led down, not up. In his pain and rage, Arth surged through the Dark Below, slamming through its unfinished creation, tearing apart its walls and floors and caverns. He madly searched for a route back into the surface and the world of the gods.
For months, then years, then decades, Arth blazed his blood-soaked path through the subterranean worlds. Eons later, the bloody tracks he left during this rampage have still not healed. Arth’s blood marked the ever-mutating rock of the Dark Below. Touched by the god's blood and by his terrible intent, the trails of his passage- now called the Red Highway- became permanent features, something greater than the misery that had birthed them.
It is only when Arth chanced close enough to the surface for his screams to be heard that Vandun rescued his immortal spirit. Arth’s body was left behind, forever imprisoned in the Dark Below he left behind.
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