D&D General Brainstorming Exandria's Underdark 800 Years after Torog's Banishment

[Hexmage-EN]

I've decided to prepare a short Underdark campaign in the world of Exandria. Seeing as Exandria's Underdark is almost completely undescribed as of now and the Exandrian pantheon and origin story are very similar to those of the 4E default setting I'm going to be drawing heavily on the 4E Underdark book for inspiration.

In 4E's Underdark, the god Torog is the ultimate being in charge and is physically present within it (due to a curse set upon him by the primordial Gargash). The Underdark itself is a chaotic place, especially as you go deeper. There are portals to the Elemental Chaos and even the Far Realm. Torog, while an evil god of suffering, imprisonment, and slavery, also keeps the inhabitants of the Underdark in check and makes sure potential threats to his rule do not emerge from these portals.

In Exandrian lore Torog is stated to have once dwelled in the Underdark, as he was stated to have in 4E. However, at some point during the war between gods known as the Calamity the deities Moradin, Pelor, Raei, and Sehanine used a trap called the King's Cage to banish Torog to the Far Realm.

If previously Torog was barring extraplanar invaders (especially ones from the Far Realm) from establishing footholds in the Underdark and is now himself imprisoned in the Far Realm, what state does that leave the Exandrian Underdark in approximately 800 years later?

One section of the Tal'Dorei sourcebook states that Lolthite drow civilization is crumbling in the face of threats from aberrations, while the Wildemount sourcebook has the drow of the Kryn Dynasty relocated to the surface under the worship of the Luxon. Lolth clearly isn't fulfilling the role Torog once played.

So what's going on in the Exandrian Underdark? Is Torog capable of doing anything while in the Far Realm to keep his former domain from being invaded? Does he care, or is he actively encouraging an invasion as a form of revenge? Are the various aberrations swelling in numbers? Is any organization (religious or secular) doing anything to fill the void left by Torog's absence?

My initial idea is that the mindflayers themselves may be trying to keep Far Realm portals closed to prevent anything else from interfering with their plans. I may bring back the disruptive cult of Thoon (a mysterious Far Realm entity) from previous editions as a reason for the development of the mindflayer empire to be delayed.

There might even be heretical mindflayer clerics of Torog desperate to try and restore the relative stability the god had provided with his influence. Despite these obstacles, a large and developed mind flayer empire still seems like a very likely danger to rise from the depths.

Considering the sheer number of brains a mind flayer society would need to consume just to survive, I'm also considering throwing these things into the mix:

Deepspawn haven't been seen since 3.5, but they could provide a means for a mind flayer colony to feed itself without constantly acquiring captives. A deepspawn is capable of producing clones of any natural creature they've consumed (at the age the creature was when it was consumed) provided they are kept fed. Though deepspawn themselves are highly intelligent, powerful entities who use these mind-controlled clones as their own personal armies, I could see particularly advanced mind flayer cities capturing and enslaving these things to produce large numbers of adult humanoid clones to feed the populace (although given that these clones are born without memories I'd assume their brains wouldn't be particularly enjoyable to consume). I don't know if the deepspawn have ever been officially tied to the Far Realm, but it seems like a safe assumption.

With Torog gone maybe the mind flayers have found ways to summon deepspawn from the Far Realm just for the sake of establishing particularly nightmarish factory farms. Conveniently for gaming purposes, they also represent a monstrous target to take out to cripple a mind flayer city.

Going back to 4E lore for inspiration, there's another candidate who could pose a major threat: Gargash, the primordial who bound Torog to the Underdark in the first place.

4E's Underdark sourcebook states that Gargash is still alive, his body thoroughly mangled into a quivering mass known as the Restless Heaps. Torog's devoted constantly strike at the primordial's unrecognizable form to stall its regeneration. Despite this, Gargash continues to try and restore himself.

It could be that Torog's faithful, even 800 years after the Crawling King's banishment, are still hard at work making sure the Restless Heaps remain a helpless mass of gore. It could also be that someone or something else recognized the threat and has worked to prevent Gargash's recovery. Otherwise there's been plenty of time for the primordial to regenerate and establish himself as the lord of Exandria's Underdark, one not bound to it like Torog was and free to emerge upon the surface of the world.

 

[Aldarc]

One idea that I did like from Mearls’s vision for Nentir Vale was the idea that the Crawling God would occasionally pull things from the surface world down to the Underdark or translocate things from the Underdark to the surface. I used this, for example, to explain why the Sunless Citadel is underground.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Oh yeah, Exandria's Torog definitely did the same. I think that's the backstory for Wildemount's pallid elf subrace.

 

[dave2008]

I like your thinking. Personally I would weave the mindflayers and primordials together. The mindflayers are instrumental in keep the primordial tamed. However, if the PCs eliminate the mindflayers, the primordial will resurrect in short order. Obviously the mindflayers have other plots, but the consequence for stopping the mindflayers could be worse the the mindflayers.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I need to figure out what the beholders and aboleths and such are doing, too.

In 4E beholders originated in the Hatchlands deep within the Underdark, where they would emerge from eggs of stone filled with energy from the Far Realm before making the journey to the surface. I'm not certain if I want to stick with that origin or use the method described in Volo's Guide.

Aboleth reform in the Plane of Water if their body is destroyed, but they're also frequently found in the Underdark. The Savage Tide adventure path had an example of a dried-out aboleth city I could mine for information. I get the feeling that out of the primary Underdark aberrations they'd be the ones most interested in attracting the attention of an Elder Evil of the Far Realm.

BTW, I'm making a kitbashed rukarazyll mini (my first attempt at kitbashing, in fact) and plan to update that monster to 5E because a fungus-infested chaotic evil earth elemental seems like the perfect horror to stumble upon in the Underdark.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

A few scattered thoughts as I think on this more:

• According to EGtW, the Abyss existed before the war against the primordials, and it was the war that attracted them to the world that would become Exandria. Perhaps some of the primordials and their elemental creations sought alliances with the denizens of the Abyss and even relocated to that plane following their defeat at the hands of the gods. Unlike 4E, where the Abyss transformed primordials and elementals into demons because Tharizdun formed it in the Elemental Chaos and pulled them into its grasp, the case in Exandria could be that some of the surviving primordials and their forces could have willingly become part of demonkind. A number of demon lords established throughout the editions are particularly elemental-like (Alzrius, Lissa'aere, Zuregurex, etc).
• Continuing from the first point, these elementals-turned-demons would have a vested interest in invading the Underdark, the former home of the primordials within Exandria. An old Dragon magazine article introduced elementals specifically-tied to the Temple of Elemental Evil (of which the rukarazyll was one), and 4E introduced a number of demons with clear ties to the elements, particularly in Demonomicon (the fire-based immolith, and ice-based jarrlak, and earth-based writhing crag are particular favorites of mine).
• Beyond demonic elementals, a number of elementals from older editions certainly look like the creations of chaotic elemental deities. I just browsed through the AD&D Monster Manual II last night and found a water elemental that looks like a blob supported by five chicken legs and ringed with hoses that it sprays water from at high force. The tojanida and arrowhawk are fun weirdo elementals as well. Maybe these unique elementals still lurk in the deepest vaults of the Underdark as prehistoric beasts?

 

[BRayne]

Just for note there are named settlements for many underdark groups mostly in the Tal'Dorei guide and early Campaign one:
Yug'Voril is the most notable as it was the location of the final battle of the first streamed arc and is a settlement of Mindflayers
Emberhold is relatively close and played a role in those early episodes and is a center of Duergar
Ruhn-Shak is the major Drow settlement in Tal'Dorei
Salar is the ruined capitol of the Aboleth empire and still acts as a large settlement of them

Yug'Voril and Emberhold are near Kraghammer
Ruhn-Shak is beneath the Stormcrest mountains, closest to Syngorn
Salar is located beneath the Bladeshimmer Shoreline and closest to Emon

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I was aware of Yug'Voril and Emberhold, but the latter two are good to know about. Thanks!

 

[Chaosmancer]

I personally feel that for civilizations, having the Mindflayers down there is fairly solid by itself. You know there are likely Drow still down there, even if most fled, and you might have a few other odds and ends, but the Mindflayers being the major power makes sense.

Especially because, one of the easier and darker things I ever did, was figure out Mindflayer's feeding program. I love the idea of the Deepspawn, but thinking about the two things Mindflayers need, I feel like it would be more useful as creating clones for birthing Mindflayers. Cerephomorphisis is a process that requires some rather exacting biological standards, so clones would be perfect, and they wouldn't need to be as common.

For food, Mindflayers breed "cattle" in the form of corrupted humanoids. This is my preferred take on things in the caverns, "savage" tribes that are really just breeding stock and and farms for mindflayers, who much like human farmers, work towards efficiency in keeping the numbers stable, while introducing elements to keep the food tasting good. This could be less efficient than the Deepspawn, but would be "tastier" for the mindflayers. This is the reason Elves in my setting have sworn bloody vengeance against all mindflayers, but you could keep it to troglodytes, grimlocks, or other more "common" underdark foes.


I think keep with the Dream Beholders, and have them be rare little lairs, almost like bubbles in the underdark where they show up and start taking control of an area.


For the Primordial... I kind of like it, but I feel like it is too passive like that. I'd almost like to think that 800 years after Torog is not there to guide the attacks, that the Primordial has evolved or changed, allowing it to begin exerting a spiritual or psychic influence. The body has not recovered, but enough else has found secret ways to knit together into new forms, that the Primordial can begin acting in some manner, instead of just being there and being crushed.