Underground¶

"The underground of Cadwallon is the hunting ground of many explorers looking for riches. The city's underground is buzzing with many important activities, with their own codes and own rules."

Beneath the streets of Cadwallon lies a vertical history of the world: the Cadwë sewers atop the Cynwäll Ruins atop the Sphinx city atop the Ophidian temple atop, at the very bottom, Desire's prison and the Labyrinth that seals it. To dig in Cadwallon is to dig backward through time — and the deeper you go, the older and hungrier the things you find.

The Three Types of Underground¶

The source classifies the underground into three kinds:

Inhabited — colonized sites: hideouts, meeting grounds, troglodyte communities. Quiet by default. (e.g. the Walled Library, Glory-Hunt, the Court of Ashes)
Unexplored — the ancient ruins Cadwallon was built on. Most hazardous: ancient magical defenses, traps, wild creatures. Calm by default. (e.g. the deep Cynwäll Ruins, the sewers)
Depths of the sea — sunken treasures and ruins in the bay; largely unexplored; predators and drowning. (e.g. Shipwreck Bay)

The Vertical Layers¶

From the surface down:

The Sewers — Cadwë and Cynwäll wastewater network; surface pipes in the lower city; the oasis (hidden Water Elementals); the Demijohn (The Rags)
The Cynwäll Ruins — the elven city Cadwallon was built on; the Walled Library; the quarries
The Sphinx vestiges — older still; Light-animated technology; the Automaton's roots; the Tomb of the Masks
The Ophidian Vestiges — the Serpent temple to Vortiris; coiling tunnels; the great ossuary; Ss'Alish's crypt
The Stairway to Nowhere — the threshold beyond time
The Labyrinth — Conscience's divine maze; the litioc walls; at its heart, Desire's prison and the Garden of Desire

Major Underground Sites¶

Exploration & Community¶

Glory-Hunt — the Circle of Explorers base camp; "night rights"; gateway to the deep Cynwäll city (in 02 City / on-demand)
Walled Library — Cynwäll archive guarded by an Earth Elemental; the Order of the Chimera; S'ylice in the coiling depths (on-demand)
Court of Ashes — Sophet Drahas's throne hall and "fief" (see Sophet Drahas)

The Ruins¶

Cynwäll Ruins — the buried elven city
Utopia of the Sphinx — the Sphinx vestiges and the Tomb of the Masks
Ophidian Vestiges — the Serpent temple, ossuary, and coiling tunnels
Marine Ruins — Ss'Alish's flooded crypt beneath Buoyancy Bay

The Deep Mystery¶

The Labyrinth — the divine maze
The Litiocs — the smooth grey walls that blind those who strike them
Stairway to Nowhere — the flight of steps beyond time
Garden of Desire — the Unfinished Realm at the maze's heart (in 07 Cosmology)

The Waterways¶

The Sewers — the working network and its secrets
Shipwreck Bay — the depths of the sea; the way of the dead (on-demand)

Who Goes Down There¶

Shrews — explorers seeking vestige-riches; pay "night rights" or work as free leaguers
The Architects — vestige study, catacrypt survey, the secret Tractor bore
The Sewer Workers and Rags — the shallow, working layers
The Tarot-Mages — guarding the "corridors" to the Labyrinth
Sophet Drahas's Court of Shadows — dwelling in the Court of Ashes
The Ophidians — S'ylice (living) and Ss'Alish (undead), surviving Serpent holdouts
Cynwäll spies — watching what the shrews bring up

The Standing Dangers¶

Litiocs — strike one and go blind for hours or years
Time-warping — the Labyrinth runs on its own clock; Yelmor lost 146 years and thought it was days
The tide of the dead — heavy rain floods corpses up from the necropoli; necromancers exploit the flow
Ancient defenses — Sphinx traps and constructs still guard the deep ruins
Madness — those who cross the Labyrinth threshold rarely return sane

The whole underground is one organism now

Since 999, Desire's waking has begun to connect the layers. Grove-roots tunnel through the Labyrinth into the Cynwäll ruins; the litiocs surface in the upper catacrypts; warm water bleeds from outfalls under the Garden of Desire; the Tractor bore hits Sphinx barriers; the Ophidian remnants stir. The underground is no longer a stack of dead history — it is becoming a single waking system, and the city sits on its lid.