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Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
Continuing on with our exploration of the Underdark I wanted to go into more detail
on the races of the Underdark.
How they came to live in this creepy subterranean world.
Let’s dive in!
Kuo-Toa!
The reverse mermaids.
They have a humanoid body and the head of a fish.
Way back in Faerun history, I assume during the Dawn Age, or earlier, the Kuo-Toa lived on the surface,
inhabiting shores and islands.
They were driven underground by humans and their surface friends.
The Kuo-Toa have adapted to live in darkness after thousands of years below the surface
and they can no longer abide sunlight.
The Kuo-Toa were captured by the Illithids in the Underdark and their entire race went
mad from the Mind Flayers psychic invasions.
Those that escaped started new tribes of Kuo-Toa and started worshiping made up gods to protect
them from the Drow and Illithids.
Normally imaginary gods are imaginary, and do nothing to help out a species, but because
of the mind altering intrusions from the Illithids the collective psychic energy brought these
gods to life.
They are not as powerful as full blow Faerun Pantheon deities, but they are supernatural
and strong enough to protect the Kuo-Toa.
The image of these gods is usually nonsensical and random.
The most famously known Kuo-Toa god is.... and forgive me for my pronunciation. Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother.
Who is a female human with the head and hands of a crayfish.
Her shoulders covered in a protective shell.
Because of the Kuo-Toa’s longing for protection when they cross paths with an Aboleth they
will often start to worship that creature as a deity.
The 3.5 Monster Manual says that the Drow and the Kuo-Toa have an understanding and
tolerate one another, but the 5th edition Monster Manual states the Drow and Kuo-Toa kill each other
on sight.
Stuff changes over time.
The Illithids shaped other races in the Underdark.
The Gray Dwarves known as the Duergar were once a tribe of Dwarves that started digging
too deep into the earth.
Their lust for gold kept them focused and driven.
They knew they were going to be wealthy beyond measure if only they could dig deep enough
but to their horror there was nothing to mine.
An Illithid colony put the idea of mineable minerals and ore into the heads of the Duergar
tribe, they were digging to their enslavement.
The Illithids took the dwarves and after years of subjugation the Duergar escaped with the
help of their god Laduguer . The Duergar Dwarves returned to the surface only to be shunned
by their Dwarf brothers.
The Duergar had changed, they had ashen gray skin, they were bald; but more than physical
characteristics they were dour, pessimistic, and untrusting.
Angry the Duergar returned to the world they knew, the Underdark, and created cities there.
The Duergar have developed limited psionic abilities thanks to the Mind Flayers control
over them for several generations.
Similar to the Duergar are the Derro.
The Derro have blue-gray skin and white or yellow hair.
They have pale white eyes that lack irises and pupils.
Although not known for certain they were probably created by the Illithids who executed cruel
experiments upon their captured slaves.
The Derro freed themselves eventually and set up small colonies.
Never creating a full fledged city they live on the outskirts of populated areas.
Most Derro revere Diirinka, a chaotic deity of magic and cruelty.
Despite this reverence for their god, the leaders of the Derro are not clerics but spellcasters
of an arcane sort.
Illithids!
Mind Flayers, as they are commonly known, were once the scourge of the galaxy.
They controlled empires that spanned many worlds and subjugated entire races of humanoids.
The githyanki and the githzerai are probably the most famous of slaves they took that eventually
broke free from Mind Flayer control.
Because the Githyanki and Githzerai now hunt the Mind Flayers out of vengeance they had
to find a place to hide.
The Underdark was an obvious choice, it was isolated, defendable, and there were new races
to acquire as slaves and use to create new Mind Flayers.
Mind Flayers have natural psionic abilities that they use to erase and rewrite the minds
of their victims.
They’ve shaped the Underdark into what it is today, by creating races like the Duergar
and molding others like the Kuo-Toa.
Myconids!
Myconids are intelligent fungus creatures.
They have always lived in the Underdark, being creatures of Fungus.
They seek enlightenment and deplore violence.
If approached peacefully Myconids can be rather helpful in your Underdark travels, but they
will defend themselves and their territory if needed.
In 4th edition it was revealed that Myconids came from the Feywild, or the Feydark rather.
Also in 4th edition they were less helpful, attempting to expand their territory and numbers.
Myconids communicate through releasing spores, which allows a form of telepathy to be used.
The Myconids use this telepathy for social groups called circles.
A circle consists of twenty myconids who do practically everything together.
They really become a family of sorts.
They are bound into a group consciousness and have shared dreams.
Finally I’d like to talk about Deep Gnomes, also known as the Svirfneblin.
Deep Gnomes are odd.
They never bothered to create a written history, or even a calendar so there is little known
from the past of the Deep Gnomes.
Their bodies are hard as rock.
Males being completely bald and beardless, and females sporting white or gray hair.
Their skin is usually brown or gray.
Like other races of the Underdark Svirfneblin are serious and dour, in large contrast to
their surface kin.
Deep gnomes do not often cook their food and prefer to salt it heavily.
Most outsiders can’t stomach the salty food.
They cherish gemstones, especially rubies which they mine from the Underdark.
This can cause problems because they’ll dig into drow territory occasionally.
Of all the Underdark Races Deep Gnomes hate the drow the most.
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The Underdark is a super interesting place and I was excited to get two videos in.
I really want to create a 100% underdark campaign with Deep Gnomes, Drow, and Duergar characters.
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Thanks for watching everyone.
See you all next week with another video on Dungeons and Dragons Lore.