Darklands of Tian Xia

The Darklands of Tian Xia, the Darklands region below the continent of Tian Xia, is in some ways similar to, but in other ways very different from, that of the Inner Sea region.

Geography

Like its western counterpart, the Darklands of Tian Xia are broken down into three levels, Nar-Voth, Sekamina, and Orv. While entrances to the Darklands can be found across the length and breadth of Tian Xia, there are three that have achieved particular renown:

• The Ghost Path is a series of caverns and ledges that descend from the dormant caldera of Mount Kumijinja in the Ikkaku Peninsula of Minkai directly into Sekamina.
• The Clicking Caverns sit on the border between Nagajor and Xa Hoi and are infamous for periodically disgorging armies of haunted clockworks onto the surface world.
• The elven city of Ayajinbo is home to a well-guarded entrance to the Darklands from which the elves originally emerged.

Nar-Voth

The upper reaches of the Darklands of Tian Xia, much like those found elsewhere, are intermittently connected to each other and do not form a continuous network—travel from one cave complex through another often requires passage over the surface or through the deeper layers of the Darklands. The inhabitants of the Tian Xian regions of Nar-Voth include myceloids, who often raid the deeper caves of Sekamina, and a rumored nation of hobgoblins mirroring Kaoling on the surface.

Sekamina

Seugathi inhabit Sekamina under Tian Xia.

The Sekamina under Tian Xia is home to a truly enormous amount of caves that are too numerous to fully categorise, but there are five larger regions more infamous than most:

• the great, spiral-shaped oni city of Shirogoku beneath Minkai;
• the caverns beneath the Wall of Heaven mountains, home to cave giants, xulgaths, and horrors from the Plateau of Leng;
• the fractured and quarrelsome ratfolk domains of Diguo-Dashu beneath the center of the continent;
• Zaikongon, a realm beneath the Valashmai Jungle ruled by seugathi, brain oozes, and other such monsters;
• the haunted clockwork city of Pan Majang north of Zaikongon.

Underworld dragons also live here in large numbers, ruling realms between the five main nations and often manipulating their politics and workings. Some of the most well known of these dragons include Geojibom, Kou-Shanguang, and Zetzubio.

Orv

The Vaults that lie beneath Tian Xia are even more mysterious and poorly explored than those beneath Avistan and northern Garund, but rumors and legends about them have percolated to the surface over time. What little is known of them speaks of realms of malformed giants, portals to nightmarish realms of the Outer Rifts, seas of living oil, and horrors from the Dark Tapestry waiting in their dark depths.

Inhabitants

Where the Darklands of Tian Xia are most different from their western counterparts are their inhabitants: these Darklands have no major populations of hryngars, drow, or deros. Instead, they are home to haunted clockworks, denizens of Leng, oni, and cave giants. Greedy underworld dragons are also known to inhabit the Darklands of Tian Xia, creating their labyrinth-like lairs in its benighted depths.

Religion

Unsurprisingly for a region haunted by such violent creatures, the most popular deities they worship are evil. The two most prominent deities worshipped are Lamashtu, known as Grandmother Nightmare; and Lao Shu Po, often called the Old Rat Woman. Alongside these two gods, a range of fiendish demigods, such as demon lords and archdevils are also worshipped.

References

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