For most surface dwellers, the Underdark is a place of myths and horror stories whispered around the campfire as they huddle together to ward off the cold of the night. For those of them who value knowledge, it is a secretive place of dangers and wonders. For you… It is home. You thrive in the dark, where the light of the sun and star never reaches, with the Earth surrounding you and protecting you on all sides.
Keeping time accurately in the shadowy confines of the underdark is close to impossible in the absence of the sun and moon. But sporadic exchanges with surface dwellers punctuate your own tribe's legends, giving them a sense of chronology. Your storytellers tell well kept oral tales of adventures stretching through centuries of the sun dwellers' years. Yet your own origins are nebulous, and no one can tell you for how long you have wandered the darkness, leaving the beginnings to much more metaphorical origin myths.
But the tribe is tiring of perpetually moving through the depths of the Earth. The underdark may be home, but familiarity isn't enough to avoid all of its dangers. As your tribe grows through its successes and it accumulates valuables, travel has become more and more unwieldy. During its wandering, the tribe has recorded the location of a few places that could sustain a sedentary settlement. Word has circulated through the tribe members, the elders have been consulted for advice, and the time seems right.
But… Who are you and your tribespeople to survive the unforgiving underdark?
[] Dwarves
You are the giants' last legacy. Built out of the Earth itself to assist your towering creators. As their empires fell around them under the onslaught of the victorious dragons, dwarvenkind was scattered across the world. Most dwarves dwell close to the surface, tied to the Earth but unwilling to abandon the sun. Your tribe rejects this lack of ambition. Embracing your origins fully, you have dug deeper than any of them. You find yourself estranged from your kin, surrounded by those who dwell in darkness, yet you feel the Earth' bosom welcoming you.
Advantage: Children of the Earth: dwarves were made from the Earth, and it remembers its children. Dwarves have a powerful affinity to the Earth. Touching soil or rock is enough to learn what it holds, and vibrations running through it warn you about danger. The Earth itself also watches over dwarves' spiritual wellbeing.
Opportunity: Giants' Legacy: the giants' empires are long gone, but they left behind numerous ruins. Your people have carefully protected what knowledge you have about your creators, and it gives you an edge when investigating those. Who knows what danger reactivating their ancient systems could bring about, though?
Drawback: Weave Blind: as giants relied on the Grid, a magic network sustained by an extensive array of constructions long turned to ruins, they never intended their creations to access the dragons' Weave. Dwarves are blind to the Weave's currents, making any use of it perilous.
[] Dark elves
Your kin was banished for striking the first blow in the War of the Fall that broke the elves' grip on the surface. Or at least, that's what your sanctimonious cousins would say. You know the story would be told quite differently if you had won. Was it a sin to ask for your own place in the sun? Victors write history, and you lost the war, with the gods consigning you to darkness. You have adapted and thrived there, but you will always bear that wound.
Advantage: Depth Weavers: all elves have a strong affinity for the magic of the Weave, which they usurped from its dragon creators. This gives them a natural gift for wizardry. You have also adapted to the more untamed nature of its underdark network during your exile.
Opportunity: Lost Favour: you have lost favour of the gods with your banishment and lack a divine patron. Hungry entities circle around, asking for your devotion. They may still end up worse than the gods who exiled you, but they could also provide you with unmatched power.
Drawback: Immortal Few: elves are immortal, but they're also few in number. Your population grows very slowly, and any lost elf life is irreplaceable.
[] Greenskins
Most tribes have legends of their own origins passed down through generations, often back to their very creation. Not you. Greenskins instinctively know they aren't of this world. Fallen down from the sky and buried under the Earth, you have made our own path, but you know one day, you'll leave this rock behind you again. After all, how could it contain the ever growing horde of your kin? Other species may look down on you as savages, but you know you'll prove them wrong… That is, if you can stop fighting each other long enough to do it.
Advantage: Forever Growing: Greenskins never stop growing bigger, tougher and smarter through their lives. Wounds that would leave another species crippled close over time and they can heal from most diseases, leaving them stronger for the experience. Of course, their chaotic lives are dangerous enough most of them don't make it that long, but those who do accumulate strength and experience.
Opportunity: Teeming Multitude: Greenskins literally sprout from the ground wherever you go. The tribe is perpetually growing, and there is no way to control it. You are always in a state of population explosion, and you have to find outlets for it lest it overwhelms what you build.
Drawback: Quarrelsome: Fighting is instinctual to Greenskins. If your tribespeople aren't given enemies on the outside to focus on, they'll fight among themselves to relieve the boredom or as a means of population control. Good leadership can keep Greenskins on task, but such leaders have to be cultivated.
[] Kobolds
You are the children of the dragons. Their empires may be long gone, and only few of them remain, but you remember their glory. You were created to attend to them and to see to the minutiae of the world they couldn't pay attention to. Their fall has left you adrift, torn between seeking out the last of them and forging your own path. Their teaching in magic and your own skills at seeing how the small pieces of the universe fit together have served you well, but the lack of purpose weighs on your tribe.
Advantage: Reality Ordainers: the dragons built you to have an intrinsic understanding of how the infinitesimal builds the world incrementally. Kobolds excel at putting things together to assemble a greater whole, and have a natural talent for finding and following the secret rules of magic ritual.
Opportunity: Quest for Purpose: the loss of the dragons you followed and cared for has left you directionless. This erodes your people's morale as it remains unanswered, but it is also a chance to choose your own goals.
Drawback: Fascination: observing the arrangement of the universe and learning the secret rules of magic can overwhelm the brains of mortals. As kobolds dig deeper, they grow increasingly unable to focus on anything beyond the subject they have picked up. Mild cases are obsessive, while severe cases need assistance to maintain basic function.
[] Demonkin
The underdark isn't merely your tribe's home. It's each and every one of your people's refuge in the face of persecution. Once in a while, a demon escapes their summoner to wander the material plane. Demons being their usual selves, offsprings are a frequent outcome. Such children are rarely welcome in surface communities. The luckier ones make their way down to you and to freedom in the darkness, where you have rebuilt your lives. Your diverse demonic ancestries give you a wide array of inherited traits, and you are naturally predisposed to adventure, ensuring a steady supply of talent for your community.
Advantage: Trickling In: As they hear of you, talented demonkin fleeing persecution on the surface make their way to you, bolstering your ranks with experienced recruits. One day, you hope to be able to range out to meet with your weaker kin in need of your help finding their way down.
Opportunity: Demonic Connections: You were born on the material plane, but you retain an instinctive connection to your demon ancestors. And they are watching. Summoning demons and making pacts with them is easier for you than for other species, but there is always a price to pay, while some of your forefathers may also take an interest in your lives on their own.
Drawback: Ungovernable: Demons are chaos incarnate, and your people have definitely inherited that leaning. Governing demonkin is an exercise in frustration. Your tribe stays together because of safety in numbers, but that's as far as common policy really goes. If you want anything done, you will have to convince people the idea was theirs all along.
[] Pale ones
You are free at last! The masters' chains cannot hold you anymore, though their shadows still loom over your tribe. You have fled their accursed cities upward into the surface layers of the underdark, eager to put distance between you and them. Your flight is still fresh in your mind, and your tribe's organization hasn't really settled yet despite the time you spent exploring the caves you find yourselves in. Your pooled minds let you share the skills you need to survive the unknown environment, but you have yet to decide on a path for yourselves.
Advantage: Shared Minds: Your captors engineered you to have connected minds to share skills and coordinate labor. One single skilled pale one can instruct a whole untrained team on a task, vastly increasing your ability to reorganize your workforce. As you freed yourselves, it has also become a path of emotional bonding, keeping you together.
Opportunity: Blank Slate: Unlike other inhabitants of the underdark, you are a young species still, and you have yet to set yourselves deeper goals or develop your own complex traditions, leaving you free to shape those as you wish.
Drawback: Feedback Loop: The shared mind connection is a great boon, but it is also a burden. When one of your kin feels strong emotions, they echo through all your brains. A large wave of negative sentiments can thus loop around your link, amplifying itself as every pale one broadcast them back to the community.
