Anouil-Hdroz, the Hive City - Location
What is Anouil-Hdroz?
Located miles below the surface in the depths of the Dark Below, sometimes referred to as the Underdark or the Dark Lands, is a dark elven city formed thousands of years ago. When the first elves journeyed to these lightless lands, they formed this city in a massive cavern that stretched half a mile above them and had a natural, subterranean river that cut through the cavern.
The city itself is a large trading outpost for the denizens of the Dark Below, though they are highly restrictive as to who they let into their city and what they are allowed to sell. The city is watched over by the demon lord Tharzax, the Chattering Prince who rules over the 2nd level of the Abyss. As the demon prince of poisonous vermin, the city has broken itself into distinct categories based on their role in the city and where the first families were commanded to lead by Tharzax itself. There is some movement within this rigid structure, but normally it only involves a family dropping from importance until it falls to the rotting pits of the city, its members to be treated as little less than slaves.
History
During the days when the elves first drifted below the surface, not everyone did it by choice. Instead, they were tossed below the surface, sealed beneath the mountains because of their strange and otherworldly behaviors. Nine families joined together, to search for a new home beneath the surface and through the endless miles of the subterranean passages filled with horrifying dangers and monsters of madness. Eventually, these nine families would find a home over 5 miles below the surface in a section of the Dark Below known as the Depths.
Construction of the City
Upon finding a massive cavern that would eventually house the city, the nine families were forced to protect and defend their lands. Each of these families was made up of dozens of members, and there was constant squabbling between who would rule and whose authority should be respected. This continued for decades, with the families growing larger, and their squabbles with the other families growing larger and larger. The attacks from the other monsters of the Dark Below were beginning to lose their intensity, as many of the most violent ones eventually would kill themselves or found their territories to prowl, and so the city had fewer causes to unite them.
This soon came to the fore when one of the families, whose name has been stricken from all records, tried to lead a violent and bloody coup against the current elected family who oversaw the city. After hundreds died in the streets, the betrayers, at least the ones who were still alive, were dragged before the other families and killed. Dozens of patrols were sent out to search and scour the tunnels, cutting down those who had joined the coup, or just shared blood with those who did. Mercy was forbidden during these dark weeks and by the end of it all, the city was greatly weakened - which many think had been the plan all along. This bloody coup was known as the Tears of Anouil-Hdroz, a purposefully chosen double meaning of mourning and being ripped apart.
The Chattering Prince
It was shortly after this time when the bloodlust for the betrayers was just beginning to die down, that outsiders visited Anouil-Hdroz. These were also elves, though they had been reborn through death, they appeared as living creatures but were as fiendish as the master they served. They approached the decimated city and brought with them power and security. The failed coup had killed hundreds, leaving the city weakened and almost defenseless, and just after these visitors arrived, horrifying monsters and aberrations begin their attacks anew. Maybe they could smell the stinking blood, or feel the psychic energy of hundreds of minds suddenly winking out, or, as some believe but refuse to say aloud, it was the visitors that drew them in.
These visitors approached the surviving families and offered them protection. The walls of Anouil-Hdroz were beginning to strain against the attacks, and the families felt they had little choice. They joined with the strangers and made a deal with Tharzax, following its orders in exchange for greater power and an ability to survive in the cruel world of the Dark Below. Each family was given a task, an insect to base their goals upon, with their rank in the city being decided by who first joined with Tharzax and whose power was needed to compel the other families to join with their demonic prince.
The ruling family became known as the Family of Scorpions, below them Termites, Beetles, Bees, Spiders, Ants, Centipedes, with Ticks at the lowest place in the city, the last ones to join with Tharzax and were forced into the agreement by the others.
An Outsider’s Perspective
This city runs especially well, with distinct districts, easily determined prohibited areas, and well-defined rules for outsiders. Disturbing the peace is forbidden, there are no specific rules for how you are to talk to the inhabitants, beyond treating the Family of Scorpions with the respect one would show a noble family, and the merchants are honest about their goods. There is little crime, in the parts outsiders are allowed to reside in, and the dark elves treat outsiders with some respect, so long as they are in the city.
Merchants and trade caravans are a welcome sight for the city, and traders are allowed to enter the city only if they first submit themselves to a search by the city guards. Their goods are looked over, inquiries are made about what the merchants are trading in the city, and where their other supplies are going. It’s best to immediately answer and to speak the truth as to the destination of their goods, for lying or omitting the truth to the guards is as good as any reason for them to kill or to take the merchants and force them into slavery in the fungus pits.
If their questions are answered promptly, and to the guards liking, the merchant is freely allowed to enter and head straight to the market quarters where they will be giving stall space, papers to track the taxes owed to Anouil-Hdroz, and clear instructions they are forbidden to travel anywhere else in the city. Those who follow these rules are left alone and eagerly invited back when they have new goods to trade, those who refuse or fail to live up to the laws set forth are quickly and painfully punish. Torture, enslavement, and death are typically the only options for them.
An Inhabitant’s Perspective
Behind practiced smiles and careful words, there is a bloody game of politics constantly being warred across the city. Assassins, betrayals, and gold are the ways of politics with Family heads being replaced by younger members of the Family, two warring Families temporarily putting aside their hatred to stop a third Family, and the Family of Scorpions rules over all of it, their fingers in every dispute as they desperately cling to their thrones and position over all others.
While no one will publicly attack another, instead, hated enemies will simply talk about mundane topics in the city, and once the doors are closed, violence is quick to follow. The elves could be sharing a meal with other allies, talking of their shared history and place within the Family, all the while the other is trying to find a chink in the other’s armor. Through poisons, a blade, or any other means, they’ll seek a way to drag the other down and put an end to them. This is often done for political gain but could be for wrongs done to them a year, a dozen years, or a thousand years ago. For these elves, every insult, be it a murder or the wrong smirk, is enough to be tallied.
This fighting isn’t just confined to fighting between different Families, but infighting within a single Family is quite prevalent. Each unit inside of a Family, typically also called a family despite the confusion it creates for outsiders while the elves swear there is none, is constantly fighting amongst each other and themselves to see who will become the head of the Family, called the Tet. A Family is made up of dozens of units, families, who have all been given the same focus of that Family. An elf’s unit is important, but their Family is the most important, and the Tet the individual that every elf must answer to if they displease their Family.
Traits
Appearance
Located in a massive cavern, the city is a brilliant spot of light flooding through the darkened tunnels. A natural river flows through the city, creating an endless source of fresh water for the city to live off of with strict rules as to where waste can be disposed of. It winds its way through the center of the city and where it disappears into the stone through tunnels are large bars and soldiers who ensure nothing horrific erupts out and attacks the city. While it hasn’t happened yet, no one is quite sure where the waters originate from, or where they end.
Dim lights flood this city, making it appear like a burning orb of light to those used to the dark confines of the tunnel work, with buildings carved delicately out of stone. The wealthier a Family is, the more their buildings are made out of precious stones like granite, marble, and other materials from far deeper in the Dark Below. These buildings are often carved with intricate patterns in the stone, often of mandibles, antennae, wings, and other pictograms of the insect of their Family granted to them from the Chattering Prince. These buildings often house up to two dozen members at a time, with the units of elves intermixed to try and cut down on the infighting inside of a Family. This rarely works, but rather creates tense dynamics inside of the home, where energy is focused on getting even with another’s Family member instead of focusing on advancing their own Family to greater power.
The city itself is situated such that three walls are circling the central quarter where the Family of Scorpions reside. In this center district, known as the Royal Court or the Scorpion’s Den, are where the ruling Family watches over their city, and all around them on all sides is the rest of the city. Many feel surrounded when in the Scorpion’s Den, and even the Family of Scorpion complain of having enemies everywhere they turn.
Outside of the Royal Court’s walls are six districts that wrap around it with a wall keeping out the slums of the city. Each district is watched over by a different Family, with the Family of Bees and Termites having the closest district to the Royal Court, each building their homes against the Royal Walls. Outside of the Inner Walls are the slums of Anouil-Hdroz where the merchants are quickly rushed through. The Family of Ticks and the exiled all live in these tattered buildings, with many fungus pit slaves living beside them. The Family of Ticks maintains their buildings to the best of their ability, sticking close to the Inner Walls and the major roads that pass through the slums, nick-named by the other Families as the Refuse Pit. There is then an Outer Wall wrapped around the large area.
From above, the city looks like an oblong target with the Royal Court in the center of this target and with three walls circling them. Cutting through the center is the river, which has been named and renamed dozens of times that most just call it the river since there are no others within days of the city.
Traveling to the City
Traveling to the city requires explorers, merchants, and others to wind their way through the complex tunnel networks of the underground world. It’s often easier to find a traveling caravan that knows the tunnels than to locate it on your own as the tunnels are like a maze. Located days and even weeks from other major trading posts and cities in the underground lands, there are horrifying dangers in the darkened tunnels just waiting for ill-prepared traders and explorers to pounce on.
Traversing the City
Those who live in the city are free to travel where they want according to the pedigree of their Family, though just because they can doesn’t mean they should. While everyone treats the Family of Scorpions with respect, they aren’t above killing guards and protectors and taking one of the royal children hostage, and claiming to host them for the Family. While the Family of Scorpions can’t respond with violent force, they might respond by giving in to hidden demands or by kidnapping hostages and so the struggle continues. For the Family’s Tet, everyone is a pawn to be used and discarded.
For outsiders, so long as they stick to the districts they are allowed to, they should face no trouble with the elves who treat them with respect. The bloody politics is never shown to the public and the pretenses of a happy and thriving city is one of the most important things to every elf in the city, even for the exiles in the outer limits of the city.
Locations & Landmarks
The Farms
There are multiple farms located within the city’s wall, protected from the horrors in the subterranean lands. These farms are dedicated to growing fungi, algae, dire beasts, and more to help the city to flourish. A massive windmill is used to turn dried mushrooms into powder for breads and cakes, while the algae is distilled into an earthy wine. This is the lifeblood of the city, for without their farms, they don’t have enough traders bringing in food to keep them going.
To protect the farms from saboteurs, dire insects patrol the lands, hunting down prey, which slaves are sometimes mistaken for, and protecting the fields from outside pests and creatures. The dark elves have trained these creatures to never touch an elf, and so there are patrols from the Beetles to ensure that no elves have snuck into their city to destroy their harvest.
Market Quarter
A small section of the city is solely dedicated to outsiders who visit the city to sell their goods. This part is highly maintained with clean streets, lamps on the street corners to provide light, and a dress code is strictly enforced on the dark elves who would visit this quarter. The city maintains a strong facade of beauty and peace to outsiders, that the city is unified and that any who would try to challenge the city would face the incredible burden of trying to splinter the city against each other.
This quarter is well-traveled by the elves who want to see the exotic creatures that trade in the city, as well as look at any strange trade goods. Sometimes creatures from the surface will travel down to the city, bringing with them exotic and otherworldly, to the elves, items.
Lourdes Hall
Many of the would-be priestesses of Tharzax must first learn the traditional dances of their people, and of the chattering insects that they glorify in their Families. A popular spot of entertainment is the dance hall, Lourdes Hall, where Families will sponsor great events with the highlight of the evening being the traditional dances of their people, of the city, and of their Family. Dancers who make mistakes are quickly punished and even exiled, while those who succeed are given great gifts and propel themselves closer to their ultimate goal of the priesthood.
Royal Court
Located in the royal walls is the palace of the Scorpions, decorated with scorpions, ants, bees, termites, and other insects that fall under the purview of Tharzax. This massive building is cut from dark marble and is the seat of power in the city, with its Tet, the royal queen of Anouil-Hdroz, overseeing the whole city. Families from all over the city plot to get their children married into this palace, hoping that if they can even get a male suitor into a favored consort, that the queen will help their Family rise above the others.
The Chattering Temple
On an island in the river is a large, circular temple to the Tharzax filled with its priestesses who give their worship to it. They are a mysterious group, watching over the city from their temple, only bothering to come down during special holidays or when they sense there is unease in the city that they must put to right. The priestesses of Tharzax are viewed with an equal amount of awe and terror, for many bear the scars of insect bites, venomous stings, and torture; all aspects of worshipping the Chattering Prince and his vermin.
Outsiders are forbidden from entering the temple, and to the priestesses, outsiders are anyone that isn’t a priestess. Even the Scorpions wouldn’t dare to enter their temple, instead, they must wait for a priestess to come to visit them, which often takes weeks.
Portal to the Abyss
Within the temple is said to be a direct portal to the 2nd layer of the Abyss where Tharzax is said to control. From here, the priestesses can travel directly to their chattering prince and communicate directly with him.
Inhabitants of the City
This city is largely run by the matriarch, with most men seen as a necessary evil to keep the city going. Female elves are the ones most often in charge of Families, though there have been several male Tets who have taken charge. While men are not necessarily treated like tools, they are seen as more disposable than their female counterparts and are more likely to be traded away or their lives taken away from them.
Family
The greatest pride an elf can feel is to their Family. It doesn’t matter if they are Scorpions or Ticks, each elf believes in the power of their Family, and that others are trying to destroy what they hold. Even with all the infighting, Family members are expected, and required, to help their siblings, to follow the Tet, and to advance the plans of the Family. Those who don’t are exiled, or used as a teaching aid for the others who might try to abandon the Family’s goals and tortured.
Once born into a Family, the only way to leave it is by being cast out as an exile, or for a man to marry into another Family and assuming the women’s Family. When a man assumes the Family of another, they are partially exiled from their own and, while allowed to speak with their old friends and unit, they are highly discouraged from doing so from both Families. Of course, once they join the new Family, they are highly mistrusted and have no chance of advancing within their new Family.
Scorpions
The ruling Family made up of only a few dozen members who are all related to each other, and so they are often one of the few Families bringing in new blood into their Family and the Royal Court, though it is only males that they bring in, preferring to keep their children as pure to their line as possible. They are in charge of the city, maintaining its political power in comparison to other elven cities, both underground and even underground in more recent times.
There is only one unit, or family, inside of the Scorpions known as the Regalian line that all rulers must be descended from. In the far past, the Family refused to bring outside blood until their Family was beginning to suffer from madness and odd behaviors. To combat this, the priests of Tharzax commanded them to marry outside their Family and to bring in new blood. It was either that, or they’d be destroyed by the others.
This Family is also made up of exiles, though they have a special place in society. They are the royal guards who protect the Scorpions from harm. Each of these soldiers was chosen from the other Families at a young age and taught how to protect their betters. They are highly trained, with the best becoming the protectors of the Scorpion’s Tet, and the queen of all of Anouil-Hdroz, Her Lady Alhertine Regalian.
Termites
With the small numbers that make up the city, there has long been a fear that madness could sweep through the population and destroy the city. The Termites are in charge of ensuring that elf resources, namely procreation, is done safely and cleanly. They oversee all marriages, checking lineages and Families, making sure that there are is little relation between the two seeking marriage. Also, they maintain an advisory role in the city and watch over the other Families, ensuring that their duties are taken care of and that taxes are reported accurately, as they are also tax collectors.
This Family is just below the Scorpions and tied with the Family of Beetles for prominence in the city. Their members are often in competition with the Beetles to be married into the Scorpions, and see the other Family as filled with idiots.
Beetles
Defenders of the city and make up the bulk of the army, this Family has risen to prominence thanks to their Tet, Yolanthe Hardouin. She has, for the last 200 years since being appointed the head of the Family, focused on ensuring the births of her Family and have swelled their ranks to bursting. By quantity, they have risen to prominence since their men, and even women, are constantly looking to marry outside the Family as the Termites are constantly commanding them to do so.
Tet Yolanthe is looking to grow the Family to even larger numbers so that if someone wished to go against the Family, it wouldn’t just be a few hundred members, but a few thousand members. Many also believe she has secret plans on the Scorpions since many of their finest protectors are from the Beetles. It’s this Family that is responsible for the protection of the city, and they aren’t likely to let anyone ever forget it.
Bees
This Family is focused on the allocation of food and that there are no wants in the city, at least for the Families, including the Ticks. They're responsible for tending to the fungi pits, the mushroom farms, and maintaining the livestock of dire insects they keep for meat. While it is a tough job, and with a growing city, a constant challenge, the Bees have kept the city from experiencing a famine for thousands of years, though there have been a few close calls, not that they’ll admit it.
While they might like to use their ability to control the food in the city to their benefit, past Bees tried that and it is written in law that they are unallowed to do it again or face grim reprisals from everyone in the city. For now, they must make do with using their guile to propel themselves through the political framework of the city.
Spiders
Spies and slavers are the main goals of this Family, sending raiders to the farthest reaches of the darkened tunnels and to the surface world itself. They are constantly bringing in new slaves to be given to the Families, per the laws of the city, and then selling off any surplus slaves they gathered. In addition to their duties of finding labor, they are also responsible for scouting the Dark Below and infiltrating the other subterranean cities. Their spies are used to ensure that other cities remember their place next to the grandeur that is Anouil-Hdroz, that if revolutions in a city need to be started, that they are there leading them. That if political leaders need to be taken care of, that they are the ones ordering those hits.
Due to their training and skill in politics, they are a constant force of pressure to the other Families who often have to unite against them, however briefly, to ensure that the Spiders don’t get too high above their station. Even now are rumors that the queen’s preferred concubine is a Spider, whispering and spinning its web around her mind.
Ants
Anouil-Hdroz is always looking to expand its city and increase its numbers. New neighborhoods are being carved out of the stone of their cavern, as they are outgrowing even its massive size, and it is up to the Ants to oversee this work. Thousands of slaves and exiles are forced to dig out the cavern, to travel days away from the city to great ore deposits to be mined and to work until the dust clogs their lungs and they perish from exhaustion.
Tet Cazda Maetyl oversees her family, and while she is quite old, even for an elf, her mind has stayed sharp. She is constantly working within and without the city to ensure that her Family’s prominence is noted, using gems and rare metals found in dig sites to help her political aspirations and keep the Ants important players in the city.
Centipedes
The traders for the city, they employ massive centipedes and beetles as beasts of burdens and travel to the other cities in their dark world, like the city of Yseult, another dark elf city a weeks travel from Anouil-Hdroz. Their members are constantly on the move, ensuring that materials, goods, and supplies requested by the city are brought in, along with offering step fees to the other Families to find goods in other cities. Many think they’d be a force to reckon with if it weren’t so many of their members are constantly outside the city on their trade missions, which is probably good for the other Families who rely heavily on the Centipedes.
Ticks
These were the last ones to join with Tharzax, and are the lowest of all the Families in Anouil-Hdroz, in charge of cleaning the waste and refuse churned out by the city. They maintain a small sewer system that is for the Scorpions, clean the streets of filth and trash, and do all the other work the others don’t want to do, like maintaining the slaves. This is, besides the Beetles, the largest Family in the city, though they are rarely shown respect from the others and no one wishes to meet with, let alone marry, with the Ticks.
The Ticks are confident that without them, the city would be devastated, but they haven’t been able to leverage this against the other Families. Some within the Ticks are muttering about another coup, but they quickly disappear from the city before they can begin their plans.
Outsiders
Outsiders are allowed in the city, though very few are ever allowed to leave the cordoned-off section of the market quarters. Some, though, have become fierce supporters of the Scorpions, acting as their exotic friends and shown off like trophies, though they must keep up being entertaining or soon be discarded once the novelty wears off.
Encounters
In Trouble, In Love - Two rival Families have members that are in love with each other, but they are forbidden from seeing each other. If they are found out, they’ll be exiled, enslaved, or even killed for their betrayal of their Family.
Outside Perspective - It’s difficult for one of the Families to advance in Anouil-Hdroz, but the Tet has an idea. If they could simply frame the murder of another Tet on recent outsiders, they could swing the pendulum of power to their side and rise further. First, they’ll have to get a few items from the outsiders to plant as evidence in the Tet’s home, and then make sure that the Beetles who investigate are pointed in the right direction.
Slave Allocation - While traveling through the dark tunnels, you find a raiding party returning to their city with dozens of slaves. Depending on what type of impression you make, they may invite you to come rest in their city, or add you to their slaves.
Visiting Nobility - The Scorpions are traveling to another city to make trading agreements with them to secure more exotic goods and spices for their city. As a show of goodwill, the city is sending down adventurers and guards to Anouil-Hdroz to act as an honor guard for the royals, protecting them on their journey to the surface.
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