Kutlaset

Kutlaset refers to the interconnected subterranean region below Avendar's surface. It is a place of stone and utter darkness, filled with the myriad strange forms of life that have evolved there.

The only regions of Kutlaset that are currently available in play are Yithoul, the Basalt Catacombs, Kohlis, and adjacent areas.

Geography

Kutlaset encompasses the entirety of Avendar's underground, from the chaja strongholds of the upper Brintors to the great southern city of Undariskar. It is comprised largely of snaking passages and caverns both natural and artificial, the largest of which contains a vast underground sea. Individual regions of Kutlaset tend to be physically isolated, connected by labyrinthine tunnels that can change and shift, and which usually contain deadly hazards both natural and artificial. Light is incredibly rare, though some species that live closer to the surface use bioluminescence for hunting. Dragons, powerful beings of living elemental stone, are Kutlaset's apex predator, and tend to keep vast territories near the seams that birthed them.

History

After the Sundering, Jolinn covered most of the world in healing ice. When that ice began to melt, much of it eventually flowed into Kutlaset, sparking life in its pitch-black depths. The earliest forms of this life evolved to consume darkness instead of light.

The shuddeni emerged early as Kutlaset's sole sapient life, though they remained isolated from other lineages for millennia. Congregating into clans, they spread across the underground, learning at some point of Tzet-Askhari and incorporating Its worship as well as early rudiments of earth and void magic.

In the centuries before the War of Fire the chaja began their great exodus underground in response to a Kyanan prophecy, and though the chaja and shuddeni had interacted before, this brought them into repeated and protracted conflict, culminating in the use of chaja as slaves beginning around the time of the War of Night.

Bayyal's eruption from the Grave of Storms punched a hole through the surface into Kutlaset, deluging the center of the sea with magma and unleashing the most destructive fire devil in Avendar's history: An'akarta the Devourer. Through a grand void rite, the shuddeni chained An'akarta in the void in the name of one of their demonic patrons, but not before it managed to annihilate vast swaths of Kutlaset and completely eradicate a number of clans.

Demographics

The vast majority of Kutlaset is populated by shuddeni, but others have made homes in the underground as well. Three major nefortean cities are in isolated parts of Kutlaset: Rahh-Nefor, Kohlis, and Undariskar. A handful of srryn, thought to be descended from Sitheus's earliest Septs, have made isolated homes there. The chaja dominate most of the Brintoran underground, having chased the shuddeni deeper underground through their conflicts, though the flesh of chaja remains valuable to slavers. Finally, a small clan of ethron call Kutlaset home, settling there after their own exodus during the War of Fire. Like most Kutlasen peoples, they are incredibly isolationist and violent towards outsiders, leading them to have a terrifying reputation.