Atalee Vayshalum
Underdeep
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Finally, Atalee arrived.
Upon entering the Mustering Hall, the young woman’s attention turned to what looked like a Half-Giant in the far corner of the room and then to the armored Orc on the opposite end, the latter resigning itself to the floor for whatever reason. Among others, she noted a female human with a deep scar across her face, as well as a Wood Elf, busy writing something. An interesting bunch, fewer than she expected but also a bigger variety, Atalee figured she would enter a hall full of many more people, mostly Men, Dwarves, maybe some Elves, but certainly not Orcs or Half-Giants. In fact, she started to wonder if Merfolk would be walking in behind her, though she probably wouldn't mind, mostly because she had never met one before and was curious to know what they were like. She hadn't met any Orcs or Half-Giants during her travels either, so she was tempted to introduce herself to one of them, though, in the interest of self-preservation, she figured it best not to bother somebody who looked like they'd much rather keep to themselves. The Wood Elf, maybe, but Atalee figured it would have been rude to interrupt somebody while they were writing, so she decided against that too.
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The Matrons described Underdeep as the heart of the Dwarven Kingdom, one of the largest and greatest Dwarven settlements in all of Amaroth. They told of the labyrinth of mineshafts, the underground network of tunnels from which the Dwarves extracted rare ores for processing, as well as the Great Forges of Underdeep, which it was rumored that between ten and twenty percent of all metal in Amaroth went through. When the Worldbane struck Amaroth, Underdeep and the Dwarven Kingdom persevered. Though most of its inhabitants perished, it nevertheless survived, becoming one of the only settlements in the world to have weathered the proverbial storm.
At least that's what she had been told.
Her knowledge came from the Matrons. The Matrons taught the Maiden everything they knew about Amaroth, which was taught to them when they were Maidens by the Matrons that came before them, all the way back to the Worldbane when the Church of Vexa fled into Mount Solitude in wake of the coming apocalypse. Over the years, Maidens turned Matron contributed new information about the world. When they returned to Mount Solitude as Matrons, they shared with the Church anything and everything they had learned, mostly information concerning the state of civilization. Thus, everything Atalee knew about the Weeping World consisted of information passed on by the Matrons, as well as hearsay and other rumors heard by the Maidens turned Matrons who ventured out into the Weeping World. Only a small percentage of what she knew was acquired firsthand. After all, she’d only been journeying for about six months, most of the time traveling between any two destinations, not really spending much time in one place…
When Atalee first heard of this quest, she jumped at the chance to journey to Underdeep and see what had become of it. She bought many maps and prepared for her journey, learning anything and everything she could about Underdeep and the Dwarven Kingdom. Then, she learned that Underdeep wasn’t quite what she had expected. Some people, mostly adventurers and other seasoned travelers, described Underdeep as the Dead Heart of the Dwarven Kingdom. They told her that although it survived the Worldbane, it never rose from the ashes and returned to its former glory. Instead, it staggered along, beaten and bloodied, and barely fending off a threat from deep underground, something first discovered during the Night of Red many years ago. Indeed, many thought that Dain Lionbeard’s call to arms was one of desperation, some last ditch effort to save Underdeep from something dark and sinister, lurking deep within the mineshafts…
Then she arrived at Underdeep. She set her eyes upon a sea of lava surrounding a high wall of stone, and then, beyond that, a vast cityscape. Every class and profession of Dwarf could be seen. Some miners, some smithies, some bureaucrats, others merchants, even vagrants, they all went about business as usual. They went in and out of buildings of all kind, some tall, some short, others wide, and still others narrow. Regardless of what Underdeep once was, no matter what others had to say, Atalee couldn’t help but look on in awe. So many people doing so many things, all within a cityscape that spanned from one end of the horizon to the next, going on for what looked like an eternity. She had never seen anything like it. The town she had ever seen only had a thousand people, at most, and her own home only had a population in the hundreds. To imagine tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand people all in one place, she simply couldn’t do it, but to actually see it for herself...
She knew Underdeep was big, but it never quite registered until the sister gazed upon it with her own eyes. To think that Underdeep was actually a shadow of its former self, that Underdeep from the World Before was actually larger?
Atalee just couldn't wrap her head around it.
“By the Goddess…” Was all she could say.