Twilitespace: Outreach Part 2

Guide to Groundlings
	Most of the intelligent inhabitants of Outreach are the descendants of
outcasts and banished criminals.  It is to this world that evil elves
and dwarves were banished after their defeats to dwell in the eternal
twilight of the planet.  The darker caverns of the planet may hold many
more, as yet undiscovered races.  Interestingly, while the races of
Outreach are very war-like, evil, and generally hateful of those of
other worlds, they get along fairly well with one another.  Two of the
races, the drow and duergar, even dwell together in the same cities and
general areas.

Drow/Duergar 
	The top sentient race of Outreach is a breed of elf that resemble drow
in minor ways.  The drow are the most numerous and the most magically
advanced race on Outreach, with towns and cities scattered throughout
the habitable regions.  At their side are the slightly less numerous
duergar, the dark dwarves.  Together, the two have created a unique yet
interesting society together.  
	The drow of Outreach are elves of twilight.  Their complexions have
paled, as have their hair.  The skin of the drow is ash-colored with
light violet highlights.  Hair color is usually white, but some have
light blue or light purple hair colors.  Purple hair is considered a
sign of divine favor, and as such, is worn long and always finely
groomed.  Drow features are sharply defined like all elves, and the race
is one of rare beauty.  Clothing is well made and functional.  The drow
often divulge in spending fortunes on the finest wardrobes they can
afford.  Like their elvish cousins, drow find solace in forests and
wooded areas.  However, for the drow, this means forests of giant fungi,
their preferred haunts.
	The drow of Outreach have similar innate magical abilities of their
cousins in other spheres.  All drow have the innate powers to use the
following spells once a day: dancing lights, faerie fire, and create
water.  Drow who achieve levels above 5th can draw upon the power of the
earth, allowing them use a strength of stone spell once a day.  Using
this power leaves them unable to use their other innate powers for the
rest of the day.  Drow mages can use the following spells once a day:
detect magic and levitate.  Outreach drow are much less magic resistant
their cousins, having only a 15% resistance to magic.
	The duergar are a more practical race.  They have adapted to working
long and hard in the cities and mines of Outreach.  Their complexions
are generally darker than the drow, ranging from ash gray to dark gray. 
Hair color is usually only slightly darker than skin color.  Their
clothing is always practical, functional, and rarely washed.  It is rare
for a duergar to have more than four or five sets of clothing.
	The duergar have several innate abilities.  All mature duergar can use
the following spells once a day: enlargement (as per a spellcaster of
level d8+1), and invisibility.  Duergar above 4th level can use a fist
of stone power once a day.  The most powerful duergar, those above 9th
level, may use a Melf's Minute Meteor spell once a day.
	By far, the drow have been on Outreach for a longer period than the
duergar.  They were banished here thousands of years ago during a schism
that divided the elvish people and plunged them into war.  The drow were
the losers of that war, and driven to Outreach, where they were banished
for all times.  The exact nature of the war that divided elves is known
only to the elves, and they keep their secrets hidden deep.  The drow
have dwelled here ever since, occasionally raiding other worlds through
use of portals and gates.  Slaves and resources not found on Outreach
are the primary booty taken during these raids.
	The origins of the duergar are much more recent.  They are refugees
from the dwarvish empire when it was at its height.  Indeed, it was the
ancient ancestors of the duergar that caused the fall of the dwarvish
empire.  In the elder days, a sect of dwarves were much more
technologically advanced than their brothers.  Feats of science
accomplished by these ancient dwarves included nonmagical golems,
horse-less vehicles, and buildings a hundred stories tall.  Yet, their
impact on the rest of the sphere was minimal, as they were largely
confined to the large asteroid city of Veros.  Leading this sect was a
charismatic dwarf by the name of Kain of the Skyhammer, who was a genius
of invention.  He pushed the envelope of advancement.  His genius would
prove to be the downfall of his people.  After a short war with the
elves, where his army completely destroyed an elvish host through
terrible technological weapons, he became increasingly prideful. 
Ultimately, he attempted to achieve godhood through use of a powerful
magical artifact.  In his madness, he thought that he could achieve
apotheosis and his people would rule the sphere as his followers.  It
would be a horrible mistake.
	Following the advice of the voices in his head (by this time, Kain was
quite insane), he hooked the artifact into the magical crystal that
powered the dwarvish devices.  The resulting power surge coursed through
his body, but at the same time, tapped into the lifeforce of every being
living in the city.  The power indeed was enough to turn Kain into a
quasi-deity, but at a horrible cost.  Every living dwarf in the city was
twisted into creatures of evil, magical and malicious.  At the same
time, the crystal that powered their devices cracked and died, and their
devices failed.  Afterwards, they found themselves at the losing end of
a war with Araufaern, who had tired of their pride and wickedness.  The
dwarves of Kain, now called the duergar, were defeated and banished to
Outreach.  Kain himself was defeated by the avatars of other dwarvish
deities, and locked away in a magical prison in Blackwheel. 
	For the next several centuries, the duergar waged war with the drow. 
Some tribes were enslaved by the drow, while others managed to seize
enough land to establish their own city states.  The two races have
fought over resources for centuries, yet have learned to live together
in many locations.  In some areas of Outreach, they live side by side
(not necessarily peacefully), while other areas have race-exclusive
enclaves of both races.
	Today, civilization on Outreach consists of at least a dozen, probably
two dozen, city-states.  Each city state is found near a large source of
water; most are on the coasts of the seas.  The cities are separated by
hundreds of miles of desert, so each is fairly isolated from one
another.  Trade caravans of dozens, sometimes hundreds of wagons cross
the deserts on a fairly regular basis, while the richest and most
powerful merchants use airships and (very rarely) spelljammers.  War
between individual city states is rare, as the distances that must be
crossed are too great for most armies.  Skirmishes fought between
airships and spelljammers do occur, but are rare events.  
	The overall population of the world is rather low, given that there is
little land to cultivate and grow crops upon.  Cattle ranches raising
great herds of rothe are far more common, and meat makes up the bulk of
the diet of most creatures on Outreach.  The inhabitants must sustain
themselves on a diet of mushrooms, fish, and rothe meat.  The largest
city is about 35,000 civilians strong, but the majority of the cities
are far less populous.  Each city is supported by at least a score of
villages, sometimes as many as three score supportive villages.  Most
settlements are on sea shores, less on the plains and deep in the
mountains, and none in the deserts or deep underground.  Control of
water sources is too important for them to thin their numbers out by
trying to defend useless territories, so the law of a city-state is
confined to land they deem strategic.  The natives have an active role
in space, but that role is very minor and confined to the space around
Outreach and occasional trade with other spheres.  The natives rarely
trade with the other worlds of Twilitespace, as they try to avoid notice
by the Elvish Fleet.
	Drow hunting parties can easily be encountered anywhere in the mushroom
forests, but are rare on the plains.  These parties use the giant
lizards as mounts, and always travel in groups of 15 or more.  They also
hunt the goblin-kin of the plains, which have degraded to such a point
that they are mere unintelligent savages.  Those that do show a hint of
intelligence are taken back to the drow cities to serve as slaves. 
Duergar are rarely encountered outside of their settlements, usually
travelling from one settlement to another.
	The drow cities lack the constant house infighting common to drow
cities on other worlds.  The worship of Lolth is absent; instead the
drow worship Wrath, Goddess of the Night and Darkness, and Croll, God of
the Hunt and Master of the Beasts.  The duergar worship Kain, the
founder and patron of their race.  The drow cities, being built above
ground, lack the common cave-like construction of other drow cities. 
Instead, the buildings are built to resemble mushrooms, but made of
stone.  Many of the structures are lined with faerie fire, proudly
displaying drow power to the rest of the world.  All settlements are
surrounded by thick stone walls that can reach 30' high.  At irregular
intervals along the walls mushroom-shaped towers have been built.  These
towers act as guard houses and watch posts.  Some hide catapults or
ballista within them.  All settlements have small docks for their
fishing fleets, but none have facilities for water-borne warships.
Duergar cities are well-built and orderly, with cubical buildings.  The
richest of the duergar favor towers that sometimes soar up to 5 stories
tall.
	Life for the drow as well as the duergar is harsh but sometimes
rewarding.  They do not live in constant fear of death, so they tend to
enjoy life far more than their kin.  Bars and dance halls are common in
all cities, all of which have a strict no weapons policy.  Fine clothing
is more often worn than armor and weapons.
	The drow of Outreach are not particularly hateful or a cruel bunch. 
They do actively welcome travelers and traders, so long as they follow
the few laws and stay out of trouble.  They dislike other elves, chasing
off such vessels with force, if needed.  However, there is not any real
desire on the part of most citizens to slay them, and such chases are
usually called off once the elf ship breaks orbit.  The drow use goblins
as slave labor, which they give the most unpleasant tasks.  They take
human slaves only if human visitors broke the law (major offenses, but
not capital offenses, which they would execute the guilty party for). 
They do sometimes raid human settlements to seize slaves, but such
slaves are not particularly valued, as their poor eyesight on Outreach
renders them nearly useless.  There is a sizeable half-drow minority on
Outreach because of these raids, however.

Illithids 
	The third most powerful race are the illithids.  These creatures are
very secretive of their race, and have but a single city.  That city,
Shan-ze-muil, is located at the bottom of an extinct volcano cone. 
Shan-ze-muil is a large place, with perhaps 2,000 illithids within its
limits.  The city population is roughly 5,000, with the remainder being
made up by captured goblin and human slaves.  The slaves are forced to
do all the manual labor while the illithids dream of sphere-wide
conquests.  It is possibly the largest illithid city in Twilitespace,
and may well very be the only illithid city in the sphere.
	The buildings are all carved out of stone and resemble spikes or sword
blades pointing skyward.  There is a large lake close to the wall.  This
serves as the main docking bay for the Illithid ships, which number
roughly a dozen nautiloids.  The illithids use their ships to raid Chaos
and Ethwold for slaves.  Other than the slave raiding, the fleet sees
little use, and more than half simply sits in the lake.  Beyond the lake
is a large entrance in the wall.  This leads to another, even larger
cave where the illithids keep a massive herd of rothe.  These rothe
provide food for both the slaves and the illithids, who can devour the
rothe brains easily.  The Illithid diet also includes brain molds (grown
privately, to suit each individual taste), blood wine, and of course,
slave brains.
	The elder brain pool of the city is kept hidden and is well guarded by
dozens of golem-like creations.  The illithids are paranoid about it
being attacked, and any threat to it will bring out every defense the
city has to offer.

Dragons 
	The fourth native race is a type of dragon very similar to the deep
dragon.  These majestic creatures claim the mountains as their homes,
but use the plains as their primary hunting grounds.  They seem immune
to cold and can see perfectly in the starlit sky for miles.  They can
spot a rothe from well over five miles away.  The deep dragons have a
standing alliance with the drow, who provide treasure to the creatures. 
In exchange, the dragons leave the drow alone, and come to their aide if
their settlements are attacked.  This common defense alliance has saved
many small drow villages from attack by spelljammers in the distant
past, and continues to protect the drow from Illithid assaults.

Goblins 
	The most populous race, but the weakest, are the goblins.  These
creatures dwell in great numbers in all cities, serving to fill the
lowest labor positions that those cities offer.  Depending on the city,
they are either slaves or extremely low-paid laborers.  Goblins have
almost no rights in any city, and only the need by the other races for a
laborer race keeps them from wiping them out.

Other Races 
	There are rumors, of course of other, more alien races dwelling in the
neither reaches of the planet.  Drow legends speak of the illithid's
ancient ally, the aboleths, lurking near their city, while some drow
claim cloakers and Kuo-Toa can be found near the roots of the
mountains.  No space traveler has yet to meet these dangerous and alien
beings.

-- 
Night Druid