HYPERBOREA / Underborea?

**Posted by fireinthedust** 7/01/2017 6:47 pm

I asked ye scribe on Facebook what his thoughts were on the under realms of Hyperborea, and was suggested to come here. The thing is I was thinking about what the bottom of the realm was like Hyperborea, and so far there isn't one.

"I was wondering if you ever had a design for the bottom of Hyperborea. I was thinking about whether it would be a world hanging above the abyss like a city on the roof of a cavern, carved into and around giant stalactites; or if gravity on the disc of Hyperborea was like a spelljammer ship, and the residents walked upside down from the residents of the upper world."

So: do you have an idea for your realm?

Things I Worked On · **Posted by Ynas Midgard** 7/02/2017 4:18 am

Oooh, I like the idea of having a completely different world on the other side. So many crossover possibilities.

**Posted by jcstephens** 7/02/2017 2:19 pm

In my Hyperborea, it's literally the Mythic Underworld: the abode of Gods, demons, and legendary beings of all descriptions. The Shadow Realm where the souls of the dead go is down there as well. A trip to Underborea would be the climax of a campaign, something only the mightiest of heroes would dare attempt.

**Posted by fireinthedust** 7/02/2017 3:59 pm

I think I'd have it be something crazy, and hexagonal-shaped stones like the Giant's Causeway, basalt I think. I like the idea of building onto stalagmites.

Alternatively, I think it'd be a great excuse for exploding reality with a Dark City reveal: the place is actually a construct, built like those black monoliths, and the underside is where the puppeteers control the landscape. Something like that. Maybe it's completely barren, or maybe the Migo landed there. No atmosphere?

**Posted by Morty** 7/02/2017 10:33 pm

Antarctica from the Earth's long past populated by Shoggoths and Elder Things.

Good news:
There's a connection to Earth there

Bad news:
It's Earth a few billion years ago or so because of a weird time dilatation

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/04/2017 7:54 am

Lots of great ideas! We enough more to make a random table with them.

**Posted by foxroe** 7/09/2017 4:05 am

I've considered having the whole of Hyperborea riding on the back of some gigantic space-whale, an Elder God, or a massive "abandoned" starship of the ancient aliens... or perhaps these are just myths specific to the various cultures of Hyperborea.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 7/09/2017 6:42 am

I imagine the underside of Hyperborea as a vast expanse of jagged, mountainous stalactites hanging down miles long, some inhabited by the deepest-dwelling denizens of the Underborea - research facilities of wicked sorcerer-scientists, nightmarish lairs of the worst demons, ancient spaceports for extraplanar invaders, cursed temple-tombs of long-dead gods, abandoned prisons brimming with damned souls, etc. Maybe others are active volcanoes, spewing hot lava into the Black Gulf (the beginnings of new asteroids, moons or even planets) or huge hives releasing horrific abominations into the Black Gulf.

**Posted by ThornPlutonius** 7/09/2017 11:28 am

I keep returning to envisioning Hyperborea in terms of Blish's Cities in Flight stories. Underborea is the vast keel for this spin-dizzy-propelled and protected chunk of planet, launched millennia ago. The obelisks mark the location of these engines and are, in part, part of the field-generation technology. The humans long ago lost knowledge of the true nature of their world. They survive because of the advanced AI-controlled technology that maintains the vast systems needed to sustain life and the illusion of planet-side life. The AI placed the vessel in orbit around the nearest star that it determined could supplement its onboard-generated energy, thereby providing a better chance of the vessel's crew/passengers/inhabitants surviving over the long term. The gods are actually avatars/simulations presented to the inhabitants by these AI's as a way of guiding the course of human civilization. Of course, these AI also begin to have conflicts amongst their "selves". The prime directive to maintain the vessel and its inhabitants is unassailable, but they do tend to each think its area of focus is the most important. Ah, politics!

Things I Worked On · **Posted by Ynas Midgard** 7/10/2017 1:04 pm

Were I not DMing a different megadungeon already, I'd probably start designing my own Underborea Megadungeon right away.

Scratch that, I might just give in to temptation later this week :D

**Posted by Iron Ranger** 4/26/2018 11:51 pm

Ynas Midgard wrote:
Were I not DMing a different megadungeon already, I'd probably start designing my own Underborea Megadungeon right away.

Scratch that, I might just give in to temptation later this week :D

That's what I did, but the real fun is in finding the entrance!
Current playtesters are lost, will never be seen in Hyperborea again.

**Posted by Brock Savage** 5/02/2018 7:55 pm

My version of Underborea is a Mythic Underworld inspired by Philotomy's Musings.

As for the actual underside of Hyperborea, I think Chainsaw expresses the idea better than I can.

Chainsaw wrote:
I imagine the underside of Hyperborea as a vast expanse of jagged, mountainous stalactites hanging down miles long, some inhabited by the deepest-dwelling denizens of the Underborea - research facilities of wicked sorcerer-scientists, nightmarish lairs of the worst demons, ancient spaceports for extraplanar invaders, cursed temple-tombs of long-dead gods, abandoned prisons brimming with damned souls, etc. Maybe others are active volcanoes, spewing hot lava into the Black Gulf (the beginnings of new asteroids, moons or even planets) or huge hives releasing horrific abominations into the Black Gulf.

The entirety of Hyperborea itself serves as a cosmic petri dish for Yog-Sothoth.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 5/02/2018 8:40 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
My version of Underborea is a Mythic Underworld inspired by Philotomy's Musings.

A very influential piece for me as well! He’s great.

**Posted by Spider of Leng** 5/25/2018 11:21 am

I'm just reading the Swords & Wizardry version of Cyclopean Deeps by Matthew Finch. I think it's perfect as a setting for Underborea or as a transition from a more traditional Underdark to a Hyperborean setting. It has Serpentfolk, Denizens of Leng and lots of other monsters with a Hyperborean flavor. So what I'm doing is using it as the latter. The original Underdark for my homebrew campaign world is essentially a mash-up of the 1st edition D-series, the realms from the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, the second edition module "Night Below," and my own stuff. In the upper world I've made Hyperborea the North Pole realms, transported there by eldritch magic. And one of the ways to get there is to travel through the various Underdark realms, with each becoming weirder as one goes north. On top of this, the cyclopean deeps can be accessed through Rappan Athuk, which I've already grafted onto a corner of my home world of Krysonia. I just love weaving good published material into my own stuff. I'm thinking of a campaign arc where a group of standard AD&D heroes have to make their way to Hyperborea via the underdark and once there, they'd encounter the characters we've been using in Hyperborea and they'd then have a reason to go back the other way.

**Posted by Ghul** 5/25/2018 1:23 pm

Excellent! I love Matt's stuff. I'll check it out.

**Posted by Brock Savage** 5/25/2018 2:57 pm

Spider of Leng wrote:
I'm just reading the Swords & Wizardry version of Cyclopean Deeps by Matthew Finch.

I didn't know this existed until just now, thanks!

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 5/25/2018 6:34 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
Spider of Leng wrote:
I'm just reading the Swords & Wizardry version of Cyclopean Deeps by Matthew Finch.
I didn't know this existed until just now, thanks!

Brock... Just a heads up, that's a supplement for Rappan Athuk we're using.

Last edited by Jimm.Iblis (5/25/2018 7:08 pm)

**Posted by Brock Savage** 5/25/2018 11:55 pm

Jimm.Iblis wrote:
Brock Savage wrote:
Spider of Leng wrote:
I'm just reading the Swords & Wizardry version of Cyclopean Deeps by Matthew Finch.
I didn't know this existed until just now, thanks!

Brock... Just a heads up, that's a supplement for Rappan Athuk we're using.

Thanks for the heads up, I was going to buy it this weekend.

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 5/26/2018 12:36 am

It might be awhile before you guys reach it, and you may not decide to go that deep anyway. But if the campaign goes that way, it will spoil it for you. The material is soooo good I'm using it pretty whole cloth.

**Posted by WebwayDrifter** 6/29/2018 11:55 pm

I had one idea at one time where the underside was sort of the 'anti-hyperborea'. After the coming of the Ashen Wurm, basically everything that was, flipped over and is still there, desolate, and barren, but the exact same as lies on the current plane. Now, the water from the top side, flows over and becomes immediately toxic, and much more violent on the edge, always flowing towards land, violently hammering the anti-coast. Gravity is still in the center of the mass that is the world, so you would be able to stand underneath with your 'normal' resetting appropriately. The black towers in Khromarium being the one current connection between the two planes, but long sealed are the passageways, by the portents of old.

But I don't think I would actually do that, I like the 'underborea' stalactite concept too much that's dark, deamon-filled, and a place where, when deamons come to the current surface, they try to develop machines to make more connections between the two, drilling holes to the depths, to unleash the horrors from below, into the world above. They are not as far removed as many may think...