Vitreoline (Vih-TREE-oh-lean)

Known for:

• Alcohol

• Guided tours

• Being neither here nor there, and also both

The most common destination in the Demoor region, with a well-charted road through the dark underground. Something of a tourist destination, with a mix of topsiders and Demoorians, considered a "safe" location above and a watered-down generic one below. Mixing of lots of cultures have created unique trends but also diluted a lot of older ones.

Demographics

Many aboveground folk still hold the Demoor region in disregard, considering it dangerous or even cursed, but Vitreoline is considered the "safest" location there. People here are generally those who don't want to be aboveground but can't or don't want to commit to living deeper into the fungal jungle in places like Shadowcap. These folks are usually transitory, treating living here as a test period; most either move further in or back where the sun shines within a few years. While tourism and visitors are common, it's a less lived-in location, giving it something of a ghost town feeling, a liminal space between worlds and of neither.

Government

A town council voted upon once a year decides on ordinances for the good of the town, but truly they don't usually end up doing much. (There's not much that comes up needing doing in a town that is mostly a transition between places.)

Defences

Despite a relatively small population, Vitreoline actually enjoys fairly robust militia protection from both above- and belowground sources, as most recognize that there's a lot of value to this trade route and they need it to be kept safe. (They also, truth be told, know it's a valuable holding ground if the topsiders or underground folk ever wanted to invade one another, so both places send volunteer militias to protect "the town" meaning the strategic foothold they don't want to see an enemy find.)

Tourism

People visit Vitreoline in order to learn about the underground fungal jungle that is Demoor; think guided tours, people writing books, scholar students on class trips, lookie-loos and people on dares. Perhaps some venture deeper in, but they usually will retreat back to Vitreoline to sleep, preferring the relative civilization and comfort of something semi familiar. People coming from deeper into Demoor will also use it as a staging ground, meeting traders there or stopping on their way up or down. For some who are more night-minded and fear the sun, Vitreoline is the only way they get to interact with people topside easily.
That said, Vitreoline is very well known for one thing: alcohol. Vitties love experimenting with new types of alcohol from mushrooms or lichen or fermented cave moss or Rockroot starch. It's largely considered one of the best reasons to visit, checking out a distillery or taking home a few bottles.

Architecture

Vitreoline really has embraced its "a little of both" dichotomy of above-and-belowground architecture, providing a mixture of structures built into cave walls or giant mushroom stalks and homes built of stone or wood as if relocated from aboveground somehow. This allows people to choose the lodging they're most comfortable with/familiar with, though the more "exotic" mushroom or cave inns are popular with younger folks visiting through a tourist lens for their novelty and "authenticity."

Geography

Vitreoline, though a fair hike from The Netherwell where people most commonly reach it, is relatively sparse on fungal structures and seems like a blend of standard cave fair and underground fungal jungle, much of the wilderness pushed back in a way that would be horrifically taboo in deeper-in Shadowcap. It makes use of many smaller caverns in the greater Demoor cave structure and generally feels less like a huge cave and more like a strange underground greenhouse situation with lower ceilings, more sunlight peeking in occasionally, and more "normal" greenage than solely mycellium.

Climate

Vitreoline is on the warmer side for the Demoor region, but only marginally. It is technically located more closely to the surface than other caves and due to the lower cave ceilings is generally less drafty and cold. In addition, the Everglen overhead is a very temperate meadowland, which means the climate that its underground cousin inherits is also on the milder side than, say, the superheated areas underneath Calliope Cut's desert locale.

Type

Town

Inhabitant Demonym

Vitties ("Vih-tees")

Location under

Demoor