Oroi

In the foothills of the Honamaya mountains lies the region of Oroi. The surface is dotted with hills, crags, and mountains, and can seem sparsely populated upon first glance. Hidden below lies an entirely different world: a vast network of massive caves zigzags through the region, and many are large enough for entire towns to fit within. The bulk or Oroi's population lives in these tunnel towns, including the majority of native lipoti.

Cavernous Country

Oroi's rugged landscape doesn't suggest an easy livelihood for those who call it home. The earth is rocky and tough, littered with boulders and hard stone just below the dirt and clay. Plant life is scattered - thickets of trees grow where the soil isn't as tough, separated by seas of tall grass and moss. What you'll quickly realize, however, is that much of life in Oroi is beneath that surface. The entire landscape is dotted with holes. Some small enough for only bugs to fit in, some large enough to swallow a building. Caverns are visible in the sides of hills, mountains, and canyons; and pits that drop straight down pock fields. There are perhaps millions of ways to get from Oroi's surface world to its underground one, and only a small percent are charted. When the people of Oroi tell you to watch your step, they mean it.

Down Below

Caves and hidey-holes have always made good spots from wild beasts and harsh weather. It just so happens that in Oroi, the underground is large enough to hold cities. Scholars estimate that the bafflingly complex system of tunnels and underground environments contains as much as three times as much land as the surface of Oroi. The region's tough earth lends itself well to further digging and excavation - buildings can be carved into the sides of tunnels without affecting stability, and in larger cities it's common to even use the ceilings as workable land. An ever-expanding project continues to connect cities by magicite rail - ingenious inventions that push trams along metal tracks using the power of magic.
Though folk history posits that the lipoti built these cavernous systems with their adept claws, the scale of Oroi's underground world simply does not match the physical posibility of that being true. In fact, the lipoti are far from the only burrowing denizens of the region - massive worm-like and insectoid creatures, reptilian and mammalian beasts; most life in Oroi seems to dig for their food and shelter. This makes venturing deeper than known settlements unwise, just as wandering into the woods or deserts is in other regions.

Mysteries in the Dark

Though many of Oroi's caverns have been mapped by explorers over the years, the tunnels become so twisting and mazelike it's almost impossible to keep track the deeper you go. Tall tales of hidden grottos with unique life, underground lakes and forests, and entire civilizations of unknown species hiding in the depths are commonly heard from those who've explored even slightly. Repeat investigation finds little to substantiate these rumors, but they persist nonetheless. Plenty of folk do go missing down in the tunnels, and plenty of those who do were only a few twists and turns from the nearest town. Most surface dwellers will tell you not to enter any cave. Most of the folk who live in the caves tell you not to go past the gates.

Notable Places:

• Rosdorf
• Bhaggana
• Ingnas

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Demonym

Oroian

Government System

Democracy, Parliamentary

Controlled Territories

• Bhaggana

Neighboring Nations

• Honamaya
• Pridelands
• Shisama

Related Species

• Lipoti

Travel Tips:

Winding through tunnels in the dark on box-shaped metal vehicles sounds restrictive and unimpressive to describe it to an outsider, but the view of Oroi's subterranean landscape via magicite rail should not be underappreciated. I was stunned to find the tram dashing its way along much like an airship would, weaving through tunnels and into wide open caverns with exhilarating views below, before popping onto the surface for a brief time to glimpse the stunning mountainscapes. The service was delightful as well - for only a handful of coins, I sampled an exotic array of cooked fungi native to the caverns.
-Rodanté