Surface Peoples

When the Great Cataclysm came, much of the surface of Nerilia was made uninhabitable, and while some humanoids managed to survive, all except orcs, goblins, and their kin were mutated and changed by the latent magic the titans left behind. To find refuge, the dwarves retreated underground through their fortresses, returning to the Darklands where they had originated. They allowed other surviving humanoids to accompany them. Unfortunately, not only did the cataclysm refugees find conflict with ancestries already dwelling there, but the Darklands themselves have a mutating effect much like the cataclysm, transforming those without resistance just as surface survivors were.

The ancestries that fled to the Darklands each had different experiences:

Dwarves, being native to the Darklands, were unaffected by their strange magic, but they soon found that their relatives who had never dug up to the surface, the Hryngar, were not welcoming of their return. They believed that the Darklands belonged to them, as the dwarves had abandoned it. They had large nations throughout the Darklands, but these began to shrink as they fought with the surface peoples. The dwarves are still comfortable in the Darklands, but they have some longing to return to the sky.

Elves adapted quite quickly to living underground, and their biology was less affected by the magic of the Darklands than that of the cataclysm. They mostly live with dwarves and are close allies with them, but some have founded their own settlements. A small subset of them stumbled upon the Maw and began worshiping demons.

Goblins were already suited for living underground, but most were not integrated into other humanoid societies during the Great Cataclysm. Those that were often found that they disliked the Darklands returned to the surface despite the apparent danger. Darklands goblins live in settlements of the more numerous ancestries.

Very few halflings managed to flee to the Darklands and they mostly live among the humans in Namilosa. Being most like humans, those not in Namilosa were mutated in similar ways.

Humans were by far the most affected by the Darklands' magic, and they branched away into several other species including morlocks, fetchlings, caligni, and munavri. In fact, the magic of the Darklands had such a strong influence over the humans that they could only survive in their original forms with the help of the goddess Briarae, and her city of Namilosa is currently the only place where living humans are known to reside.