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The Abyss

A geothermal zone even deeper below the surface where unique forms of life exist completely separate from the ecology above, based on various different forms of chemosynthesis. It was here that the last remaining remnant of the Uroch race once found sanctuary in their time of most desperate need, but such events are long lost to collective memory. Now the Uroch, having long since vacated this hostile region for the security of the white lands, know of this place as their ancestral homeland to which all souls return upon death.

The Shamans’ Journey

The Uroch know there is no such thing as an accident and sickness is not simply an unfortunate fact of life- such harms are the result of malevolent agents, the souls of the angry dead. Those who die without the proper burial rites are unable to join either the ancestors or the living, and driven mad by envy and loneliness they curse the living and will harm upon them, seeking to drag others down with them. Only the shamans can placate these angry ghosts and help them move on, and to do so it is necessary to make a long and perilous journey to the Abyss. Those wishing to join the ranks of the shamans make this journey as their initiation rite.

First a stylized effigy representing the head of the deceased is carved out of chalk. This will be taken to the shrine and a ceremony held where it is offered to the soul of the deceased, binding them to it. The initiate will carry this effigy down to the Abyss and cast it into the Lake of Souls. This is a vast lake of liquid mercury believed to be the final resting place of the souls of the ancestors. Casting the effigy into the lake will allow the angry ghost to finally reach the land of the ancestors and join with them, finding peace at last and posing no further threat to the living.

Uroch effigies of the deceased

Life in the Abyss

The Abyss well deserves its mythic status, a land of incredible marvels and perilous dangers, a gallery of wonders alive with colour, light, and miraculous sights. In this geothermal zone life is based not on photosynthesis but on various different forms of chemosynthesis, and the communities of microorganisms that flourish down here sustain a complex web of invertebrate symbionts and predators. Though everything living down here must have ultimately descended from an ancestor that at one point found its way down from the surface, the Black Lands form a virtually impenetrable barrier that keeps the communities here entirely separate from the sunlight-fueled ecology of the surface and chalk tunnels.

Bioluminescence is widespread among these lifeforms and this along with the often vast scale of the caverns down here makes the Abyss far easier to navigate than the claustrophobic and pitch-black fissures leading down to it. It is, however, filled with more immediate dangers, from eruptions of toxic gases to giant predatory invertebrates. Despite its marvels, the initiates know it is not wise to linger down here longer than necessary to complete their goal. Many have met a foul end in the Abyss after being lured by its seductive charms.

The Uroch are familiar with almost all the beings in their usual haunts, but when it comes to the denizens of the Abyss they have nothing approaching a comprehensive knowledge, only confused and often contradictory gleanings based on the stories of shamans that have traveled down here, many no doubt highly embellished over the years. Shamans often describe sightings of fantastic beings down here which as long as collective memory serves have never been seen before or since.

Strange fauna of the Abyss

Along with weird and wonderful lifeforms the Abyss is filled with crystal and mineral formations in shapes and colours that exceed even the wildest imaginations, the likes of which few, if any, eyes have ever witnessed. While samples of these gems would surely be of incalculable value, it is forbidden to return with any part of them. To plunder the land of the dead would be the utmost profanity and mean a cursed existence as a restless soul, wandering the Black Lands for eternity, forever barred from the ancestral homeland.

Giant crystals in a cavern of the Abyss 

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The Black Lands

A dead zone utterly devoid of life which separates the Uroch domain in the white lands from the strange world of the abyss below. The hogs, not as well adapted to the subterranean depths as their Uroch friends, are unable to tolerate the almost total lack of air down here and will not venture into this realm. Uroch only enter here when journeying to and from the Abyss and the only useful material they can find here is black shale which is highly prized for jewellry and ceremonial weapons.

Unlike the wide, hollowed out tunnels of the White Lands, the only path through the Black Lands is a twisted maze of fissures branching in all directions, many of which are so narrow they can only be crawled through. The majority of Uroch will never venture down here in their lives, nor would they wish to. Entering into this oppressive and alien realm sometimes causes a form of blind terror to seize upon the traveler, who rush back to the entrance as if pursed by ferocious beasts. The only Uroch who journey here are those seeking initiation to the ranks of the shamans, who must make a trip to the Abyss to prove themselves.

Only one route through this labyrinth is known to the Uroch, and given that exploring down here could easily prove fatal, they have no desire to seek another. The directions are narrated in an epic poem recounting the journey of a legendary shaman down to the Abyss, and those preparing to make the trip must learn to recite the poem by heart, often taking years to memorize it as the Uroch have no writing. Straying from the path can easily prove deadly, as getting lost in the dark means wandering these tunnels until death from exhaustion and thirst. To cross the Black Lands and back takes several days so the Uroch must take supplies of food and water with them.

Shale

As bringing materials back from the Abyss is taboo, shamans will often bring black shale back from the Black Lands as a memento of their trip, fashioning it into object commemorating their initiation. Just as the Uroch see the chalk as a nurturing and life-giving being, they view the shale as a hostile, malevolent force that can only be partially tamed by impressing their will upon fragments of it, shaping them as they desire. The finest examples are passed down for generations, attracting their own legends long after their creators have passed on. It is most commonly fashioned into jewelry worn by the shamans, or ornate ceremonial weapons not intended for use.

Shale bracelets worn by a shamn

A polished shale axehead passed down for generations and now worse for wear after centuries of ritual handling

A macehead/sceptre of shale carried by a shaman, in the shape of a hog’s face

After completing their journey and initiation Uroch shamans decorate their skin with tattoos in geometric and spiral designs, the black ink symbolizing the Black Lands through which they traveled. They will add further tattoos to mark specific occasions and notable events. As the other Uroch do not tattoo themselves these serve as the primary visual distinction of the shamanic class.

A variety of shamanic tattoos

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The Lower White Lands

In the lower depths of the White Lands, signs of life become less and less common, as the majority of Uroch seldom have reason to venture down this far. This region of their homeland is frequented primarily by the shamans, as it is here that the Uroch shrines are located. While Uroch bands are impermanent and nomadic, these shrines have been in use for countless generations. They do not belong to a particular group or territory, but are used by all Uroch.

These shrines are by far the most impressive constructions of the Uroch. Among the shamans there are always at least a few who have honed their craft enough to be extremely accomplished artists and over countless generations they have altered and added to the works of their predecessors leaving a rich tapestry of ornate carvings monumental in scale, so rich with symbolic and mythic meaning that no one Uroch could ever hope to comprehend the entirety of the picture.

Elaborate carvings at an Uroch shrine

All kind of rituals are conducted at the shrines, including ceremonies before the hunt and before battle, the deep chanting and beating of large drums that accompanies them echoing for seemingly miles in this subterranean realm. Their primary purpose however is related to death.

After the death of an Uroch their body will be treated by the shamans as the mourners paint themselves white with chalk. Their head will be detached and wrapped in cloth, taken to the shrine where it will be buried in the ground under a slab of chalk. Some of their bones will be defleshed, the edible portions boiled into a stew which is consumed by all of the mourners. The bones and remaining parts of their body will then be laid out to be consumed by the hogs.

This is not simply a meal like any other but a ritual act of the utmost importance. An Uroch would never consume the flesh of an enemy, though out of respect for custom they would usually allow their comrades to collect the corpse and give it the proper burial rites. They would also be afraid of the consequences of failing to do so. Any Uroch who die without the proper burial rites cannot pass to the land of the ancestors, and become angry ghosts cursing the living and striking them down with disease, dragging more down with them in their rage at being torn from this life.

The Uroch believe it is essential that all body parts besides the head must be eaten and not left to rot or else the corpse may return to terrorize the living. The souls of the dead long to return to this life and a corpse makes an appealing vessel. The body may walk again but only as a monster of supernatural strength driven mad by rage, and will inevitable leave a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Of all the dangers the Uroch face, they fear such revenants most of all.

After a number of years have passed another ceremony will be held, the band gathering at the shrine as the shamans dig up the head, now reduced to a skull. The skull will then be placed in a hollowed out chalk cavity in the walls surrounding the shrine. In the smooth hard bone there is nothing visible remaining of the deceased personality, who has now ceased to exist as an individual in joining with the others in the Lake of Souls. It is this ritual that allows the Uroch to find their way to the Abyss and complete their journey to the land of the ancestors. Before this point the souls wander the Black Lands, lost in the infinite darkness. Over countless generations the skulls have accumulated at the shrines to cover vast stretches of tunnel in all directions. On the ground below them the skulls of dead hogs are stacked, who have also joined the ancestors.

Uroch skulls in wall cavities

The Uroch worship no particular gods, their cult being centered around the spirits of their ancestors. It is they whom the Uroch invoke in times of need, and they to whom the Uroch direct their offerings. Though they acknowledge no deities the Uroch see their world as alive with multifarious beings, even the chalk is a living flesh that houses and nourishes them. The shamans are usually skilled shifters, taking the forms of other beings just as they believe other beings sometimes take the form of Uroch and walk among them. Species are not fixed classes but merely loose groupings like their own bands, and sometimes beings leave one to join another if only temporarily.

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The White Lands

The network of caverns and tunnels in chalk that the Uroch occupy as their homeland, extending as far as 400m below the surface. They have been vastly enlarged and extended by Uroch tunnelers over countless years to create a vast honeycomb. Their camps here are sheltered and defensible, with only a few entrances to the surface where the overlying clay has eroded away, and their watch hogs can live comfortably at this depth. There is almost enough fungus growing here to sustain them and they can easily travel to the surface to collect organic materials and more food. The chalk walls can be excavated and carved with relative ease but unlike clay and sands are strong enough to support their own weight without collapsing. The tunnels are full of their carvings and the flint nodules found in the chalk furnish the perfect material for weapons and tools .

The Uroch do not occupy their camps continually but rather follow a shifting pattern of settlement, rotating between their favoured spots. Over the weeks and months that they may occupy a particular spot as their camp the Uroch and hogs build up a large amount of waste, enriching the ground beneath them. This provides a fertile substrate for mushrooms to grow, nourishing themselves upon this decaying matter. Once the Uroch and hogs have moved on the mushrooms will fill the former camp in great number so that when they next return to the spot they will have a bounty to feast on. 

Though the Uroch do not cultivate the mushrooms as such they will often gather bladderwrack from the surface, spreading it around underground as fertilizer to encourage the fungal growth. The dark damp tunnels are home to a wide variety of fungal species, a rich community evolving here over millennia, which make up the staple food of the Uroch, supplemented by foraging in the Green Lands. 

It is not hard to find signs of life down here, but they are not abundant. Very few animals live down here, mostly small invertebrate detritivores, blind and pigmentless. In stark contrast are carnivorous giants that have evolved to prey upon the Uroch. These giant spiders and centipedes, just as blind and pigmentless as their tiny relatives, rely on stealth and a venomous bite to subdue their prey. Sometimes Uroch travelling alone through the tunnels will never be seen again, picked off in the dark without seeing or hearing anything. However, many Uroch regard these creatures as just stories to frighten children. They are certainly very rare, able to exist in torpor for months or even years between meals, and only a handful of Uroch have ever seen them.

As well as physically creating much of this habitat in their tunneling, the Uroch act as keystone species essential to this subterranean ecosystem. All life down here is ultimately dependent on sunlight for energy, sunlight that only falls upon the surface. It is only due to the Uroch’s frequent trips to the surface, bringing nutrients down to this land, that life down here can flourish. In the absence of the Uroch the chalk tunnels would be almost as barren as the Black Lands below.

Flint

Relatively common in the chalk are flint nodules, the mineralized skeletons of sponges that once inhabited a vast ocean that covered this land countless eons ago. From this flint the Uroch craft sharp and sturdy tools and weapons, and will dig out and gather any nodules they find and transport them back to camp. Very common is the axe, which can serve as an effective weapon in combat whilst being primarily a tool for chopping wood and cutting other materials.

An Uroch axe

Taking the most skill to craft is the very large leaf-shaped point that makes for deadly spear and knife tips. Few Uroch are talented enough to craft a fine example and best are highly sought after, created by knappers with many long years of experience.

Uroch fashion large points for knives and spear tips

Art

For the Uroch the chalk is not mere inert matter, but a living breathing flesh that houses and nourishes them, and can be decorated just like their own skin. The walls of the chalk tunnels are covered in numerous carvings created by Uroch hands. Their distribution is uneven, many little-used tunnels being virtually empty besides perhaps a few scattered images, while some frequently traveled intersections are littered with them from floor to ceiling. Some of these carvings are intended as fearsome warnings to intruders and potentially hostile groups to keep away, other serve as waypoints and markers guiding the Uroch through the maze of dark tunnels. Some have no clear purpose at all but are simply created out of boredom or as practice for more ornate carvings. Faces are by far the most common subject matter but there is no particular canon and almost anything the Uroch can visualize they will carve upon the walls. Their quality also varies widely depending on individual skill, some of them very crude while a rare few are masterpieces.

Uroch carvings in chalk

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The Green Lands

The bright world of the surface teeming with exuberant life. Most Uroch, born and raised in the stillness of the underground, find it an unpleasant and overwhelming experience to venture to the surface, and it certainly takes some getting used to for them to tolerate its assault on the senses. The many fierce creatures living here also make it a dangerous place compared to their much safer tunnels.

Foraging

Despite the dangers of the Green Lands the Uroch will often make foraging trips up here to gather materials that they cannot obtain underground. These trips to the surface are invariably made under cover of darkness when many diurnal predators are asleep and the Uroch’s night vision gives them an advantage, and accompanied by their watch hogs who warn of approaching danger.

Under the sun’s light all kind of plants grow providing food the Uroch cannot obtain underground, these fruits, berries, nuts and tubers being much desired as delicious delicacies. The Uroch shamans have also learned the medicinal uses of many plants growing in the Green Lands which are invaluable assets for a healer. Even something as unappetizing as bladderwrack has its uses, providing a good fertilizer for growing mushrooms underground.

Wood and fat are essential fuel for setting fires while wood also provides shafts for spears, axes and picks. If they lose or break their supply of flint spear tips upon the surface they can sharpen wood to a point which is effective enough as a weapon. 

A sharpened and fire-hardened spear tip

Horn and antler also furnish material for picks which the Uroch use for excavating tunnels in their chalk homeland.

Another coveted material found only here is rust. Scraped off of ancient metal the iron oxide can produce an ochre-like red pigment the Uroch use for decorating both chalk walls and their own bodies.

As the ancient girders often appear vaguely skeletal the Uroch believe them to be the bones of a race of fearsome giants that once ruled over the Green Lands while their own kind still lived entirely underground. Like the Uroch of legend the giants were led by brutal warchiefs, but unlike the Uroch they followed the will of these despots to the very end, the piles of corpses mounting until they had exterminated one other entirely. The dried blood from this wholesale slaughter still clings to their bones after long ages have passed. These bones are often found alongside immense blocks of stone, all that is now left of the fortifications the giants had built during their merciless wars.

The Hunt

Once a month the taboo on killing is lifted temporarily and Uroch hunting parties venture to the surface to seek out large game. These hunts follow the lunar cycle, always timed to coincide with the new moon when the night is darkest and the Uroch will have the greatest advantage. Before the hunt the Uroch descend to their shrines where they chant and dance to invoke the spirits of the ancestors, painting their bodies red to symbolize the imminent bloodshed. Very similar rituals are carried out before battle. Uroch also commonly paint themselves blood red and invoke the ancestors before duels, but they do not follow the rituals at the shrine because dueling is a personal affair not a communal one. 

The Uroch travel alongside their hogs who are able to track their quarry by scent and will target the largest megafauna they can find, hurling their spears at their quarry from range and thrusting their spears when close. Injuries are not uncommon when taking down such fearsome prey but the shamans accompanying the hunting party are skilled at setting broken bones.

If they fail to make a kill they must abandon the hunt by daybreak. If they succeed they may continue butchery into the day but will only do so when they feel the area is safe enough, as while they will defend the carcass from scavengers they will usually abandon it when faced with a real threat as they know there will be plenty to return to later and it is not worth the risk. There will usually be far more meat than they can carry, meaning they will return to the carcass over several successive nights to transport as much back as they can, in the meantime providing a feast for scavengers. The meat from these kills typically provides enough for the Uroch until the next month, the largest sustaining them for far longer. Bones, teeth, tusks, claws, and horns are often worked into personal ornaments as trophies from the hunt.

An Uroch necklace and bracelet of worked bone and tusks

The Uragaal

A wide variety of fungi grow in the dark and moist underground tunnels, and a number of them have evolved to grow upon the Uroch themselves. Scrapes and cuts are common and these parasitic fungi will infect the wounds and sprout mushrooms. They do little harm to their hosts and in fact may act to cushion the area from further damage, so the Uroch make no effort to remove them and from a cosmetic standpoint they regard them as beautiful.

There is however one fungus with a deadly effect, altering the mind of its host and manipulating their behaviour for its own ends. This harmful fungus is usually crowded out by the benign form but occasionally it succeeds in taking hold and predominates. Infected Uroch will become aggressive and violent and instead of shrinking from daylight they will seek it out. This behaviour serves to spread the spores of the fungus widely upon the surface, the dead Uroch nourishing the fungus.

The infected Uroch will inevitably commit acts of violence which result in their banishment to the Green Lands, where they have formed Uragaal warbands terrorizing the surrounding countryside. No longer abiding by the Uroch taboos they will hunt and kill anything they wish and subsist mostly on meat. Their camps are led by a warchief, the most fearsome of the group. Any who challenge the warchief in combat will take their place should they succeed in vanquishing the leader, but the warchiefs will have survived many such challenges before and cowed their followers into submission. The camps are always relatively small for the death rate among the Uragaal is very high.

The Uragaal take the legends of bloodthirsty despots not as cautionary tales but as their inspiration, an example to be admired and emulated. Living under the blazing light of the sun they have begun to worship it as an omnipotent deity,  the Unconquerable Sun to whom they offer their bloody sacrifices. Those Uragaal who die a worthy death in combat will shine eternally as their souls become one with the sun.

The Uragaal believe the future of this world is to be reckoned in mere months and years, as the time is near when the sun will spit fire upon this land. The forests will burn and the ancient giants will return to life and walk the earth once more as they resume their reign of destruction. The seas will turn red with blood before they boil away. The vast conflagration will consume everything, even the underground sanctuaries. Only those worthy warriors who have become one with the sun will outlast this world. Awaiting such imminent destruction, the Uragaal make no plans for the future beyond their immediate needs and wants.

In its most advanced stage the fungal disease ultimately results in a berserker state where the infected Uroch will attack anything that moves until they are either slain or drop dead from exhaustion. However the Uragaal shamans have learned to stave off this result with essence magic, allowing the infected Uroch to persist indefinitely in a more lucid mental state.

The Uroch are unaware of the cause and progression of the disease as those affected by the fungus will be exiled well before it has advanced to its later stages, while their behaviour is still relatively normal. While they know of the Uragaal camps and the danger they pose they have little inclination to investigate them further and stay well away, for to approach would only be to invite conflict with nothing to gain by it. 

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Hog society

An Uroch’s crude carving in chalk of a hog displaying spines

The prickly hogs can be encountered everywhere the Uroch visit on the surface. Thanks to their formation of complex cooperative societies they have become the most widespread and successful mammal on the planet, dispersing themselves across nearly all terrestrial ecosystems and thriving everywhere while the fragmented descendants of humankind barely cling to survival hidden away in their subterranean refugia.

The hogs have exceptionally good eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell, able to detect threats even in the darkness, along with strong claws that can excavate tunnels and chambers in the soil and reshape their environment with ease. They are omnivores who can consume and digest almost anything, with a tough bony beak able to crack bone and nuts alike. This gives them an immense variety of foraging options from eating berries, digging up tubers, scavenging carcasses, eating insects and even hunting on occasion.

While they evolved as nocturnal burrowing creatures, they are now bold enough to forage extensively during the day and range widely above ground, taking turns keeping watch and warning each other of any approaching dangers. They keep several sentinels on watch at their towns at any time as well as accompanying their foraging parties, and have a huge repertoire of hooting and screeching vocalizations with unique meanings making up their speech. 

Litters are small, rarely exceeding 3, and the young are born helpless in underground communal nursery chambers. They mature slowly, taking a decade to reach adulthood, giving them plenty of time to learn all the threats and opportunities their varied environment presents. All members of the group will take turns babysitting and feeding the young. 

Hogs form strong bonds even with individuals who are neither related nor sexual partners, and while smaller groups may be comprised of extended families, in the majority of towns mostly unrelated individuals live and cooperate together. They strengthen social bonds by grooming each other’s soft underbellies, which an individual would find difficult to do without aid. 

They typically live in groups of 30 or so with very many more in the largest of their towns which can cover vast areas. Their towns are composed of a complex series of tunnels and chambers with their own dedicated functions including larders for storing any surplus food they can carry back which allows them to get by in leaner times. Each hog will have memorized the entire layout of their town.

A smaller sized hog town

Though usually peaceable they can be fearsome indeed when roused. Their spines are usually kept held flat and harmless against the body, but when they feel threatened the hogs will raise and rattle them creating a fearsome display. Any aggressors who ignore it are likely to meet the sharp end of the spines. Hogs will also attack with their beaks, which being strong enough to crush bone can do serious injury to aggressors. Their claws are equally formidable but are not their primary means of defense. A common threat is giant snakes and centipedes invading their towns. The hogs will form battlelines to drive off the intruders and will usually try to kill these creatures so they will pose no threat in the future. Sometimes one will act as bait to draw the threat away. When severe danger threatens the town some hogs will plug the entrances with their own bodies, turning their backs to intruders and extending their spines to present a formidable barrier, but potentially sacrificing themselves to save the town.

Watch Hogs and Uroch

On rare occasions individual hogs are driven out of their towns after disputes, and many have found refuge in the entrances to the Uroch tunnels. These eminently sociable beings soon formed a symbiotic relationship with the Uroch living below. Though they are burrowers the hogs do not venture deep underground, and have never colonized these regions on their own, but in banding together with the Uroch they have found safety down here. They can subsist happily on leftovers that even the Uroch cannot consume meaning they have plenty of scraps to eat in the Uroch camps, keeping the place clean while these giants protect them from even the most dangerous of predators. 

Under the watchful eyes and ears of these hogs at their camps, with senses far sharper than even the Uroch’s, it is almost impossible for enemies, whether hungry predators or rival Uroch, to take the camp by surprise. The hogs will always post vigilant sentinels that warn of approaching danger with their screeching alarm calls. The hogs also assist the Uroch in tracking by scent, leading them to large prey, allowing the stronger beings to make the kill which provides more than enough sustenance for all. They will always accompany the Uroch foragers on their trips to the surface.

The Uroch acknowledge the hogs as full members of society and usually will form very strong and lasting bonds with them as individuals. The hogs usually sleep curled up besides or on top of the Uroch for warmth and enjoy their underbellies being rubbed by Uroch just as they would groom each other. The Uroch have learned to understand and respond to much of the hogs’ hooting speech while the hogs have in turn learned Uroch gestures such as pointing and smiling and can understand their tone of voice. They can live up to 50 years so their lifespan is only somewhat shorter than an Uroch’s. Elderly, injured and sick hogs are cared for and nourished just as Uroch are. The injury or murder of a hog is treated as no less grave an offence as that of another Uroch and they are afforded the same funerary rites, though their skulls are stacked in piles in the shrine instead of being placed in wall cavities.

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Uroch society

Uroch legends speak of a past filled with vicious massacres and battles, when the subterranean streams ran red with blood and tunnels were piled high with corpses, a past dominated by despotic warchiefs carving out fiefdoms and handing down strict laws with brutal punishments, only to be murdered and replaced as bloodshed followed bloodshed in a relentless cycle. In the struggle for power there were no victors. These serve as cautionary tales to the Uroch, who organize their society to preclude domination and authority, and prevent the return of such dark times.

Individual freedom being valued above all else, Uroch society is almost entirely lacking in social divisions and distinctions. There are no real clans or tribes, only loose bands that swell and dwindle in number over the years, sometimes merging with others and sometimes splitting apart. Individuals are free to join or leave the group at any time as they see fit, bands thriving or failing based on the strength of the bonds between their members. 

They acknowledge as many genders as individual personalities, with no sex binary. Individuals can form as few or as many sexual partnerships as they wish, and they may last anything from an hour to a lifetime. There is little concept of parentage, all children being raised collectively by the group. While the children often form strong emotional bonds with those who birthed them this is by no means always so and these bonds carry no more legal weight than any other. Kinship is freely chosen, not a matter of birth.

Whoever gives birth to the most children is considered the strongest and acknowledged as the head of the group, but the role is that of an elder not a ruler. Any who become overbearing and domineering are likely to be deposed and forcibly exiled lest they become a new despot. The head has no authority to issue commands or enforce obedience and decisions are made by consensus of the group. The head mediates in disputes and their judgement is generally accepted but is not binding. There is no formal system of punishment and issues are generally expected to be resolved peaceably. Some disputes can only be settled by duels, in rare cases to the death. While dueling is discouraged, other Uroch will not intervene as it is considered a personal matter between the two participants, nobody else having the right to put a stop to it. Those who cause too many problems or commit serious offences are exiled to the Green Lands, allowed to go their own way on the surface. 

It is forbidden for the Uroch to inflict violence upon any being, although they are permitted to kill in self-defence. This taboo is lifted temporarily where Uroch agree to a duel, as well as in the hunt and in battle. Conflict between bands is extremely rare however and has not happened in several generations. It is very much a last resort as hostile groups will try to avoid each other as much as possible and keep to distinct areas. It is also taboo to desecrate a shrine or abandon a corpse without burial rites.

There is one distinct class within Uroch society, the shamanic cult who tend to the shrines in the deep and are adept at essence magic. It is their role to smooth the otherwise fraught transitions between life and death. As well as preparing corpses, directing funerary rites and placating the souls of the deceased, they serve as healers and midwives. To distinguish themselves they decorate their skin with geometric and spiral tattoos. Sharing each other’s knowledge means that the shamans form many more relationships outside their own group than other Uroch and often travel widely and frequently. In forging such networks they play a large part in keeping the peace between the different bands.

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The World of the Uroch

The Uroch divide their world into four distinct zones of increasing depth each with their own distinctive features.

The Green Lands- The bright world of the surface teeming with exuberant life. Most Uroch, born and raised in the stillness of the underground, find it an unpleasant and overwhelming experience to venture to the surface, and it certainly takes some getting used to for them to tolerate it’s assault on the senses. The many fierce creatures living here also make it a dangerous place compared to their much safer tunnels. Despite this the Uroch of today make frequent trips here as many organic materials that are now central to their society such as wood for fuel and spear and axe shafts can only be obtained here while foodstuffs are abundant here. These trips to the surface are invariably made under cover of darkness when many diurnal predators are asleep and the Uroch’s night vision gives them an advantage

The White Lands- The network of caverns and tunnels in chalk that the Uroch occupy as their homeland, extending as far as 400m below the surface although the Uroch rarely venture to its relatively lifeless lower regions except to visit the shrines they have constructed there, and tend to stick mostly to its upper regions. Their camps here are sheltered and defensible, with only a few entrances to the surface where the overlying clay has eroded away, and their watch hogs can live comfortably at this depth. There is almost enough fungus growing here to sustain them and they can easily travel to the surface to collect organic materials and more food. The chalk walls can be excavated and carved with relative ease but unlike clay and sands are strong enough to support their own weight without collapsing. The tunnels are full of their carvings and the flint nodules found in the chalk furnish the perfect material for weapons and tools.

The Black Lands-  Below 400m. A dead zone utterly devoid of life and light which separates the Uroch domain in the white lands from the strange world of the abyss below. The hogs, not as well adapted to the subterranean depths as their Uroch friends, are unable to tolerate the almost total lack of air down here and will not venture into this realm, nor will any other being. Uroch only enter here when journeying to and from the Abyss and the only useful material they can find here is black shale which is highly prized for jewellry and ceremonial items. There is a real danger of becoming lost in this mostly unexplored labyrinth of fissures and meeting a lingering death in the dark.

The Abyss- A geothermal zone even deeper below the surface where unique forms of life exist completely separate from the ecology above, based on various different forms of chemosynthesis. It was here that the last remaining remnant of the Uroch race once found sanctuary in their time of most desperate need, but such events are long lost to collective memory. Now the Uroch, having long since vacated this hostile region for the security of the white lands, know of this place as their ancestral homeland to which all souls return upon death. Despite the awesome sights to be witnessed here the habitable regions are precarious and always at risk of being swamped by toxic gases while many giant invertebrates wait to prey on anything that enters their domain. Uroch wishing to join the shamanic cult must prove themselves by initiation, journeying down here to the silver Lake of Souls and laying effigies to rest, though many abandon the perilous journey or die trying.