History of The Underdark of Southern Avlis: Part 3

[Orleron]

Middle History of The Underdark

After his startling defeat, Kimonictinus retreated back into the underdark to rebuild his holdings. His Vasharan and dwarven
contingents were stung by the blows inflicted on them by their surface counterparts, and some of them slowly grew bitter over the outcome of the battle. They were not the only ones. The lieutenants of Kimonictinus were also pointing their fingers (and claws) of blame at him. For years, the tensions between them and their cohorts simmered, but it was Kuthos who struck first.

In the largest underdark upheaval of its time, the glabrezou lieutenant named Kuthos suddenly rose up in his deep underdark city of Demon's Teeth and sent his followers to unseat the ruling underlings of Kimonictinus. Within a day, the city was under his control and the followers of Kimonictinus were decimated in that area. From his stronghold and resident city of Ka-Kimon, Kimonictinus immediately launched an attack to liberate his lost holding, however, once blood is spilled, the sharks in the area always exploit the weakness. Sharistracterus and Alifanitax immediately revolted in their own cities, turning them upside down.
This left Kimonictinus in a bad position....

The resulting battles between the demon and his lieutenants lasted for more than 20 years. As the Great War was reaching its climax on the surface, so too was the battle of the brethren ending up. In its wake, Kimonictinus was forced to retreat back to Ka-Kimon, though he had scored a victory in killing one lieutenant, Alifanitax, and taking back his Black Dagger essence from him in the process. The other two lieutentants were now lords of their own dominions.

An uneasy peace settled below the ground, though it was punctuated by constant feints and bids for power. As the gods of the surface multiplied above, the demon lords below also began to gather followers. Their exploits turned to legend, as the deeds of the powerful often do. The dwarven folk, now called the Kharakuro, began to construct stone temples to their demon lord kings, and the Vasharans began to bestow offerings to these kings within these temples. Slowly, as the respective societies coalesced under each living demon king, they began to grow in power more than ever before.... but they were not able to attain godhood. This puzzled them for ages, and some scholars of the underworld finally construed that it was their Black Dagger essence that prevented their ascensions. Though they were not gods, these demon kings were still god-like. They were immortal in every sense, and more. As their worshippers grew, they were able to bestow spells on their clerics, much as a god would. It is rumored that occasionally they could even split their presence and do two tasks at once, as a god can. But as they were about to find out, they were not completely deific in every sense.


The Spawn of Alifanitax

Of all the lieutenants, Alifanitax was the most heathenistic. He revelled in physical pleasures much more than his counterparts. Among his holdings were harems holding thousands of women from both the vasharan and kharakuro races. Hapless adventurers of still other races were also found among his keep. Because of this, Alifanitax begot many minor children, many of whom he devoured soon after birth. Though there were many that survived.

Quite a few of his cambion offspring managed to carve out small kingdoms of their own deep in the underdark. They pieced together societies made up of whatever inhabitants they could find. Most were of vasharan and kharakuro origin, though others were made up of goblinoid and even a few orcish races, and mixtures thereof. One cambion in particular rose to a level of power where he believed he may be able to avenge his father and steal the essence of Kimonictinus for himself. His name was Galatanix. It was well-known that the more essence a demon king possesses, the more power he is able to convey on his followers, and the more magic he is able to wield himself. He knew very well that he could not challenge Kimonictinus directly, but he did discover a secret which he believed the demon king did not know: the offspring of Alifanitax possess small amounts of essense of their own, passed down from their father. Ironically, Galatanix believed that the very reason why his father lost his battle to Kimonictinus was because he unwittingly diluted his essence by having so many offspring. It was his undoing. Galatanix was determined to use what little essence he had to gain more and eventually unseat Kimonictinus and take his place. Through the murdering of his kin, Galatanix gathered essence slowly over time to the point where he too became a figure to contend with. His followers regaled him with temples and offerings, and soon enough, he too was granting spells to his loyal faithful.

The battle that ensued was fierce, but fruitless. Galatanix was summarilly killed by Kimonictinus for his affront, and instead of taking essence from the high demon king, the reverse happened. Kimonictinus' position was strengthened, and Galatanix's clerics were disempowered. Still, it was not enough power for him to completely unseat his two remaining foes, and as time went on, the sweetness of his victory became less, as other contenders challenged him.

The underdark of Avlis settled down into a steady din of inter-demon-king intrigue and war which would last 1000 years.