Cenote

“The ancient city of A’taran is built upon the limestone Cenotes where the stairways lead to the depths. The dead are offered to the underworld in exchange for the pure life-giving water of its pools.” - Ida Holly, On the Triton sea.

The Underdark reaches below most of the surface world. But sun-dwellers will tell you it's all glowing mushrooms and Duergar. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are biomes of a thousand kinds most upper-folk have never even seen. In the west, we have the limestone caverns, a thousand times larger than those seen in the rest of the deep. Formed in the primordial eras from beds of bone and coral, the earth around is literally formed of fossils and death.

The Sunless sea there is brilliant, and the water is perfectly pure, cleaned by the stone. The death-granting life. They say there are windows to the surface where you can see the shine of your blinding sun through Cenote. But know when you drink from our waters down here, you are a guest in the underworld. And the drow are witnessing each trespass.

This map is inspired by a thread I did on Twitter a few years ago, discussing the incredible real-life locations of our world and how the settings might inspire us to be more creative in our fantasy world-building! So many amazing locations outside of just forests, mountains, and fields!