From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

The Underlands are another dimension, in the same way as Praetoria. Unlike the other known larger dimensions, however, it has proved to be un-locatable with Portal tech. Currently the only way to enter the Underlands is to find a key. There is rumored to be a few hundred keys in the world. It's unknown how they work, or how to activate them, however, and so they're normally just sold in Pawn shops for rather low prices. As for exiting, it is only through a natural portal that you can leave the Underlands. Considering the Underlands are over thirty times the size of Primal Earth, this may be quite difficult to find.

Contents 1 Denizens 1.1 Non-Magical Creatures 1.2 Magical Creatures 2 Environment

Denizens

Unlike the Primal and Praetorian versions of Earth, the Underlands are completely void of both humans and most magical creatures (save the listed exceptions). However, they weren't always this way, as is shown by what comes out at night.

Non-Magical Creatures

The non-magical creatures of the Underlands are almost nonexistant in Primal or Praetoria, save one or two. They mostly tend to come out during the day, escaping to spots of safety when the magical creatures appear at night.

• Pigs: Pigs are a very common creature in the Underlands. It has been discovered by the few biologists who have survived a venture into the dimension that it is in fact the leading mammal in the world. Like the Primal world's pigs, these are a good source of meat.

• Cows: Cows are, like pigs, incredibly common in the Underlands. They make for a good source of milk, and scientists with more knowledge in skinning should use their hide as an armor against the magical creatures.

• Giant Spiders: These spiders are almost akin to the sort you would find in a video game! They're about half the height of a person, with a legwidth approximately equal to the size of an average Crab Spider's bionic arms. Very friendly during the day, but during the night, they are incredibly fast and very, very dangerous.

• Hissers: Tall, green creatures with four short, stubby legs and only one bodily segment (while most creatures have two or three). These are a creature unique to the Underlands, and are always hostile. Extreme caution is recommended. Due to spongelike lower feet, the Hissers are very, very good at sneaking up on their prey. When they get close, they emit a loud, piercing hissing noise to stop their prey's escape. The hisser then moves in on its prey, using a blade-like tongue to kill the food.

• Scars: These are massive wormlike creatures, spanning incredible lengths and widths. While these creatures are rarely seen, they can be found underground. They devour dirt, creating huge caves behind them. Due to their incredible size, it is recommended to stay out of their path, as they will devour everything in the dirt as well. It's believed that the Scars' paths are what created the strange arches and rock formations on the surface of the Underlands, which would mean that they would have been on the surface at one point. They could even have been this planet's equivalent of dinosaurs.

Magical Creatures

There are very few magical creatures in the Underlands, due to the extreme magic, mutant and electrical suppression present across the planet. However, the magical creatures that do exist give a hint as to what may have happened to the humans of this world. All the magical creatures, save Stormbirds, live in caves during the day and only come out at night. Beware the night.

• The Undead: The remnants of human existance on the Underlands, these creatures act much like their Primal equivalents. Their hunger is unending. It's believed that they have a hive mind now, and that there is some mysterious force leading them.

• Stormbirds: The stormbirds are believed to be the only flying creature in the entirety of the Underlands. While, like the Scars, these creatures have been rarely seen, they can be found riding the clouds high above. Their feathers are a dark, highly reflective purple, and they glow a bright blue when riding storms, creating the illusion of dark blueish-purple lightning. These creatures, unlike the other magical creatures of the Underlands, are actually quite friendly, and, if they stumble across a lost soul they would guide it using their purple-blue lightning. They are also believed to be highly intelligent. The stormbirds, also like the Scars, are incredibly large for birds. Their body width is similar to that of a Clydesdale horse and their wingspan is about 5 metres.

• Slicks: These are small balls of pale green slime. Innocent and far from harmful on their own, Slicks tend to hunt in packs. Their favourite hunting method is to come from all directions at their prey, all colliding on the prey and covering it, causing it to suffocate. These creatures love dark places, and yet tend to stray towards sources of molten rock.

Environment

The Underlands, despite their name and the hostility of the environment at times, are a lush land, full of plantlife, with a seasonal cycle much like Earth's. Unlike Earth's environment, however, The Underlands are covered in strange arches and overhangs, and deep pits, ranging from yards to miles wide, are littered across the ground. Flora is lush and green, even in the world's equivalent of Winter, when a light blue snow covers everything in sight.

Like Earth, The Underlands have varying environments. They have mountains, they have valleys, they have oceans, they have deserts. The biggest mountain in the entire Underlands, visible from anywhere on the southern hemisphere of the huge planet, has been named Mount Tyrant, after Praetoria's infamous ruler. It towers so high that it actually is visible as a giant zit-like bump on the face of the planet. It's even guessed that the continent around it is actually in fact just the lower layers of this massive mountain. Unlike Earth's tectonic plate-made mountains and glacier-made mountains, Mount Tyrant is neither carved nor pushed out of the ground. In fact, it is actually believed to be more akin to a grave covering a corpse- the corpse of a very large creature. It is believed also that this corpse may belong to an incredibly large Scar, the largest of its kind.

The deserts of the Underlands are reported by scientists to be relatively traversable in the outer regions. However, in the inner deserts, measured wind speed ranges from about 1285 kilometres per hour. These are some of the fastest recorded winds ever. It is believed that these storms are what created the deserts, wearing away anything in their path to a fine dust. About 45% of the Underlands is desert. 80% of this desert is found in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet.

Unlike Earth, the Underlands' only form of ice is in frozen lakes and snow. There are no glaciers, and no Polar caps. This may mean that the glaciers (and the caps) melted a long, long time ago, possibly due to humans.