Edit- Maybe wrong title now i see it. I dont mean a copy, just anything similar.

So, I have read the FAQ and done a quick scan of the UESP wiki. I dont see anything on either relating to what im gonna ask. That probably means it doesnt exist in the lore, but figured id ask here anyway. Think this is the right place for it, sorry if not.

For a long while i had been considering making a Underdark type mod (before skyrim release).
The idea mainly comes from a love for deep dark massive places like Dwemer ruins (which are awesome in Skyrim), Moria from LOTR, and the Underdark from Forgottem realms.


What im wondering is, Does a similar place to the Underdark exist in TES Lore?
Also, are there any races/creatures in the Lore that would live in such a place? For example, the Underdark in forgottem realms has the Drow (Dark elfs) and Svirblem dwarfs (spelling?) amongst plenty of other creature types.

I know there are the falmer, but other than that, im not sure what other humanoid races would live in such a place, or if there are any.


If none of this even exists in TES lore, ill probably still try to create it, but im just wondering if theres anything similar already in place i could base it off.

Only thing I could think of is Blackreach.

Yea. Ive been there also. Is pretty awesome. I done a bit of reading and it seems this is the place the falmer went to, and stayed with the dwemer. Im presuming this means Blackreach is meant to be a massive dwemer city or such, and just its not as big ingame, for reasons such as time to create etc.

But what im talking about is more along the lines of a massive underground cave/tunnel/cavern network such as the underdark, or even the Hollow from gears of war. I dont think it does exist personally, but just asking anyway.

Isint the Underdark Were the drow and Mind flayers live?

Yep

As i said in the first post

Isn't it bigger than any of the cities? It sure felt bigger.

As for this idea: it doesn't exist, but that doesn't mean it can't exist. You could create a non-hostile faction of Falmer, and just have the rest of the NPCs (the ones you talk to) be slaves / thralls / whatever. Give them all either blind eyes, or the all-black eyes. Use the dwemer tileset, as well as the standard cave tileset, with some Falmer set pieces. As long as it's treated as a secret, the lack of lore mentions shouldn't be able to stop you from making this.

I was pretty surprised by just how big the Blackreach was portrayed in game. A lot larger than Solitude, with multiple Dwemer buildings. Considering that everything in the game is pretty much shrunken down compared to their lore counterparts, Blackreach is likely really, really big.

Another possibility - although very likely destroyed at this point in history, are some caverns in the Red Mountain region. If I recall correctly there was a sixth house outpost near Vvardenfell's north coast having cavern going way south, having an entrance somewhere behind the ghost fence in Dagoth Ur's territory. However likely collapsed as Morrowind went kaboom.

And then there's the root system in the Shivering Isles, which - according to SI's books - stretches through the whole isles. However only small isolated parts of it were displayed in game (important parts nonetheless).

Some Ayleid structures in Cyrodiil were also pretty big. Best bet for Skyrim however I think is the Blackreach. Everything else is just... somewhere else. However the Blackreach is nothing like a second continent under earth's surface, more some really expansive caverns.

If Blackreach doesn't already fit the definition of a massive underground cavern, I don't know what does...especially if you include all the gigantic dwemer ruins that are attached to it.

Other than that, no. There is not an 'Underdark' in TES, at least not that we know of for sure.

Only other places I can think of were some caverns in Morrowind, namely the caverns within Dagoth Ur itself, and maybe the caves under Kogoruhn that connected it to Red Mountain.

Or the ruins of Old Mournhold in Tribunal, those were huge and connected to the (gigantic) sewers and all those weird winding caves with the daedric ruins inside and also those huge dwemer ruins. I think all those were connected. if anything, those caves would count probably more than Blackreach I think.

Yea, it is massive in relation to other stuff, i was just wondering if there was anything equal to what bg2408 said really "However the Blackreach is nothing like a second continent under earth's surface, "
But yea, even if it doesnt exist, i will still make it,or try to. Basic idea atm is just a underground tunnel network for you to explore, with a small war between the Falmer and the other underground residents, due to falmer having moved down deeper. Though i realise the falmer have been down below for a long time already. Partly inspired by gears of war Lambent vs Locust




Thanks. Will see if i can find some reading on these things.





Again, Thanks.

Thats pretty much all i needed to know. I did doubt whether there was many things like what i was thinking of in Tes, but never hurts to ask.
Was mainly just for basic ideas anyway, as no matter what existed already, Whatever i make wouldnt fit into lore much, if at all.

Might be biting off more than i can chew with this idea anyway. I realise now after modding oblivion that you want to start small, but ive got a bit more experience now and i might just plod away at it for a while

So, again, Thanks for replys.

It seems like you could just add to Blackreach...like make new cavernous areas accessible from Blackreach itself or maybe through hidden tunnels in some of the already existing cavern-ish dungeons.