Races - Part One

Aboleth

Aboleth are loathsome, lawful evil amphibians resembling plump fish. Twenty feet long from their bulbous heads to their fluke-like tails, most have blue-green bodies with grey splotches. Their pinkish tan underbellies conceal a toothless, rubbery mouth. Three red eyes like slits, protected by bony ridges, sit in a column on the front of their heads. Four pulsating dark blue orifices line the bottom of their bodies, and secrete grey slime that smells like rancid grease. Four leathery tentacles, each ten feet in length, grow from their heads. They have natural psionic talents and use these abilities to enslave creatures or to create realistic illusions.

Anguiliians

Anguiliians are deep dwelling lawful evil relatives of the sahuagin, resembling a cross between a man and an eel. While most anguiliians live in the sunless depths of the ocean, a few have made their way into the flooded tunnels of the Underdark that open to the Abyssal trenches of the Sea of Fallen Stars and the depths of the outer oceans.

Bainligor

The bainligor are small, flightless bat people of neutral evil alignment who undergo a series of magical transformations, as they age. Bainligors have a primitive tribal culture and are found in the southern reaches of the upper Underdark, particularly beneath the Chultan peninsula. Elder bainligor are undead creatures known as Revered Ones. Legends speak of deep tribes, composed only of Revered Ones, who hunt in great packs through the deeper reaches of the Underdark.

Beholders

Also known as Eye Tyrants or Sphere of Many Eyes, beholders are a race of intelligent, lawful evil, hermaphroditic monsters. They appear as large orbs dominated by a central eye, and a large toothy maw, with ten smaller eyes on stalks sprouting from the top of the orb. Beholders on Toril grow as large as six feet in diameter. Most tend to have cool hues, such as purple and blue, on top graduating down to earth tones on bottom. Beholders levitate for support, allowing them to float about slowly. In addition to their deadly bite, beholders produce magical power from their eyes.

Bi-Nou

The bi-nou are living rocks believed to have been created by the Drow in ages past. These animated craggy columns are of chaotic evil alignment and live in damp, drafty caverns in the northwestern reaches of the upper Underdark in small family groups. The bi-nou have been known to ally with the Drow and are sometimes hunted by the duegar as building materials.

Close relatives of the bi-nou include rockworms and rocklords, the latter also know as Lords of Stone, both of whom appear as stone snakes with arms.

Blue Ring Octopi

Blue ring octopi are very intelligent, shy, neutral good octopi that dwell in the cracks and crevices of the Underdarks’s oceans, constantly struggling to escape the notice of more powerful aquatic races. Blue ring octopi are covered with hundreds of blue circles, have large golden eyes and a greenish-brown beak, and can change their skin color from dark grayish brown to dirty white, similar to other species of octopi in surface saltwater oceans.

A few blue ring octopi have rings of oxblood red. These red shamans can cast priest spells, although no one knows what deity they venerate.

Chitines

Chitines are another race believed to have been created by the Drow. These small, four armed, web spinning, chaotic evil humanoids resemble a cross between humans and giant spiders. Chitines venerate Lolth but plot to overthrow the Drow. They are found in small numbers in the northern reaches of the upper and middle Underdark, with the greatest concentration located in the general vicinity of the Drow City of Ched Nasad, hinting towards the source of their ancestry.

Choldrith are chitine priestesses. They are hairless, with dark, charcoal-grey skin. Larger than their kindred, they have smaller, almost negligible mandibles. The silver-white eyes of the chitine priestesses are not multi-faceted, and they have long, pointed ears resembling horns.

Cloakers

Cloakers, also known as Lurkers in Shadows or Chasm Rays, resemble common black cloaks with rows of black eye spots running down their backs like buttons. Two ivory covered claws on the upper edge of a cloaker’s form are easily mistaken for bone clasps. The white underside of a cloaker bears a horrific horned face composed of two glowing red eyes and a ravenous maw. A whip-like tail completes its monstrous form.

Dao

Dao are neutral evil genies native to the elemental plane of Earth who sometimes establish settlements in the Realms Below. Dao are fierce opponents of the dwarves, pech, and thaalud, and they often battle those races over particularly valuable veins of ore and gems. Dao exist in small numbers throughout the Underdark, but most sightings are concentrated in the upper and middle Underdark beneath the south-western corner of Faerun