WARNING: This is NOT
a post from the developers – simply a fan with time to kill.
Underworld Activity Detected At The Rift

After months of silence, the Circle of Five has
announced the results of a highly secretive expedition to The Rift. “What expedition?” asked King Sugurd as he
was presented with the results. “I have
not been informed of any such expedition.”
It would seem that the entire Council of Illyria has been kept in the
dark regarding the Circle of Five’s recent undisclosed endeavors. Although a bit unorthodox, the Order of
Allembine has asked their Chief Historian, Brother Amyris, to review The Circle’s
findings before any official release is made.
“This is truly amazing!” Amyris noted.
“There seems to be an ancient passage which lies directly at the base of
The Rift. Had it not been for the Circle
of five’s meddling... er, I mean their deep interest and concern in this matter
which involves the safety and security of all Elgea, then I am quite certain
this would have remained dormant for the remainder of time. Only the oldest of tales mention the
underworld and its dark secrets.”
According to Amyris’ findings, this ancient passage poses
no immediate threat to the people of Elgea.
Still, Amyris has requested more time so that he may search the oldest
known scrolls in the library at the monastery of Qi Quien and see if some of
the more obscure glyphs and markings can be interpreted. “Without further research on the matter,”Amyris
stressed, “going down there would be both unsafe and unwise.”
On my way out, Brother Ambrosius, Chief
Cartographer of the Order of Allembine, informed me that expeditions are
already underway to begin mapping and exploring what lies below. “The last reported undead attacks were months
ago,” Ambrosius remarked. “What harm could there be in having a little look
around?”
“Explorers!” exclaimed King Sigurd, “This is both unprecedented
and absurd! I will not risk the safety
of anyone on such a fool-hearted journey.
Those who wish to explore may go of their own accord, but I will have no
part of it.”
The Circle of Five has refused to make any comment on
the matter and further speculation could be harmful to both my career and my fingers.
SunStorm – Intern Reporter for The Herald
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How cool would that be if we could send cities down to an underworld (using exodus and going through the rift). However, this would require path-finding first as the cities (settlers/exodus) would have to travel to the rift and then navigate past lava to set up a base.
The image above was compiled in Photoshop with all Illyriad graphics (except for the lava texture which I had to make). Other than that, only one image (the dark red) was altered. An underworld would be quite easy to create with existing images.