Phas'Marthern, the Sunken City
Once the great capitol city of the djinns, Phas’Mathern, floated in the endless breezes of the Plane of Air and gleamed as a beacon for travelers of its vast expanses, but now it lies in ruin. 100- years ago, The Hag Queen Loketh had used her power of storms to bind together a Great Coven, and she lusted after a beautiful throne that would prove she was the master of winds. Using the combined powers of the Great Coven, Loketh tore Phas’Mathern from the heavens and transported it to a subertainean cove complex where the trapped djinns would be cut off from the open air and the Hage Queen and her sisters could slaughter them. When the deed was done, the city lay scattered through miles of caverns, with the capitol’s city center resting in a massive cave and a new Queen upon the throne. Cut off from the open air, those few djinnn that survived dwindled in strength and size and slowly diminished to what are now called sylph.
Over the years, Dark Nagas and several kinds of their ilk slithered into the outlying areas and bread their nagaji to help them claim parts of the city for their own and dig for treasures lost in the cataclysm. Constant fighting with the nagas hastened what was inevitable: no Hag Queendom lasts, and after ruling for nearly 200 years, Loketh was killed and the Great Coven dissolved. Although the nagas had won, they had lost a great number and many moved on to areas with better prey, abandoning their nagaji spawn. The defeat of the hags also released their primary food source: goblins raised for their delicious young. The subterranean Svirfneblin also came to find the city and built into it as well, and connecting it with other areas of the under dark. The goblins, sylph, nagaji, svirfneblin and the legacy of the Hags, the Changlings have slowly been settling into this sunken world for many years; they fight with the the nagas and hags that still lurk in lost areas of the city, and horrors like aboleths have find their ways into the parts of the city submerged in lakes and underground rivers. Now a new threat to the stability of the area: the djinns have found their lost capitol.
Two years ago the djinns opened several portals to the Plane of Air in the higher reaches above the central city, letting in light and fresh breezes. The djinns have claimed back the central square and the main chambers of the palace complex, but the djinn courts have been undecided on how or if they will be trying to return Phas’Mathern to its original home or to salvage relics and leave it be. Different djinns are sponsoring the locals to secure areas of the city, scavenge, or simply explore and map the area, depending on their motivations. The locals, for their part, have started to fragment between those that welcome the djinns, those that fear that they will steal away their city, and those that even thing that allying with the remaining naga and hags might help to secure their future.
Slyph: Most of the sylph of the Sunken City stick to the more civilized, urban areas of the city, growing fungus in the dark caves, fishing in the waters and lakes, and coaxing plants to grow in the new light let in by the djinn’s portals. The population has been growing to unrest since the djinns arrived; their presence has changed the sylph already, giving them a glimps of the sky above, and it threatens to change their life more if the djinns make a permanent play for the city. Rumors abound that some sylphs are spontaneously reverting back into full blooded djinn now that the air is open to them again, but even darker rumors speak that the blood of a djinn is required and that a cult has formed to reclaim the sylph’s birthright by force.
Svirfneblin: Most of the svirfneblin would just be happy to see everyone else go away and leave them alone to their caves, but the brightest of them know that if the city leaves, they would loose one of their allies against the lurking hags, nagas, and other threats: friends and neighbors are annoying and loud, but they are handy in a fight. The svirfneblin are very distrustful of the djinn though; at worst, they are trying to steal away part of the svirfneblin’s home, and at best they are nosy interlopers. But, jut as the wise know that their neighbors can be helpful, the enterprising among the svirfneblin figure that they can earn some coin from the djinn, and maybe even trick them into bringing more food and magic into the caves.
Goblins: Most of the goblins couldn’t care of the sylph stay, or go, djinns come or go, or any of that, but what they do care about are the Hags. Hags breed goblins as food and still walk their nightmares. Most of the goblin deities are hags or beings that help protect the goblins from the Hags. The goblins are both afraid that the coming of the djinn will rouse the lurking Hags into a new Great Coven and that if the djinn leave, they will leave the goblins to the Hags. These goblins have the Cave Crawler and Over-Sized Ears alternative traits.
Nagaji: The nagaji are among the strongest of the humanoids in the Sunken City, os they find work among the sylph and other races, even though their reputation for serving evil masters. This reputation is not wholly undeserved, as many small clans of nagaji still revere nagas, even if they don’t take orders directly from a living one. No mater if they worship nagas or not, the nagaji have come to view Phas’Mathern as their home; they were born to conquer it, and to claim it is their race’s destiny. Working for or against the djinn is just a matter of which nagas the nagaji serves and which path to claiming the city that nagaji sees as the most direct. These nagaji have the Hypnotic Gaze trait.
Changlings: Hags still lurk in the depths, and Changlings are far more common than many would like to admit. Although the sylph are weary of strangers and actively weed out changelings, goblins and svirfneblin are not wise and often open to a disguised hag’s advances. Changelings born these small races usually grow up fairer and taller than their kind, but often the difference between a tall goblin child and a changeling is only noticed when the child enters puberty and can strike out on its own. Goblins are distrustful of Changlings, viewing them much as a surface dweller would a teifling, but changelings of the other races are not terribly uncommon or mistrusted; they are common enough that most do not automatically assume they work for a Hag.
