The Underdwellers are the ancient civilization at the heart of Fatekeeper's lore. Pre-launch material describes them as a faction of an ancient people who turned their backs on the sky long before the surface knew their name. Their history is a slow arc from exile to existence to rediscovery, and the rediscovery of the surface is the crisis that defines the game's world.
Origin: The Exile
Fleeing a tyrant they could not overthrow, a faction of the ancient surface people descended into the deep places of the world. The earth then betrayed them. Mountains split. Oceans shifted. The path back was sealed.
See the Tyrant and the Surface Cataclysm for what is currently known about the originating events.
Centuries Underground
What began as exile became existence. For centuries, the Underdwellers carved out a civilization beneath the stone. Endless caverns lit by fire and luminescent crystals. Cities grown from rock and metal. They dug not only to survive, but to expand and explore, outward in all directions, mapping the underworld as if it were their rightful dominion. In time, the memory of the surface faded just as the memory of their surface kin did. The sun became metaphor; the sky, a half-remembered myth. Forgotten by their former overlord and hardened by their subterranean life, they developed a thriving
technocratic society: disciplined, ordered, educated.
The Rediscovery
Until one day their excavations tore open a path to the surface. They had not sought it. They had not planned it. They were no longer the people who had fled. The depths were home. And the surface overwhelmed them: its beauty was overwhelming, its scale incomprehensible. Forests that breathed. The endless sky. Clouds. Stars. The moon and the sun.
The Fracture
What followed was a fracture. Cults formed. Temples rose. Cities were built not downward, but upward, climbing higher and higher, as if to chase the sky they had once forgotten.
See Sky Cults for the post-rediscovery offshoots, and the Surface vs Underground Conflict for the macro plot the rediscovery set in motion.
What is Not yet Confirmed
The Underdwellers' original surface name and homeland.
Specific named Underdweller leaders, faction heads, or rulers.
The exact technology level of their society (machines, magic, hybrid).
Whether all Underdwellers reacted to the surface the same way, or whether the cults represent a minority response.
Whether Underdwellers are visually distinct from surface humans in the playable build.