“Like any good legend, it’s rooted in real history. Deep, lost, history of things so apart from today that it seems fantastical. Imagine: the first pokemorphs coming underground and seeing what little was available from the rock. Tirelessly looking for a strong water supply. Finally finding the cavern that would later become The First City. The legends giving their guidance to those that would become the noble families. The great construction of the Reservoir Dam with its power system, erecting the eldest houses, tilling the very stone into useable soil. Feats that we struggle to come close to today, done in a mere handful of hours…” —Introduction to Legends of the Underground, Canal City Library
The History of the Underground #
The history of the underground is often seen as synonymous with the history of The First City, Canal City, itself. But there is more to the underground than a single city, and more to that city than simply springing forth whole from the rock, fully formed and filled with pokemorphs from all walks of life. Canal City itself is going on five hundred years of history. That’s quite a few lifetimes for a lot to happen in.
The Beginning: When the Sky Cried #
The origin of the underground is a legend that is so old that for most only the broad strokes remain. There once was a place called the surface: a cavern without limit, where a single bright sunstone would travel from edge to edge bringing day and night with its movement. Grass types were all the brightest of greens, flying types could soar for hours without their wings getting tired, water types traversed the boundless waters. Food was plentiful, and the technology that existed bordered on the fantastical.
Then, the top of the surface cavern turned red, and began to cry black tears. The tears spread sickness and ate the flesh on contact. The Original Pokemorphs witnessed this and evacuated, taking with them every egg they could find They ran far from their homes, seeking a place to be safe from the crying surface, delving through the tunnels lower and lower, and lower still. After uncounted days of small, treacherous caves, when and water and supplies were running out, a great cavern was struck. The endless deposits of moonstones above illuminated a plain flooded with pure, clear water free of the tears of the surface. This cavern became home.
Work was swift and precise. The river was dug back and the great Reservoir Dam was built. The three great canals were cut into the rock while other stone was broken down into soil, leaving a network of water feeding rich, fertile lands to grow food. The side canals were dug out to make avenues of water, and many bridges were built. The materials cut from the cave floors were reshaped into what would become the nobles’ estates along the new reservoir. Various types of mushroom were cultivated in the broken dirt from the spores they brought with them, to become the foundation for food and material for generations hence.
The First City was built, and the Original Pokemorphs saw that it was good. The eggs that they had brought with them were hatched, and the first of the nobles were brought into the new world. The Originals charged them with preservation of what they had created: to keep the flame of the old world alive as they, the last creatures to see a living human, passed from this new one.
The Loss of Providence #
In the beginning, everyone was noble, and the houses were many. Then many began to lose their connection to their own inner power, and the flames of their nobility died out because of it. There was a long period of great adjustment while some houses fell outright and others were diluted away for a lack of care. As they became “normal folk,” other noble houses sequestered themselves away to preserve the great knowledge that they had been charged with—knowledge that only pure blood could properly decode—and worked to preserve the pure type lines.
This is known as the Loss of Providence.
It was also when Canal City, as a city, truly began to take shape.
With the masses freed from the nobles’ Calling to preserve what came before above all, the city started to prosper and grow. The nobility applied their oversight to this growth, ensuring the safety and longevity of the new buildings going up, giving out what knowledge was deemed mandatory. Intermediaries in this process became the first bureaucrats of the City. Farming became a regular ‘morph occupation, and the trades began to spring up.
But the farther away from noble influence ‘morphs expanded, the more the underground became a home.
The Age of Exploration #
With the outward spread of the city came the full exploration of the gargantuan Canal City cavern. The periphery tunnels were discovered, leading to other caverns. This was the great Age of Exploration: the explorers delved, the mapmakers drafted; while our maps have been updated most of what’s on them was learned in this age.
In some caverns, new towns were raised, away from the gaze of the nobles, connected back to Canal City only by trade if at all. Harder life in exchange for great freedom. In some caverns, explorers found unique ores and minerals; those that returned information on these to the nobles were handsomely rewarded.
All of this served to further diversify those that lived in the underground.
As cave exploration became an everyday thing, and pokemorphs began to be comfortable in their new home, two things were discovered nearly simultaneously: The first feral pokemon, and the first mystery dungeon.
Paradise Under Fire #
Pokemon—real pokemon like those the ‘morphs were based on—hadn’t been seen since the Originals left the surface. At first glance that’s what these appeared to be. Wild pokemon that couldn’t communicate or negotiate with ‘morphs. But these ferals also lacked the characteristic intelligence that anyone familiar with them would expect. They also tended to be quite territorial. Nests and herds of them led to the first major conflict in the underground.
They were powerful; more powerful than the ‘morphs they resembled when matching type to type and move to move, and in conflict with the explorers they ranged from nuisance to incredible challenge, especially when confronted in groups.
When alerted to the danger, the nobles brought forth from the ancient records plans for equipment to help: armor and small bladed weapons to augment claws and hide, and traps and snares to capture or delay.
At the same time, the first mystery dungeons were found, and their properties began to be tested. It wasn’t long before an explorer—the first proper adventurer—exited one of these dungeons holding the first human artifact to be discovered in the new world. It promptly killed them.
It took three nobles in special equipment that no one had seen before to safely recover that artifact and sequester it where it could do no further harm. Thus, the taboo against general use and keeping of human artifacts that have not been determined to be safe by the nobility. Though, the fear has died down somewhat since then, and the lust for power is a constant…
The Strain of Power: Basalt City #
As the decades turned to centuries and Canal City grew, the hydroelectric plant built by the Original Pokemorphs, which once seemed an unexpendable font of electrical potential, began to reach the limits of its design. Electricity was what made canal city what it was, and it also powered the vaults that the nobility used to keep dangerous artifacts safe and sequestered.
There was a large, unused cavern surrounded by magma rivers and magma tubes on the maps. This seemed like a good alternative. A noble-led expedition was sent, using some of their rare technology to assist with construction of a geothermal power outpost.
This became the second great settlement: Basalt City. Officially under the rule of Canal City, but acting as a semi-independent city-state of its own. Its original purpose was to exploit the magma flows to generate more electricity to feed the increasing demand in Canal City. The nascent industrial base in Canal City was tasked with making the great cables laid between the cities, while additional passageways were carved out of the connecting caves to allow for a more direct line between the two.
An information link was also created between the two cities with the deployment of a rare AM radio repeater. This also carried the channels of the growing tele-entertainment industry, making for a shared cultural baseline.
The First Rebellion, or the Banishing of the Rogues #
There was a… disagreement about the nobles’ policies regarding artifacts. The particulars of this flashpoint are lost to time, but it’s commonly understood that a life was lost which could have been saved had the nobles agreed to bring out a certain artifact. They refused, citing its potential dangers.
A fairly popular protest flared up amongst the City’s people, enough ‘morphs joining up under the banner of “the nobles don’t care” that it was the topic of the day. Whether it was because they truly didn’t care or because of a laissez-faire philosophy, the nobles did not respond.
Right up until the mushroom farms were lit on fire.
Threatening the very food source of the underground is what turned a fairly benign protest violent. The Canal City guards were dispatched and a brief, stark fight ensued. What had now been designated a “rebellion” by the nobles was quashed firmly.
The dissenters left Canal City under banishment, never to return. They walked into one of the yet-unexplored side tunnels and vanished into the shadows of history, eventually evolving into those known as rogues.
The War of the Nobles, or the Blackout War #
As shown by the First Rebellion, the nobles were becoming more and more isolated from the City. This also started to strain their relationship with Basalt City. The subservient offshoot city was also run by ancient noble families, but the Basalt nobles felt they were having less and less say in their own governance.
The Basalt nobles made their desire for equality known time and again, but this also fell upon the deaf ears of the Canal City nobles. But Canal City couldn’t exist without Basalt City’s geothermal power, just as the latter required the former’s food.
It all started with an attack inside Canal City. Surprise gave Basalt City the upper hand at first, but once again Canal City’s nobles lashed out when they were backed into a corner.
With the fighting taking place in the great Canal City Cavern, ranged weapons actually had a substantial role to play. Bows with steel-tipped arrows were in use by both sides in the beginning, but the Canal City nobles escalated quickly, deploying from their technological archives first basic firearms and then repeating rifles to defend their status quo. As the fighting wore on, Canal City began to push their advantage in arms, eventually pushing toward Basalt City itself.
Then Basalt City reminded everyone who had their hand on the switch.
In the quiet of the blackout, fighting stopped. The blood flowing into the canals was now only lit by the gentle moonstone glow that had first revealed the cavern so long ago. Finally, a chance to take stock of the loss suffered by both sides.
In the quiet of the blackout, in some undisclosed, neutral cavern, an agreement was reached. Basalt City would have its independence. The power would continue to flow, and the food as well. A trade in perpetuity, agreed to in the treaty of understanding that was signed that week.
The impact on the underground was immense. Hardly anyone didn’t have a family member, lover, or friend that was killed or injured in this war. This was the first significant use of firearms below, and apart from the impracticality of their use in much of the cave network, they came to be seen as harbingers of woe more than tools. Even the nobles decided that such weapons wouldn’t see use in the future.
Where We’ve Come To #
The Modern Age is the Age of Three Cities.
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Canal City remains the breadbasket of the underground and the holder of ancient secrets by the nobility. The largest city, the seat of modern art, education, with an up-and-coming industrial center. Home of the Guild.
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Basalt City stays free and fed as long as the power keeps flowing. It has developed into a city of vice and where any deal can be made shrouded by the toxic mists that surround it now.