Underkeep
Founded by Prefect Shyriath Farstrider in 1612 AN; the Underkeep began as a metro-system and transportation hub intended to link together what remained of Shirekeep after the Cabbage Crisis.
The hub for this network was burrowed out by the the Shirekeep Subterranean Civic Excavation and Ecological Cooperative, the Deep-Singer-managed organisation given the delicate task of creating and waterproofing the system's tunnels, directly underneath the Brrapa Lu Eraro Grand Central Station. The vast neo-Fourth-Era-style edifice, occupying a prime position across from Raynor Park, was constructed to serve as the cornerstone of the Shirekeep Underground, the city's planned public transportation system.
Although the Shirekeep Underground fell into ruin shortly after the departure of Shyriath to pastures new in Minarboria, a colony of Deep-Singer construction workers remained in residence underneath the Grand Central Station. This nest of burrows grew over time and became the Underkeep known and dreaded by surface dwellers to this very day.
In spite of being a parallel society, the subject of all manner of fearful and dreadful horror stories, the Underkeep served as vital part of Shirekeep's vibrant and diverse post war economy.[1]
One of the worst atrocities of the Year of the Four Kaisers was the siege of the Underkeep by Cedrist and Babkhi zealots, stirred up to xenocidal fury by Tokaray al-Osman, and the systematic massacre of those Deep-Singers who had been flushed out of the tunnels. One particularly dreadful incident had involved the kidnapping, religious sacrifice as well as the subsequent butchering and devouring, of a young female deep-singer at the Temple of Mors.[2]
