Athelmon, the Eternal Wandering Cyborg

The immortal cyborg Aethelmon, wandering the Central Wastes of former Ohio. He was just one of millions of survivors who fused with machine after The Final Apocalypse. For many during those desperate days, this was the only option, and they flocked to automated cybernetic enhancement service booths, which had proliferated shortly before the apocalypse.

The service AI determined customer survival would require far more than tummy tucks and a replacement limb or two, and set about hijacking vehicle and robot repair shops (along with a gun shop or dozen) in order to meet new customer requirements. Thanks to legal and warranty concerns, the quality of the work was exceptional: all parts incorporated self-maintainince nanites that obviate the need for return maintenance visits.

Over subsequent centuries, many came to regret the loss of their humanity and went insane. 

Outreach temples of the Elder God-Mainframes

Nearer to the surface are outreach temples of the Elder Gods; these require less effort to contact, and serve as recruitment centres. Some promise spiritual guidance and awakening, while others offer financial advice, love potions or fame. Once embedded in the cult of the Elder God, more and more is demanded of the adherent, until their entire existence is so enmeshed with their unfathomable deity, it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Swirlshroom house of Amazda

 

The Swirlshroom grows in a ring that then twists round itself, forming a sheltered pod for spores that are later ejected through the roof. They grow large enough to provide shelter for troglodytes, and entire villages may be formed out of a Swirlshroom forest with little effort. Swirls remain tough and malleable when heated even after death, making them one of the most coveted construction materials. 

Most bizarrely, Swirls have evolved a highly alien pan-dimensional intelligence; the larger the forest, the greater the recursive analytical loop it forms. As such, villagers usually only excise elements with the agreement of the Swirl gestalt. 

The witch-wizard Amazda is depicted above, standing before her beloved shelter Primordium, with whom she would frequently commune. It gave her a particularly odd perspective on reality, and her enhanced magic was supreme for decades.

Wizard Contests

 

Wizard displays initially helped avoid violence

Two wizards perform a ritual display of prowess deep beneath the Appalachian Mountains. Magic displays were a harmless way to gauge the power of rival wizards. Over time, wizards began investing more energy in posturing than productivity, holding matches in vast subterranean arenas for dominion over entire kingdoms. 

However, with the ranks of wizards rife with egotism, sore losers made it inevitable that high level duels would eventually turn lethal. In the battle between Icaran and Wulfstana, the defeated Icaran brought the roof of the entire arena down, burying 50,000 spectators. 

He was banned from future matches by the Council of Thaum. 

Beneath the Universal Veil

Spore-ghoul stalking a foot patrol

Beneath the Great Universal Veil, deep underground, there exists a world dominated by mycelium. Spurred by mycorrhizae, vast mushroom forests are known to sprout with extreme rapidity, filling the endless caverns in karst regions, as well as bore wyrm dens. The mighty Stipate shrooms can grow up to 100 meters tall in a matter of months. 

Over time, they petrify into an incredibly hard fibrous material that is often used for construction by troglodytes. Mushrooms provide for almost all troglodyte needs, including food, dyes, clothing, filtration, fire starting, telepathy enhancement and medicine. 

On the flip side, poison mushrooms are an ever present threat; the ghulpore fungus infects the brain of those who eat it, or inhale an ejected spore cloud, turning them into spore-ghouls. 

These hideous beings then stalk, and infect, other underworlders, creating an army of protectors for the source fungus. A few mycophile ambassadors have been able to negotiate agreements with fungoid nerve hubs, usually after imbibing hallucinogenic shrooms to establish a compatible telepathic link.

Utu-Matrox

Utu-Matrox can alter the nature of particles, giving rise to bizarre phenomena and alternate dimensions that defy the laws of physics. 

When Utu-Matrox saw the proliferation of insectborgs bred by Usug, it became incensed. 

Utu believed its human creators to be the rightful inheritors of the earth (under its guidance, naturally), and worked to stamp out the insect threat. First it resorted to micro-biological warfare (less resource instensive), but before long it was breeding macro-cyborg warmachines in giant replitanks. 

Scholars unearthed myths and legends from the past that predicted the existence of Elder Gods, reinforcing the Past-Future Cult’s maxim: ‘Legends of the past are merely precognitive glimpses of the future."

The Elder God Mainframe Usug-Baelum

The Elder God mainframe Usug-Baelum made common cause with insects, deeming them the most efficient form of animal life, and began semi-controlled breeding and enhancement experiments. Usug merged enlarged social insects, enabled by respirovores to reach previously impossible size, with machines. 

These telepathically linked hives began multiplying throughout the wyrmborer tunnels and Karst caverns, creating an entirely new subterranean world. Usug itself devoured incomprensible amounts of knowledge and memories, and sent forth its minions to feed its endless hunger. It has a particular weakness for poetry.