OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Underdark Name Generator
Drow City, Duergar Hold and Cavern Names for D&D Settings
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How the Underdark Name Generator works
An Underdark name generator for D&D campaigns beneath the surface. The Underdark is a lightless world of caverns, fungus forests and underground seas, home to drow, duergar and worse. Generate names for drow cities, duergar holds, caverns, fungus forests, deep roads and dark seas to fill in a map of the world below.
How the Underdark name generator works
Different builders leave different names. Drow cities get elegant, sibilant names with doubled consonants and apostrophes, in the style of the dark elves who rule them. Duergar holds get short, hard, grinding names, often with Hold or Forge added. Natural places, caverns, fungus forests, roads and seas, get descriptive English names of the kind an explorer or a guide would use: the Glittering Vault, the Weeping Spore Fields, the Lightless Road, the Sunless Sea. Mixing the two kinds, a drow city beside a descriptive cavern, makes the map feel lived in by different peoples.
Building an Underdark map
Underdark travel is slow and dangerous, and named places give it structure. Name the road the party follows, the landmark halfway, and the city at the end, and a long journey becomes a series of stops the players can plan around.
Not affiliated
Dungeons and Dragons and the Underdark are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast. This site is not affiliated with them. Names are original.
FAQ
What do drow city names sound like?
Elegant and sinister. They use soft s and sh sounds, doubled letters and occasional apostrophes, like Menzarrathyl or Sshan'ammar. They should look beautiful on the page and a little hard to say, like the drow themselves.
What makes a good Underdark cavern name?
A single striking detail. Explorers name caverns for what they saw or felt there: the glittering crystals, the silence, the drowned bones. The Cavern mode builds names like the Echoing Chasm or the Grotto of Teeth.
Can I use these for other underground settings?
Yes. The descriptive modes work for any cave system, mine or underground kingdom, and the duergar mode suits any grim dwarf hold. Only the drow city mode leans on the dark elf style.
How many places does an Underdark map need?
For a short journey, three to five: a start, a road, a landmark or two and a destination. For a full Underdark campaign you may want twenty or more. Generate a batch and keep the ones that suggest a story.
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