7 Points of Geography for The Gyre

1. The Earth, My Home, My Tomb

The Gygaxian Gyre is a primal cave system, so the basic ecology of the dungeon is monsters and traps, but there isn't finished stonework, no doors, none of that. This means passage is dangerous from deadfalls, slips into nigh bottomless moon pools, shuddering rock falls, and moving through naturally formed passages that require a degree of dexterity and willpower. How many adventurers are going to be willing to remove their armor, drop their packs, and squeeze through a narrow hole twenty inches wide, and then worm along for fifty paces, dragging their gear behind them on a belaying line? Speaking of belaying lines, there are certainly areas where progress forward means a vertical descent, and the return likewise, a vertical ascent.

Bring rope.

Lots of rope

2. Under a Stone Sky

There is an entire city under Terrasquestone, Understone. Most of Understone hangs from the roof of a cavern large enough to have its own weather and climate. The bottom of the cavern is a massive lake. With that most adjective, there are some buildings that have grown large enough that they have penetrated the lake to meet the floor of the cavern, creating inhabited pillars. The edge of the lake is likewise festooned with fisheries, pig farms, and fungal farms. This is where the Devouring Deeps come in. All the biomass the Deeps consume is funneled down into the fungal zones. There, the horrific variety of fungi process the waste and turn it into myoprotein for the wights.

This is where things get weird. Understone is bigger than Terrasquestone. The population is larger, and not a little larger, but somewhere in the vicinity of 5-8 times larger. Most of what surface dwellers encounter on their attempt to defeat the dungeon is functionally little more than a dungeon theme park through the city, where the Wights rather watch the proceedings like the running of the bulls, or other gladiatorial obstacle course blood sports.

What are all of these wights doing?

They are pushing the boundaries of Understone, creating and populating the Nurgonduur, or the Deep Realm. The dungeon core at the heart of the Gygaxian Gyre created the Wights, and they have become a common race in the DungeonVerse, they are expanding out under Cridhedun, and are being found in other dungeons, and unaligned settlements, and some are even playing the Drizzt card and moving to the surface.

3. Thaumatocratic Socialism

Thaumatocracy is a form of government of miracle workers, aka the most powerful magic users in Understone/the Gyre. Socialism is socialism.

Encountering Wight rogues, and very low level fighters, poorly armed, likely unarmored, well away from Understone?

Avadan - the lowest of the low in Understone, the avadan represent criminals, cowards, half-breeds, mutants, and wights who have been contaminated by surface culture (deism, democracy, traditional feudalism). They are generally treated on par with slaves, with the exception that slaves will generally be treated better, as the wights that own slaves either captured them, or bought them, and dont want to lose an investment, where avadan just kinda show up looking for work, food, welfare, etc.

Encountering wight fighters, rangers, and other low level melee fighters with no magic users? Are they on or near mushroom farms, pig pens, and paddocks for low level dungeon monsters that have a high caloric value?

Ogoldan - the poor of Understone, Ogoldan have no magical potential and are the serfs and peasants of the under-nation.

Encountering wight warriors, dungeon mages, druids, beast-masters, and decently armed and equipped, and fighting from positions of advantage? 

Enedan - the 'common people' of Understone. They have very modest to little magical power, being capable of a cantrip or two, and gifted Enedan being able to grasp a single first-level spell. They do not own slaves, but they are able to hire them for a variety of menial or minor tasks.

Are the wights well armed, well armored, have clearly defined leaders, strong magic users, but still favoring strength of numbers over throwing elite dungeon mobs?

Maelidan - the wealthy of Understone, these Wights are competent magic users, at the very minimum being 1st level magic users, they own land within Nurgonduur, slaves from the surface, and maybe even have an economic interest in the Gyre beyond Understone itself. Where Terrasquestone fully embraces the vibrancy of a burgeoning middle class, including artisans and guildsmen, and allows this to flourish (at the expense of blooded aristocracy, something that earns them no favor from the traditional feudal/medieval-style governments of the other kingdoms and nations) the Maelidan are in a tenuous position of being cajoled to support the regime, or being purged and persecuted for hoarding mana, magic items, and loot from the surface.

4. Anti-Heroes

The wights have guild organizations, but they are much more like soviet Apprats and Apparatchiks.

The Guul Ehtyaar is an alpha masculine order devoted to martial combat, and specialize in the spear above other weapons. It is comparable to the Guild of Champions, where they are more interested in one-on-one duels with the most powerful of surface invaders, or in fighting dungeon monsters for bloodsport.

The Guul Teccelma is a more Beta masculine order devoted to attaining magical knowledge (as opposed to magical power or potential) as well as curating libraries, and archives, and are more akin to custodians and librarians than mages and wizards, though a Guul Teccelma is easily on par with most normal magic users among surface raider groups.

The Guul Noss is a Gamma masculine order devoted to the propagation of the species, as well as overall improving the wightish blood by judicious crossbreeding with other races as they are encountered in the dungeon.

The Guul Maenor is a Delta masculine order devoted to producing artisans, craftsmen, and generally skilled laborers. The Maenor provide rank and file soldiers for the Guul Ehtyaar to command, mirroring the distribution of noble and guild heroes and conscript and levied soldiery.

Secret Guul

The Guul Andreth is the Lambda masculine order that shelters androgynous and effete wight males who manage to escape social persecution or exile to the lowly ranks of the Avadan where they would be quickly butchered. The Ardreth are the eunuchs, consorts, spies, and the completely untrustworthy of the Wights, even to other wights.

The Guul Remmen

The Guul Remmen is the Theta masculine order that offers sanctuary to the insane, mentally damaged, and most importantly, the mad holy men of Understone. These are the deranged clerics of the dungeon that the dungeon itself actively loathes and works to seek and out and destroy because their devotion to the concept of the dungeon core allow them to access its power in a semi-divine faith. Imagine being a cleric of a god that hates you and seeks to destroy you but because of the metaphysical laws of the universe, cannot cut of magical power unless becoming in violation of any dungeon tenet other than no gods, no clerics.