The Uroxi – Lantern-Blooded of the Hollow Veins

Deep beneath the crust of the Asara Plate, in the glass-veined chasms known only as the Umbral Seep, thrives a race that glimmers like molten shadow and pulses with stolen light: the Uroxi. At first glance, surfacefolk might mistake them for deep gnomes or duergar—but the Uroxi are neither stone nor sullen. They are biolux sentients, shaped by subterranean resonance, light-eating fungi, and forgotten glimmers buried since The Collapse.

An Uroxi's form is short and stocky, built to navigate collapsed tunnel systems and vertical shafts. Their skin appears like polished coal threaded with veins of glowing sap-light—amber, teal, or crimson depending on lineage. Their eyes glow with a warm internal luminance, and their forearms contain natural phosphor sacs, which swell with radiant fluid when they’re excited, afraid, or joyful. These sacs are used for both communication and defense—bursting in blinding pulses or soft beacon flares.

Their hair, when present, grows in thick tendrils resembling translucent kelp or glassy moss, often woven into light-ritual braids that track significant events or personal oaths. Many surfacefolk assume they are constructs or alchemical hybrids, but Uroxi are entirely biological—just deeply altered by their luminous environment.

The Uroxi dwell in immense caverns nestled within the bones of hollow crystal formations, where veins of ambient glowstone emit a steady, gentle warmth that never fades. Their capital, Umberdeep, is not merely a city—it is a burrowed bastion, carved layer by layer into the earth’s embrace, a living archive of endurance and stonebound memory.

Culturally, they believe that light is inherited, passed from action to action like a flame across candles. Uroxi are trained in “Lightbinding,” an art that lets them store, reflect, and shape light for practical, ceremonial, or defensive purposes. Their warriors, called Glowshapers, wield weapons infused with their own stored light, bending beams into hardened force or searing arcs.

They are often employed by surface settlements like Triz Valley and The City of Or as tunnel guides, ruin-scanners, or luminous pathmakers in regions where traditional light sources fail or feed dangerous fauna.

Despite their subterranean lifestyle, the Uroxi are curious, humorous, and stubbornly optimistic. They have a saying etched into the arches of Zhay-Phorran:

“We were not born in darkness. We were born where the light got clever.” — Lys Kellenlight, Uroxi Beacon-Warden