*the text is written in a flowing transcript of Roushom and is very neat. The book itself is deep blue with elegant patterns along the spine of it.*
This book is meant to be read by my fellow kinsmen, so that they might get a better understanding on what the surface world is like. To start, it is simply amazing. Life up here is so much different than down below. The air is clean, not damp and musty like it is in all of those caverns. There is so much more wildlife than the common algae and mushrooms that riddle the caverns of the Underdark. Monstrous trees, grass, they are everywhere. As I'm writing this I'm sitting by a pool of water, plants surrounding me. Why this land is so blessed is beyond my comprehension.
One of the most interesting things up here is the cycle of light. There is a massive orb of light up in the sky called the sun, that travels across the sky. When it comes up it is called the sunrise, and when it goes down that is called a sunset. It is then replaced by another source of light called the moon. The light that comes from the moon is not nearly as bright as the sun, and it is much more bearable and pleasing to the eye. While the sun is out there are... probably millions of tiny specks of light in the sky called stars. Imagine the spell Mage Armor. Have you noticed the tiny specks of light that surround you when you cast the spell? It is like that, only there are millions of those way up in the sky. And the sky... The vastness of it is incredible, it's beyong comprehension. At least for me. Some of you creative wizards who would read this might be able to comprehend such a sight.
Only rarity up here is something called rain. When these large packs of gas come over the sky and they are dark-colored, lots of water-drops, come down, something that is referred to as "rain" up here. The feeling of the rain hitting you is simply marvellous. I'm surprised the many intelligible races up here get angry and saddened when it rains. They seem to complain a lot up here also, about so many things. Perhaps they are just use to these natural phenomenons and so it irritates them.
The next portion I'd like to cover are the many races that live up here. It's extremely confusing the amount of elven races that reside up here. While down below we have only drow, up here there are sun, moon, wood, wild and star elves. They seem to like naming themselves after parts of the land. I haven't met a wild or a star elf since being up here, because supposedly they are a rare sight. But one of the rarest of the elven races is a race called the Avariels. They are winged elves! Elves, that can fly without the use of magic! The creativity simply astounds me. Why they were blessed with wings and not us Imaskari is something I don't understand. Being locked and forgotten in the Great Seal has certainly put our race behind historically, most people here do not even know what an Imaskari is or what our ancestors were capable of.
There are also a race I've never even heard of, called hin or halflings. They are a bit shorter than a svirfneblin. Yes, being shorter than a svirfneblin is possible apparently. They are also much skinnier and their feet are proportinate with the rest of their bodies. They are nimble and quick, and in general are very easy to get along with. At least, the ones I met were.
Then there are the surface dwarves, called the Shield and Gold dwarves. Most Shield dwarves don't carry shields and the Gold dwarves I met were not particularily rich. Again, the racial namings up here are beyong my comprehension. They are similiar to the duergar in size, though there skin colors vary much more so than the duergar. Why is it that in the Underdark everything is black or white? Drow, black and white, Duergar, black and... Well, they're all black. Svirfneblins, black and white. You go and look at the surface elves and they're silver, blue, yellow, gold, green, brown, gray... I think I even saw a purple one once. Same goes with the dwarves, hins and even humans. They have such a variety in skin and hair colors, something the Underdark severly lacks. Maybe that's why everyone is cruel down there, because they only have black and white.
There are several other races, though most of them can be found in the Underdark as well, namely the planewalkers and orcs. Though there apparently are two... offspring to the humans, called Aasimar and Tieflings. Aasimar have celestial blood in them, and Tiefling have demonic or devil blood in them, I forgot which one it is. Though maybe it is both? Somehow a human in their lineage seduced either a celestial or lower planar being and these Aasimar or Tieflings are the descendants of that intercourse. They are much more superior to humans and in some ways are even superior to our own kind, which frightens me to a degree. However the Aasimar are kind, being that they have celestial blood in them. The Tieflings I've met are not so kind. I mean, not as bad as those wretched Lolthites down under, but they are still rather rude.
Lastly, I'd like to talk about the dieties that exist. There are so many more than the ones we venerate, such as Kossuth, Grumbar, Chauntea, Mystra and Shar. There are even so much more than the ones that exist in the Dark Seldarine. To name them all would be counter-productive; to be honest, I'm pretty sure even I don't know them all yet. The ones I've heard of are Helm, Tyr, Bane, Lathander, Illmater, Tempus, Auril, and one more that escapes my memory at the moment. These dieites are very much different in purpose and alignment. For example, Helmite worshippers are mainly guards, though they are very bossy and believe they are above everyone else, somewhat like your average drow, though not as bad. Followers or Illmater are very kind and humble, performing most any service you need for free. Bane's followers supposedly are cruel and lustful, wanting power above all else. They seem familiar to a few of our kinsmen in there quest for power, though Banites apparently do it at a much higher cost. Something of a warlock and his pact to my understanding. Though this was all coming from third-person; no Banite would ever say they were a Banite out in the open, because to do so would result in an execution. The laws up here are very strange. I got threatened with treason because I came up with some drow. Though through the information I provided them about these drow individuals they let me go. I think it was a Helmite that was interrogating me.
The church of Mystra is rather small up here. Yes, I know what you are thinking. How could one of the most powerful Goddesses have such a small church? It seems as though people forgot that through here this world is held together. For without magic, this world would certainly be torn apart. But that is the niaveness of humans up here. Though they have grown much from my understanding then from where they were before our great civilization collapsed. This is all I will write in this book for now, the hour is late and I am tired. The rain just started to fall again. What a wonderful feeling.
//Yes, I know that some of the information is wrong, it is meant to be that way. Because that's how Gharu understood it and was told by the players who interacted with him on the surface.