Mound Roach

The Underworld is a fascinating place for a natural historian like me. Honestly, it should be fascinating to just about everyone! An entire world far below our roots, filled with all types of exotic flora and fauna. While many would be quick to see the Underworld as a place of rocks and barren stone, it is truly filled with a variety of ecosystems and habitats. While it remains miles below the surface, it shares some similarities with our world, but with an odd twist! They have forests, but they are made of fungi, not trees. They have rivers, but they run through flooded tunnels and stone tubes. They have a starry sky, but it is just glowing creatures that cling to the rocky ceilings. There are sometimes when you travel through the Underworld when you forget where you truly are! On the flipside, though, the Underworld faces some unique challenges. The lack of light is one of them, where many creatures have adapted to an eternal darkness. The demons and shades, though, have taken to using lightstones to illuminate their cities and aid in growing crops. Another is a multi-layered environment. Imagine what life would be like if us surface dwellers had to worry about the sky crashing down on us! Another, and this one is forgotten a lot, is that the Underworld is a closed system. While we have the sun and the open expanse of sky, the Underworld is restricted by its thick layers, many tunnels and intricate networks. While we can travel as the crow flies, demons and shades must navigate the hundreds of tubes and tunnels that connect everything together. That doesn't just apply to them either! Nutrients must follow these systems, as does water, air and, most importantly, waste.

I do not mean to make this section seem gross or immature, but the subject of waste matter is incredibly important for the Underworld. The flow of nutrients is crucial for making its many ecosystems work. While we can rely on the plants to bring in new food and energy from the sun, those down below do not get these free lunches. All the food and nutrients they have down there is all they are ever going to get. So one cannot allow nutrients to go to waste or be forgotten. This applies directly to waste and any other excretions the fauna may create. Scavengers and coprophages are needed to consume these byproducts, so that the nutrients can be thrown back into the cycle. They also need to exist to keep the Underworld from being flooded by their own waste! Those who stick up their noses at those who feed on fecal matter should take a lesson from this entry, and see how important these creatures are to the ecosystem and world.

The reason I bring up this subject of waste and other nasty byproducts is because I wish to talk about Mound Roaches. These insects are the Underworlds 1# champ in waste cleanup and nutrient recycling. To even guess at how many of these insects exist in the Underworld is mind-boggling, as a single cavern may contain thousands of them at a time! While certainly plentiful, these heavy numbers are only seen in certain areas of the Underworld. Mainly where heavy numbers of bats, clingers and other ceiling dwellers live. From heavy populations comes heavy amounts of waste, and that is what Mound Roaches thrive on. In certain caves, the entire floor of the room may be covered in a lake of fecal matter, and the Mound Roaches are the fish who inhabit these foul ponds! Hundreds of them can be seen swarming across the surface, feeding on anything that is near their mandibles. The ones you see in such hordes are the males of the species. Male Mound Roaches only grow to the size of your thumb, staying at that size for the rest of their lives. The males make up most of their populations, as dozens of them can hatch from a single laying. The females are not as plentiful, but that is because of their impressive size! The ones I have seen have grown to the sizes of dogs! The large females dwarf the males, though the males have them beat by sheer numbers. The females primarily exist to lay eggs and spawn more brood. Since males live incredibly short lives, the female must churn out eggs constantly. They lay eggs pretty much every single day, releasing dozens of hungry larva each time!

Though the Mound Roaches feed primarily on waste, they are opportunistic eaters who will devour anything that gets near them. Voracious in appetite, they will happily feed on fungus, plant matter, rotting matter and flesh. Though they can devour meat just as eagerly as fecal matter, they do not hunt. Instead, they merely wait for a meal to stumble into their feeding grounds and get bogged down by the filth. Ceiling dwellers who fall from their perches may survive the initial impact, but they must scramble out of the foul sea before they are devoured. When prey falls into their homes, the Mound Roaches swarm in an instant. The thrashing and flailing of the victim draws their attention, and they will come in droves. Sharp mandibles will slice through flesh, and a hungry horde can strip a full grown demon to the bone in just a few hours. Thankfully the victim won't live nearly that long! The one thing that is not consumed by the roaches is fresh bone. Bones are too tough for them to chew up, so they wait for other organisms to weaken it first. As the bone breaks down and decays, than they shall feast. Until then, Mound Roaches find these leftovers perfect for personal defense. Since the females are so few in numbers, they seek to protect themselves from predators. Building a mound of waste, the female shall perch herself on top, so that she can easily see everything around her. The pillar of waste is also great as an escape hatch, as she can dive into it to avoid the claws of a swooping predator. Adorning her mound will be bones of previous prey, which is waiting to be broken down. Until they rot, she shall use them as armor and deterrents, warding off predators with bony spikes and thick plates. These decorated mounds were once mistaken for a species of slime by surface dwellers a long time ago. Seeing a semi-liquid body with prey chunks sticking out of it, many assumed that they were related to the slimes. What further confused us was the fact that these mounds move! With the constant scrabbling of males, and the semi-solid state of fecal matter, the mounds of a female will slowly move its way around the area. The movements are quite subtle and slow, but with a sharp eye, you can see the columns slide about, as they are constantly forming and reforming. People didn't see the hiding female and assumed it was an actual slime! That is why you may see entries for the Ravenous Slime in certain ancient textbooks. It was a mistake by us silly surface dwellers!

With their massive populations, Mound Roaches are a favorite food of many Underworld creatures. Predators who swoop from above or cling to the walls will pluck males from the muck and enjoy an endless buffet. Those who feed on them, though, should be careful! They could become food for the Mound Roaches instead if they fall in! Many have adapted ways to prey upon the roaches, who are practically infinite in their numbers. With that, the Mound Roaches sit as the foundation of the food web, bringing nutrients back into the cycle after it has been discarded.  
While many inhabitants feed upon the roaches, the demons and shades who live below do not. In fact, they are often the ones who feed the roaches! By that I do not mean that the roaches eat them, oh no no. They can, if given the chance. A clumsy demon or shade who falls in their hordes will be readily devoured without hesitation. It is not a pleasant way to go, and some clans have taken advantage of that. To disgrace their fallen enemies or captured warriors, kingdoms would throw their prisoners into pools of Mound Roaches. Not exactly a dignified way to go. This method of execution has mostly vanished (though some unwanted folk may seemingly "disappear" from time to time), and the demons feed the roaches in a completely different way. After all, when you live in a city made of rock and stone, where does all the waste go? Yes indeed, demons and shades use the Mound Roaches as waste disposal. Since dwellings are often stacked upon each other, personal latrines are not really a manageable thing. Instead, inhabitants dispose of their waste in specified pots. When these pots fill up, or when the scheduled emptying comes up, the inhabitant will take it to a "chute." "Chutes" are specially dug tunnels that are used to dispose of garbage and fecal matter. These small openings often lead downward, into a specially made cavern that is filled with Mound Roaches. Each chamber can have dozens of chutes leading into it, giving the Mound Roaches an endless rain of food! When cities are built, these chambers are the first to be made. No one wants to live in filth or catch diseases, so they make the "chutes" easily accessible and close by any major living areas. While most chutes are made solely for dumping chambers pots and throwing garbage out, some are turned into public latrines. These are usually found near marketplaces and public areas. They come in long rows, with many stalls being carved from the rock. Doors are fastened to these stalls, and inside is an elevated seat with a small hole that leads directly into a chute. If you were a demon or a shade, you would just park your tush on top and take care of business. The waste would fall away and that would be that! These stalls are quite convenient to have, though they aren't quite built for outsiders. The main thing is that demon and shade anatomy is greatly different from a dryads. I sure don't have legs that long! Also they don't do too much in sakes of decorating or personalizing. They do not have floor mats near the seats, which wouldn't be a problem if the ground wasn't solid rock. Really wears on the knees over time. Then again, how many times do you have a dryad visiting the Underworld? I guess I should bring my own mats if I find it so uncomfortable. 

The chutes are such a major staple of their homes and cities, that their name has cropped up in many different sayings. Doing a "chute run," is when you take your chamber pot out for dumping. Imps and young shades usually have "chute runs" on their chore list, something that they should perform every morning and night. The term "chute throat" is an insult for those who have bad breath, while "food for the chute" signifies worthlessness or that one is garbage. The word "chute" itself is synonymous for latrine or toilet. I have heard it dropped in casual conversation many times. "I gotta see a chute" is one I have heard a lot. "Time to run the chutes" is another. "I gotta take a chute," is not a common one, unless you are Valac. Heard that one a lot from him. You would think he would stop eating such big meals before excursions, but nope. I swear that by the time I get back to the surface, I am going to be saying that same phrase without thinking twice.

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian