Shenuan, the Lost Spires

An enormous series of chambers located beneath Zhanyi, once home to a flourishing civilization of trilobite-like mortals, Shenuan is a part of the vast Underworld, and is sometimes known as the Lost Spires due to the trilo's ancient decaying ruins - great columns stretching up into the cavernous ceiling. Today, the caverns serve as a secret site for a massive excavation by Jarin'sho, the Red Emperor of Zhanyi.

Flora
Shenuan is full of myriad types of luminescent moss, enormous curling ferns, as well as many types of coral formations.

Fauna
Many of the animals amidst the Lost Spires retain markedly aquatic traits, but seem to have naturally adapted, or perhaps been altered, to function out of water as well.

Floating tardigrade-like creatures consume the moss in the spires and form the basis of the food chain.

Corpses within the spires are often picked apart by floating hive-dwelling shrimp creatures that construct bee-like hives along the walls of the caves.

Cow-sized omnivorous isopods crawling along the walls and ceiling are a common sight, preyed upon by enormous fish that camouflage themselves as boulders along the floors of the caverns, which themselves are food for monstrous catfish-like creatures that glide across the stones and immobilize their prey with electric shocks.

Trilopoeple
Though they have not been seen in this part of the world for milennia, the ruins of the trilopeople's great cities still remain, as do many of the devices they crafted when their realm was at its height, which continue to light the way for the travelers that approach them. In some cases travelers and workers serving Jarin'sho have even claimed their spirits yet remain within the caverns, haunting digsites and ancient passages.

Obakemono
A term used for any of the myriad shapeshifting mortal races traditionally originating in Zhanyi, the Obakemono have a number of communities deep within the caverns, though they have increasingly found themselves at odds with the Red Emperor's forces. Though they share many similarities with their surface counterparts, years underground have resulted in various differences in culture.

Rakshari
Employed by the Red Emperor as enforcers, a number of ferocious reptilian warriors of the rakshari spend their time hunting and doing battle with warriors of the myriad Obakemono tribes, as well as rogue wyrms, dangerous animals, and other threats to the massive excavation taking place.

Wyrms
Colloquially referred to as Shadow Dragons, these malformed creatures are often feral and violent. Rumors abound as to their origin, with many scholars believing they originate from the ancient catastrophe known as the Dragonfall, while others attribute them to horrifying experiments by Jarin'sho due to his use of them as guardians for his massive excavation.