What horrors lie in wait in the deepest reaches of the world? In Dungeons & Dragons, the answer is: spiders… and tentacled monstrosities. As veteran D&D players know, the Underdark is a common location for adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk settings, but it’s been a while since Wizards of the Coast visited this lightless realm of dread in an official product.
This might change soon, however, as the latest Unearthed Arcana playtest material teased that an Underdark-focused product could be revealed as part of D&D’s lineup in the near future. If the “Underdark Options” subclasses aren’t enough to persuade you to prepare your spelunking gear and anti-spider repellent, another big clue was subtly revealed during Gen Con 2026’s D&D Vision Keynote.
Actor and producer Joe Manganiello has joined the D&D team to lead a new initiative called D&D Icons, which will bring together legendary creators from the game’s rich history to work on original products. The lineup includes Dragonlance creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Gary Gygax’s son and Greyhawk loremaster Luke Gygax, and the author of The Legend of Drizzt series, R.A. Salvatore.
While it’s known that Weis and Hickman will work on a Dragonlance book, and Gygax will handle Greyhawk, it’s still unclear what Salvatore will be working on, but the answer isn’t hard to guess. The prolific writer has popularized the Underdark and its most famous denizens, the drow (dark elves), through 40 novels, most of which feature the iconic ranger Drizzt Do’Urden. An Underdark-focused D&D product designed by Salvatore would surely attract the longtime fans that seem to be the main target audience for the D&D Icons line.
What is the Underdark in Dungeons & Dragons?
“Underdark” is the term used in the Forgotten Realms to describe the vast regions under the surface of the world in many D&D settings, including Greyhawk (where it’s called Underoerth or Deepearth), and Eberron (where its name is Khyber). It first appeared in one of the earliest adventures authored by Gary Gygax, Hall of the Fire Giant King (1978), and was then the main setting for Gygax’s D-series of adventure modules, part of the larger Queen of the Spiders series. The Underdark was first described in detail (and named) by Douglas Niles in 1986’s Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide.
The appeal of the location comes from dropping adventurers in a completely hostile environment. In the Underdark, there are no peaceful towns to rest in or friendly innkeepers waiting to share the latest gossip; even the environment itself is out to kill you. Moreover, the Underdark’s unique ecology creates a simultaneous sense of alienation and wonder that always leaves a mark on players. Many of the game’s most iconic monsters, such as Beholders and Mind Flayers, are native to the Underdark, along with fascinating (and usually hostile) civilizations like that of the drow or the duergars (the dwarven equivalent of the drow).
Salvatore’s first trilogy of novels, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, is not set in the Underdark, but that’s where the author introduced Drizzt (in 1988’s The Crystal Shard). Despite being originally conceived as a sidekick to the barbarian Wulfgar, Drizzt’s popularity soon warranted a prequel dedicated to his origins. In The Dark Elf Trilogy, readers witnessed the first literary depiction of the Underdark, which set up a long-lasting standard. Salvatore’s take on drow society drew heavily on Gygax’s description of the creatures in the first Monster Manual and his Greyhawk adventure series. The mighty city of Menzoberranzan is ruled by a council of rival noble Houses, each led by a high priestess of the evil goddess Lolth, the Queen of Spiders, who holds absolute power over the drow (until more recent retcons changed her role to make dark elves more nuanced).
Salvatore’s depiction of Menzoberranzan and the wilds of the Underdark fascinated generations of readers. Many of them were also D&D players, and the game released plenty of Underdark-related content over the decades, up to 2015’s 5th edition campaign Out of the Abyss, which gives players the challenging task of escaping from the drow while surviving an invasion of demons in the Underdark.
What will D&D’s next Underdark product look like?
It’s been a decade since the latest Underdark product was released for D&D. The Underdark Options playtest material teases that there’s finally more coming in the future, but what is that going to look like?
Based on the design trends shown in the D&D 5.5e products, a new big Underdark adventure in the vein of Out of the Abyss is unlikely. A dedicated campaign setting including new character options and a “gazetteer” focused on locations and inhabitants, accompanied perhaps by a short adventure, would be more in line with the most recent D&D books.
However, that’s only if D&D Icons follows the established design practice of the “mainline” D&D products. Manganiello has teased that Icons will have a lot of creative freedom, but what this entails is still a mystery.
There’s still a chance that this hypothetical Underdark product could be very story-focused. The Underdark Options playtest material focuses on the city of Deep Imaskar, a relatively unexplored location. It also introduces a new form of magic called “unlight,” originating in Deep Imaskar, which the original settlers used to create a safe haven in the hostile Underdark. While the Great Seal protecting the city was established in the lore, this is the first time that this magic has been called “unlight.” This revision wouldn’t make much sense unless the D&D team had something in the works for Deep Imaskar. As the city is located in the lowest reaches of the Underdark, this could be a chance to explore a still-mysterious part of one of the most popular D&D locations.
And if you’re going to have a story-focused Underdark book, who better than R.A. Salvatore to write it? To be clear, this is just speculation: It’s still unknown how the D&D Icons team will interact with established mainline projects. But no matter who is involved, plenty of D&D players will be excited to dive again into the unexplored, deadly depths of the Underdark.