Niurin Scaa

Niurin Scaa ("Shadow Nether") was the kingdom of the Sneeuane Feallagh ("gossamer folk") hidden far beneath the surface of the land of Arak. It is unclear whether these were proper names or ones invented by the human, surface dwelling Arakians. The Sneeuane Feallagh would swarm up under the cover of night to devour the souls of mortal men, or so the Arakians believed.

Niurin Scaa was subject to a strange temporal fugue that dwarves and gnomes, and Arakians themselves encountered as they plumbed the depths. A miner might spend a week underground and return to the surface to discover that only a day had passed. It is unknown where and at what depth the kingdom lay. The temporal fugue seemed to be pervasive under the principle peaks of Arak at the very least. The infamous Lake Temporus, fed by waters that well up from beneath the earth, was subject to an even stranger alteration of time.

In 740 BC as part of the Great Upheaval, Niurin Scaa and the Sneeuane Feallagh were dragged to the southwest by Gwydion the Sorcerer-Fiend. The land of Arak ceased to be and the Land of the Mists tore open beyond Tepest. The Shadow Rift, sealed by roiling black mist, became the new land and kingdom of the Arak. It is unknown whether time now flows normally beneath the mountains of former Arak and at Lake Temporus. If not, perhaps something of Niurin Scaa remains to be found and plundered.

References

Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume V, p. 87, 90-91.