Darras-ola-Ras
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Darras-ola-Ras
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Other names
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Lost Grottos
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Type
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Caves/caverns/grottos
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Region
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Realm(s)
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Darras-ola-Ras (Dn.? of unknown meaning), also called the Lost Grottos.
The Drúedain, the original inhabitants of the Eryn Vorn, had been the first to discover and make use of the extensive grottos that cut through the Penn-Cûms (D. "Head Hills") above the ancient and abandoned Drughu villages in the meandering Wild Moats (Drû. Fian Fos). The Drûgs improved and expanded the caves with their stone-working skills and used them as a place of refuge and storage. However, their primary use of the site was as an astronomical observatory connected with the nearby ceremonial center for the training of Healers. Despite its religious significance, they were forced to abandon the place when the Tree Horrors were roused in the middle of the Second Age.
The grottos remained unused for almost two thousand years before they were restored. The Drughu of the outer cape, who arrived only a little before the Beffraen, were never particularly successful. Nonetheless, when they reached the peak of their limited prosperity in the first millennium of the Third Age, the Drughu fell out among themselves and split into two bitterly opposed factions. After decades of feuding, the weaker faction, led by the evil matriarch Khûn-buri-Khûn, was driven out. The old, serpentine grottos offered the best prospect of a new home, and Khûn-buri-Khûn led her followers there. She renamed the place "Darras-ola-Ras", the name indicated on an old map. The meaning of that strange title was unknown, for Khûn-buri-Khûn was one of the last of the Drûgs in Minhiriath who could read, and even she had lost any comprehension of the speech of her Daen ancestors.
Khûn-buri-Khûn's defeated followers were "confined" and thus suffered one of the most brutal Drûg sanctions. No Drûg willingly lived in caves, so her little band soon lapsed into complete degeneracy. Although they did make quite a few alterations in their new abode, they never adjusted to life outside their fogus. The massacre of a Beffraen party, related in a local tale, was a last act of frustrated malice on Khûn-buri-Khûn's part ere she died. Her followers would not have lasted much longer, but the Beffraen's revenge greatly hastened their demise.
Mid-Third Age[]
ca. T.A. 1640-1650:
A series of disasters in the mid-Third Age threatened the Drûgs of Rast Vorn with extinction. ln the course of searching for answers to their dilemma, and a refuge for his people, one of the Drûg Chieftains recalled the legend of Khûn-buri-Khûn's settlement. Her legend resurrected, Khûn-buri-Khûn was the most hated and reviled personage in the Drúadan tales, exceeding even the Orcs of Beleriand and the Northman Drûg-hunters. Her abode in the accursed Lost Grottos of the Bare Hills, however, offered a sanctuary, and Khûn-buri-Khûn's vile reputation failed to deter the Drûgs from exploring the ancient ceremonial center.
The Drûgs assigned to delve into the secrets of Penn-Cûms arrived shortly before the troubles at Carn Gasadaer began. Predictably, they had accomplished very little up to this point. Attempting to keep a low profile, they had left the other inhabitants of the region undisturbed, but they would have put up a pretty stiff fight for the grottos if given the opportunity. They knew that their folk needed the halls as a sanctuary, and the treasures left by their exiled ancestors remained hallowed Drûg property.