Deep Imaskari & the Surface

[Flower Power]

Suggestion: Allow Deep Imaskari PCs the option to start in either Andunor, the Skaldark, or Cordor. DI's who go to Cordor end up flagged (and mechanically treated) like any other Surface PC would be. DI's who start in Andunor, like outcasts/Andunorians. DI's are flagged appropriately depending on which way they decide to exit the Skaldark (going to Andunor, or going to Skal, as an UDer or Surfacer respectively.)

In lore, the Deep Imaskari aren't really like most Underdark races. As a culture, they don't tend towards evil - as a magocratic utopia with a deep cultural aversion to necromancy and related darker magic and a strong anthropological bent, they're pretty definitively Neutral; their cultural pantheon reflects this, being mostly Neutral and Good-aligned gods, with only a single Evil-aligned deity being paid any service.

Since Deep Imaskari have only really started leaving Deep Imaskar in any significant numbers in the last few years in canon, 99.5% of the population of Faerun would be likely to view them as just weird grayskinned people who are unusually interested in studying their culture and folkways - they're really only likely to attract negative attention from the Mulhorandi and Untheric peoples (on the opposite side of Faerun from Arelith), and even then only from the highly educated upper classes.

Only a few of the Deep Imaskari who are out and about in Faerun are outside of their home because of exile for crimes, magical or mundane, and they don't really have a reputation as a people for just about anything among the commonfolk of Faerun. There's really no reason why they can't pass as just weird, harmless statue boi's.

[Irongron]

They already have the option to start in Skal; and as a non monster UD race they are not barred from surface settlements.

Rejected.