Under the Mountain
A spoiler-free guide to A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR).
Only showing what’s been revealed up to your current progress. Future events, identities, and relationships are hidden.
Overview
Under the Mountain is Amarantha’s subterranean court and prison-palace beneath Prythian’s sacred Mountain. She holds High Lords and their courts there while using the complex as the seat of her rule.
The underground court is destroyed and sealed after Amarantha’s fall, leaving it a closed ruin rather than an active ruling seat.
Before its sealing, the courts once used Under the Mountain as neutral meeting ground for diplomacy.
The complex predates Amarantha by an unknown span of time. Ancient hands carved its tunnels and halls; Amarantha only decorated and repurposed them as an imitation of the Court of Nightmares.
Important Events
Amarantha stages Feyre’s first trial in the cavern arena, releasing the Middengard Wyrm to hunt her through its trench-labyrinth before a vast audience.
Amarantha uses the smaller gilded cavern as a public death chamber, with a sinking platform, a divided pit, descending heated spike-grates, and a wall puzzle arranged to turn torment into spectacle before the court.
After Amarantha’s defeat, High Fae from several courts destroy and seal the underground court. Tamlin collapses the narrow cave entrance after leaving, closing the former prison-palace behind them.
Location and Access
The complex lies beneath the sacred Mountain. An ancient shortcut reaches it through a freezing cave hidden between hills, avoiding the longer route toward the Mountain’s center.
The Mountain stands in the dangerous, unclaimed northern territory between the Solar and Seasonal Courts, amid an ancient forest that travelers avoid when possible.
According to Amren, underground waterways used by creatures of the Bog of Oorid flow toward Under the Mountain.
Layout and Features
Under the Mountain is an extensive pale-stone complex of fire-lit corridors, long hallways, and jagged side fissures, with little cover along its principal routes.
Its ceremonial center is a vast throne room entered through towering doors. Carved story-pillars, jewel chandeliers, and red marble floors surround the dais and provide space for music, dancing, and a large court audience.
A winding network of halls connects the throne room to damp dungeon cells and nearby torture chambers. The prison routes contain numerous bends, cracks, and tapestry-marked passages, making escape dependent on navigating the larger underground complex.
One enormous torch-lit cavern serves as an execution arena. Its muddy floor contains an exposed trench-labyrinth, concealed tunnel openings, pits, and a bone-filled den arranged as the Middengard Wyrm’s hunting ground.
Another execution chamber is a smaller gilded cavern equipped with a sinking platform, a divided pit, heated descending spike-grates, and a wall puzzle. Its machinery and audience space are built to make death a public spectacle.
Function and Rules
Under Amarantha, the complex functions as a royal court, detention center, and place of torment. Humans who enter are said not to return.
Survival within the court requires caution around enchanted wine, bargains, false appearances, and potential allies; trust and ordinary sensory evidence are both unsafe.
The courts once regarded Under the Mountain as neutral meeting ground. Its sealing and the rulers’ refusal to return have ended that diplomatic function.
Residents and Affiliations
Amarantha rules from Under the Mountain and confines Tamlin, Lucien, the High Lords, and members of entire courts within her domain. Spring is permitted to remain above ground only while Tamlin’s curse is unresolved.
Large numbers of ordinary faeries are also held for fifty years in tunnel camps beneath the Mountain. The overcrowded, airless chambers receive food irregularly, and some captives descend into madness, predation, or violent bands.
Rhys keeps Velaris and the members of his inner circle hidden from Amarantha, so none of them are known to her or imprisoned Under the Mountain with him.