Location from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The ancient Dwarf-kingdom of Khazad-dûm — a labyrinth of halls and mines stretching beneath the Misty Mountains, abandoned after the Dwarves delved too greedily and woke something terrible.
Moria is magnificent and terrifying in equal measure. The scale is inhuman — halls built for a civilization of tens of thousands, now occupied by silence and things that scuttle in the dark. Your footsteps echo and return from distances that suggest spaces larger than any surface building. The air is stale, carrying the dust of centuries and a faint metallic tang from the mithril veins that made Khazad-dûm the wealthiest kingdom in Middle-earth. The darkness is the real enemy. Torchlight reaches a few yards and then stops, swallowed by spaces too large to illuminate. Things move in that darkness — orcs, cave trolls, and worse. The Dwarves delved too deep into the mountain's roots seeking mithril and woke a Balrog — a demon of fire and shadow from the ancient world. Balin's attempt to recolonize Moria ended in a massacre, recorded in a blood-spattered journal found by the Fellowship. The Chamber of Mazarbul still holds his tomb, surrounded by the skeletons of his followers. The drums in the deep start slowly — doom, doom — and grow faster, and then the goblins come.
Vast underground halls with ceilings beyond the reach of torchlight, supported by pillars carved with Dwarven runes and geometric patterns. Endless corridors branching in every direction. The Great Hall of Dwarrowdelf — a cavern so vast its pillars look like a forest of stone. Mine shafts descending into measureless depths. The Bridge of Khazad-dûm — a narrow stone arch spanning a chasm of immeasurable depth. Dust, darkness, the glint of mithril veins in the walls.
Also known as: Moria, Khazad-dûm, the Mines of Moria, Dwarrowdelf, the Black Pit