Southron Wastes

The Southron Wastes is in the furthest southern region of the continent Elanith. This was partly accessible to adventurers during the Wavedancer events, in its central region to the southwest of Rhoska-Tor. The Southron Wastes is next to the jungles where the Dhe'nar cities of Eh'lah and Sharath are located. In addition, the remaining liches of the Horned Cabal dwell within the wastes, as do parasitic humans known as the Collectors who feed on the magical energy of artifacts to unnaturally extend their lives. The Disciples of the Shadows, worshippers of the primordial demon Althedeus, have also historically been based in the Southron Wastes, possibly dating back into the Age of Chaos.

The Demonwall is being expanded further west from the Wizardwaste and Aldora, with the intent of eventually walling off the whole Southron Wastes from the Turamzzyrian Empire. The southeastern tip of the Southron Wastes has a port known as Behizet, which is known as the Jewel of the Wastes. Somewhere off the southern coast is Bone Island, where a skeletal "demonic" god called Kyr'orvrad collects bones and is worshipped by island savages.

Wavedancer

The Wavedancer visited the south central region of the Southron Wastes in 5105 and 5106. This included geological terrain such as slot canyons, ashen barrens, plateaus, salt basins in former lakes, buttes and tufa towers, and mountains of shale with limestone at higher elevations, as well as sandstone near the coast. These mountains are described as recent geological upheavals, with rumbling and instability with landslides. There may be underground rifts in space, or that may only be poetic wording. The "sugar strand" consists of white sand beaches on the southern coast next to the jungles, which give way to savannah, which descends into the salt basin and the wasteland desert.

While this explored part of the southern jungles, it did not include Sharath which is built next to a volcano. Bone Island off the southern coast appears to be a raised coral atoll and thus essentially made of "bone", with a not entirely natural mountain of limestone at its center serving as the temple of Kyr'orvrad, who may have once been a volcano god. This is a repository of Ashrim bones. The island's jungles also have monkeys who speak in broken Common.

Creatures

Creatures and races encountered in this region of the Southron Wastes during the Wavedancer include the following, though this may be incomplete and the creature localizations may have inaccuracies:

Shipwreck (south)

• raggedy salt-encrusted skeleton
• squat midnight black construct

Thick Tangle / Sugar Strand (south)

• red-eyed large ridgeback lizard
• pillar-like skeletal golem
• fiery giant scarlet worker-ant
• giant scarlet ant
• salt crystal golem
• lustrous steel sentinel
• blue-crested iguanoid warrior
• black-crested iguanoid soldier
• rattle-tailed sleek black viper
• plains panther

Mountain Range (eastern)

• plasmatic inky black horror
• infernal sprite
• flowing pale wraith
• hulking black beast
• spiked dull red reptile

Mountain Range (western)

• alabaster sentinel
• massive gnarled wasteworm
• smooth dark slavaan
• scarlet desert griffin
• pale violet blue griffin

Ashen Barrens / Salt Basin (central / north)

• hump-backed twisty horned creature
• shadowy frazzle-haired banshee
• six-toed furry black hound
• wild-maned shadowy steed
• spindly skeletal horse
• spiked huge sandworm
• acidic lump of jelly
• huge black raptor
• pitted black statue
• blazing sand elemental
• dessicated withered black vine
• sleek large lizard
• gaunt fanged figure

Brieson's Expedition

On 29 Jastatos 5116, Lord Brieson Cassle led an expedition into the Southron Wastes to collect samples of epochxin. The map was also used in the slaying of Jerram Happersett in 5119, trapped in an unliving state with a variant of epochxin. Happersett had been abducted to the wastes by the witch Raznel during the Third Elven War and suspended in a temporal pocket dimension, where he was constantly reliving the Breaking for the past few centuries.

Creatures

Creatures encountered during the expedition included many native inhabitants as well as a breed of demons known as "primals", who are drawn to a particular place there like a "beacon."

• a pale white giant tarantula
• a massive dune spider
• a huge sand-hued vulture
• a scarlet desert griffin
• a massive gnarled wasteworm
• a huge chalk white sandworm
• a blazing sand elemental
• a slinky black scourgemage
• a blue-crested iguanoid warrior
• a black-crested iguanoid shaman
• a red-crested iguanoid chieftain
• a six-toed furry black hound (undead)
• an enormous ebon-swirled primal (demon)
• an ichor-soaked floating primal eyeball (demon)

Enormous ebon-swirled primals are primitive relatives of oculoths, and are said to also exist in other valences.

Within the darkness of night, which hangs like a wall of shadows above the ashen white sands, amorphous forms begin to appear, resembling enormous floating spheres of obsidian.

Clicking echoes from the floating spheres of darkness.

Specks of white sand float up from the base of the crystalline coffin.

Dotting the surface of the enormous black spheres, hundreds of multi-hued alien eyes appear, misshapen, malformed, some red, some white, yellow, grey.  Ichor drips from the huge fangs of the primal demons, and ebon mist swirls about their nebulous forms.

Like falling black stars, the primals descend.

An enormous ebon-swirled primal floats in, its toothy maw glistening with black ichor.

An enormous ebon-swirled primal hovers in, its central eye rolling back and forth.

A ripple of heated air begins to waver in midair, emitting waves of heat throughout the area.  Soon, a jagged crimson line begins to form in the center of the disturbance, extending both vertically and horizontally, the line begins to rip a tear in reality.  Within moments, an ichor-soaked floating primal eyeball emerges from the newly formed opening and when it is clear, the tear shuts rapidly behind it.

Room Painting

The following are room painting examples of the Ashen Barrens portion of the Southron Wastes map. The wastes are described as inhospitable to civilization, often with no vegetation at all. The source of the ebon-swirled primal demons from the Brieson expedition was not explained explicitly, but included here is a dark cavern near the Sugar Strand with an underground "rip in space" (possibly just a wall fissure) buffeting with waves of essence (possibly just sand.)

Rift

However, such a rip in space is consistent with the behavior of the primal demon eyeballs, which emerge from spontaneously forming tears in reality with waves of heat emitting from them. The Ur-Daemon Ith'can was able to open rifts with its eyes in a similar fashion, and was said to resemble an oculoth. It is worth noting that Despana traveled through the Southron Wastes seeking the old places of the Ur-Daemon, settling in the northeast region now called Rhoska-Tor.

[Dark Cavern, Nexus]
Pale walls of curved sandstone surround you, their surfaces runny with frozen rivulets of stone resembling dried wax. Clusters of pale, white stalactites huddle on the ceiling, each of them bathed in the fiery light rippling forth from a scarlet-laced russet rip in space. Waves of essence buffet the area every so often, gusting with the roaring heat of the desert. You also see a number of glowing white stone orbs scattered throughout the area.
Obvious paths: out

Ashen Barrens

The following describes the Ashen Barrens on western and southeastern trails, relative to this first room where Brieson's portal was located. This was the spot Larsya's bane coffin was opened to attract the primal demons.

Westerly Trail

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Nothing but sand, dune upon dune of pale, white sand stretches to the horizon. The wind whistles through the emptiness, carrying with it squalls and minor sandstorms. There is no hope of vegetal salvation within the wasteland.
Obvious paths: southeast, west

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Peak upon peak, knoll upon knoll, there is only sand and bones in the barrens. The desert northward presents no vegetation and stretches as far as the eye can see, though the view is greatly obscured by darkness. To the southwest, a shale mountain range breaks the visual void of the wasteland.
Obvious paths: east, southwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Slicing through the barrens, a high cliff overlooks the vast no-man's land. The dry air has parched even the cactus, whose shriveled hull lies toppled in the ashen sand. Small rodents with large ears scurry through the area, retreating into their burrows at the earliest sign of territorial invasion. You also see a blazing sand elemental and a red-crested iguanoid chieftain.
Obvious paths: northeast, southwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
A massive cliff juts from the wasteland to the west, while eastward nothing beyond sprawling, empty barrens meets the eye. In the distance, a vast number of birds constantly circle over the bleak wilderness.
Obvious paths: northeast, southeast

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Between the mountain and the barrens, a single stone spire stands apart from the rest. A trio of spires hide behind the first, none as tall, nor as impressive. The sandy wasteland encroaches on their bases, slowly slimming the stone down with the passage of wind and time.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Chalk coats everything in a ghostly white layer of dust. As the wind rises and wanes, the powder kicks up to obscure the surrounding wasteland. A single rock, shaped like a column, rises from the sandy barrens. The surface of the natural obelisk is worn smooth, save for a series of deep, vertical gouges.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Sparse clumps of desert verbena dot the bleak landscape, converging near a red shale butte. A horde of flying insects buzz about the area some distance to the east, amid a heaping pile of bones and refuse. You also see a blazing sand elemental and a hulking black beast.
Obvious paths: south, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
The pathway is littered with stray, crumbling rock, split from the shale butte by some unimaginably traumatic force. Barely visible in the darkness, a tight ring of birds circling low over the barrens occasionally dives down to the sandy floor. The attack is followed by a torrent of high-pitched baying which dies out long before the flock resumes its course in the sky.
Obvious paths: north, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Save for the shale butte and the mountains to the west, the area stands bleak, fairly lifeless, and bathed in ashen soil. A variety of sepia-toned cactus husks rise from the ivory sand in varying slants to create a field of vegetal death in disarray.
Obvious paths: southeast, southwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Crumbling rocks tumble down the mountainside, revealing new layers of vanilla amid the typical red shale. The pale sand is intermixed with bittersweet brown. Each rock that falls from above takes with it additional stone as it crashes into crags and peaks. The ground is littered with crushed boulders.
Obvious paths: northeast, south

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Fierce winds stir the sand, rising in occasional columns above the barrens. The resulting convoluted formations are peaked with red shale soil from the crumbling mountains. Even the scattered sagebrush is dusted in vanilla-toned powder.
Obvious paths: north

Southeasterly Path

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Skirting around a curiously crooked spire, the barren pathway stops short of entering the vast, pale desert. Far to the east, the red shale cordillera dies down, as if being slowly devoured into the timeless, sandy wasteland.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Slowly but surely, the sagebrush and cactus give way to a sprawling, desert wasteland in the north. As the mountain ranges east and west die down, nothing more remains of interest amid the vast wilderness of pale, ashen sand.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
With occasional vanilla layers revealed by years of wear, a striking red shale massif looms above. The barrens, littered with detritus and bones, contain little in the way of fruitful life. Like nearly everywhere else in the wasteland, numerous vultures constantly circle above.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Rising in the north, a drastic precipice peers over the barren wasteland. The plateau's geologic composition is varied, consisting of alternating layers of umber, red ochre and a pale vanilla. From this distance, a gnarled, dense patch of cactus is visible at the mountain ledge's base.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
The pale, sandy soil is littered with contrasting boulders of red shale. Desert flowers, stunted but bright, speckle the barren wasteland. Far above the foothills, a pass set between a pair of mountain peaks is barely visible.
Obvious paths: southeast, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
The blown-out landscape is dotted with scraggly sagebrush, some squashed by a scattering of massive, jagged boulders. In the gradual foothills to the east, a series of stone spires blocks a view of the red cordillera beyond. As the elevation rises, the sparse floral accompaniment wanes to nothing.
Obvious paths: south, northwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Standing nearly fifteen feet tall, a massive cactus with very long needles sprouts from the sandy soil. The trail passes precariously close to the tall plant and then branches out to either side, looping back on itself to create a dangerous obstacle in the middle of the path. Occasionally, a high-pitched "kee-kah!" sound followed by a series of low chitters emanate from the cactus.
Obvious paths: north, southwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
A series of wavering lines, one after another, cut through the pale soil heading westward beyond a few clumps of sagebrush. The scant remains of a large, dead raptor are partially buried in the sand.
Obvious paths: northeast, southwest

[Southron Wastes, Ashen Barrens]
Patches of brittle grass give way to ashen soil and desolate cactuses with short, stiff needles. Occasionally, a scuttling insect is picked off by one of the many small birds perched safely within the plants' thorny barriers.
Obvious paths: northeast