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Ashen Wastes

Where once there were meadows and hills and streams and life, now there is only ash. Once the prosperous land of Ngavar, the Ashen Wastes are an expanse of a thousand shades of grey, broken only by whatever mockery of a landscape its bitter winds have blown the ash into, gigantic storms of dust, and the haunting, ever-hunting monstrosities known as the Ash Wraiths. There is only shelter to be found is behind the walls of Kul Khalesi, and on the blinding, ethereal vastness of the Salted Earth.
— from The Continent of Munuth: A Primer, by Talemorus Frondus Bag

Geography

The Ashen Wastes have little true, permanent geography. The ash is blown around into dunes and hills, much like sand can be, but these only last so long until the next great gale, or a mighty ash storm. The exceptions to this are the Salted Earth, a vast salt pan the ash flows around for reasons that are not well understood, the western coast on the Sundered Sea, the Ashen Coast—where the land of the Ashen Wastes meets the Haunted Strait—and the handful of rocky hills that shelter the city of Kul Khalesi from the worst of the wind and ash storms.   To the east of the Ashen Waste are the Yarman Riverlands, and to the north is the Nimean Desert.

Fauna & Flora

There are no plants in the Ashen Wastes, and no animals as such. The process by which the land was sundered transformed many of its inhabitants into Ash Wraiths. The Ash Wraiths are large, with bodies composed entirely of particles of ash that adhere and flow into a shape reminiscent of a person. They hunt and kill all things that are not ash. They roam the entirety of the Wastes, with the only exceptions being within the city of Kul Khalesi—though they have been known to assail the walls in meager numbers on occasion—and the Salted Earth.

Natural Resources

As the term is more commonly understood, the only major resource to be found in the Ashen Wastes is large salt deposit of the Salted Earth, which makes the Ashen Wastes one of the largest salt-producing regions in the world.   The ash in most of the Wastes are entirely mundane, and of essentially no monetary value, but the ash that composes the bodies of the Ash Wraiths has unique arcane properties, and can catch a hefty price, if one can find a buyer.   In a more abstract sense, the Wastes protect the city of Kul Khalesi from invasion. Between the inhospitable terrain and harassment by Ash Wraiths, no army can make the crossing the assault the city. Furthermore, naval sieges have proven sufficiently tempting targets to draw in the monsters of the Haunted Straits, rendering them unfeasible as well.   Additionally, the arcane malady that blighted the land of the Wastes discourages those monsters from approaching the coast most of the time, turning Kul Khalesi into the only possible stop for dozens of kilometers around, making stopping there essential for sea voyage between western and eastern Munuth. This, in turn, makes it a critical port in the Dokhar Ocean Trade Network.
Type
Wasteland
Location under
Included Organizations
Owning Organization

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