The Ashlands

The Ashlands are a wasted region that covers most of the southern part of the Ifradyl  continent. Although there are many different terrains spread out across the Ashlands, they all have one thing they have in common, dread. Be it large, ominous mountains, barren desserts, rotting woods, or swamps rifled with death. All there is in that land is death and decay. It's a place inhabited by demonkind. Monsters that came from the depths, who now walk towards the borders of neighboring lands, destroying settlements and slaughtering all who cross their path. No one goes there, for these lands, these nightmarish lands.. they are cursed.
There are some stories that claim the Ashlands were once a peaceful domain. Yet, this all came to an end due to the actions of some kind of evil deity. He was tasked to keep the demons of the underworld locked up, keeping them away from the surface world. However, at one point he either failed his task or decided to let the demons run wild. And so, demons overran the southern part of the continent, corrupting the land and turning it into the horror it is now.
The Argonian Empire invests a lot of resources to keep their southern provinces safe. The hunters from the Hunting Brigade regularly patrol the borderlands in an attempt to stop any demons that trespass on imperial ground. The hunters try, but it is not infrequent that towns and villages down south are ravished by the beasts. For this reason, only a few cities and even fewer towns remain in the southern provinces. Fortresses along the border have been built in an attempt to deny any incursion, yet there are too many passageways out of the Ashlands, making the fortresses not nearly as effective as was hoped. In recent years, however, a new effort has been made by the empire. The army created a new branch called the Rangers of Ash. These brave men and women will wander into the Ashlands with the mission to quell the demonic hordes from within the cursed domain. Few are hopeful about this tactic, yet the imperial military finds it a worthwhile thing to try.
Meydia also borders a section of the Ashlands. A relatively calm desert, sometimes referred to as the "sleeping wastes". It is very rare for demons to ever cross into Meydia from here. Scholars believe it is because most demons struggle to cross the desert, and therefore find it not worthwhile to wonder this way. It is a lucky thing for Meydia. There are demons living in the desert, yet these are mostly territorial, and only form a problem for those who wish to journey into the Ashlands, of which there are very very few.