Demon Wastes

North of the Eldeen Reaches, life gradually seeps out of the earth. Lush forests fade to a broad tableland of dried soil and cracked rock. Further north, the elevation rises into the bleak chain of mountains known as the Shadowcrags, then drops dramatically. The land beyond, a highland plateau, is broken into badlands, a network of canyons and mesas that forms a natural labyrinth leading out to a plain of blackened sand and volcanic glass. This is the Demon Wastes—the last remnants of the rakshasa civilization that ruled Khorvaire millions of years before the rise of goblinoids or humans. Amid ruins so old that they barely resemble the buildings they once were, fiendish creatures search for fresh blood while ancient forces watch from the shadows. In this realm of death and desolation, long-forgotten treasures and primeval secrets hide in the blasted wastes.

Location

North of the Eldeen Reaches beyond the Shadowcrag and Icehorn Mountains lies the scarred land of the Demon Wastes. Hanging like a scab on the edge of Khorvaire many in Khorvaire would sooner forget about its presence than acknowledge its existence, or what calls it home. Many hope the land would slough off into the Barren or Bitter Sea or perhaps float north and join the Frostfell freezing whatever foul denizens call the place home in a permanent glacier.

Society

Two distinct barbarian groups occupy the Demon Wastes. The Ghaash’kala clans inhabit the Labyrinth, while the Carrion Tribes wander the plains that lie to the west of the canyons.

The members of the Carrion Tribes are the more numerous of the barbarian hordes. Descended from Sarlonan refugees stranded in the Wastes more than a millennium and a half ago, the Carrion Tribes consist of vicious human savages who worship the malevolent spirits that haunt the Wastes. Over the centuries a handful of different tribes have emerged, each following a different rakshasa rajah. No matter which demon they pledge allegiance to, the Carrions are bloodthirsty nomads known to slaughter any strangers they come across—including members of other Carrion Tribes. While they worship the ancient fiends, the Carrion Tribes also fear the rakshasa ruins and so avoid such locations. Occasionally a tribe attempts to break through to the Eldeen Reaches, which results in a brutal conflict with the Ghaash’kala clans. The Carrion Tribes are extremely primitive and generally use hide armor and wooden or stone weapons, though a few may possess superior equipment scavenged from their victims. The Carrions practice ritual scarring and mutilation; each tribe uses distinctive techniques designed to give its warriors the features of fiends.

Ghaash’kala roughly translates as “ghost guardians” in the Orc tongue. The Ghaash’kala barbarians believe they have a sacred duty to prevent evil from leaving the Demon Wastes. Primarily orcs mingled with a handful of humans and half-orcs, the Ghaash’kala clan members are fierce but not bloodthirsty by nature. They act to keep travelers from entering the Wastes, preferring to convince with words before drawing weapons. On the other hand, they consider anything that emerges from the Wastes—whether wild beasts, barbarians, or travelers returning from an expedition—to be hopelessly tainted, and they strike against such creatures without warning or mercy.

The Ghaash’kala clan members are more sophisticated than their counterparts in the Carrion Tribes; they do not possess metal armor or masterwork gear, but they use studded leather, metal swords, and bows. Clan warriors carry the brand of the binding flame; they believe that these brands help to protect them from demonic possession. Four Ghaash’kala clans are spread throughout the Labyrinth, where they share a common priesthood and have strong diplomatic ties to help them carry out their sacred mission.

Religion

The people of the Demon Wastes serve evil spirits—corrupted entities spawned from the Churning Chaos and the Abyss far below. Each Carrion Tribe serves a particular spirit, and a tribe’s ceremonies and rituals celebrate this entity’s nature. The entities worshiped by the Carrion Tribes are the overlords, ancient fiends that ruled these lands until their defeat at the end of the Age of Demons. Individual Lords of Dust command the tribes on behalf of their patron overlords, with each tribe emulating the worst aspects of its patron.

Not all who dwell here serve evil. Some are opposed to it, championing the cause of good to keep the Demon Wastes from spilling beyond its borders. Foremost of these agents of good are the Ghaash’kala—predominantly orc tribes that settled in the Labyrinth ages ago. They follow a faith dedicated to Kalok Shash, the Binding Flame—a spiritual force that bears remarkable similarities to the Silver Flame. The Ghaash’kala consist of four clans—the Jaasakah, the Kastar, the Maruk, and the Vaanka. Orcs founded the clans, but attrition over the centuries has forced them to welcome others into their tribal groups. Half-orcs, humans, and even a few tieflings can be found among the Ghaash’kala tribes.

Each clan has two leaders—the kizshmit, the chieftain and war leader, and the sar’malaan, the spiritual leader who communes with the Binding Flame and offers guidance to the war leader and the clan.

Industries

The human barbarian tribes who eke out an existence in the desolate plains between the Demon Wastes’ forbidding coast and the twisting canyons of the Labyrinth have no interest in making contact with the rest of Khorvaire. Indeed, they work hard to keep the dragonmarked houses and other foreign powers from exploiting the resources of the land. The barbarians actively protect narstone and Eberron-dragonshard deposits that dot the landscape, as well as the relics of the ancient rakshasa civilization that can be found throughout the Demon Wastes.

If an exported commodity of any kind exists in the Demon Wastes, it is deception and deceit. The Lords of Dust spread their fiendish schemes throughout Khorvaire, working in the shadows—sometimes for centuries on end—to promote chaos, destruction, and their own personal plans for power and conquest.

Government and Politics

The Carrion Tribes revere the dark spirits of the Wastes. Half-fiends whose ancestors mingled their blood with the rakshasa lead most of the tribes, while a handful of priests and warriors possessed by evil spirits rule the rest. The leadership of a tribe is often quite precarious; any warrior has the right to challenge a chieftain to battle to reaffirm the favor of the spirits. The tribes constantly feud with one another, and violence and bloodshed fill up daily life.

Among the Ghaash’kala, the priesthood determines the leadership of each clan. A chieftain usually rules until death, but the priests have the power to install a new leader at any time. Each clan guards its own section of the Labyrinth, but priests and warriors gather four times a year for religious ceremonies, displays of skill, and to share counsel and information.

Power Groups

The Lords of Dust

This cabal of rakshasas and other fiends originated in the Demon Wastes and secretly spreads its influence across the length and breadth of Khorvaire. In the Demon Wastes, however, the fi ends don’t have to hide their true nature. For this reason, no matter how far they wander to manipulate the populace and hatch their complex plots, they return home at intervals to revel in their fiendish glory. The Lords of Dust are few in number, but their effective immortality makes them as powerful as it does unfathomable. These fiends serve the causes of chaos and destruction, seeking to set in motion slowly unfolding plans that will eventually lead to the collapse of order and virtue.

Some members of the Lords of Dust never venture beyond the Demon Wastes, content to play cruel games with the barbarian tribes who worship them. When not engaged in such sport, these rakshasas and other fiends seek to find ways to release their ancient demonic masters who were long ago trapped beneath the broken land. Others among the Lords of Dust look to the trapped fiends as sources of power, content to let their masters remain imprisoned as long as they can draw energy with which to make themselves more formidable

A faction within this ancient order is made up of Lords of Dust who travel the world, opposing the dragons of the Chamber and working to promote chaos among the nations of the common races.

The Maruk Ghaash'kala

The Labyrinth is a convoluted series of canyons and depressions carved into the flat highland plain as though by gargantuan claws. No part of Khyber, the Dragon Below, rests so close to the surface of Eberron as in the Labyrinth. In ages past, the orcs that eventually became the Ghaash’kala entered the Labyrinth for the express purpose of keeping the horrors of the Wastes trapped and cut off from the rest of the world. One of the oldest of these clans, the Maruk, has a long and bloody history of fulfilling this mission.

The Maruk clan guards the central passages through the Labyrinth, the routes most often used by the Lords of Dust and their agents. The sly and clever rakshasas often manage to slip past the vigilant eyes of the Maruk guards, but the sacred warriors of the binding flame are not without their resources. They can see through disguises used by the fiends, and when a fi end’s disguise is seen through, deadly battles can erupt in the depths of the canyons. The Maruk clan suffers terrible casualties as a result of these constant battles; the only reason the clan has survived to the present day is because of the steady infusion of new blood. Orc barbarians from the Shadow Marches, human scouts from the Eldeen Reaches, and even youths from the Carrion Tribes often hear the call of Kalok Shash, a divine beacon that draws them to the Maruk Ghaash’kala. As a result, the Maruk clan counts more humans and half-orcs among its members than any other Ghaash’kala clan and possesses slightly better equipment. The Maruk clan also has a higher percentage of paladins than the other three clans.

Members of the Maruk Ghaash’kala are somber and serious, prepared to die at any time in battle with the fiends of the Demon Wastes and other horrors spit up from the depths of Khyber. Torgaan Shashaarat leads the clan, while the elderly priest Lharc Suusha guides it.

The Moon Reavers

While most of the Carrion Tribes worship the rakshasa rajahs and their lesser servants, the Moon Reavers revere the night hags—fiends who spread fear by the dark of the moon. This clan is made up mostly of barbarians, but because it specializes in terror tactics and guerrilla warfare, a number of rogues are also among the membership. Whenever possible, the Reavers prefer to stalk isolated prey using methods designed to frighten them prior to making a kill. They draw this fear out for as long as possible, reveling in the terror of their victims. Clan members make masks and other decorations using the bones and skin of their victims. They file their teeth and let their nails grow long in emulation of the fiends they admire.

Karka Darkbane leads the Moon Reavers. She is a cruel woman twisted in mind and body by a night hag while she was still within her mother’s womb. In battle, Karka wields a mace of terror, a gift from her sinister patron, the night hag who marked her as its own before she came into the world.

Night Hags

The rakshasas share the Demon Wastes with the night hags. Much fewer in number than the rakshasas, a mere nine night hags live in the Wastes. The hags spend most of their time engaged in mystical studies beyond the realm of mortal ken (and mercifully so), exploring the ancient ruins for arcane tomes from the Age of Demons. Most of the night hags react with hostility when approached by strangers, but a few can be dealt with—provided the visitor has something to offer and minds her manners. The widely respected hag Kyrale serves as an ambassador and mediator among the fiendish powers active in the Wastes, and mortals wishing to negotiate with the Lords of Dust or other fiends often seek her out to act as an intermediary.

The Plaguebearers

This Carrion Tribe reveres an imprisoned force of filth and pestilence. Its members seek to turn the power of their lord against their enemies. Plaguebearers smear their weapons with dung; a victim struck with a coated weapon must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude saving throw or fall victim to filth fever. Plaguebearers are typically covered with weeping open sores and angry welts from various infections, but they are remarkably resistant to the effects of diseases and poisons.

In battle, the Plaguebearers become wild berserkers; they close ranks as quickly as possible and fight to the death, praying that infection will claim the lives of any enemies who survive the battle. Fulgrun Bloodboil, a hideous individual surrounded by a horrible stench of pus and rot, leads the clan.

History

This ruined land’s history, as pieced together by scholars at the University of Wynarn and elsewhere, is incomplete and sometimes full of contradictions, but it paints a picture that can help outsiders understand the forces still operating in the Demon Wastes. According to these sages, Eberron has known at least five distinct ages over the course of its existence. The Age of Dragons, the earliest age still remembered in the current era, was a time of amazing wonders that dwarf even the greatest arcane achievements of the common races. This was a time when the world was one and not split into above, below, and between. Some legends say that the planes were bound to the world during this period, pulled from distant locations and attached via magic of unbelievable power. This was the age of the progenitor wyrms, the first and greatest of all dragonkind. Of these powerful creatures, three stood above the rest—Siberys, Eberron, and Khyber. The legends conflict as to whether these three created the Prophecy or simply discovered it and set it in motion, but all agree that eventually Siberys and Khyber became embroiled in a death-struggle over it. The powers wielded by these progenitor wyrms rocked the very fabric of existence until the world lay ruined and dying. Only then did Eberron, last of the progenitor wyrms, intervene, shattering the Prophecy and using the energy thus released to separate the rivals and remake the world. In the end, the legends say, great Siberys, dismembered and dying, became the glowing ring that surrounds the world. Khyber, on the verge of victory when Eberron intervened, was sealed within the world. And Eberron took his place between the rivals, healing the desolate world by becoming one with it. The last conscious act of Siberys and Eberron was to create their descendants, filling the world between with dragons and other related species of dragonkind. This spell of creation didn’t stop with dragonkind, however. Eberron blossomed with all manner of living things. Khyber, not to be outdone, shaped dark life of his own from within the depths of Eberron’s imprisoning folds. The fiends were born, slowly seeping up through the cracks in the earth, rising with the molten eruptions of volcanic pits, and bubbling up from the depths of the sea.

As the newly remade world cooled, the descendants of the progenitor wyrms were primitive, almost mindless creatures. But the fiends, led by rakshasas, zakyas, and night hags, were cunning and vicious. It wasn’t long before the Age of Demons took hold of Eberron.

This was a hellish period for the world when fiends ruled the land. Eventually, the legends say, the dragons discovered the Prophecy and realized their power and heritage. They rose up against their fiendish overlords. After a long and terrible struggle, the dragons won the day but paid a great price. The couatls, allies and as much the children of the union of Eberron and Siberys as the dragons, sacrificed almost all of their number to send the greatest of the fiendish lords back to the depths of Khyber and bind them within the Dragon Below.

When the great war between the fiends and the dragons ended, the lesser fiends that had not been imprisoned or destroyed went into hiding. Many returned to the place from which their lords once ruled, the land called Fah’lrrg in the Infernal tongue but now known simply as the Demon Wastes. Here, among the ruins of their shattered fortresses and the open pits to Khyber from which their lords once emerged (and within which they now lie imprisoned), the rakshasas formed a secret society called the Lords of Dust, dedicated to one day releasing the lords of darkness and recapturing the hellish glory of the Age of Demons.

Today, there is little civilization in the harsh and infertile Demon Wastes. Rocky cliffs surrounded by deadly reefs make up the coastal regions, volcanic activity rumbles across the land, and fiendish creatures and deadly spirits roam the interior. Amid rivers of lava, bubbling pits of noxious stew, and barren wasteland, a few barbaric tribes of orcs and humans struggle to survive. These savage warriors avoid the rakshasa cities, fearing the power of the ancient forces that lurk in the crumbling ruins.

Major Settlements

Ashtakala (City of the Damned; Unknown Population)

The one city of any real significance in the Demon Wastes is Ashtakala, the last citadel of the Lords of Dust. Surrounded by a permanent storm of sand and volcanic glass and shielded from all forms of divinatory magic, Ashtakala rarely reveals itself to human eyes. Explorers who manage to penetrate the eternal storm find a bizarre yet beautiful metropolis, a citadel built from basalt and brass. Compared to the shattered ruins spread throughout the rest of the Wastes, Ashtakala seems impossibly alive, filled with thousands of demons and other fiends.

While Ashtakala appears as it did a million years or more ago, it is a city of ghosts and shadows—all an illusion. In addition to the illusory inhabitants and the spirits of ancient things that still wander the decaying streets masked by powerful illusions of the city’s zenith, a handful of zakyas and rakshasas and a host of minor fiends serve the great Lords of Dust who congregate here. The Lords of Dust occasionally meet in this shadow of their ancient city, and rakshasas return to Ashtakala to scheme and to study in the vaults and libraries, reading scrolls and tomes that will crumble to dust if ever removed from the city. The power that preserves the image of Ashtakala transforms anyone who enters the city; visitors find their clothing and equipment altered to match the archaic fashions of the city, as if by a disguise self spell. The city of fiends is a dangerous place for mortals to visit—only the luckiest of intruders caught by the rakshasa lords get to die quickly.

All fi ends return to Ashtakala eventually, sometimes spending centuries in its cold embrace, to remind themselves of the glory that was once theirs. The illusion comforts them with images of the Age of Demons, but it also fuels their hatred for the dragons who tore down their era and left only these ruins for the rakshasas to occupy.

Blood Crescent (Tharashk Outpost, 100)

To the enterprising agents of House Tharashk, the Demon Wastes represent an untouched trove of treasures that are well worth the terrible wrath of this land. After several failed attempts at establishing a colony here, the dragon marked house succeeded with Blood Crescent, a tiny outpost on the edge of Crescent Bay. Tharashk uses the outpost as a base from which it mounts expeditions for precious deposits of Khyber dragonshards. Despite losing expeditions on a regular basis and ongoing attacks by the Carrion Tribes, the house funnels incredible sums into maintaining Blood Crescent, believing that the long-term benefit of an outpost in the Wastes outweighs the cost.

Blood Crescent is home to a mix of humans and half-orcs, all Tharashk operatives. However, the outpost welcomes adventurers, and PCs could make the place a base of operations. In addition to hiring adventurers as escorts for house scouts and prospectors, Tharashk knows that its presence in the outpost is an effective hedge against Carrion Tribe attacks.

Festering Holt (Sinister Village, 200)

Festering Holt lies approximately fifty miles southwest of Ashtakala. It is a regular stop for groups searching for the fabled demon city, and adventurers, savage humanoids, and even fiends seek refuge along its ramshackle streets. However, more than a few visitors have been known to disappear while staying in Festering Holt, and it is said that the locals prey on the weak and injured, always in need of fresh meat for the cooking pots.

Dead Before Morning: An inn, tavern, stable, and general store all under one roof, Dead Before Morning is one of the few places offering accommodation for any length of time in the Holt. Run by a bugbear named Karbal, the place takes its name from the proprietor’s regular evening toast: “Drink well, lads, because it’s a sure bet we’ll all be dead before morning!”

The Labyrinth (Deadly Canyon Maze)

More than 200 miles across and spread along the feet of the Shadowcrags and the Icehorn Mountains, the Labyrinth is a torn and ruined expanse of terrain giving way to the plains and windswept deserts of the Wastes. In its depths, Khyber pushes closer to the surface world than anywhere else on Eberron.

The Labyrinth gets its name from the maze formed by the canyons, mesas, and defiles found throughout the area. The terrain here is most sinister, and it is easy to become lost along its unmarked paths, or to fall victim to the natural hazards spread throughout. Boiling pools of mud, geysers, sluggish lava flows, and crumbling walls frequently claim the lives of reckless travelers. Roving bands of demons and savage humanoids hunt here in search of flesh and plunder.

The Ghaash’kala clans patrol the Labyrinth, keeping the horrors of the Wastes from pushing into the mountains. They discourage travelers from venturing into the Demon Wastes, often to the point of threatening violence. Though they stop short of attacking explorers set on entering, the Ghaash’kala ensure that nothing they encounter leaves the Wastes—including adventurers who ignore their initial warnings.

Maruk Dar: Small settlements of the Ghaash’kala clans are spread throughout the Labyrinth. Maruk Dar, home to the Maruk tribe, stands near a large defile in the southwestern portion of the Labyrinth. The Maruk folk dwell in concealed caves, reached by switchback stairs and protected by deadly traps and watchful eyes. No more than a few hundred people dwell in such settlements at a time, since the Ghaash’kala’s mission keeps them on the move.

Lake of Fire (Ancient Volcano)

The Demon Wastes linger under a pall cast by the numerous volcanoes rising from the heart of this blighted realm. Spewing clouds of ash and toxic smoke, the volcanoes of the Wastes cover the land in rivers of lava that consume everything in their path. The Lake of Fire is an ancient peak southwest of the Labyrinth and the site of one of the largest of the Wastes’ volcanoes. Some say that the vast expanse of lava within the bowl of the mountain imprisons a terrible fiend, perhaps one of the rakshasa rajahs. Others hold that ancient heroes once ventured here to cast dangerous artifacts into the furnace of molten rock. The Lake of Fire attracts demons, fiendish cults, and the deadlier Carrion Tribes to its shores—all paying homage here to their dreadful masters.

Rotting Blade (Decaying Village, 40)

Though a majority of the Demon Wastes’ denizens are devoted to fiends, some serve other creatures of evil. Rotting Blade is a tiny settlement set in the permanent gloom of the Shadowcrags, where a powerful night hag named Vraria rules over a community of kobolds, orcs, and humans captured from the Eldeen Reaches and the Shadow Marches. Subjected to unspeakable cruelty and driven mad by the taint of the Wastes, these thralls have come to regard the hag as their queen and mistress. She uses them for labor, sport, and (when their bodies give out) food for their fellows. To maintain Rotting Blade’s population, her servants range beyond the Wastes, rounding up new batches of slaves to subject to their mistress’s spite. Rotting Blade is little more than a collection of hovels in a barren landscape. Vraria lurks out of sight when visitors arrive, emerging with her servants in the hope of overwhelming intruders and adding them to her stable of slaves.