Rivers of lava cut across plains of black sand and volcanic glass. The only vegetation consists of blood-red moss and a thick layer of shimmering slime. A jagged rock formation might be a piece of an ancient wall, if you stretch your imagination.

Tens of thousands of years ago, fiends ruled Khorvaire. The Demon Wastes held the seat of power for some of the mightiest archfiends, home to cities of rakshasas and demons. Most of these foul entities perished or fled long ago, but a few still linger in this place even as new ones crawl up from the depths of Khyber. A handful of primordial ruins sustained by dark magic dot the bleak landscape—ruins that may still be home to fiends and their treasures.

The Stone Cage, Shadowcrags, and Icehorn Mountains separate the Demon Wastes from the Eldeen Reaches. A series of canyons known as the Labyrinth further separate the Demon Wastes from the rest of Khorvaire. Due to ancient warding magic, any creature that wishes to leave must do so through the Labyrinth. These passes are guarded by the Ghaash’kala, tribes of orcs sworn to contain the evils of the Wastes. Beyond the Labyrinth, the mortal inhabitants of the Demon Wastes include a brutal people known as the Carrion Tribes. Each tribe is devoted to an archfiend, and they engage in endless battles against the Ghaash’kala and the other Carrion Tribes.

If you’re creating a character from the Demon Wastes, you’re likely associated with either the Ghaash'kala or one of the Carrion Tribes.

Source: Rising from the Last War

Interesting Things About the Demon Wastes

  • A variety of fiends inhabit the Wastes, including devils, rakshasas, and demons. These creatures are spawned by Khyber, not the Outer Planes.
  • The Demon Wastes are riddled with portals to abyssal demiplanes, unearthly realms populated by fiends and other horrors. These inner realms include vast and twisted forests, living oceans, realms of rusted iron, and stranger places.

At first glance, the Demon Wastes are a blasted land inimical to life. Miles of volcanic basalt bleed into desert the color of rust and frozen arctic tundra. Tar pits and poison oases spring from festering swamps amid riven badlands. Ancient ruins of the Overlords lie scattered across the landscape, sundered by time and dragonfire. Despite this, a variety of life clings on, including the diabolical Carrion Tribes.

Their survival is a result of the countless entrances to Khyber that pockmark the land. It’s these demiplane portals that spew fiends onto the surface and give the land its name. However, these portals also allow the unique and bizarre life from demiplanes to spread to the surface, where they form localized ecosystems. These patchwork zones are where the Carrion Tribes secure food and water, laying claim to them as territories under their control. The heart of each territory, known as a haunt, is where a tribe maintains its permanent encampment.

The entrance to this corrupted cage is the Labyrinth - a vast system of mesas and ravines that sprawls for miles. Adventurers who make it past the Ghaash’kala must first contend with the dangers of the Labyrinth. Roaming fiends, dangerous weather and blistering heat all mask the real threat - losing one’s way, and remaining in the Labyrinth forever.

Source: Paladins of the Wastes

The Sakah

Strange births are common within the barbarian tribes; newborns may exhibit the sign of one of the rajahs. Such a sign might be subtle, but could include horns, sharp teeth or claws, red eyes, rough gray skin, bulging knuckles, bony spikes, leathery wings, or some other sign of the rajahs’ dark influence. Some individuals display these fiendish features at birth, while others develop them as they mature physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The Carrion Tribes believe that these individuals are blessed and call them sakah (“touched ones”). They often rise to become influential members of their tribes.

Sakah may also have subtle powers that manifest as they age, such as a captivating gaze, a talent for sorcery, or a preternaturally charming voice. These abilities and the reputation of all sakah let them rise in rank within the Carrion Tribes, grant them the strength to survive on their own, or allow them to flee the Wastes. The following feats represent a few of the fiendish powers a sakah might possess as a result of her fiendish taint. A character with any of these feats bears some physical manifestation of it, described in the feat entry.

Since most denizens of the Demon Wastes are evil, most sakah are evil—but they do not have to be. The fiends’ sign steers sakah toward evil alignments, but some resist this temptation and flee or combat the fiends. Others simply ignore their powers’ origin and use them to further their adventures.

Source: Player's Guide to Eberron

Adventure Hooks

  • The adventurers must steal a scroll from the Library of Ashtakala. Perhaps it reveals the true plans of Bel Shalor, the only way to defeat Rak Tulkhesh, or exactly where Sul Khatesh is imprisoned. While in the Library, they could find entirely new arcane magic spells and rituals created by the rakshasa, or details of a new threat tied to the Draconic Prophecy.
  • Someone near and dear to the party (perhaps a PC) has been slain by a Keeper’s Fang dagger. This leads the adventurers to go to the Lair of the Keeper in the Demon Wastes to see if the soul can be reclaimed. Is this just the laid of a mundane dracolich (perhaps the FIRST dracolich), or is it a portal to another plane? Can the soul actually be found there and reclaimed?
  • An unnatural plague is sweeping through Aundair and the Eldeen Reaches. It’s definitely come from the Demon Wastes – can they find the source and a cure in the Wastes? Is the source in the wastes proper, or must you find a path to the Abyssal Forests of Khar to find that cure?
  • Take the same idea but make it personal: a PC is afflicted by a curse or disease that is tied to the Age of Demons. Perhaps they found a cursed artifact that they can’t get rid of, or dealt with a fiend or fiendish ruin elsewhere in Khorvaire. The only way to solve the problem is to go to the Wastes. It could be that this is the only place that artifact can be removed or destroyed (a la Lord of the Rings), that they need to bargain with a fiend, or just that it’s the only place that information can be found.
  • A great paladin of the Silver Flame went to the Demon Wastes and never returned. Can you discover what happened to him and reclaim his holy relics?
  • You need to do something tied to one of the planes, and the only being who can tell you what you need to know is the ancient night hag who served as ambassador to that plane during the Age of Demons. Can you find her in the Demon Wastes, and if so, what will she demand in exchange for her services?
  • The couatl sent Tira Miron to the Demon Wastes to find her sword Kloijner, the only weapon that could harm Bel Shalor. Likewise, a PC could be sent to the Demon Wastes by a vision or through lore to recover a powerful artifact from the Dragon-Fiend war.
  • Scholars are always curious to discover more about the ancient prehuman civilizations. You can blatantly rip off At The Mountains of Madness: The PCs accompany a scholarly expedition seeking to delve into the prehuman history of the Wastes, but the ruined city they explore isn’t quite as dead as they expect…

Source: Dragonmarks: The Demon Wastes vs The Mournland


  • A priest of the Silver Flame has a terrible vision of a disaster brewing in the Demon Wastes. Working with the Plaguebearers, one of the Lords of Dust is preparing a ritual that will transfer the power of the great spirit of pestilence to a living rakshasa. The ritual will occur at the next new moon; if it succeeds, the new rajah will spread terror and blight through the Eldeen Reaches as it moves toward Aundair.
  • The Lair of the Keeper holds thousands of souls in bondage. A passage in the draconic Prophecy calls for the release of the soul of an ancient sage. But can she be pried from the depths of Khyber, or will would-be rescuers simply join her in eternal imprisonment? —Aundair proposes to resettle Desolate with Cyre refugees, giving them their own autonomous area. Adventurers are needed to scout ahead and ferret out any hidden dangers, to escort the settlers to their new home, and to establish a new city guard to protect this lonely outpost. Can they prevent history from repeating itself?
  • A scholar has discovered the location of a powerful artifact, hidden in a crumbling vault and guarded by a powerful spirit (a couatl). But this sage is actually one of the Lords of Dust. The rakshasa can not enter the vault—it needs to trick mortals into overcoming the guardian and removing the artifact, after which it intends to seize the mystical weapon for itself.

Source: Eberron Campaign Setting

Cities

An important point here is that fiendish cities were created, not constructed. They were made by the Overlords, for whom it was a trivial matter to shape reality within their sphere. So the first main point is which Overlord created the city? There’s no common style here. Katashka might build a city from bones, while Rak Tulkhesh’s followers would live in a fortress of steel and stone. The city of Sul Khatesh would be a spectacle of magic while also being filled with secrets. Tul Oreshka might not have a city… or her city might exist as a shared delusion that overtakes anyone who comes upon it.

In general, things to consider:

  • These cities were formed by epic magic as opposed to mundane labor. You can have floating towers or monuments. You can have structures made out of impossible substances – a living tower, a house made from mist that somehow never drifts apart. Need light? Buildings could simply glow, or anyone in the city might find that they have darkvision within its confines.
  • Magic still lingers in these places, but that doesn’t mean it’s as strong as it was. You might have one floating tower that’s standing while another has come crashing down. A fountain of fire or blood could still be running, or it could be scroched or dried up. We’ve said of Ashtakala that the memories of the city linger even though the city is ruined – and that anyone who enters it will be cloaked in those memories.

First off, demon ruins aren’t confined to the Demon Wastes. Page 20 of the 4E Eberron Campaign Guide described demon ruins as one of the types of places you can find adventure, noting in part “Fiendish strongholds are likely to be found at the edges of civilization, in places such as the Demon Wastes and Q’barra, but a subterranean ruin could lie hidden anywhere in Khorvaire.” Krezent in the Talenta Plains and Ha’katorvhak in Q’barra are both ruins from the Age of Demons. So these ruins ARE spread across Eberron. It’s simply that very, very few have survived. The Age of Demons was over a hundred thousand years ago. What hasn’t succumbed to time was often intentionally destroyed, either in the conflicts of the time or leveled by dragons in ages after. Those places that have survived are generally extremely isolated, incredibly durable, and generally infused with immensely powerful magic – like Ashtakala.

But let’s take a moment to look at the question of WHY these cities existed in the first place. Demons don’t need cities in the same way that humans do. They don’t need food. They don’t sleep. They aren’t concerned with shelter from the elements. Their numbers are static, so they don’t create NEW cities to house a growing population.

Now, the greatest cities would be the seats of power of Overlords. The city is a reflection of the Overlord; they don’t NEED it, but it is a representation of the Overlord and their power. Let’s call these citadels. There were a limited number of Overlords and not every Overlord would have a citadel, so that’s a concrete limit right there. An Overlord wouldn’t and couldn’t make more than one citadel; it literally is the heart of their power. Thus, Haka’torvhak is the seat of the Cold Sun. These places are the most likely to survive in some form, because they are suffused with the power of an overlord. But the fact that we haven’t mentioned, say, a citadel of Sul Khatesh suggests that even these could be destroyed.

Lesser cities serves a different purpose: they’d house mortals. Because most of the Overlords feed on mortals. Not literally – but it’s through mortals that the Overlords express their nature. Rak Tulkhesh is the Rage of War and yearns to create conflict and bloodshed. He can get his demons to fight each other just as a way to pass the time…but it’s not real. They’re immortal. They don’t feel rage and loss and death the way mortals do. Tul Oreshka needs mortals to experience her madness. An Overlord of Tyranny exists to dominate mortals. Tiamat is the darkness in dragons – which is meaningless without dragonsNot all Overlords need mortals. Draal Khatuur embodies the killing cold, and she is happy to lord over a desolate frozen waste. This was the point of the PC warlock in one of my campaign who was working for an Overlord of Tyranny. He didn’t WANT his Overlord to escape, but if one of them HAD to escape, at least his Overlord needed to keep mortals around… while Draal Khatuur would be happy to kill them all.

So it was these mortal cities that would have been spread across Eberron, but there WEREN’T made to last for a hundred thousand years and most are ash and rubble… hence the surviving demons assuming the title “Lords of Dust.”

And with all of THAT said: the current cities like Ashtakala do survive a concrete purpose. They are places for the rakshasa to meet and scheme. They are places for them to store their lore and their treasures. The Lords of Dust DON’T have the transcendent power of the Overlords, and they do value their artifacts and lore. So they don’t need cities the way humans do – but they still need places to keep their stuff!

Source: Dragonmarks: The Demon Wastes vs The Mournland

Environment

The Demon Wastes consist of the broken and shattered lands north and west of the Shadowcrags and the Icehorn Mountains. A vast swath of badlands, ravines, and treacherous plains stretches from the mountains to the shores of the Barren Sea—a toxic landscape that is anathema to life.

Life in the Demon Wastes is uniformly horrid and short. Little grows here, and what few creatures can survive these lands share the same corruption as the Wastes’ humanoid inhabitants. The ground is toxic, and poisonous winds scour the landscape as volcanoes belch forth ash, flaming rock, and acidic rain. Unforgiving deserts of black sand are dotted with old ruins and oases filled with brackish water, while steaming fissures offer glimpses down into rivers of lava and the tunnels of Khyber. One cannot dwell here for long without feeling this land’s corruption, and explorers who linger too long in the Wastes are often driven mad, either wandering off into the wasteland to die or joining the barbarian tribes.

Even entering the Wastes is a challenge. The Barren Sea is home to dark and sinister fiends that dwell in horrid cities far below the waves. Sharks, venomous fish, and pirates control these waters, and tremendous storms send ships to splinter against the rocky shore. Access is no easier by land, for past the mountains separating the Demon Wastes from the Eldeen Reaches, the perils of the Labyrinth await. Boiling mud, scree fields, and other hazards erupt without warning in this seemingly endless maze of perilous canyons.

Despite the hardships of this land, the Demon Wastes teem with life. Gnolls, orcs, humans, and tieflings all dwell here, preying on each other and on the corrupted creatures of the Wastes. The Carrion Tribes, as they are known, are a diverse lot, distinctive in their customs and beliefs. All are controlled and consumed by the evil trapped beneath this land.

The presence of natural and supernatural resources in the Wastes draws the attention of the dragon marked houses. In particular, House Tharashk maintains an outpost at Blood Crescent, from which it mounts frequent expeditions in search of dragon shards and relics from this land’s ancient ruins.

The Demon Wastes present a picture of Eberron as it was during the Age of Demons, and death is not the worst fate that can befall explorers here. Magical power infuses the ancient ruins, masking them with potent illusions to deceive and lure the unwary into ancient traps or demonic lairs.

The Demon Wastes are perilous lands filled with vile creatures, foul fiends, and savage tribes of humanoids bent on slaughter. To explore the Wastes is to invite a fate worse than death, but in spite of the risks, these lands attract more then their share of adventurers. The Demon Wastes are home to abundant deposits of Khyber dragonshards.

The true powers of this realm are the Lords of Dust, servants of the evil overlords that have been buried beneath the shattered landscape for a hundred thousand years. Their plots in the world are carried out by myriad agents, including demons and other fiends, night hags slipped free from the Feywild, and their corrupted human, orc, and tiefling thralls.

Evil is pervasive in the Demon Wastes. The fractured landscape offers numerous access points to the depths of Khyber, where hideous demons and elemental horrors escape the Churning Chaos far below. In the Wastes, fiendish magic has weakened the barriers between all the planes, and gates arise and disappear here without warning.

Source: Eberron Campaign Guide

Settlement Attempts

Numerous attempts have been made to settle the Demon Wastes and reclaim this land from the horrors that dwell here. Each has met with failure, its settlers either dragged off screaming to feed the Carrion Tribes or wiped out by storm, plague, or demonic forces.

Two settlements of note have managed to survive in the Wastes—Festering Holt and Blood Crescent. The former comes closest to being an actual community, offering refuge of a sort to people intent on exploring these lands. The latter is a House Tharashk outpost, from which the house’s mining and exploration activities in the Wastes are controlled.

Source: Eberron Campaign Guide

Monster Manual 3

Deathshrieker

Deathshriekers haunt the battle-scorched plains of the Mournland. They also prevail along the jagged coastlines of the Demon Wastes, along which many ships and crews have met their doom. One of the Lords of Dust, a powerful rakshasa, inhabits a palace haunted by deathshriekers and reportedly fi nds their hellish screams “soothing.”