The Bygone Wastes

The Bygone Wastes are a region in the Southern part of the kingdom of Nightfall, stretching between Castle Avolyre and the Forest of Rock at the Southernmost tip. It is generally avoided by the countrymen of Nightfall, though there are old Elvish towns long since converted into human settlements which still stand within it. During the events of The Plight of Steel, these towns are struck by a drought, after which their inhabitants, receiving no help from their king, begin to die out in droves.

Geography
The Wastes are black and dead, as heat and noxious gas from The Gateway suffocates any plant life within several miles of its rim. On two sides, tall mountain ranges close in the landscape, turning the normally flat horizon into a saw's edge of sharp, dark pinnacles. There is no water, and if water somehow manages to sneak its way through, it becomes dirty and mired by the dust and filth coating the ground. Overall, the region is almost impossible to live in, though a few hamlets manage to survive off of sparse crops.

History
When Pridulus Wildlight came to the kingdom during the First Age, the Wastes were just as they appear later on during the Plight of Steel. He knew well to avoid it, as crossing it would be foolish with the little resources he had remaining on his trek, and so never ventured in until years later once he was settled and established as king.

Inside, his scouts found the monstrous Dryvesh - lizard-like humanoid beasts who had managed to form a primitive society and language. They inadvertently led them back to Blackrock Keep, condemning the fortress to several years of constant molestation by the creatures, before Vraxis Wildlight slaughtered almost all of them, driving the remaining back into the mountains.

During the Plight of Steel, Alistair Wildlight shuts himself into his castle and bars all legal entry by ship, effectively isolating his kingdom from the rest of the world, and himself from his people. The inhabitants of the towns within the Wastes then starve, as a major drought kills their crops, and they come back to life as Visitors. Thereafter, the Wastes become inhabited only by monsters and the undead.

Name Origin
The name is in reference to the region being long dead, vaporized during a bygone age. Wastes is a self-explanatory term.