Wasteland

Biodata

Nature and Environment

The Wasteland is shaped by unstable Elemental Tides. Dry, fire-heavy tides strip away water and vegetation, while accumulated fire elements can fall as destructive fire rain. At night, the loss of sunlight allows extreme cold to replace the daytime heat. 5 47

Its terrain can change within hours. Ponds become cracked earth, grass and streams wither almost immediately, and temporary swamps are consumed as dry hurricanes remove their water elements. 5 6 22 25

• Elemental hurricanes — carry dry tides that purge water elements and rapidly erase wetlands. 5
• Fire rain — forms when fire elements gather densely in the Elemental Tide, scorching the ground and destroying surface moisture. 6 47
• Spatial disturbances — concentrated elemental storms can tear space and cause spatial folding, transferring entire regions across immense distances. 5
• Extreme temperatures — scorching days and freezing nights make the region difficult for most living beings to inhabit. 47
• Barren terrain — the landscape is usually composed of red-yellow sand, naked mountains, thorn trees, and little reliable water. 5 47
• Fire-melted sands — severe fire rain can melt red sand and stone into brass-like grains and crystallized surfaces before hurricanes gradually erode them again. 122 123
• Ruined settlements — the western reaches contain remnants of ancient city-states whose surviving walls offer travelers temporary shelter from hurricanes and cold currents. 128

Regional Geography

The Wasteland includes a central desert that separates its eastern and western regions. The central dunes are especially barren and sparsely inhabited, making caravans and isolated passengers frequent targets for bandits. 123

The eastern regions are strongly dominated by fire elements and red sand. Toward the west, the influence of the Ice Plains introduces cold and snow elements into the dry air, although fire remains a major component of the Elemental Tide. 76 124

The Wasteland also connects major surrounding regions. Its northern and western reaches border the Ice Plains and the North Sea region, while its eastern and southern approaches link the Rhine Prairie, Grasslands, Elven rainforest, and Despair Forest. 41 123 130

Hidden Nature

The temporary swamp that draws Li Ziran and several slave-catching corps is sustained by the declining Swamp Mud Dragon, rather than the entire Wasteland being the dragon's body. The dragon's protected habitat deteriorates as it weakens, allowing the surrounding Wasteland to consume the swamp. 24 25

The Corpse Dragon’s excavation exposes Medusas buried beneath the former swamp and creates sandstorms that rapidly transform the area into open desert. The Swamp Dragon eventually rises from beneath the land before the Corpse Dragon sacrifices itself and numerous beings in an attempt to assimilate its power. 27 29

Derivative Spaces

Ancient powerful creatures can create Derivative Spaces—also called Minor Spaces—which draw favorable elements from the Elemental Tide while excluding harmful ones. 24

A temporary swamp within the Wasteland was sustained by the declining Swamp Mud Dragon’s Derivative Space. As the dragon weakened, the swamp lost its protection and was absorbed by the surrounding Wasteland. 24 25

After Li Ziran implants Annie with a Dragon Heart, her emerging Swamp Dragon traits allow her to create a small independent Derivative Space through the interaction of Water and Earth elements. She disappears into this space while carrying Li Ziran's blood and stored frogs. 32

Environmental Effects

Society and Economy

The Wasteland’s instability has fostered a survival-based society in which living beings, corpses, magical organs, and information are treated as trade goods. Slave-catching groups, bandits, corpse merchants, Necromancers, and caravans all compete for resources. 1 5 33 35

Slave trading is officially taboo for small operators because major lords monopolize the industry, but it remains one of the Wasteland’s most profitable businesses. Major settlements can also formalize the trade by certifying slaves and collecting fees from sellers. 1 33

Corpses are likewise a major commodity. Li Ziran purchases bodies, harvests valuable organs, and sells them to Necromancers, while execution sites and battlefields provide valuable supply sources. 1 5

• Gray Wolf Territory — a comparatively stable territory whose frequent executions create a reliable corpse market. 1
• Mading’er Town — formerly a Centaur-controlled trading town known for hospitality, slave markets, caravan routes, and concealed corpse dealings. It is later purged by the Elven pilgrimage force and devastated by Jon's heat, leaving only ruins and crimson crystal ground. 32 33 35 47 77
• Hippo Ancient City — one of the Wasteland’s three great slave city-states and its only surviving ancient city-state, whose prosperity is founded on the long-established slave trade. 123
• Windmills — taverns and service centers that may function as information exchanges, medical sites, mercenary hubs, or combat venues depending on their designation. Earth Mills connect mercenary work, Water Mills provide healing, Fire Mills arrange combat, and Windmills sell information. 38
• Slave-catching corps — organized groups that exploit the Wasteland’s changing terrain to capture displaced or weakened races. 16 22 25
• Caravan networks — Centaur, Camel, Minotaur, and other traveling groups provide paid transport and protection across terrain too dangerous for most individuals to cross alone. 32 123 125
• Cavefolk and Dwarf trade — Cavefolk settlements cooperate with Dwarves through mining, resupply, and alchemical commerce; mutated Cavefolk eyes carrying Blinding attributes are valuable magical materials. 125

Notable Inhabitants and Threats

• Bandits and slave catchers — prey on isolated travelers and exploit temporary terrain changes for profit. 5 6
• Wasteland Vipers — repeatedly attack travelers; Li Ziran suspects their venom or bloodline traits caused his petrification curse. 5
• Medusas — highly valuable petrifying beings whose swamp habitat is vulnerable to the Wasteland’s advance. 2 5 24
• Crocodile Warriors — formidable swamp combatants rendered vulnerable after dehydration and the loss of cover. 22 25
• Fire Elephants — artillery-like magical beasts used by slave corps in large-scale warfare. 17
• Corpse Dragon — an undead siege weapon capable of devastating terrain, crushing Crocodile Warriors, and excavating the ground. 22 27
• Human desert bandits — weak but numerous raiders who target passengers of Camel caravans within the central desert. 123
• Doghead bandits — roaming Wasteland raiders whose large groups can threaten caravans, though disciplined Battle Qi forces can break their formations. 132
• Cavefolk — underground inhabitants whose mutated eyes may contain powerful Blinding attributes sought by alchemists and organ dealers. 125
• Elven pilgrimage force — a massive Elven procession crossing the Wasteland toward Despair Forest every fifty years; its arrival creates both an opportunity for slave catchers and an existential danger to settlements involved in Elven trafficking. 41 47

Story Role / Major Arcs

Corpse Trade and the Gray Wolf Territories

Li Ziran begins operating in the Wasteland as an Organ Witch Doctor who collects executed bodies for organ sales. The region’s violent order provides both the danger and the corpse supply that sustain his business. 1

The Temporary Swamp

Barbaro’s information leads Li Ziran toward a newly formed swamp inhabited by Medusas. The Wasteland’s elemental conditions make the opportunity urgent: once the water elements vanish, the swamp and its inhabitants will not remain. 4 5

Destruction of the Swamp

Multiple slave-catching corps invade the swamp as the Wasteland dries it out. The loss of water cripples the Crocodile Warriors and allows the Giant Cannon Slave Corps to capture them in large numbers. 16 22 25

Revelation of the Swamp Dragon

Karen’s attempt to seize the Clear Azure Light exposes the swamp’s deeper nature. The land rises as the decaying body of a colossal Swamp Dragon, while the Corpse Dragon sacrifices itself and numerous beings to assimilate the dragon’s power. 29

Mading’er and the Elven Purge

After leaving the devastated swamp region, Li Ziran travels to Mading’er Town. The town later falls to an Elven force that enters the Wasteland during the Elven pilgrimage and violently purges those connected to the Elven slave trade. 32 47

The ruined settlement is later further devastated by Jon, whose heat melts the surrounding land into a broad field of red crystal. Despite its destruction, the stable crystal ground, strategic location, and underground water source leave Mading’er with potential as a future settlement site. 58 77

Journey to the Undead Nest and Western Wasteland

Li Ziran crosses the Wasteland toward the black-and-white mountains of the Undead Nest, passing through the central desert and later the colder western reaches. This journey emphasizes the region’s role as a perilous commercial corridor between slave territories, ancient ruins, the Ice Plains, and necromantic domains. 76 77 78 123 124

Hippo Ancient City and the Western Slave Trade

Li Ziran travels through the Wasteland’s central desert to reach Hippo Ancient City, seeking demon-related business, ancient bloodlines, rare organs, and access to the Shadow Society. The ancient city-state represents the Wasteland’s most entrenched slave-trading civilization and becomes central to Li Ziran's later rise. 123

Continental Collapse

As the Red Soil Continent declines, increasingly violent tides transform the Wasteland from a harsh but inhabited frontier into a disaster zone. The Agate Great Wasteland is submerged, and the wider Wasteland is eventually peeled away during the continent's fragmentation, exposing the pure earth-sea core beneath it. 613 672

Before this final stripping, the Wasteland becomes a prospective high-value territorial asset in the Void Expanse. Kazilan estimates that acquiring it would require more than 16.28 million Void Coins because the Undead Race also seeks control of the land. 642