Black Wastes
The Black Wastes are the wastelands surrounding the Maze of Memories. The region is named for the black rock that dominates the area. Located on an old terrestrial planet with a thin, toxic atmosphere, orbiting a white dwarf and still bearing the scars from its sun's death, the Wastes cover such a great region, they can easily be identified from orbit.
Dust devils are frequent, blackening the sky and hiding the pale sun. The region is very dry, yet there is some water, or what counts for it. Contaminated by black dust, it looks dark and oily, and while it may not be immediately toxic, the long-term effects of drinking it have never been studied.
As the universe around their desolate world dies, the Black Wastes expand slowly but relentlessly, devouring more and more of the planet, killing all organic life they encounter.
Whether the Wastes were brought forth by a nanite plague or some arcane disaster is impossible to say at this point. Few have ever attempted to study the Black Wastes in any greater detail, and even fewer have returned.
Maze of Memories
At the center of the Black Wastes, and likely their origin, is the Maze of Memories. An ancient structure believed to be both oracle and archive, the Maze may offer wisdom for those who survive the many trials it provides, or it may destroy their minds. What exactly the Maze is, who built it and for what original purpose, and whether whatever residual intelligence may still reside in its crumbling corridors and echoing halls has lost all sanity as some claim, is also hard to tell. There is no recipe for surviving the maze and receiving answers. According to those who lived and cared to tell about it, the Maze seems to know more about them than was comfortable, and it played a great many tricks with their minds along the way.
Type
Wasteland