Chaos Wastes
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The Chaos Wastes are the great Chaos-suffused wastelands which surround both the North and South poles of the Warhammer world.
Correspondingly, they are called the Northern and the Southern Wastes. Their creation stemmed from the collapse of the Polar Warp Gates, when Chaos first flooded into the world. The regions surrounding the poles were the most severely affected, and remain places of seething Chaos.
It is a land of desolation shrouded in unnatural darkness, irredeemably corrupted and distorted by the suffusive Chaos. Here, every law of the universe has been scattered to the wind, and the energies of Chaos visit their anarchy on the forms of every living and unliving thing. Here the Champions of Chaos and their armies fight endlessly to gain the attentions of their patron gods.
The Chaos Wastes are also known as the Shadowlands, for they lie in the shadow of Chaos itself. At the very centre of the Wastes reality gives way to the Realm of Chaos.
Hordes of Chaos
Raiding parties of Marauder tribes who dwell below the malign Realm of Chaos and worship the Dark Gods come south every year but when the Winds of Magic blow strongly, then huge armies of Chaos worshipers form. The Marauder tribes are joined by Chaos Warriors and Knights as well as monsters from the deeper wastes - they then head south to lay waste to the lands of men, Elves and Dwarfs. [3]
Locations
Northern Wastes
The Northern Wastes surround the North Pole. This is a frozen land covered with ice in the far north which gradually gives way to tundra and large plains. The land is peopled by the Northmen, warlike and barbaric tribes who are born into the worship of the Chaos gods. During the Chaos incursions, the tribes descend as a great horde upon the civilised nations to the south. The threat from the Chaos Wastes remains constant, for when not invading as part of a great Chaos incursion, small bands pillage the civilised lands to brutally take whatever they need or desire.
- Agvald Forest.[4]
- The Blasted Wastes.[4]
- The Black Pit.[4]
- Black Rock: A bleak monument on the shore of the Sea of Chaos to countless warriors who failed and fell on the Path to Glory.[4]
- The Blasted Wastes
- The Hunting Fields.[4]
- K'Datha: Said to be home to Zanbaijin.[4]
- The Blighted Grove.[4]
- The Blood Marshes: An strange wetland that stinks of death where blood chokes the waterways and beasts drink deep of the crimson ichor.[4]
- The Cold Mires: A region of stinking bogs, misty fens and poisonous swamps where lair the Toad Dragons.[4]
- The Crystal Spires: Strange formations of green, purple and teal crystal which are frequented by the tribes of the Eagle splinters of the structures can be used by their sorcerers to amplify their magical prowess.[4]
- The Eternal Lagoons.[4]
- Forest of Beasts.[4]
- The Forest of Decay.[4]
- Fortress of the Damned: For centuries, Chaos Champions have fought for it.[4]
- Frostspire Mountains.[4]
- The Gallows Tree: It is said that the bloated Daemons that clung to its fetid boughs can teach the secrets of decay and plague.[4]
- Gnawhome.[4]
- Grimnir's Gate.[4]
- The Heavenward Hills.[4]
- The Monolith of the Void: A stone archway that is filled with inky-black æther, any who steps in are consumed and never seen again although some say it leads directly to the Realm of Chaos.[4]
- The Mountains of Questioning.[4]
- The Brass Glacier This near-solid flow of brazen lava at time moves rapidly but never seems to actually advance across the Chaos Wastes.[4]
- Plains of Ash.[4]
- Plains of Bone: A vast expanse of bone - the remains of those that sought to walk the path to glory but failed and whose deeds have long been forgotten.[4]
- Blood Mountain: A volcano that vomits forth boiling-hot blood.[4]
- Foetid Catacombs: Subterranean tunnels whose walls perpetually drip with warm ichor.[4]
- The Ossified Hills.[4]
- Palace of Ruin: Claimed by many Chaos Champions as it is the last shelter before a dangerous journey across the wasteland.[4]
- Plain of Glass.[4]
- Chasm of Torments: Crossing this area causes a traveler to be tortured by waking nightmares which drive them mad, speaking ever after of their visions of death and woe.[4]
- Plain of Illusions.[4]
- The Proving Ground: Once four champions of the gods fought and died here, their followers erecting great monoliths to their respective gods which still watch over the battleground. Champions come here to make offerings and hopefully gain power to help them on the way to Daemonhood.[2]
- The Shard Lands: Broken and sundered area where the laws of nature are shattered constantly as Ruinous Powers greedily consumes the World.[4]
- Sheltered Causeway: A broken but safe stretch of land which allows safe passage across the Shard Lands.[4]
- Shard Woods.[4]
- The Shifting Monolith: It vanishes before reappearing, apparently at random and never in the same location.[4]
- Swarvik.[4]
- Tower of Torment.[4]
- The Twisted Tower.[4]
- The Withered Forest.[4]
- Keldevind.[4]
- The Palace of Princes A warrior lodge where rituals and combat trials determine who will lead the followers of the Serpant in the following months.[4]
- Vestligkyst.[4]
- Volcano's Heart.[4]
- The Wraithgate: It is a difficult and perilous pilgrimage to this hellish shrine for those who worship the Baying Hound.[4]
Southern Wastes
Surrounding the South Pole are the Southern Wastes. Containing one of the highest concentrations of Beastmen in the whole world[1], this continent is thankfully separated from all others by water.
Maps of the Chaos Wastes
Gallery
Part of the Northern Wastes
Part of the Northern Wastes
Part of the Northern Wastes
Part of the Northern Wastes
Sources
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Beastmen (7th Edition), pg.17
- 2: White Dwarf 246 (UK), Massacre at the monoliths, pg. 62-63
- 3: Ravening Hordes (TOW), Desolate Realms, pg. 7
- 4: The Old World website map