Beyond Aldamar’s borders—Cut off by a rugged mountain range—lies a desolate land dominated by a vast, unforgiving desert known simply as the Scorched Waste. Long, scorching days and sudden, vicious sandstorms discourage most travelers from even attempting the journey. Only nomadic tribes and hardened adventurers dare to wander its dun-colored dunes. The windblown sand conceals the remnants of an age-old civilization, rumored to be connected to the fallen Camden Empire. Ruined spires poke through the shifting terrain, their inscriptions half buried, speaking of a grand city swallowed by the desert’s wrath.
Some travelers whisper that the Camden Empire once exiled its most dangerous sorcerers to this desert, forcing them to hide arcane secrets that could threaten the entire world. A persistent rumor suggests that hidden deep under the endless sands, within eroded temples carved from black obsidian, lie the empire’s “darkest secrets”—relics or spells so catastrophic that even Camden’s mightiest wizards feared to use them. Few believe these tales outright; the majority dismiss them as stories spun by desert nomads to frighten foolish treasure hunters. Still, any expedition daring enough to penetrate the storm-wracked dunes must contend not only with blistering winds and scorching sun, but also with the possibility that something far worse stirs beneath their feet.