THE SOUNDLESS WASTES
“The World Broke Here First.”
Forbidden Territory — Midnight Zone
The Last Scar of the Great Sundering
CLASSIFICATION
TERRITORY TYPE: Restricted Catastrophic Wasteland
LOCATION: Outer Regions of Midnight Zone
STATUS: Forbidden / Extreme Hazard Zone
ACCESS LEVEL: PROHIBITED
DISTINGUISHING FEATURE: Final Surviving Ruins of the Old World
OVERVIEW
Beyond the civilized territories of the Midnight Zone…
past the last Neo Shuttle routes,
past the protected glacier corridors,
past even the outer storm barriers—
lies a place the modern world no longer speaks about comfortably:
The Soundless Wastes
The Soundless Wastes are not simply a desert.
They are the aftermath of planetary collapse made physical.
A scar left behind by:
The Great Sundering
where the world itself nearly tore apart beneath the weight of:
- endless war,
- catastrophic magic,
- environmental collapse,
- and humanity’s refusal to stop destroying itself until it was almost too late.
The Wastes stretch endlessly beneath skies that never fully settle.
The land there feels wrong.
Silent in unnatural ways.
Violent without warning.
Alive somehow beneath the cracked earth and burning storms.
Modern Irilia officially forbids civilian travel into the region.
Most who enter never return.
Those who do…
rarely return unchanged.
THE LANDSCAPE
The Soundless Wastes are a hellscape of:
- shattered mountains,
- scorched valleys,
- collapsing stone fields,
- toxic vents,
- and endless heat storms raging beneath star-filled skies.
Despite being located within the broader Midnight Zone, the Wastes possess their own terrifying climate system.
The region experiences:
- perpetual thermal instability,
- violent magical storms,
- atmospheric fractures,
- and heat surges capable of turning snowfields into steam within moments.
The earth itself is deeply unstable.
Cracks in the land release:
- ancient gases,
- magical residue,
- and toxic vapors left behind from the final years before the Sundering.
These gases are not merely poisonous.
They alter the mind.
Travelers exposed too long often experience:
- paranoia,
- aggression,
- hallucinations,
- memory fragmentation,
- and eventually complete psychological collapse.
Entire expeditions vanished after turning on one another inside the storms.
THE MADNESS OF THE WASTES
One of the greatest dangers within the Soundless Wastes is not environmental.
It is psychological.
The gases and lingering magical corruption embedded into the territory gradually distort emotional regulation and cognition.
Victims become:
- violent,
- unstable,
- territorial,
- and increasingly animalistic.
Both:
- Terians,
- yokai,
- and offworld travelers
have succumbed to the effects.
Many devolve into feral killers wandering the Wastes without memory of who they once were.
Some are still intelligent enough to hunt strategically.
That knowledge alone terrifies most survival experts.
THE HEAT STORMS
The storms of the Soundless Wastes are unlike ordinary weather systems.
These storms contain:
- superheated winds,
- magical electrical discharge,
- airborne ash,
- and reality distortions left behind from the Sundering itself.
Storms can:
- erase entire landmarks,
- uncover ancient ruins,
- or expose buried skeletal remains from civilizations lost thousands of years ago.
Navigation systems fail constantly inside them.
Even modern technology struggles to operate reliably within the deeper Wastes.
Many believe the storms themselves are partially alive.
No official study has confirmed this.
None survived long enough.
THE PRASHITE
The Prashite
Among the oldest legends tied to the Wastes are the spectral beings known as the Prashite.
Described as:
- pale ghostlike figures,
- drifting silhouettes,
- or silent wanderers moving through heat distortion,
the Prashite are believed to be remnants of those who died during the Sundering.
Stories claim they:
- guide travelers to safety,
- warn survivors away from danger,
- or lure the lost deeper into forbidden territory.
Encounters with them remain inconsistent.
Some survivors describe overwhelming peace near them.
Others report overwhelming dread.
No one fully understands what the Prashite truly are.
The Wastes keep their secrets closely.
THE JAASNESH RUINS
Jaasnesh
Deep within the northern reaches of the Wastes lie the ruins of:
- ancient cities,
- shattered temples,
- collapsed royal halls,
- and forgotten civilizations predating modern Irilia entirely.
These ruins belonged to:
The Jaasnesh
one of the last surviving peoples directly connected to the old world before the Sundering.
The ruins remain largely untouched due to:
- environmental danger,
- spiritual taboo,
- and the territory’s instability.
Ancient symbols and structures throughout the ruins suggest the Jaasnesh possessed:
- advanced magical understanding,
- environmental harmonics,
- and knowledge modern civilization may no longer fully comprehend.
Certain restricted historical archives claim the Jaasnesh may have predicted the Sundering long before it occurred.
Those records remain sealed.
THE PEOPLE OF THE WASTES
Despite the hostility of the region, small surviving communities still exist near the outer northern territories.
These isolated groups reject most:
- modern technology,
- corporate systems,
- and urban civilization.
They survive through:
- herbal medicine,
- ancient traditions,
- environmental knowledge,
- and oral teachings passed through generations.
To outsiders, they are often labeled:
savages
The people themselves reject the term entirely.
They consider the rest of Irilia disconnected from the living world.
Many believe modern civilization learned nothing from the Sundering.
And looking at the world…
they may not be entirely wrong.
TRANSPORTATION & ACCESS
No public:
Neo Shuttle Network
routes enter the Soundless Wastes.
No commercial flights operate there.
No sanctioned civilian expeditions are permitted.
Restricted military and research operations occasionally occur under:
ARC Police Division
authorization.
Even then, casualty rates remain disturbingly high.
The Wastes resist intrusion almost violently.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
To modern Irilia, the Soundless Wastes represent:
- guilt,
- warning,
- memory,
- and the consequences of unchecked destruction.
They are proof the world almost ended once already.
Entire generations were raised hearing:
Do not repeat the old world’s arrogance.
The Wastes exist so no one forgets what arrogance cost.
REPUTATION
To historians:
they are sacred.
To scientists:
they are terrifying.
To survivors:
they are haunted.
And to the rest of Irilia—
the Soundless Wastes remain a silent reminder that civilization once pushed the world so far it nearly broke beyond repair forever.