User:GoldenYak/Thanacross Wastes

Related to the Emerald Dream Expansion Concept

Once a realm of expansive grassland and rolling plains, the Thanacross Wastes have been warped into a polluted desert wasteland by the Nightmare. Indeed, it was this very region of the Emerald Dream that first felt the Nightmare's corrupting influence, for this realm is where the dread Old God Yogg-Saron first planted the Nightmare's seed...

History
Thousands of years ago, Yogg-Saron first injected his blighted influence into the Dream in the form of a great black meteor that fell from the skies. Fragments of this meteorite broke apart and rained down all across the Dream, with the bulk of the meteor crashing apocalyptically into the realm that would become known as the Thanacross Wastes. The great black stone was in fact formed from the metallized blood of the Old God, Yogg-Saron, the substance carrying his dark will and corruptive power. From these fragments and the greater meteor, the dark influence of the Nightmare was born, spilling across the rest of the Emerald Dream like a plague of doom and corruption. The great meteor became known as the Nightmare Seed.

Geography
Once a realm of lush grassland and beautiful expanses of hills and plains, the Thanacross Wastes are a desert, its black dunes twisting and curling like the loathsome tentacles of some Void-spawned abomination. Great mountainous crags of green stone, so dark as to be nearly black, sprout from the earth like vile growths, thrumming with the dark power of the Old Gods. In strange irony, there is little organic life remaining in the region for the Nightmare to infest directly. The spirits of the departed that once rested here have become corrupted and defiled, driven to madness and hatred of the living, or fallen completely into darkness and become servants of N'Zoth.

Dungeons and Raids
- Halls of Nightmare - A Titan complex built to monitor the Emerald Dream. As the once verdant landscape surrounding it became the Thanacross Wastes under the influence of the Nightmare, so too has corruption entered the heart of this once great facility. The forces of the Old God N'Zoth stalk its halls, slaying or twisting the occupants. The last remaining Titan keepers here managed to compile a vast amount of information regarding the Nightmare and its origins, and N'Zoth wants it destroyed so that none may interfere with his plans.

Worldboss - Bonegrind, Lord of Fossils
An immense undead monstrosity, formed from the colossal skeletons of dead beasts that litter the barren sands of the Thanacross Wastes. The great bones of this fiend are laced with veins of saronite, the black blood of Yogg-Saron, lending Bonegrind a lethal aura of dark power that revitalizes the undead and animates the skeletal remains of other nearby creatures.

The March of Terramor
After defeating the forces of the Unwaking throughout the realms of the Emerald Dream, the defenders turn their attentions to a realm that has long been shrouded in the impassable fogs of the Nightmare and only recently exposed, the ravaged realm of the Thanacross Wastes. This realm is where the Nightmare first arrived in the Emerald Dream, and long ago scoured it clean of life. The defenders of the Dream hope that some secret to finally defeating the Nightmare may be found where it was first born. The heroes of Azeroth accompany an escort of Dreamguard and forge ahead into the wastes, a realm of black sands, scouring winds, unquiet spirits, and seething corruption. Accompanying the force is the mighty dream giant Terramor, a recently awakened exemplar of his race devoted to purifying the Dream of the Nightmare forever.

The Dreamguard establish outposts deep within the Thanacross Wastes, sending scouts to search for signs of the ancient source of the Nightmare. The wastes were ravaged long ago by the Nightmare and there is little life there, and what survives has been twisted and corrupted into hideous monsters. The Verminblight kobold tribe infest the few liveable areas of the wastes, using necromancy and elemental sorcery to craft guardians of sand, bone, and black tar. The Rotwing Flight, vulturine shayetar, prey upon the unwary from the dark mountains and petrified forests of the wastes. Undead beasts and tormented wispling spirits are also present in the area. The forces of the Dreamguard make slow progress, constantly struggling against the defiled inhabitants of the wastes. More than once, Terramor's great strength proves vital to send the foe into retreat.

Dark Alliances
Deeper into the region, the Dreamguard find signs of the Unwaking, the living agents of the Nightmare, carrying out some dark agenda within the Thanacross Wastes. While the Nightmare scoured the land clean of almost all life long ago, the Unwaking has returned to turn what little remains fully to their cause. Agents of the Unwaking have made contact with the tribes of the Verminblight kobold, and have begun to share their dark magic with the verminous race. The kobold, already practitioners of necromancy, have taken readily to the dark power of the Nightmare and begun creating hideous amalgamations of skeletal remains and Nightmarish organic growth, slowly building an army of such horrors to aid the Unwaking.

After cutting through the Verminblight forces that have joined with the Unwaking, the heroes of the Dream discover vast blighted tar-pits festering in the eastern regions, spawning rampaging tar-creatures, toxic oozes, and wild undead that are being enslaved by the Unwaking. At the heart of the largest of these poisonous tar-marshes, the Unwaking are attempting to unearthing something, dredging up some massive object from the toxic morass. Upon their success, the object is revealed to be a large fragment of eldritch metal, a hideous living substance derived from the black blood of Yogg-Saron, the creator of the Nightmare. Originally the metal known as saronite, the great fragment has festered in the wastes for eons, and the saronite has mutated into a new form, yoggthorite. This vile black metal radiates with the energy of the Void, the very source of the Old Gods and all their terrible power.

The Void energies of the yoggthorite fragment strengthens the creatures of the Nightmare, making them nigh-unstoppable. The Unwaking have orders to retrieve all yoggthorite fragments from the Thanacross Wastes, and they believe that tracking the pattern of fragments will lead them to the largest of all, the true source of the Nightmare infestation - the Nightmare Seed.

The Rat King
In the southern regions of the Thanacross Wastes, across the tar-marshes at the foot of the Balemaw Mountains, lies the primary warren of the Verminblight kobold. In the sprawling caverns, veins of polluted saronite glistening and weep the liquid corruption of the Old Gods, feeding and mutating the Verminblight kobold. At the heart of their putried nest is the wild god Vermilanx, progenitor of all the verminous races of the Dream and patron deity of the kobold tribes. Vermilanx has struck a dark bargain with N'Zoth, seeling himself and his people into the service of the Old God and inviting the corruption of the Nightmare willingly into their flesh, blood, and souls. Within the warren, Unwaking magisters are infusing kobolds with the power of the Nightmare, evolving them into a larger, stronger, deadlier breed of creature. Vermilanx himself oversees the operation, aided by the satyr Darcath. Vermilanx has been promised that for his service he will be transformed into one of the Dark Ancients, the corrupted wild gods who serve N'Zoth.

Terramor and the Dreamguard spearhead an assault on the Verminblight warrens aided by the heroes of Azeroth in an effort to put an end to the Unwaking's operations. During the titanic battle, the Unwaking abandon the Verminblight and Vermilanx is wounded by Terramor and the heroes of Azeroth. Vowing revenge, Vermilanx flees with his servants.

Birth of the Dark Ancient
Pursuing the satyr Darcath and the rest of the Unwaking, the Dreadmguard and the heroes of Azeroth press on into the Balemaw Mountains. Amongst the imposing black peaks shrouded in the Nightmare the Dreamguard encounters hideous insect hives infested with wasp-like creatures, a potentially grave threat. No sooner do the Dreamguard begin clearing the hives then they draw the ire of another enemy hiding even deeper in the Nightmare, the aqir-race known as the vespari. These insectoid fiends use the lesser wasp-like creatures, known as zenogog, as slaves in a manner similar to how the qiraji made use of the silithid. The vespari warn the Dreamguard that their god has called them to awaken and to bring him the Nightmare Seed.

Deep within the black mountains, the Unwaking are tracked to a Titanforged facility build into the bodies of petrified dream giants. The Verminblight kobold and their constructs have fortified the area along with the Unwaking forces, led by Darcath and his fellow satyr. Darcath reveals that the Nightmare has brought the body of Shaharroth from the Shimmerwyld to the corrupted Titan facility, the Halls of Nightmare, in order that Darcath and his servants resurrect the fallen Wild God as a Dark Ancient in service of N'Zoth. After a pitched battle that drives the Verminblight and Unwaking from the area, the heroes of Azeroth prepare to enter into the Halls of Nightmare itself to halt Darcath's wicked scheme

Questlines

 * The Endless Hunt - Undead Wyldborn prowl the black mountains to the north. The Deathrattle Pack must be destroyed and their spirits laid to rest, or they will continue to menace efforts to uncover the locations of the Unwaking throughout the region.


 * Bonegrind's Court - At the heart of the Thanacross Wastes is the All-Grave, a vast boneyard strewn with the remains of immense beasts that were slain by the fall of the Nightmare Seed. The dark energies in the region cause the countless skeletal carcasses to rise and attack the living. The immense creature Bonegrind is the largest and most dangerous of these skeletal undead, and attacking him will require a small army of heroes to have any hope of victory. But there are hundreds of lesser undead that are still dangerous threats to the defenders of the Dream, and their numbers must be cut down, their bones returned to the dust, to grant at least a temporary reprieve.


 * The Ashen Weald - To the north, the forests have become petrified by the diseased energies radiating from the Thanacross Wastes. Amongst the ruined forests are treants stricken with corrosive blights, maddened dryads, and wraith-like wispling spirits. The torment of these unfortunates is an affront to the tranquility of the Dream. They must be laid to rest.


 * Spawn of Malocaris - Long ago the wild god Malocaris came to the Thanacross Wastes, the passionate demi-god intending to seek the dark corruption at its heart and put an end to it. While Malocaris weathered the infection of the Nightmare and pushed into the ashen blight of the Wastes, he could not defeat the source of the Nightmare and was swallowed by its darkness, never to be seen again. His children, the scorpid, infest deep hollows and caverns throughout the region, and a particularly vicious swarm threatens a Dreamguard outpost to the south.


 * The Bonecackle Gnolls - Packs of undead gnolls menace the dusty mountains in the Thanacross Wastes. The Bonecackle Tribe are an especially vicious and sadistic breed, preying upon the living and torturing them to death purely for their own twisted amusement.


 * The Hand of the Nightmare - Elemental binders of the Unwaking have begun to enslave sand and air elementals throughout the Wastes, building up a growing elemental army. The Unwaking Dustwitches must be slain and their elemental thralls dispersed before they threaten the Dreamguard encampments in the region.

X.1 - The Dark Ancients
Erupting from beneath the black sands of the Thanacross Wastes is Malocaris, the Scorpion God. A colossal arachnid horror, Malocaris' armored hide is laced thick with saronite metal, having leeched the substance from the tainted sands of the wastes. Seething with the Nightmare's power, Malocaris' mutated body has spawned a vast horde of giant scorpions that surround and protect him. What little life remains in the Thanacross Wastes is in mortal danger from Malocaris and his brood-spawn, and before long their numbers will overwhelm the defenders in the Wastes and threaten more of the Dream.

Malocaris will spawn as a world-boss and his presence will greatly increase the power of the Nightmare and its servants during a Nightmare Incursion.