Dread Wastes

The Dread Wastes are an area of Pandaria, located south of Townlong Steppes and west of the Valley of the Four Winds and Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Separated from the rest of Pandaria by the Serpent's Spine constructed during the rule of Lei Shen, the Dread Wastes are the home of the Mantid. The landscape is dotted with massive Kypari trees that produce the amber which the Mantid utilize in many ways. Klaxxi'vess serves as the main quest hub for the zone, but there are two Pandaren settlements, Soggy's Gamble and Sunset Brewgarden, that provide additional quests and are necessary for unlocking all of the Paragons.

Following the arrival of the Alliance and Horde and the subsequent release of the Sha, the Sha of Fear possessed Grand Empress Shek'zeer and began corrupting both the Mantid and the land itself. Even the great Kypari trees began succumbing to the corruption and dying. Faced with no other choice, the Klaxxi ordered the death of the empress and her fear-driven lieutenants and were successful with the aid of adventurers.

History
The Dread Wastes are the mantid homeland. From here, Grand Empress Shek'zeer commands a seemingly endless swarm of mantid. They hurl themselves against the Serpent's Spine wall, nearly overwhelming the Shado-Pan defenders. Historically, the mantid have swarmed in regular and predictable intervals, but this swarm is about ten years too soon, and the pandaren are caught off-guard. It's not that the Empress is getting more strategic; in fact, her whole society is in the middle of an upheaval. Shek'zeer has been overwhelmed and possessed by the Sha of Fear, and she's running her empire into the ground. At her command, the mantid are embracing the sha, willfully corrupting themselves, their sacred trees, and the entire ecology of their land. Blind fear has driven the empress onto a warpath and it's tearing her civilization apart. The Klaxxi however recognize that the empress has lost her mind, and that swarming Pandaria will mean little if their entire civilization is given over to the sha in the process. Most of the zone focuses around this conflict between the mantid swarm and the Klaxxi, showcasing both the terrible scope of a full-on swarm and the fallout of unchecked sha corruption.

The Stormstout family has come to bring the fight directly to the mantid, and have fallen in with the brewmasters of the Sunset Brewgarden who specialize in brewing with sap from the native kypari trees. Meanwhile, the crew of a wrecked fishing boat has built Soggy's Gamble, a ramshackle collection of huts on the southern coast, and is reaping the benefits of being the only Anglers beyond the wall.

Getting there
Dread Wastes is accessed on foot from either the Dusklight Bridge or the Shallowstep Pass in Townlong Steppes. It is possible to fly over the Serpent's Spine from points eastward and to swim around the wall's southern end from Krasarang Wilds as well.

Players who progress far enough in the Townlong Steppes zone will be offered a free flight to a Flight Point on top of the Serpent's Spine with quest-givers who start the Dread Wastes quest chain. Ground-bound players who do not want to wait for that quest to become available can travel to the Terrace of Gurthan and find a coil of rope on the ground. Click on the rope to climb to the top and find the flight point and quest-givers.

Geography
The Dread Wastes are the southern portion of Townlong region separated from the rest of Pandaria mainland by the great wall, Serpent's Spine. It is very similar to its northern counterpart, except that it apparently became twisted by sinister energies and a dark gloom blankets over the land along with a swath of sha-corrupted soil that has even managed to break through the wall into the Valley of the Four Winds and set the path of war towards the Gate of the Setting Sun, with mantid's relentless armies pouring through to conquer and devour everything that stands in their way. In the center of the twisted path stands the imperial palace of the mantid race, known as the Heart of Fear, a paragon to the Sha of Fear which took the entire race into its sway through their empress, Shek'zeer. The mantid Kyparis along the path have also been corrupted by the unstable energies. There is one Vess of the mantid in the heart of the Wastes, held by ones that openly rebel against their corrupted empress' madness, the Klaxxi - keepers of the mantid culture.

Travel hubs

 * The Sunset Brewgarden
 * Klaxxi'vess
 * Gao-Ran Battlefront, Townlong Steppes
 * Shrine of Seven Stars, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Shrine of Two Moons, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Serpent's Spine, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Klaxxi'vess
 * The Sunset Brewgarden
 * Soggy's Gamble
 * Briny Muck
 * Shrine of Seven Stars, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Shrine of Two Moons, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Serpent's Spine, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Soggy's Gamble
 * Klaxxi'vess
 * Briny Muck
 * Serpent's Spine, Vale of Eternal Blossoms
 * Briny Muck
 * Klaxxi'vess
 * Soggy's Gamble

Quests
Although the Klaxxi are wise and powerful, there aren't very many of them. Although they don't have a standing army, they do have access to the paragons: mantid champions from past eras who were preserved in amber at the height of their strength and buried all over the Dread Wastes. Some of them are war masters, others are ingenious alchemists or master assassins. When you first arrive in Dread Wastes, you stumble upon - one of these paragons and wake him up – he then introduces you to the council, and they allow you to continue waking up paragons to help build their forces. These paragons become your daily questgivers, so as you're waking them up you're also unlocking more dailies. They also provide you with buffs that let you do things like mind control enemies or double-jump while in the Dread Wastes. The quest flow is meant to blend "level-up" quest progression with a daily reputation grind, so you begin working with the Klaxxi and earning rep almost immediately after setting foot in the zone. Your progression through the one-shot quests yields direct benefits to the eventual daily experience, and your progression into the higher rep levels through dailies will in turn open up more one-shot story quests.

Resources

 * Cloth
 * Windwool Cloth
 * Herbalism
 * Green Tea Leaf
 * Fool's Cap
 * Sha-Touched Herb
 * Golden Lotus (herb)
 * Skinning
 * Exotic Leather
 * Prismatic Scale
 * Mining
 * Ghost Iron Ore
 * Kyparite
 * Trillium
 * Fishing

The Dread Wastes is the most plentiful place the player can find mineable Kyparite nodes.

Wild pets

 * Amber Moth


 * Clouded Hedgehog


 * Crunchy Scorpion


 * Emperor Crab


 * Rapana Whelk


 * Silent Hedgehog


 * Wasted Roach


 * Yakrat