Arashi Wastes

The Arashi Wastes is a large, arid desert in southwestern Aarn, and the original epicentre of The Quake. The desert lies within a vast sunken crater left by the meteorite impact, and still contains high deposits of Novium to this day. However, mining them is extremely dangerous due to the local Hish population, and is strictly forbidden by the Keepers. Black market organisations like the ??? are known for their illegal mining operations in the Wastes.

The Arashi Wastes are devoid of any permanent man-made structures or settlements, with one exception. At the very centre of the impact crater stands a large stone monument, erected one year after The Quake. Fashioned in the likeness of the falling meteor, above what resembles a large pair of hands rising to catch it, the statue commemorates the victims of The Quake, and the birth of the Novium Age simultaneously. The placard at its base reads "In memory of all that we lost. In reverence of all that we found".

In the time before The Quake, the area was drastically different - a dense and thriving swampland known as the Waking Mire, home to a number of rural villages and settlements. Sadly, all trace of this past incarnation was erased by the cataclysm.