Oinos
| Gray Wastes Layer | |
|---|---|
| Order: | First |
| Realms: | Khin-Oin The Glitterhell Fleshslough Dark of Night Charnelhouse The Crystal Spire Nergaltos |
As the main battleground of the Blood War, Oinos never sees peace across the layer. Ever. It's the battlefield for the biggest armies the cosmos has ever seen, and the ground's scarred from the eons of conflict. The sounds of claws clashing, weapons rending, and the screams of the dying echo across the layer. Even in a time of comparative calm, the moans of the wounded fill the air. It's almost enough to make a berk crave the stolid despair of one of the petitioners, 'cause at least they don't care anymore.
The first layer's mostly flat plain, though some jagged hills break up the monotony. Stunted trees and plants dot the landscape, but all soon die beneath the feet of stamping hordes or from the taint of the poisoned air.
In fact, all life suffers on Oinos, for it's a place of disease. Anyone who walks it's surface has a 10% chance per day of suffering from the malady called the "wasting sickness." The sickness drains away all of the strength every day until it's all sapped and the unlucky sod dies, or until someone casts a cure disease spell on him. This disease is unique in that it doesn't kill a body until he's totally debilitated, and that it also affects so many of his abilities.
It's thought the disease stems from the constant decay of the Blood War. So much death occurs here that it would be impossible for there not to have been some sort of major plague. Since just about all the bodies are left to rot where they fall, a remarkable stench of death permeates the layer. Fiendish bodies are extremely hard to break down, and so the forces have to work extra hard to turn 'em into the ash that eventually becomes the dusty gray ground on the layer. The combination of this decay and the evil of the plane creates the wasting sickness.
| Gray Wastes Layers |