In the setting of the fantasy novel I am currently writing, working title: Ill’ln, this is one of the locations the protagonist passes through. Below is a brief description of the location. In the novel, it is only touched on in a single chapter, but it’s history and nature may be explored in greater detail in subsequent novels within the same setting. This information is taken strait from my own notes.
Name : The Creeping Wastes
Kingdom : Fairmar
Miscellaneous Notes :
Actually a single entity, it is a homunculus left from an ancient war. It resembles a large field of grass-like plant life all tied together with a massive system of roots. For whatever reason, it only grows in one direction and it’s tail end dies off at a rate equal to its growth.
It has been slowly moving along the ground at a rate of roughly one foot per year since its creation, ever closer towards the sea. Behind it is a long band of dead ground stretching roughly a mile or so with villages ahead of it tending to be abandoned when it is within half a mile or so.
One dead city is currently in the center of the wastes and stands as stony rubble, all less durable materials long since having fallen to the ravages of time. The outer edges are ringed with dead insects and animals, about ¼ mile in from safe ground where anything entering became overwhelmed by the very localized toxins the plant produces. Dead forest extends on the leading edge.
The Creeping Wastes would have been destroyed long ago, but magic left the world before it could be removed and once magic returned, it was decided that it would require too much magic to destroy anything so large and that it was best just to let it eventually migrate into it’s doom at sea.
Towards the center, for reasons unknown, there is a narrowing spot in the growth that will serve as a crossing point for the group.
