Sand and glass

Ember Wastes

Red rock, white sand, a road of glass, and a city that walks.

World lore and story plans. Some places, characters and events are still in development.

The landscape

Desert on the north eastern shore: red rock mesas, white dunes, salt pans, a sun too big. A line of fused glass runs across it from the south west to the north east, where the nine hearts were dragged. At its centre the Firstfire Crater, a bowl a mile wide with walls of black glass.

On the horizon

The Brass City: the Legion's foundry, a city on legs the height of towers that walks the Wastes on a circuit of the wells, kneeling to drink. Smoke from a hundred stacks, its door open only when it kneels.

Places in Ember Wastes

12 places

The Last Well

Settlement

The Ashwalkers' camp around the one sweet well, tents and a market that moves with the season.

Nadira of the Long Walk, Sister Halessa, Cai Blister, emberite trading, mining training

The Brass City

Great landmark

The walking foundry, a moving dungeon whose door opens when it kneels at a well.

Foreman Isk, Legion engineers, the second heart; a dungeon that is somewhere different each day

The Brass Works

Dungeon

The city's insides: forges, walkways over furnaces, the engine room.

Iron golems, cultists, the Brass Heart if Isk is stopped, emberite by the ton

3 dungeon levels · Boss: The Brass Heart

The Firstfire Crater

Dungeon

The crater where the pact was made, a Legion foundry cut into its wall and the throat beneath.

Cyclops, cultists, iron golems; the walls light for the first time in a thousand years

2 dungeon levels · Boss: The Brass Heart (if not turned)

The Glass Road

Road

The line of fused sand running to Cinderreach, hot at noon, mirage over it.

Weekly Legion convoys of emberite, Noon the manticore on his rock

The Salt Pans

Wild country

White flats that blind at noon and freeze at night, bones of caravans.

Manticores, giant spiders, sandstorm events, the Ashwalker waystones

The Ember Cut

Mine

Four cuts in red rock, warm to the hand, rails warped by heat.

Iron and emberite, the Sledge-Master at the fused floor

The Recruiter's Tents

Camp

Clean tents in a filthy country at the Wastes' western edge.

Selwyn's successor, the Legion's recruiters, the mark offered

The Mirage Palace

Landmark

A palace of white towers on the horizon that is never there when you arrive.

Real for one hour at noon from one spot on the Glass Road; inside, the library of the Wastes' first people and their water

A rule of this place

Stand on the marked flagstone at noon and walk toward it and the mirage holds; leave the path and you are in open sand a mile from where you were.

The Buried Library

Dungeon

A tower of the old people buried to its roof in sand, dug into from the top.

Sand that pours in behind you, scrolls the cultists want, a cyclops that was its keeper

2 dungeon levels · Boss: The Librarian

A rule of this place

Every room you enter fills to the knee with sand over a minute; the way out is the way you came, faster.

Bandit Ridge

Camp

A red mesa with caves in its face, ropes and ladders, raiders who prey on the Legion convoys.

The Ridge Riders, who hate the Legion more than they hate you; horses; a hidden way into the Brass City

A rule of this place

Rob a convoy with them and they are allies at the Throne; rob them and the Legion pays you and remembers.

The Singing Dunes

Wild country

Dunes that hum in the wind, a different note for each.

Sandworm signs, giant spiders, the note that means one is under you

A rule of this place

The dunes' song drops a tone when something large moves beneath you; stand still and it passes.

Encounters and events

Noon, a manticore that hunts only at midday
The Glass Road convoy, weekly
The Brass City walking, a moving dungeon
Sandstorms that hide the salt pans and what hunts in them

Story and people

The story outline for Ember Wastes, including its characters, secrets and the dragon’s journey.

Read the story outlineContains story spoilers

Arrival

Red rock and white sand under a sun too big, a line of fused glass across the desert like a road, a city of brass on the horizon that is moving. The dragon's shadow on the sand, and for the first time it is bigger than yours.

The feel

Heat, glass, silence, mirage. The Legion's heartland: this is where Malachar's armies are forged, and the glass road is where he dragged the nine hearts north. The desert biome, with the crater biome at its centre: the Firstfire Crater, where the pact was first made.

The story here

The Legion's foundries run on emberite, and the emberite comes from the Firstfire Crater, and the crater is the holiest place a dragon has. The realm is a heist: get the dragon into the crater under the Legion's nose so it can take back true fire, and get out. The people of the Wastes are the Ashwalkers, nomads who have served the Legion for coin and are ready to stop. The Brass City is the Legion's machine, walking, and it has a heart of its own.

The cast

Nadira of the Long Walk. Ashwalker matriarch, sixties, has crossed the Wastes two hundred times and remembers every well. Signature: she draws the map in the sand with a finger and wipes it before she finishes. Secret: she sold the Legion the route to the ninth dragon and has walked the desert since as penance. She knows the way into the crater because she showed it to Malachar. Returns at the Throne with every well poisoned behind her.
Foreman Isk. The Brass City's engineer, a small furious man who loves the machine and hates its master, forties, hands burned to leather. Signature: he talks to the city and it answers with steam. Secret: he built a second heart into the city that answers to whoever holds a dragon's fire, because he always meant to take it from Malachar himself. The player can let him or stop him. Either way he is the Brass City's boss or its pilot in Act IV.
Sister Halessa. A Legion chaplain who has begun to doubt, thirties, clean robes in a filthy country, a cup of water that is always cold. Signature: she offers water first. Secret: she has kept a record of every dragon the Legion killed and where the hearts went, and she gives it to you when she decides, which is late, and it costs her everything. The Wastes' conscience. She dies at the Throne, and Vane closes her eyes.
The Manticore Noon. Hunts only at midday on the same red rock, a sundial you can set your watch by, and the Ashwalkers do.

Underground and the boss

The Firstfire Crater: down through a Legion foundry into the crater's throat, where the first pact was made and the walls remember it. Cultists, cyclops, iron golems, and the Brass Heart, the city's first heart, an Iron Golem the size of a house that Isk built and Malachar bent. Beating it with the dragon at your side gives true fire; the crater walls light for the first time in a thousand years and every Ashwalker sees it.

Out in the open

Noon on his rock. The Glass Road, an event: a Legion convoy of hearts' worth of emberite crosses it weekly and can be taken. The Brass City itself, walking, a moving dungeon whose door is only open when it kneels to take on water.

The dragon here

Eats emberite, which is the first thing it eats that worries you. Becomes a young dragon after the Stormpeaks; here it is a drake that has begun to breathe fire on its own. Takes back true fire.

Continue through the worldThe Stormpeaks