Region: The Northern Wastes:

The Northern Wastes of Tesaria cover a stretch of land and ocean floor on the continent where few natural flora and fauna will grow.  Mutant creatures roam the wastes and wreck havoc to the landscape, arcane storms and toxic rain beat and burn against it, causing explosions and strange alterations to land features, and few crops can grow in the corrupted land due to the magics and pollution, let alone remain pure.  Despolis lays nestled in the southwestern side of The Northern Wastes with its domed habitats, but it is not the only thing that stands out amidst the chaotic landscape.  The Church of Iron lays to the north of Despolis, supposedly an ancient human place of worship before the catastrophe that caused the first arcane storm in the region.  Its walls may be rusted, but it has stood in The Northern Wastes for untold centuries, perhaps awaiting the right individual to unlock its secrets.  Further north, The Breach Hole Museum covers a sealed rift to Pral, holding materials recovered from an expedition into that realm and artifacts tied to the rift's sealing, or otherwise linked to the region.  Further to the east is the Citadel of Memory, the Rise of Nightmares, The Phase Hole, and the Arcane Drifts.  The first of the four will be covered later, but most living on Tesaria have at least heard that its ruins predate those deep under New Hollowstone, below the ruins of Old Hollowstone, though little else is known of it.  The Rise of Nightmares is a twisted butte upon which sulfuric acid pools bubble and pop, where rifts to Thelatos open and close too erratically for anything more than a glimpse, but that alone had made many explorers of The Northern Wastes declare it cursed and try to set protection wards there, none of which were found intact when others came later.  The Phase Hole is further to the east, a deep hole with blinding light rather than darkness at its bottom, obscuring any detail of its true depth.  Some claim that it contains either artifacts from the ancient war against the Adecrea, while others claim it contains a rift to The White Void itself.  None yet have returned without babbling incoherently and attempting to illustrate extra-dimensional shapes, though some who have turned away have mentioned encountering a man in dark eyewear and a hat who discouraged their approach.  All along the Phase Hole's length foci crystals grow into the blinding light, as well as around the rim, which draws some brave souls to try to harvest them.  The Arcane Drifts, on the far east edge of The Northern Wastes, is filled with arcane sandstorms and cracklestone among many other dangers, but the brave of heart and foolish of wisdom may perhaps find a rift to The Shifting Sands of Jahneer there, if certain traveling salesmen are to be trusted...