The blasted Dreadlands were once home to the tribal lands of the various barbarian clans. The Dreadlands most disturbing feature is undoubtedly Arreat Crater, once Mount Arreat, mightiest of mountains, but now reduced to a vast, smouldering wound in the earth. The towering crag of Mount Arreat was destroyed along with the Worldstone it sheltered, in a cataclysmic explosion. The mountain was obliterated, ending at a stroke both the ancient vigil of the barbarian tribes and their way of life. Now the crater is all that remains; a sinkhole of corruption and despair.

The old barbarian strongholds, such as Sescheron and Harrogath, and other highland settlements are no more. The barbarians (those who escaped the destruction and remain uncorrupted) are largely scattered, and the now scarred alpine forests of their former homelands are host to chaotic horrors, phantom beasts and infernal mutants. A few tribes remain, but they have fallen into a state of regression, becoming little more than beasts themselves; some have turned to cannibalism.

A ruined, forgotten city in the Dreadlands is host to the cadre of warriors known as Demon Hunters. The Dreadlands’ abundance of demonic and mutated creatures serve to provide a harsh and unforgiving form of ‘training’, honing the hunters’ deadliness and hardening them in the crucible of merciless battle.

Bastion’s Keep, a castle built by Korsikk, son of the Zakurum conqueror, Rakkis, stands on the border between the Dreadlands and the more civilized south. The brave garrison of this cold and lonely fortress stands ready to confront any foe that seeks to slink from out of the corrupted north.

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