The Gray Wastes are the plane of Neutral Evil among the Outer Planes and the native home of the Gloomfiends. The plane is divided into four layers known as glooms: Othrys, Porphatys, Agathys, and Minethys. Their environments differ considerably, but all share the colorless skies and gradual erosion of emotion for which the Gray Wastes are known.

Gloomfiend settlements, strongholds, markets, and mercenary companies can be found throughout the plane. Vorandor the Defiler has also been confined to the Gray Wastes since the defeat of the Triad, though he neither created nor rules its native inhabitants.

Structure and Environment

Color is almost entirely absent throughout the Gray Wastes. Land, water, vegetation, buildings, and sky appear in shades of gray, black, and pale white. Objects brought from elsewhere initially retain their normal appearance, but prolonged exposure gradually drains their color as well.

There is no visible sun or moon and no ordinary seasonal cycle. The four glooms form a broad progression toward increasing desolation: Othrys still supports widespread, if unhealthy, life; Porphatys is dominated by corrosive waters; Agathys is locked beneath severe cold and black ice; and Minethys is almost entirely still and barren.

Movement between the glooms occurs through planar passages rather than ordinary geographical borders.

The Drain of the Wastes

The Gray Wastes affect more than their surroundings. Creatures that remain within the plane for extended periods gradually find strong emotions more difficult to sustain. Affection, anger, enthusiasm, curiosity, pleasure, and even fear can weaken with continued exposure.

The process usually begins with fatigue, pessimism, or indifference before deepening into apathy and resignation. A traveler may remain perfectly capable of leaving while gradually losing any reason to do so.

Native creatures are generally more resistant to this influence, though they are not entirely untouched by it. Prolonged exposure has also been associated with more severe forms of spiritual and physical degradation, with some accounts connecting this process to the larvae found throughout the Wastes. The precise relationship remains disputed.

Gloomfiends

Gloomfiends are the principal organized fiends of the Gray Wastes. Older planar texts sometimes refer to them as yugoloths.

They maintain cities, trading houses, mercenary companies, archives, strongholds, and other institutions throughout the four glooms. Their society is strongly transactional, with agreements, favors, information, services, territory, artifacts, and safe passage all carrying value. Cooperation is common when all sides expect to benefit, while reputation and future advantage often provide stronger incentives than loyalty.

There is no single Gloomfiend empire or ruler. Power is divided among companies, settlements, influential individuals, military forces, scholarly institutions, and shifting alliances.

Gloomfiends possess humanoid bodies formed from dense, smoke-like planar substance rather than ordinary flesh. Although exposed portions of their bodies can appear indistinct or insubstantial, they are fully corporeal. Layered wrappings, robes, armor, and other clothing are characteristic of Gloomfiend dress and give their bodies much of their visible definition.

Different forms are distinguished primarily by size, build, equipment, and function rather than animal traits.

Gloomfiend Forms

Several Gloomfiend forms are commonly encountered. Mezzoloths serve widely as soldiers, guards, and mercenaries, while the much larger Nycaloths are often employed as elite warriors, commanders, and hunters. Nycaloths possess no wings, instead moving through the air by their own planar power.

Arcanaloths are slender scholars, mages, negotiators, and archivists, commonly recognized by their layered robes and the tools of their professions. Ultroloths are among the most powerful and influential Gloomfiends, tending toward tall, spare forms with unusually smooth features and striking eyes.

Merrenoloths are ferrymen and navigators closely associated with the River Styx, while Yagnoloths are commonly found among wealthy magnates, company leaders, overseers, and administrators.

Rare specialists known as Oinoloths possess extensive knowledge of disease and contamination. Their traditions have been influenced by centuries of studying the illnesses of Othrys and the effects associated with Vorandor, though they are neither his servants nor his creations.

Movement and Travel

Travel conditions vary considerably between the glooms. Othrys can be crossed overland and contains the River Styx, making it the busiest point of contact with the other Lower Planes. Porphatys favors protected vessels capable of surviving its acidic waters, while Agathys requires extensive preparation for severe cold and difficult movement across the ice.

Minethys presents fewer immediate physical obstacles, but its lack of landmarks, resources, and natural movement makes long journeys difficult. The absence of color further complicates navigation throughout the plane, and travelers commonly rely on established routes, written records, magical navigation, or local guides.

Connections to Other Planes

The Gray Wastes can be reached through the Astral Plane and through established planar portals. The River Styx passes through Othrys and provides an important route to the other Lower Planes.

Merrenoloths operate many of the vessels that travel these waters and possess extensive knowledge of its crossings and hazards. Other permanent and temporary portals exist throughout the glooms, particularly near major Gloomfiend settlements and established trade routes.

Othrys

Othrys is the first gloom, a broad expanse of gray rocky plains, stunted woodland, diseased vegetation, stagnant wetlands, and barren ground. Life remains widespread but unhealthy, and disease can spread through soil, water, animals, food, and other sources. Many native inhabitants possess considerable resistance to illness, while outsiders often rely upon magical or alchemical protection.

The River Styx passes through Othrys and makes it the most heavily traveled of the four glooms. Gloomfiend trading posts, ferry stations, fortified settlements, mercenary enclaves, and other communities are especially common along established routes to the river.

The Styx Market

One of the largest trading settlements in Othrys stands along the River Styx. Commonly known as the Styx Market, it attracts Gloomfiends, night hags, ferrymen, mercenaries, planar merchants, and travelers from across the Lower Planes.

Weapons, magical objects, information, contracts, safe passage, mercenary service, and countless other commodities are exchanged there. Larvae are among its most infamous forms of trade, with night hags particularly associated with buying, selling, and transporting them for purposes ranging from magical experimentation to bargains with other fiends.

The origins and ultimate nature of larvae remain matters of religious and planar debate.

The Withered Spire

The Withered Spire, divine realm of Vorandor the Defiler, rises in a remote region of Othrys. Disease and contamination become increasingly severe around it, and few living creatures approach the surrounding lands without extensive protection.

Vorandor is confined to the Gray Wastes as a whole and is free to move elsewhere within the plane. The Spire is his divine realm, not the boundary of his imprisonment.

Porphatys

Porphatys is the second gloom and is covered almost entirely by a shallow, bitterly cold ocean. Its water is strongly acidic and can severely injure exposed flesh or damage ordinary materials, making unprotected swimming or wading extremely dangerous.

Low islands rise above the surface, many containing extensive caves that provide some of the few reliable places for settlement. Gloomfiend companies and other inhabitants fortify the safest caverns, harbors, and elevated ground, while isolated structures sometimes stand on reinforced platforms above the water.

Black snow falls frequently across Porphatys. It is corrosive like the sea below and gradually damages exposed organic material, while heavier falls can sharply reduce visibility and make travel across the open water considerably more dangerous.

Agathys

Agathys is the third gloom and is covered almost entirely in black ice. The layer is extremely cold, with unprotected travelers capable of freezing quickly and prolonged exposure making equipment brittle and physical exertion increasingly difficult.

The air is thin and natural shelter is rare. Remaining stationary presents another danger, as ice can gradually form around creatures and objects left in one place for too long, eventually trapping them within the surface.

Permanent settlements are uncommon and are usually constructed within deep excavations, sheltered fissures, or heavily fortified structures capable of maintaining heat. Isolation is common, and many of those who establish themselves in Agathys do so precisely because few others are willing to travel there.

Minethys

Minethys is the fourth and most desolate gloom. Its landscape consists largely of dark volcanic stone, though there is no known active volcanism and the layer appears almost completely geologically still.

There is no natural wind, no visible source of light or heat, and almost no ambient sound. Air moves noticeably only when travelers, creatures, or planar passages disturb it, while tracks and abandoned structures can remain unchanged for extraordinary lengths of time.

Life is extremely scarce, and travelers must carry nearly everything required for survival. Minethys is not necessarily the most immediately lethal of the glooms, but it expresses the Gray Wastes at their emptiest, with very little growing, moving, changing, or intruding upon the silence.

Tower Arcane

Tower Arcane stands within Minethys and is among the oldest surviving institutions of Gloomfiend civilization. Arcanaloths are especially prominent among its custodians, maintaining archives that contain contracts, debts, mercenary records, planar intelligence, magical research, political agreements, maps, and accounts reaching back through much of recorded Gloomfiend history.

The stillness of Minethys makes it particularly well suited to long-term preservation. Access to the archives is carefully controlled, and information is treated as a commodity. Even seemingly minor records can command substantial payment when they concern the right individual, bargain, route, or forgotten obligation.

Despite its influence, Tower Arcane holds no authority over Gloomfiend society as a whole.

The Crawling City

The Crawling City is one of the largest Gloomfiend settlements in the Gray Wastes and possesses no permanent location. It slowly migrates through established planar routes, appearing in different regions and even different glooms over time.

Its movements are tracked closely by merchants, mercenary companies, diplomats, and those seeking particular Gloomfiend contacts. The city serves as a major center of trade, negotiation, recruitment, and political exchange, with rival companies and powerful individuals maintaining holdings within it.

No single faction has maintained permanent control for long. The city's mobility has helped preserve that independence by making it difficult for any one power to isolate or dominate it indefinitely.

Inhabitants

Gloomfiends form the most visible organized civilization of the Gray Wastes, but they are far from its only inhabitants. Night hags are common around trade routes and particularly active in the traffic of larvae, while other fiends, mercenaries, exiles, travelers, and isolated communities occupy regions throughout the glooms.

Creatures resistant to disease are common in Othrys, while Porphatys and Agathys favor beings capable of surviving corrosive water and extreme cold. Minethys supports very little native life outside established settlements.

Natural Hazards

The Gray Wastes combine environmental dangers with the plane's gradual emotional drain. Disease is widespread in Othrys, Porphatys contains corrosive water and acidic snowfall, Agathys presents extreme cold and entrapment within black ice, and Minethys offers almost no food, water, warmth, natural shelter, or landmarks.

The loss of color can also make equipment, signals, and navigation markers increasingly difficult to distinguish. Travelers undertaking long expeditions often keep written records of their purpose and establish clear departure plans before entering.

The greatest danger is not always becoming lost. A traveler may know exactly how to leave and eventually stop caring whether they do.

Survival

There is no single set of preparations suitable for all four glooms. Protection against disease is especially valuable in Othrys, while Porphatys requires safeguards against acid and cold. Agathys demands extensive cold-weather protection and reliable shelter, while travel through Minethys requires supplies sufficient for an environment that provides almost nothing on its own.

Food and safe water cannot be assumed anywhere in the plane. Travelers intending to remain for long periods must also account for the emotional effects of the Wastes, which cannot be addressed as easily as ordinary physical hazards.