Blasted Lands

The Blasted Lands are a desolate expanse of red clay and barren rock at the southeastern tip of the Eastern Kingdoms, ruined by the chaotic energies of the Dark Portal. Once part of the verdant Black Morass, the shattered earth now harbors demonic remnants of the Burning Legion, brutal Dreadmaul ogres, and hardy desert beasts. Nethergarde Keep stands vigil over the desolate wasteland, guarding Azeroth from whatever horrors may spill out of the dormant gateway.

Before the First War, this region was a continuation of the dense fenlands known as the Black Morass. That lush swamp was utterly eradicated when the warlock Gul'dan and the possessed Medivh tore open the Dark Portal to unleash the orcish Horde. Chaotic fel energies bled through the dimensional breach, stripping all moisture and baking the earth into cracked red clay. When the portal frame was later destroyed at the end of the Second War, catastrophic shockwaves scorched the terrain further, transmuting the native stone into its unearthly crimson hue.