D&D 5E Describe the Nerebdian Vast (48th layer of the Abyss)?

[Quickleaf]

Looking forward to start up a face-to-face gaming group after a long hiatus

The premise I'll be pitching is a Roman/Egyptian-esque world under threat of getting dragged into the Abyss (specifically the desert known as the Nerebdian Vast) by the "subtler" demon lord Graz'zt who wishes to add it as part of his realm Azzagrat. As I've been making notes, I stumbled onto this question:

What is the Nerebdian Vast (48th layer of the Abyss) like? Both physically and spiritually? How is it more than just a desert?

While I have a fair idea of the sort of moral corruption Graz'zt would engender, defining the Nerebdian Vast will help me figure out how the world changes in a creepier/more supernatural way than "becomes more desert-like."

A bit of context, based on integrating info from multiple D&D books, Green Ronin's Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra, and my own ideas/interpretations....
[SBLOCK=Context]
The Wasting. Graz’zt schemes to draw The Two Lands (a Material Plane world) into the 48th layer of the Abyss, a desert realm known as the Nerebdian Vast. The only remaining obstacle to his plan are the kingdoms of Khemti where Ma’at (truth, justice, harmony, balance, common good) is still valued. Where the Wasting swallows the land – turning arable soil into a parched desert, oases into viper tree groves, and wells into poison / salt pools – here the Abyssal corruption is most keenly felt, causing madness among the desert inhabitants and even creating conduits which demons may sneak through.

Between Deceit and the Soul-Trade. The Nerebdian Vast lies between the lowest layer of Graz’zt’s realm, Voorz’zt the 47th, with its blue moon inverting heat/cold and concealing identities, and Shaddonon the 49th, realm of Graz’zt’s sister Rhyxali, Queen of Shadow Demons, a place of cities hidden amidst crags and forests of shadow where outcast demons, night hags, and fiendish spies conduct brisk trade in souls and secrets. It is said all the suffering caused by Graz’zt’s machinations form an Ocean of Tears (known as “Skeiqualc” in Abyssal) which defines the boundary between the Nerebdian Vast and the bordering 47th (where it becomes the Bay of Choking Bile where Graz'zt's fleets of chaos ships and planar dromands dock) and 49th layer (where it meets the River Styx used by the soul-traders visiting Shaddonon).

Graz'zt's Motives. His motive at its most base is power and expanding his influence in the Abyss. However, there's a bit more nuance about why this world is so close to falling rather than, for example, Oerth or Faerun. First, in ancient days, the god Ra punished the wickedness of man with a Cataclysm that involved scorching the earth & letting demons loose upon the world – the demons were drawn from the ranks of funerary spirits which guarded areas of the Underworld (mingling the Egyptian conception of the Duat with D&D multiverse), but quickly became disobedient as they sought out secret knowledge of the paths between worlds...this knowledge would let demons leave the Abyss more or less freely. Second, a cruel empire formed called the Pax Imperica with a corrupted Alexander the Great-type ruler, and it has taken over much of the world with the exception of the kingdoms of Khemti and a few tribes and smaller fiefdoms; Graz'zt enjoys the bread-and-circuses and debauchery common in the empire and with his spawn worming their ways into the imperial ranks, he wants to see them prosper. Third, Graz'zt wants to snub the god Set who Graz'zt believes is his father that cast him out (this may or may not be "the truth"); there is a delicious irony in backstabbing the god of backstabbing who has been elevated as patron deity of one of Khemti's kingdoms, and Graz'zt savors such ironies.[/SBLOCK]

 

[aco175]

I picture it as a sandy desert surrounded by dry, rocky scrubland and high mountains. There can be something in the middle that is magical or just avoided. Little rain in the mountains comes in on the western edge of the land. Limited greenspace and water make that region prized among the inhabitants both good and bad.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I figure part of the Big G's appeal is that he doesn't look like a demon lord (in my settings his true appearance is basically Geryon's from MMI {since this seems like the perfect form for the lord of the lamias [particularly if you recall the lamia noble]}, but he almost always appears as he traditionally does). In that same vein, oases should be common, but getting their benefits without doing something CE should be dangerous....and of course, doing something CE should lead to something dangerous too (because it's the Abyss and everything is dangerous).

 

[Eltab]

Areas that used to be Sahara sand fields turn into Arizona semi-scrub. However you do NOT want to hang out near the new plant life. This sounds "backwards" - but it is a lure and a trap: some people will decide that Nereb is a desirable place and work FOR the merging of the worlds.

Petra-style cave complexes overwhelm what used to be villages in hilly areas

Areas that used to be dried-up river mouths (the river is seasonal) turn into mudfields. This is mostly cosmetic, but it looks worse because you can see the dried and curling clay where water used to be.

Tibet is a 'cold desert': due to altitude, there isn't much moisture in the air, so it doesn't rain much. Also due to altitude, such moisture as can be found is in the form of frost or a thin layer of snow.

 

[Draegn]

You might want to look at the Tarim Basin.

 

[Schmoe]

Let's see, in an Abyssal desert I can imagine:

• Razor sand that flays your boots and your feet.
• "Quicksand" dry sand pits that swallow living beings without warning.
• Two suns - the black sun hides behind the red sun most of the time, and the red sun bakes the land in merciless heat. But, when the black sun appears, everything exposed on the surface is scoured and blasted with deadly radiation that destroys and mutates all that it touches.
• Blood-drinking cacti.
• Fields of petrifying decay where living beings are slowly transformed to sand, pieces of them sloughing off slowly and agonizingly.
• Razorvine. Lots and lots of razorvine.
• Killer tumbleweeds that absorb tormented souls like a Devourer.
• Legions of the damned forced to labor under the sun, building a ziggurat from sandstone. The ziggurat is a mile high, but it crumbles as fast as the laborers can build it, and it is an eternal futility.
• Malevolent, sentient canyon labyrinths whose walls and paths shift, trapping those within them.

Maybe more, if I have more time.

 

[Schmoe]

Also mirages. There's a lot of cool things you can do with mirages:

• A mirage hides a town so that no one outside the town can find it. It is gradually "lost" from the world.
• A traveler is seen in the distance, shimmering with the heat. The image briefly becomes the grinning, black face of Graz'zt, but then it is gone, leaving observers to wonder if it really happened.
• A mirage conveys a vision of some calamity to come.
• A mirage gradually shimmers and shifts taking on the appearance of a swarm of spiked, glass-like fiends. Too late, the adventurers realize the fiends are real and are attacking! Did the mirage become the fiends, or did it only hide them?
• A mirage hides an area of corruption that is gradually growing and expanding. Those who walk directly into the area can find it, but even passing a dozen feet away is not enough to reveal its presence.

 

[Eltab]

There was a 3e supplement about magical deserts, but I don't remember the title. It was not a WotC-published book. The publisher did a whole series of books on different climates. If your memory and/or web-fu are better than mine, you can find more inspiration.

In more-corrupted places, things that look like scenes from Sodom and Gomorrah:
- houses that burnt and fell down flat or caved in (crushing the people trapped inside)
- individuals and animals that were outdoors turned into pillars of salt / other minerals
- petrified trees; a few still stand and are identifiable for what they used to be. Most are fallen and broken trunks
- impressions of twigs and leaves on the ground around a rock-hard stub of a stump
- crops and hedge-sized plants that turned to bone; many subsequently shattered.

 

[Quickleaf]

Thank for your comments - some fun ideas here!

I did a little more digging, and wow! I found out "Nērebtu" is an Assyrian word meaning "entranceway; mountain pass." Likewise "Nērebu" means "entranceway of gates/doors; mountain pass; a cosmological gateway (to meet Anu, Enlil, and Ea – Sumerian gods); a part of the liver; an official in charge of the entrance."
Source: Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

And "Vast" used as a noun is an archaic term for "an immense space."

So Nerebdian Vast might mean "an immense space from, related to, or like a cosmological entranceway." Which is eerily perfect for how I'm using it.

I figure part of the Big G's appeal is that he doesn't look like a demon lord (in my settings his true appearance is basically Geryon's from MMI {since this seems like the perfect form for the lord of the lamias [particularly if you recall the lamia noble]}, but he almost always appears as he traditionally does). In that same vein, oases should be common, but getting their benefits without doing something CE should be dangerous....and of course, doing something CE should lead to something dangerous too (because it's the Abyss and everything is dangerous).

Areas that used to be Sahara sand fields turn into Arizona semi-scrub. However you do NOT want to hang out near the new plant life. This sounds "backwards" - but it is a lure and a trap: some people will decide that Nereb is a desirable place and work FOR the merging of the worlds.

Yes, definitely plan on having hidden dangers at the oases!

While I like the idea of securing shelter at an oasis requiring acts that edge into Chaotic Evil territory...pulling that off in actual play seems all but impossible given survival spells like create food and water & my generally genre-savvy players.

Petra-style cave complexes overwhelm what used to be villages in hilly areas

Areas that used to be dried-up river mouths (the river is seasonal) turn into mudfields. This is mostly cosmetic, but it looks worse because you can see the dried and curling clay where water used to be.

Interesting idea. Actually, there's this "monster" entry in Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra for an ooze called "growstone" that is worked by dwarves using light (it is photophyllic) to make seemingly impossible structures – a cheesy in-setting explanation for how the pyramids were built. I wasn't planning on using it, but your idea of almost-living cave/canyon systems overtaking an outlying village is fascinating & might be a good place to include the "growstone" as something unnatural.

Tibet is a 'cold desert': due to altitude, there isn't much moisture in the air, so it doesn't rain much. Also due to altitude, such moisture as can be found is in the form of frost or a thin layer of snow.

You might want to look at the Tarim Basin.

Thanks for the recommendations! Lots of cool inspiration there. Interesting to see some parallel thinking about cold deserts fitting the Nerebdian Vast.

Let's see, in an Abyssal desert I can imagine:

• Razor sand that flays your boots and your feet.
• "Quicksand" dry sand pits that swallow living beings without warning.
• Two suns - the black sun hides behind the red sun most of the time, and the red sun bakes the land in merciless heat. But, when the black sun appears, everything exposed on the surface is scoured and blasted with deadly radiation that destroys and mutates all that it touches.
• Blood-drinking cacti.
• Fields of petrifying decay where living beings are slowly transformed to sand, pieces of them sloughing off slowly and agonizingly.
• Razorvine. Lots and lots of razorvine.
• Killer tumbleweeds that absorb tormented souls like a Devourer.
• Legions of the damned forced to labor under the sun, building a ziggurat from sandstone. The ziggurat is a mile high, but it crumbles as fast as the laborers can build it, and it is an eternal futility.
• Malevolent, sentient canyon labyrinths whose walls and paths shift, trapping those within them.

Maybe more, if I have more time.

These are great, thanks Schmoe! And you totally beat me to it with the malevolent shifting canyon labyrinths!

Building off [MENTION=6801461]Draegn[/MENTION]'s suggestion to look at the Tarim Basin for inspiration (where mummies were found), I can imagine preserved tribes, caravans, or even settlements at the bottom of the dry sand pits. These underground "sand tombs" might have portals/conduits of some type to Shaddonon the shadowy 49th layer.

If petrification happens, I could see shadow fiends or night hags scouring the wastes acting as saviors with the ability to reverse the petrification entirely...or just in part...the better to torment or negotiate for the souls of the trapped.

Also mirages. There's a lot of cool things you can do with mirages:

• A mirage hides a town so that no one outside the town can find it. It is gradually "lost" from the world.
• A traveler is seen in the distance, shimmering with the heat. The image briefly becomes the grinning, black face of Graz'zt, but then it is gone, leaving observers to wonder if it really happened.
• A mirage conveys a vision of some calamity to come.
• A mirage gradually shimmers and shifts taking on the appearance of a swarm of spiked, glass-like fiends. Too late, the adventurers realize the fiends are real and are attacking! Did the mirage become the fiends, or did it only hide them?
• A mirage hides an area of corruption that is gradually growing and expanding. Those who walk directly into the area can find it, but even passing a dozen feet away is not enough to reveal its presence.

These are brilliant! I'll totally use these and run with the mirage theme to see what else I come up with.

There was a 3e supplement about magical deserts, but I don't remember the title. It was not a WotC-published book. The publisher did a whole series of books on different climates. If your memory and/or web-fu are better than mine, you can find more inspiration.

I feel like you might be thinking of a Mongoose Publishing book, but I know the least about 3e products as I was lapsed from the hobby for much of that time.

In more-corrupted places, things that look like scenes from Sodom and Gomorrah:
- houses that burnt and fell down flat or caved in (crushing the people trapped inside)
- individuals and animals that were outdoors turned into pillars of salt / other minerals
- petrified trees; a few still stand and are identifiable for what they used to be. Most are fallen and broken trunks
- impressions of twigs and leaves on the ground around a rock-hard stub of a stump
- crops and hedge-sized plants that turned to bone; many subsequently shattered.

All of these sound good, definitely thinking along similar lines... Crops turned to bone? As in grains turned into human bone? Is that Biblical or did you make that up? I can't wrap my head around it, but somehow it is creepy and probably exactly the sort of thing I should include.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Also, check out the 3.5 book Sandstorm if you haven't already. It has some great stuff in it, including a variant lich, expanded rules for desiccation, and other good stuff. Not all will be directly useful for 5e, but it's a great sourcebook for deserts (which it calls "wastes") in general.

You'll also recognize some Al-Qadim derived stuff in it.