By some terrible misfortune, you spent the majority of your life in The Grey Wastes of Hades. Perhaps you were born there, perhaps you were stranded whilst exploring the planes, perhaps you were hunting something long forgotten. No matter what, you have grown weathered by now, the Grey Wastes are a doldrum-y landscape that makes the Shadowfell seem a carnival. No color is visible in the Grey Wastes, and the very waters of the swamps below sap you of joy and excitement. The souls of the selfish and damned moan gentle cries of anguish over an otherwise still horizon. Those that reside in the Grey Wastes seldom do by choice. It can be assumed you left at the earliest opportunity.

People making out is a tale not often heard, and implies much grit. Any you meet initiated to the Outer Planes will likely treat you with reverence and fear due to your sordid past. Perhaps you fought your way to a portal, often guarded behind heavy iron fortresses. Perhaps a kindly explorer agreed to lift you out from your prison of apathy. Perhaps it was a random event as fortunate as your fate to end up there was unfortunate. No matter the case, a world of greater opportunity, allowing for the highs and lows of true emotionality now awaits.

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Navigator's Tools

Languages: Abyssal or Infernal

Equipment: A vial of swampwater, the tattered standard of a fallen warrior, and a single trinket that once served as your sole source of joy.

Spell List

Due to your exposure to the energy-sapping environment of the Gray Wastes, you have access to the spell blight

Spell Level	Spells
4th	blight

Suggested Characteristics

These tables, while optional, are well suited to characters with the Wastelander background.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I find people with expressive emotions disingenuous and tiresome.
2	I am unaccustomed to the feeling of joy, and strange things make me laugh uncontrollably.
3	I have a soft-spoken, well-mannered voice due to my time in isolation.
4	I refuse to dismiss another person's upsets due to the apathy I was exposed to.
5	I am amazed at the idyllic life people elsewhere lead.
6	My instinct is that systems and organizations will not support me and that I will not get justice.
7	I fear for loved ones that may end up in the Gray Wastes when they perish.
8	I find feeling the full spectrum of emotions overwhelming and often fight them back.

d8	Ideal
1	Warmth. I will not replicate the coldness of the Wastes. (Good)
2	Empathy. No creature should be made to suffer. (Good)
3	Instability. You don't make it out of a place like that in one piece. (Chaotic)
4	Passion. I have spent too long in a state of apathy, and now I must trust my whims. (Chaotic)
5	Morality. The selfish end up in the Wastes, and I must never go back. (Lawful)
6	Pragmatism. Life is not easy, and I haven't survived this long without a good reliance on my head. (Lawful)
7	Bitterness. The privileged should suffer as I have. (Evil)
8	Quietude. I don't understand this passionate world, and I choose to be an observer until I do. (Any)

d8	Bond
1	A person helped me leave the Wastes. I am forever in their debt for that.
2	I have family in the Wastes, and like it or not, I'm going to return so they can leave as well.
3	The world I now live in is precious to me, and I will fight to ensure it remains a place of hope.
4	A trusted friend is the most important thing in the multiverse to me.
5	I will try to warn people who could end up in the Gray Wastes when they die to change their ways.
6	I was nursed to health by someone I met soon after leaving the Gray Wastes.
7	For me to leave, someone had to take my place. I need to make their sacrifice worth it.
8	I left along with another. They uniquely understand my worldview.

d8	Flaw
1	I still envy people I think of as happier than me.
2	I am a pessimist through and through.
3	I am very protective of the life I have now, and I don't want to risk losing it.
4	I hoard items in case I fall on hard times.
5	I've been in the Gray Wastes so long that it's still hard to bring myself to care.
6	I overindulge, unused to the luxuries and vices of this world.
7	I only want to feel positive emotions now and I refuse to acknowledge or tend to my negative ones.
8	Deep down, I can't get too attached. What if this is all taken from me?