Hopeless

Hopeless is a gloomy, gray town in the Outlands, just on the edge of the Gray Waste.

The population of 20,000 here has an easy time of finding their way around, at least. The city is one huge spiral with but one entrance. The spiral ends in a deep pit in the center of a courtyard filled with a thick, black, tar-like ooze which is the gate to the Gray Waste. It’s patrolled constantly by seven beholders (or observers or spectators, some Guvners speculate) absolutely loyal to the town’s High Cardinal, Thingol the Mocking. On the gate's other side is the barren Wasteland, close enough to the Blood War front to feel uneasy but not close enough to feel excited.

Some find the entrance to the city itself more disturbing: A screaming face carved in red stone, its eyes blank and blind, red tears cut by erosion running down its cheeks. The red of the face's blood is the last color a body will see as she descends into the gloom.

The people of Hopeless are walking sorrow. Most drifted into town having nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. The poor sods have barely the energy to be nasty. There's no chance of anything getting any better, not here, not anywhere else, so why bother? The nearness of the Waste steals their passions away.

Source

[/b]A Player's Primer to the Outlands
[/b]