Berust: The Red Desert

Berust is an isolated country just South of the Aylian empire, a border territory between Aylia and the mountains that border the Southern Peninsula. Berust is a desert of sand and stone, characterized by blood-red dust storms throughout the Summer and Fall. Monsters hide in the crevasses and ravines throughout the landscape, opportunistically nesting in places where water wells up and prey is found.   Berust is primarily populated by Genasi from the Elemental Plane of Earth, living in small communities of pueblos and Earthwork housing raised from the rock via sorcery. These communities serve as entrances to networks of tunnels: passageways into cooler communal living spaces, underground rivers, and mine shafts. In the center of Berust lies Krikt, the capital. Krikt is the pit of a former strip mine, more than 300 square miles horizontally, with large spirals of glass and alabaster rising from the bottom towards the surface. Here, the denizens of Berust gather for trade, protection, and government shielded from the dust storms above.   The Red Desert is home to a hostile landscape filled with dangers both natural and supernatural. Flocks of Axebeaks roam the landscape, hunting down wandering zombies that have become masterless over the decades. Great Wurms the size of rivers tear through layers of rock, leaving dust storms that paint the dusk red with crimson sand. Blue Dragons from the Southern mountains soar on thermal gusts snatching up fast moving caravans transporting gold to Krikt. It's even rumored that in the dead of midnight you can hear the sands shift like the ocean, weighing down a tide of claw and flesh that grasps towards the surface.   Berust is a hermetic country, a stagnant  and aristocratic government seeks to maintain stability despite constant disaster being just around the corner. Berust has had a rocky history of invasion and national turmoil that has rendered aboveground infrastructure useless and cut it off from communication with the outside world. It currently is built on a treasure trove of magic knowledge, and a curious supply of rare metals, that are keeping the country surviving, but never thriving. Once again, unburied secrets draw the eyes of figures from all over the region, setting off a new era subterfuge and Espionage.    A revolution has only begun, a rivalry between the Deathless Shards and the Earthen Oligarchy has become a powder keg waiting to explode. The game is set.