Balar Desert
The Balar Desert is a desert plain in middle Amvaer'ónya and the largest desert on Divostra. It extends from the Folly's Wake mountain range in the west to the Bay of Ishkur in the east and is bordered by the Shandalar peninsula to the north and the Drakteth Gorge to the south.
The desert, as well as the adjacent Bay of Ishkur, are named after the blue greatwyrm Bala'Ishkur who conquered the region during the Dracomachy.
It is a sparsely populated area due a lack of natural resources and scarce arable land, in addition to being the hunting grounds of the ancient blue dragon Martu'amurruk and her blue dragons. The Daariv Draken rule the deserts, while the Balar people have settled along the coastline to the east, where the land is more fertile, the mountain ranges to the west offer some protection from the dragons, and trade routes could be established with neighboring nations.
History
Central Divostra was once a massive forest known as Lalartu, the Heartwood—the most lush, verdant locale to ever exist on the plane. When the Primordial Titans first created the dwarves, orcs, dragons, and other sentient species, they also created this natural paradise and filled it with dense forests, rivers, fertile land, and a plethora of creatures great and small, so that their creations could prosper and multiply to provide more worshippers to empower the titans. When the dark god Kai'ossh first emerged, it appeared at the very center of Lalartu in all its terrible magnitude, scattering the creatures living within the Heartwood to the furthest reaches of the plane. Though the Primordial Titans battled Kai'ossh all across the plane, their final battle inevitably took place within the very Heartwood from which the dark god had first emerged. As the titans defeated and sundered the old god, its dark blood splattered across the land and despoiled the ground. Over millennia, the once-lush forests of Lalartu withered and died, the rivers dried up and the animals either died or migrated, the Heartwood's natural beauty replaced with endless dunes of sand, rocky mountains, and barren canyons. Traces of the Heartwood can still be found in the form of oases scattered throughout the desert, offering travelers respite from the harsh climate of the desert.
When the titans chose to erect their great temples to bury and bind Kai'ossh, Grumbar chose the desecrated Heartwood as the location for Grumbar'kath. When Bala'Ishkur and her blue dragons invaded Lalartu, the druids tasked with guarding their patron's temple were forced to choose between their holy duty and survival, ultimately deciding to abandon the temple, fleeing to the southeast.
Alternative Name(s)
Lalartu
Type
Desert
Location under
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