Asherat

The Asherat

A Soaring aerial desert holds a secret town at its heart. The southern border of the Wasting Plain is marked by the Asherat - a glittering region of desert where the sand dunes flow through the sky like clouds. Here, the desert winds stir up storms that carry sand into a manifest zone to Syrania, the Azure Sky, causing it to float. The countless flecks of silica reflect the sunlight as they drift in the calm belt, shimmering like a thousand mirrors. As the sand is lifted into the sky, it forms an empty hollow that pulls more in like a massive whirlpool. Where the zone ends, the floating clouds fall in vast sandfalls, which replenish the center in an endless cycle. For travelers, the Asherat is an awe-inspiring sight; the clouds and waterfalls appear like an earthen storm blanketing the horizon.

Crossing it without a guide is perilous in the extreme. The shifting currents of sand can bear one through the sky in the right direction - or smash them down into the gyre at its core. Even worse, planetouched desert creatures swim through the aerial currents and hide within the clouds of sand. Despite this, the region hides an impossible village within the whirlpool at its heart. The people known as the asherati (‘Starsifters’) are experts at traversing its dangers - and willing to guide travelers, for the right price. Born of the Desert. The asherati are humanoids with smooth yellow skin who possess the ability to swim through sand like water. They act as guides and merchants, with a mastery of geomancy that lets them rapidly travel across the Menechtarun.

The whirlpool at the heart of the Asherat is both protection and provision; materials and creatures sucked into the spiraling sand fall into vast nets woven by the asherati, where they are collected for their subterranean village. The town of Ushemra lies beneath the surface of the desert in a vast air pocket created by asherati magic; the people use the properties of the manifest zone to cause the sand to float, then direct it into streams that surround the village like a bubble. These spiral out into the Menechtarun like a web, carrying the desert people for miles on secret underground currents.