Onyx Desert

Geography

The Onyx desert is unique in that it is made up of mostly black sand. The sand gets ferociously hot in the daytime and special footwear is required to even travers its landscape. The heat is crushing and terribly dry. One advantage however to the black sand is that it retains heat throughout the night, so travel at night is actually quite easy. Little water exists here, but there is an oasis supplied by underground water, it is the only place that is inhabited by much of the flora and fauna.

Fauna & Flora

Very few animals and plants can survive in such a hostile environment. By far the most life lives near the oasis, and almost all know inhabitants of the desert are nocturnal. Some of the animals are black to blend in with the sand during the day to avoid predation while asleep from the only diurnal inhabitant, the Sunstroke eagle. Many of the plants are short, and most only blossom during the brief rains, except for those that live directly in or around the pond. Many animals live in the pond water, and many predators hunt in the water, so paradoxically many of the dessert animals are aquatic. The fruit of the Rubyspine cactus is considered a rare delicacy by outsiders, and a common food for the very few Raptor inhabitants. The Raptors that live there also feed mainly on the plants and animals that dwell within the waters, but they can trap and eat any animals that they can get their claws on.

Natural Resources

Most of the natural resources come from the oasis. But even then there is little to work with. There are too few trees to even build a proper settlement, let alone trade with. So what little wood is gathered is reserved for fire usage only. As such, most buildings are made out of stone and clay, and clothing is almost all leather. There are some stone quarries that can be harvested from, but reaching them and harvesting a supply before daybreak is no easy task, as all of them are far away from the oasis.

Alternative Name(s)

Black Desert

Type

Desert