Lou Aed

A wondrous town in the desert

The settlement of Lou Aed, also called Miners Garden, is a moderately large desert settlement located in the centre of the northern Avik Desert.
The city serves several purposes, it´s both a travel hot-spot, a key place for food production, and an excellent spot to stop if you need to stock up on supplies. It´s also an excellent trading place, as it is very well traversed by merchants from all over Orcerta. While Lou Aed started as a small plantation of Ehted Palms, it grew to one of the central "must visit"-locations of the desert and is frequented by travellers and an ever-changing cast of merchants alike.

Structure

Miners' garden started as a small Jewel Palm plantation, but it has branched out and grown quite a lot since its humble beginnings. This plantation not only grew but is also the centrepiece of the settlement by now.
Shooting off from the heart of the city, there are multiple paths with small huts and houses of locals living there. Bigger establishments like inns or stables are spread around and merchant huts and carriages are nestled into every nook and cranny.
If one saw this through a bird´s-eye view, it would make the village itself look like a big palm tree, the walking ways being the stems and huts, houses and carriages forming the leaves.

Attractions

Lou Aed is famous for its ever-changing variety of merchants, who sell items they've procured from all over Orcerta. Even merchants from Le Vivet travel across the continent just to sell their wares in Lou Aed. One of the biggest attractions in Lou Aed is the merchant´s market, where most of the travelling merchants set up their stalls.
Another Attraction is the plantation itself, which is affectionately called "The Mine", farmers guide tourists through the lush, almost maze-like, location while explaining how they grow the palms and giving some trivia about the area itself.

You could come here tomorrow and you´d probably find something new again.
I always fear for my wallet when I come here, but it's always worth it.

— Frequent visitor of the marketplace

Water Supply

As expected, desert areas feature little water and it's no different in Lou Aed. To supply such a big settlement with water, the people of Lou Aed mostly import it from the mainland or travel out themselves in big caravans to the ocean.
Ocean water is filtered in Lou Aed itself, where the gathered salt is instantly used in their food or sold to local merchants.

Alternative Name(s)

Miner´s Garden

Type

City

Location under

Avik Desert