{WASC 2022} Milhaggar Desert

Géographie

The Milhaggar desert is a vast, warm expanse constituting most of the north-western-most part of the Holviers continent. Closest to the Quimaebahr sea, it is mostly a vast sea of rolling golden-brown dunes. It is one of the most arid places on the planet, though still a relatively popular place of tourism, where treks across the desert are organised, mostly along the coastlines, and particularly through the low-lying regions and their mysterious Leviathan cemeteries.
Westward, the geography gets more mountainous, notably with the Hildun mountains, a massive mountain range still surrounded by a sand sea belt, home to the fiercey isolationist Hildun people. This region is only deceptively arid, as many rivers carve its underground with a myriad of caves. This gives an easy access to freshwater for hilduni, and when the caves run up close to the surface, allow them to carve them up into sunlight, and convert them into agricultural spaces.
The Northwestern part of the Milhaggar desert is the most humid of all, that being helped by the presence of rivers from the northern mountains, and the winds coming from the Edge-Cliffs. It is still an expanse of rocky hills, with very low biodiversity and few vegetation.

Ecosystem

The biodiversity of the Milhaggar desert is very low. In the sand sea, mostly snakes, arthropods and sandworms find ways to survive. Besides native fauna, one can also mention the strange ritual-like practice of deep-ocean Leviathans, who come to die on the low-lying shores of the Quimaebahr sea. A few of such cemeteries are mentioned, and though the phenomenon is s rare no one has ever seen it actually happen, fact is the gigantic skeletons of Leviathans are to be found like spines on top of the golden dunes.
The Hildun mountain range is no less arid than the sand sea, at the surface. However, the underground caves are significantly more populated, notably by freshwater fish, frogs, and spiders, most notable of which is the bloodsilk cave spider, whose silk is harvested by Shwal'Tammen priestesses and woven into fabrics they trade for food, along with lichens, mushrooms and such similar plants endemic to their cave systems, used as medicine, drugs, or seasoning, their rarity making them a very valuable trade element.

Faune et Flore

A lot of the flora and fauna of the Milhaggar desert is endemic, and exclusive to that region, though some species have been successfully intoduced to that unforgiving environment.

Fauna

• Nansok : Nansok are ungulates, introduced to the Milhaggar desert by traders as a means of travelling through the sand sea. They are native to hot steppes north of the desert, and were already suited to hot, dry climates, with a thick coat of fur destined to insulate from both hot days and cold nights, as well as an efficient fat and moisture deposit on their upper backs, that allows for them to go long periods of time without hydrating. Domesticisation of these animals has allowed for them to select a specific type of foot most suited to walk on shifting sands, which includes a large pad of fatty tissue spreading on the sand to avoid sinking into it. Their three pairs of legs, associated to that feature, allows them to carry heavy loads for long distances.

• Bloodsilk Cave Spiders : A small species of spider, about four or five centimeters in diamater (including legs). It produces a dark, vibrant red silk that only the Shwal'Tammen priestesses know how to harvest efficiently and weave. They are not venomous nor agressive, and the method of silk havesting is generally considered as not painful nor forced, which increases the rarity and value of the spider silks, on simple shawl being easily worth one year of food for a conclave of priestesses.

• Mahtoraya : A species of fish endemic to the Ceb'alrai underground river system. It is the largest species of fish found there, adults reaching about 50 centimeters long. Their reproduction is controlled and monitored by Hilduni, and they are preserved by curing them, which means removing bones and scales, and putting them in salt and herb filled alcoves in the cave walls, regularly drained until the fish are fully dry. They are then usually eaten as is, with sauces and in some dishes.

Flora

• Rentar : Cave mushrooms, which grow as wide, flat discs on cave walls. They are flipped upside down to use like flatbread or an edible dish to eat meals, the mushroom taking the flavor of said dish to be eaten afterwards.

• Tamilh : Salty mineral that forms as crystals in underground stillwater pools. Used asa condiment, and a preservation method for cavefish meat.

• Nistar : Type of cave mushroom only found in the Shwal'Tammen cave system, and thus inaccessible to anyone but the priestesses. It is not the object of trade, but a very important element of daily rituals for them.

Tourisme

The coastline of the sand sea is a popular tourist destination, but it has to be one of the only places where tourism can actually be developped. The Milhaggar desert is particularly hostile to human life, and the parts which can actually allow it like the Hildun mountains are strictly forbidden to foreigners, at the exception of the cityport of Siwakhit, the only trading point of the region.

Type

Desert

Sous-localisation

Continent supérieur de Holviers

Especes habitantes

• {WASC 2022} Nansok