The Desert of Desolation
Straddling the border between the Cyclopean Shores and the Drylands, the Desert of Desolation is a region about seven hundred miles across, contained within a huge ring wall known as the Dust Wall. Formed eons ago, nobody knows whether it was a cataclysmic magical accident or a star falling to earth which threw up the huge circular crater.
When the region was first settled powerful clerics and wizards, led by the mage-pharaoh Athis, created the Fountain of Athis: a magical spring constantly welling with fresh, pure water. The overflow formed a river leading through the desert of Raurin until it reached a pass through the Dust Wall and flowed out across the Cyclopean Shores to the sea. Its sinuous path formed a fertile corridor which sustained the Raurindi people for a great age. The capital was actually built on a reef of stone around which the river split its course, creating a particularly green and verdant region.
When the people rose up to overthrow the tyrannical Pharaoh Amun-Re a thousand years ago, he called down a death-curse upon the Fountain, and the River Athis ceased to flow. Within a mere handful of years the sands resumed their march, swallowing the once-fertile region huddling in the centre of the desert. Once teeming with life, the region became so inhospitable as to make life nearly impossible. The majority of the people fled, leaving only a scattered few of the dedicated people clinging to life around the oases formed where deep aquifers rose near the surface. These people became hardy desert dwellers, dedicated to preserving the knowledge of what had gone before, waiting for the prophesised day when the curse would be broken and the River Athis would bring life to the sun-baked Desert of Desolation once more.
Geography
Windswept sand dunes comprise approximately three-quarters of the desert region, and this is what most outsiders envision when thinking of the desert. Expanses of sand separate the oases and other terrain types, and travellers who cannot navigate by the sun and stars are usually lost in the deep desert, with only their bones being discovered. The dunes change shape and location regularly due to the movement of the wind, with high hills being laid low and flat areas turning into mazes of hills within days or weeks. The sand's movement sometimes swallows or threatens to bury oases and villages lying along trade routes. Local druids and spellcasters often make use of spells such as Gust of Wind or Sandsweep, a specialised lower-level version of Move Earth, to protect such important locations from the encroaching dunes.
The central regions of the deep desert contain a number of rocky mesas thrusting up from ground-level, sculpted by the winds and sandstorms. The surrounding pebble-strewn landscapes are known as hamadas, and are largely swept clear of the sand by the wind. These areas are extremely dry, and the sun's heat radiates up from the stone. They often stretch for miles with no shade, water, or other protection from the elements.
The south-eastern region of the desert is known as the Plains of Purple Dust and is the result of a long-ago magical accident. The magical weapons of two powerful kingdoms interacted with one another in unexpected ways to create a magical effect turning everything within it into purplish crystal. That crystal shattered into fine, sharp-edged sand, and the magical energy within it gradually transmutes whatever it is in contact with into more crystalline sand. Regular efforts by the local druidic circles are only able to prevent its spread.
Ecosystem
The Dustwall, and the Raurin Desert contained within its crater, is located within the Drylands region of the Sundered Lands. Located where the arid savannah gives way to the southern desert areas, it is a rain shadow desert, created by the high mountain range of the Dustwall blocking the rain-bearing winds off the ocean. Although rain does fall during the winter, it is not in nearly sufficient quantities to reverse the desertification.
A handful of endorheic lakes exist within the desert, such as Lake Tepi next to the town of Ka-Tepi. The limited rainfall collects within these lakes, and with no outflow is captured and held through the summer. These lakes are the source of much of the water used for farming. Together with oases created where deep aquifers rise near the surface, the area is able to sustain a surprising amount of life, although much is hidden from outsiders who do not recognise the ebb and flow of the local ecosystem.
Oases and wadis appear infrequently across the desert. Although the oases are preserved by the aquifer water welling up, many of the wadis are dry except in the short rainy season. Some wadis may take the form of a pleasant deep pool surrounded by date palms and long grass, but most are nothing more than narrow ditches through stony ground, a shallow riverbed that briefly holds water after a rain, or a muddy pit hidden under blown sand. Bandits will sometimes take over an oasis to extort travellers who need to replenish their water, but if they are discovered doing this by one of the local migrating tribes, they will be executed to the last individual.
Localized Phenomena
Sandstorms sweep across the desert with punishing force, and the glare of the sun can create blindness in the unwary. The brownish walls of blowing sand can blot out the sun for hours or days. None of the weather is feared so much as the magical sandstorms which blow off the Plains of Purple Dust.
Towering walls of purplish haze sweep across the desert, lightning strikes of grounding wild magic crackling across their forefront. Although these wild magic effects are earthed within close proximity to the Plains, the magic contained within the individual crystal particles remains active and deadly. Inhaling the dust can cause Glitterlung which is invariably fatal if not treated in time, as the sufferer's body gradually transmutes into purple crystal from the lungs out.
Fauna & Flora
Much of the larger animals in the desert concentrate around the oasis islands, but smaller animals and insects are scattered across the terrain. Giant spiders and scorpions are known to reach the size of a man, although rare examples are found as large as a wagon. These giant scorpions in particular are known to have been magically domesticated by some of the deep desert tribes, and are used as riding mounts and beasts of burden. Some are still found in the wild, however, and predate upon small groups of travellers.
Date and coconut palms are found around oases, together with normal palm trees. Examples of some of the more useful varieties have been carefully enchanted by druids to make them propagate more readily, or allow a full-grown palm tree to spring from a date buried at a new oasis within a week.
Dustdiggers are a perennial problem within the desert. Resembling huge upside-down starfish with a bulbous central head projecting down, they have a many-fanged mouth at the centre of their upper surface. Taking position underneath the sand, typically beside a low dune, they inflate themselves and wait for prey. When their tremorsense alerts them to creatures passing overhead, they deflate, creating a large funnel-shaped sinkhole in the sand and sucking down their prey. Their five long flexible arms snap up and engulf their prey, and then the dustdigger uses its sandswim ability to flee underground with its prey. They particularly favour camels.
Maps
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North-eastern Desert of Desolation
The north-eastern region of the Desert of Desolation is sparse and lightly settled, with a handful of groups clinging to life around the widely-scattered water sources. Ruins of the vanished Raurin Empire date back to before the River Athis dried up and the desert moved in. The Sandvoyagers Guild is the only reliable means of travel through the area for any who are not hardened adventurers.
Alternative Name(s)
Raurin Desert
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