Errand Fields

Geography

The area known as the Errand Fields are unique across Achaea as they are the only major desert region throughout the otherwise highly lush and humid continent. It is surrounded to the East and West by the sprawling grasslands of the Prés d'Or regions and extends from the foots of the northern tip of the Trône des Rocs chain of mountains at its south, another major landmark of Eastern Achaea, while other mountains graze the north slightly.
The Errand Fields are characterized by their unusual dry climate, but the daylight temperature is relatively modest by the standard of deserts while the nightlight hours are suitably freezing. Despite being called a field, the region is by large far from flat, with only a few areas in the north fully fulfilling that definition. The majority of the region is instead characterized by rolling sand dunes which might remind one of the shape of the waves of a turbulent sea, as if frozen in time.

Ecosystem

The lack of surface water throughout the Errand Fields is a major obstacle to the development of any serious ecosystem, and only small creatures, generally arthropods and arachnids, can generally be found as wildlife, more often than not in cave systems underneath the sand dunes. Due to the moderate condensation and darkness, fungi can also be found occasionally in such caves. Water does exist in the area, but it is mostly confined to underground sources that are too deep to provide any semblance of life outside of a rare few oases.

Localized Phenomena

The only major phenomenon endemic to the Errand Fields region is its sandstorms. Strong oceanic winds, dry after emptying their moisture in the Prés d'Or Est province, flow over the dunes at high speed and crash against the inland winds before rebounding on the mountain chains. This erratic maelstrom often causes great storms that kick up the sand on the surface, erasing trails and causing the dunes to regularly appear to shift or move as some are scattered and others built overnight. These storms have long made the area dangerous to travel through.

Natural Resources

The single most valuable natural resource that make the Errand Fields noteworthy - indeed, it is why it is actually called fields and not the Errand desert - is fossil fuels. Indeed, enormous amounts of oil and natural gas have been prospected and estimated to be all throughout the desert, and though only a very small part of these resources is currently being tapped, it is estimated that extraction will only grow. For now, the corporation Sang Noir has almost unchallenged authority in the area, because it sponsored the construction of the settlement that works its pumps and wells, and therefore there is no deeply entrenched local nobility to contest their actions or legitimacy.

History

The fields have a rather tenacious history as one of the only areas within the greater territory of the Seilurid Empire that was never settles or inhabited in any capacity, not even by small tribes of nomadic people. The general harshness of the place, with its lack of food and water, its extreme temperatures, and its frequent sandstorms made it inherently hostile to life, and what few attempts at settlement that were done without modern technology were dismal failure. Even simply traversing the desert from one edge to the other has been considered an extremely perillous endeavor until the advent of the steam engine, and even then setting rails across its more stable lanes was seen as a monumental achievement.
For most of its history, the Errand fields were seen as a cursed place by the Seelie at the center of their territory and finding ways to get around it was a minor part of their motivations for expansionist wars. It was said by the Unam-Animists that those who wandered in were doomed to wander for all eternity, losing their lives in short order and their lost souls continuing forever to try and find their way back to civilization. It is from this legend that it finds its name, or 'wandering' in Francien.
In more recent times, the curse seems to have been lifted as a group of brazen entrepreneurs have managed to establish a permanent settlement at the heart of desert and to tame its wilds to a certain extent. The motivation for this courageous endeavor was simple: Black Gold.

Type

Desert

Location under

Achaea

Included Organizations

• Sang Noir

Owning Organization

Seilurid Empire