Vistamere

The continent of Vistamere is split down the middle by the Sekmeht Desert.   The west is dominated by the Baletzian Confederacy - although the title confederacy doesn't really reflect the strict Vassal-Overlord Relationship between the two parties. The Baletzian Confederacy is a military powerhouse - a state levied entirely for the purposes of war and sustained economically by a network of tributaries. Most of the interactions with kingdoms west of the desert boil down to Crusades and Punitive Wars: the end result of which is usually a border province added to the long list of Baletzian Tributaries.   The Desert of Sekmeht is a massive expanse of shifting Sand Dunes walled in by black obsidian cliffs, hundreds of meters tall, to both the East and West. To the North and South of the desert lie open seas, and the powerful ocean winds mixed with the thermal drafts cause winds that are violent and unpredictable - sand dunes shift quickly and without warning.   No oases, roads, or conventional cities lie in the Sekmeht. The only traces of Civilization are independent cities called Polis - built on granite mountains or plateaus raised high enough above the desert to avoid the pounding sands on the surface, or the twisting passages of the underdark.   For anyone but Drow, one of the Poleis is generally a preferrable place to live.