"The Bowl"

Geography

Located below Viandes' equator, The Bowl is an arid desert for the majority of it's epoch. It is a dry and dusty place, with intense, beating heat. The land surrounding The Bowl is partched earth. The cavernous bowl itself, however is a sandy, dry seabed in appearance. The bowl goes through several intense seasons, extended rainy periods and heatwaves lasting years at a time interspersed with more temperate transition periods. In the rainy season the bowl fills with water from the rain and melting ice from the arctic oceans to the south. This gives the appearance of the high peaks in the centre being a series of tropic islands, however they are more accurately mountains which are viewable once the hot season reduces the bowl to a desert with only small water deposits at ground level.



Noted scholar and cartographer Magnus DeGurtner has estimated The Bowl to be 3,750,000 km3. This great feat is believed to have been achieved with the aid of only 3 other assistants and several seasons. As he would walk from one end to the other when the bowl was dry and it’s circumference when the bowl was a sea. During his 9 year stint measuring the beautiful landmark of Viandes, he lived among the Orcish tribes of the Claws and learned their ways.
Customs he witnessed were burials, rites of passage/coming of age, weddings, called bindings/meldings, and their form of justice. Most notable of which was the infamous Roc Climbing event. A challenge he politely declined to embrace.

In recognition of his achievement, DeGurtner had a river feeding into the bowl named after him. An expedition tracing the river found it split into the 3, and these feeding streams were labelled after his 3 dedicated assistants.

Fauna & Flora

Common creatures : Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, Bugbears, Rocs, Scorpions, Spiders, Various beasts that can live in the harsh conditions.
The ground is particularly fertile meaning even in the desert season there is some vegetation, in the height of the rainy season it is similar to a rain forest.

Natural Resources

Aside from aquatic animals and the food and oils they provide, the area is rich with a mineral called Desert Rose, a reddened steel. Generally this can only be harvested in the desert season.

Type

Gulf / Lagoon

Included Locations

• The Edge of the World

Included Organizations

• Alkulasum
• G’rgaltinia
• The Garruz Karduum

Contested By

• Alkulasum
• G’rgaltinia
• The Garruz Karduum

Related Tradition (Primary)

• Roc Climbing

Related Materials

• Desert Rose