Great Desert
Vast would be an understatement of what the great desert is. Countless miles of unihabited toxic land surround Arbor on all sides. In many ways this makes Arbor itself somewhat of an oasis though that undersells what Arbor is and how unique it is in the world at large. The Great Desert is a large reason perhaps why Arbor and the Great Tree were for so long undiscovered. Acting as a natural barrier to the outside the Great Desert is the first of many defenses the city has though over the years since Arbor's founding the great desert has shrunk year on year as if retreating from some unkown greater threat.
"When the The First Ones crossed the Great Desert all thought they were mad to do so, very few think they were wrong now though..." - Linnea III
Appearance
Streatching for unimerable miles in every direction around Arbor is a coarse dry sand that seems to be devoid of all life. Sand dunes rise and fall across much of the landscape with not a sign of any plant life in any direction. Much of the scenery of this place is the same the only spot on the horizon that details any life is the sight of the glittering city of Arbor in the far distance. Crisscrossing the desert though are the train tracks laid by the Black Hands for The Inevitable the great train that moves goods out of Arbor by rail. The only other thing to alter the landscape of this arid land is the great river that flows through it, however this river is a man made Canal constructed hundreds of years prior with the help of powerful magics. Despite this source of water in the otherwise arid landscape though life refuses to take hold here and now with some of the more dangerous creatures from the Great Sky Highway escaping out this way the desert is not quite home to life but dangers that lurk just beneath the surface.History
As far as anyone knows the Great Desert has existed for as long as the history of the world though such records are rarely accurate given the length of time and the accuracy of written or spoken accounts. What is known though is the desert appears to be shrinking year on year it's encrochment into the outside world subsiding shrinking inwards towards Arbor.Rumors
One Rumor that persists despite much of the church's missgivings about such things is the though that there was once a civilization that lived in the Great Desert or the region therabouts and has since been wiped out by perhaps the desert itself or whatever cataclysm triggered it's creation.The Old Ones
Much of the speculation for this rumor comes from the findings of ancient stone structures out in the desert when the rail ways were being discovered the largest of these being a huge carved stone obelisk made of a black mirror like stone. The structure was hidden underneath a massive sand dune likely why it did not simply wear away though the fact the company resposible was using dynamite to blast the sand out of the way and the structure barely suffered so much as a scratch is cause for alarm. To this day no one has been able to interupt what is written on the obelisk and magical means have had no luck deciphering it as it appears that it is warded in some way. Officially the obelisk is nothing more than a curiosity perhaps created by the First Ones as a marker on their journey for others who were farther behind.
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