Bonecrag Badlands

Coated in a hard crust of rock and dried clay, the Bonecrag Badlands receives its name from its extreme and inhospitable climate made up from dry mesas, desert planes and brutal savannah.
It is known as the northmost part of Aetheria which connects the continent with the Golden Dunes of the Commonlands, as well as the Sylvhari realms of the elves.

Blood and Might

The brown and reddish cliffs of the coarse landscape is home to a myriad of different beastkin tribes that have settled among the hills and crags.
Due to the lack of clean water and other resources such as wood and medicinal plants, the inhabitants live through a harsh food chain where bones, leather, meat and blood is worth far more than the overflow of gold beneath the cracked grounds.
As a consequence of this brutal reality, nature has adapted to host some of the most successful predators ever found within the suitably named bonecrags.
This badland sports the origin behind the term chimera, as the home of the original chimerae beast. Though this is just one legend of a few, including the wyvern which reigns from above, the gargantuan wingless drakes and thunder-beasts that quake the ground underneath their step, and lastly the mighty manticore which is known as the king of the badlands.

Green Scarcity

While the Bonecrags are almost barren in terms of trees, it still sports a plethora of different cacti, shrubbery and other bushes from which the animals feed.
Most of these vegetation do not come without their own dangers though, the cacti being some of the least harmful plants as much of the flora is either toxic, has toxic barbs or can not be digested by most creatures but a select few herbivores that scour the planes.
An example of the sort of shrubbery which grows within the bonecrag is the so-called horseroot. A type of root to a normally toxic flower which seems almost universally loved by most breeds of horse. Making it a scarce resource that is sometimes used by the local tribes to tame some of the most proud and unruly steeds.

Treacherous Geography

Though the badlands are scarce in vital resources for civilization to thrive, its large rocky cliffs and slithering pathways between the hills betray a cornucopia of valuable metals and minerals.
The most prominent hotspot being that of a large salt desert near the center of the region, where much blood has been spilled over excavating the odd soil.
Another two zones that are often contested by rival tribes are the north and southmost parts of the region.
The northern part cools down to a temperate woodlands region, while the south is a more tame savannah.

Writing by Tonarus
Art AI generated with Midjourney

Type

Badlands

Due to the unforgiving desert sun, the tribes residing within the badlands tend to build their villages along the cliffedges and chasms. The upper parts granting them long range of sight, while the lower parts are often underground. The cool caverns often holding storage and wellsprings within them.