White Wastes

In the northern regions of the Continent of Samaria, west of the Vursan mountains and south of the Darnian sea thats separates Samaria from the Continent of Enaskia, lies a vast stretch of inhospitable salt flats, known as the White Wastes.

Geography

To the east of the salt flats, lies The Dying Sea, a salt water sea that steadily shrinks year after year. The lack of precipitation, combined with its connection to the Darnian sea being severed during The Long Winter and the intense equatorial sun, boiling away its waters causes the salt flats surrounding it to gradualy expand and close in on an increasingly slaty sea.
As the water evaporates, it leaves a thick crust of salt and other minerals behind. The crust's colour varies in shades of white, pale brown and pale pink. The expansion of the Salt falts is most acute towards the east and south, where the sea is shallower. Even then, the expansion of the flats isn't always linear. Most years, the Vursan mountains receive enough rain from the east, that some manage to cross onto the western side of the mountains, forming small river that descend to and temporarely feed the sea, halting or even reversing its loss of water, at least for a few weeks.
However, the region does not only consists of salt flats. A few low lying hill, devoid of salt cover, dot the landscape. These hills, usualy of brown or red colour, stand out from the otherwise white and blue horizon. These used to be islands at a time when the sea still reached them. Now, most of them are hundreds of km away from any water. Despite this, these offer some repreive for the few animals that live here and who want to escape th deadly sun.

Climate

The region suffers under intense, dry heat during most of the year. Occasionaly, during the region's wet season, some storm clouds fly over the mountains and bring scatered rain showers and even thunderstorms over the region, feeding small river that empty into the Dying sea, while also turning the surounding land's hard salt crust into salty sludge. That is, until the sun reapears and the salt hardens into a crust again.

Tourism

The nearby Narkish tribes and kingdom to the west cultivate the salt and export it to the large kingdoms to their south and north. The Kingdom of Darnia in particular import a lot of salt from the region. Most of the salt collected here serves to preserve food or is used in Alchemy.

Alternative Name(s)

Dead Wastes

Type

Salt flat