The Red Desert
The Red Desert, a large and hot area of over 100km in both length and width consisting of dunes of crimson red sand and craggy rock formations. It is extremely unhospitable, even compared to the vast Samnite desert to the west.
Consisting mostly of red desolate dunes rich in iron minerals, as well as sharp, dark rock formations that, for the inhabitants of the creatures of the Red Desert, act as welcome shelter from the sun's scorching rays. Compared to the other deserts in Ibira, the Red Desert is less flat, with a slightly more varied landscape. It is no more welcoming than other similar locations however. Due to the abundance of aether in the area, which makes the air especially warm and prone to sandstorms and rainless thunderstorms, combined with dangerous wildlife and a sun that makes midday unsurvivable, the Red Desert is generally considered one of the harshest region on the continent. It rains so rarely in the red desert, and oases are so scarce, that most of the living creatures in the region primarily get their water from desert plants and digging for underground reserves.
Despite how extreme the area is, however, some few well-specialized creatures have made the Red Desert their home. A variety of poisonous bugs and snakes live under the sands and in the large rock formations. Crimson coloured Fennec foxes and a few species of small rodents wander the region. There are also a large species of beetle that live primarily in the region; the mammoth scarab, feeding on the naturally surfacing aether crystals of the desert, and there are beasts known as sandcracklers, that surfaces from the dunes when thunderstorms ravage the land. Perhaps mosty notable however are the vulpin. The vulpin make their home exclusively in the Red Desert, and they are the only humanoid race that seems to thrive in the unhospitable climate of the Red Desert, and although their numbers are small compared to many of the other races on Gaea, their instincts and skills of survival are unparallelled.
The Red Desert is a natural reservoir of aether crystals, liquid and atmospheric mana, as well as iron in mineral form. There are also generally plenty of natural veins of iron ore, as well as gemstones, but the vulpin have little interest in mining the Red Desert's natural resources.
The Red Desert is currently not under the control of the Ibirian Empire, being one of very few areas of whom the Ibirian alliance has historically been unable to keep under their control. This is party due to the guerilla tactics of the vulpin who live here, who have driven out any who trespass on their territory time and time again, but is also probably attributed to the area's general extreme climate.
Type
Desert
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