Dessicated Sands

This article is a concept created during SummerCamp 2023! It is subject to changes, retcons, or may be sent to the secret vault after the event.

What's green has withered away, what's verdant has had its life choked out. Where have the flowing waters gone, and why does the blessed sun scorch our lands instead of prividing blessed warmth?
Why do I feel as though I, myself, am crumbling in the winds?

— Resident of the Melocazh Barrens

The Dessicated Sands, coined by residents of the Savelan Northlands, is a phenomenon ripping through the once-fertile southern lands of the Kingdom of Arsavela, now known as the Melocazh Barrens.

Disrupting the Autumn Kingdom

The Kingdom of Arsavela is known to be an agricultural powerhouse, with its bountiful harvests and beautiful rolling fields, but the threat of the Melocazh Barrens remains ever present on the southern horizon. Though the south of Arsavela was once a fertile land like any other in the north, slowly have grasslands morphed into fields of sand and stone, which the winds carry ever north.

Fleeing the Sands

This phenomenon has rendered much of Arsavela's south uninhabitable, destroying settlement after settlement over the course of decades, though in recent days the creep appears to be speeding up. Families residing to the south of Aurel see sands advancing upon their fields, and the skies of the south threatening to blow sands over their homelands. WIth each passing day, it feels as though these transition from threats into promises of what is soon to come.
The lands of the Melocazh Barrens to the south, as they have been renamed in the wake of the Arsaces' deposition, are dry and perilous, with sandstorms sweeping the land. These storms are hungry, with stories claiming that whatever falls in their path is never to be seen again, especially in the case of humans and creatures.

Written in Blood

Throughout the Nameless Era, the Antecedents had little to no control over the leylines, unlike in their prime, but they were able to continue tracking the leylines nevertheless. Though the leylines flowing beneath the lands of Arsavela have remained stable throughout the entirety of the Age of the Seekers thus far, they do indeed still flow, and always have the possibility of emerging unexpectedly.
Several leylines carve a path through the aetherial fabric of Arsavela, as identified by the Antecedents, including the leylines of life and vision, and an ever-present leyline of power. Tracking of the leylines in the past has shown that leylines regularly increase and decrease their flows, and even branch into new locations like meandering rivers and broken deltas.

When merciless sands overtake a fertile jewel of the world, what is there to do but pray?

by Strixxline via Midjourney

Location

Kingdom of Arsavela
Melocazh Barrens

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Growing Distrust

Those who bring their concerns to Aurel and to its council are waved away, with the assurance that there is no impending threat, and that the gods carry Arsavela's fate safely to paradise. The populace understands that these are gilded lies, presented to them to dismiss their concerns, but they have yet to understand if it is out of ignorance or apathy.
Gossip among the families of the Harvest Belt has begun to pose questions as to whether or not the nobility of Aurel are aware of the dangers coming to them, and if they know the cause of the phenomenon. The more they wave away concerns, the more the people begin to think that they are either at the head of it, or are afraid of it.