Crystal Sands Desert

This is the only significant desert on Mendala, taking up roughly 20% of the southern continent of Candovia. It gets its name from the desert crystal quartz that only grows there. It’s bordered by mountains to the north, plains to the west, and ocean to the west and south.

Environment

The Crystal Sands is a typical desert in that it receives almost no rainfall throughout the entire year. Its temperatures are more extreme than other areas but not intolerable: typically maxing out at 40 degrees Celsius at midday and as low as -1 degrees at night. It is an extremely dry and arid environment with no clouds and very little wind.
The entire region is covered in fine, white sand which can be up to one meter deep in certain areas though it is usually compact and easy to walk on without issue. Despite the lack of rain, the region has a myriad of underground water reserves due to the subterranean rivers that flow deep beneath the ground from the mountains in the north. In addition, there are hundreds of underground caves and tunnels throughout the area that are filled with quartz.

Quartz

The Crystal Sands boasts the highest concentration of quartz on the planet and is responsible for approximately 25% of the world’s quartz, including large quantities of boulder, tuner, translif, melivian and amicus quartz. In addition, quartz grows approximately twenty times faster in the desert than in mountainous regions, making it far easier to continuously mine.
The most abundant quartz by far is desert crystal, a milky white quartz that grows in every part of the desert. It has a variety of uses, but in its raw form, desert crystal rapidly drains adimus energy from anyone nearby. Because of the vast amount of desert crystal throughout the Crystal Sands, its adimus draining properties are felt by all inhabitants and visitors. Even in places where quartz mining has completely stripped the area of desert crystal, the sand itself still maintains the properties of the quartz.
Unlike the mountains where quickening and the mentant realm are significantly hindered, it is completely impossible to quicken or access the mentant realm in the desert. In addition, anyone who visits the desert will find their adimus energy drained within several hours of entering. Inhabitants of the desert cannot use any adimus based abilities, and those born and raised in the desert for the first seven to ten years of their lives will never be able to use adimus abilities even if they leave. These people have the adimus classification of crystal-non.

Flora & Fauna

There are a myriad of plants and animals that can only be found in the Crystal Sands Desert region. However, there are specific ones that desert inhabitants find extremely useful in daily life.
Cavus Tree
Despite the name, cavus trees are thick, hollow, vine-like plants. Although usually less than a meter tall on the surface, these sturdy vines burrow deep into the ground through the bedrock absorbing as much water as possible as they continue down until they reach one of the myriad of underground rivers or water sources. Special tools can be used to extract water through the vines from the waters source below making them a viable source of water when needed.
Calor Bird
Calor birds have red feathers and are about the size of a large eagle—around one meter long with a two-meter wingspan. They are the third fastest birds in the world and only found in the desert. They typically hunt large rodents and other small animals. Calor birds are very resistant to the heat of the desert and do not need to drink water as they absorb the water they need from what they eat. They are trained to carry messages between towns.
Sand Snakes
Sand snakes are typically nine to ten meters long with thick scales that are a mixture of gold and green. They are not poisonous and can eat a variety of animals. They are able to move across the desert sands at incredible speed while pulling a load 20 times their weight or more. Because of this, they are tamed and used to pull large coaches full of people across the desert. These are known as sand ferries.

History

The Fall of An Empire

Unlike other regions with abnormal weather and environment conditions, the Crystal Sands Desert has existed since before the PM era and is largely believed to have always been a desert region, though it did not receive its official name until 2462 PM.
In the last few centuries of the PT era, the desert region was home to the Justinean Empire, one of the most stable domains at the time. The harsh environment coupled with its natural borders of mountains and oceans on three sides, made it easy to defend from would-be attackers. In addition, everyone born in the Justinean Empire had vivid green eyes and it was rumored that this marked them as blessed by the Almighty, adding to the mystique of the region. Because historical documents from that era are scarce, it is not known exactly how long the empire existed, however it quickly lost power within the first century of the PM era as people left the desert in droves.
As the epouranals started teaching mentus and other adimus based abilities across the world, it quickly became apparent that no one in the desert could use these skills. No one knew why this was and the epouranals only offered vague hints, saying that the desert had secrets that would be revealed in due time. When people learned that all adimus abilities were nullified in the desert, the region started to be viewed as cursed. The once prosperous empire of Justinean started to collapse as its citizens migrated away, eager to use the gifts of the adimus that the epouranals were teaching. By 200 TS, the desert region had been completely abandoned and would stay that way for several millennia.

The Quartz Boom

Quartz became an increasingly valuable resource, there was a growing need to find additional places to mine the mineral, especially the less abundant varieties. In addition, quartz research was on the rise as people were keen to discover more uses for the versatile rock.
In 2215 PM, a group of mentant engineers led by Professor Keith Richardson went on an expedition in the desert region after determining that there was a high likelihood of quartz in the region based on historical documents involving the Justinean Empire. After two years of exploring, studying, charting, and researching, Richardson published a report with their amazing finds.
A network of caves and tunnels was discovered under the desert, by traversing this network, it was determined that there were massive deposits of quartz crystal throughout the entire region, possibly as much quartz as the Lumarian mountain and in much higher concentrations. They also found a new quartz variety, that they dubbed desert crystal. This quartz was the reason why adimus abilities were nullified in the desert. Researching desert crystal, they discovered its ability to actively drain adimus energy. However, they were able to invent a process for refining the quartz that removed this attribute and made it useable in a way similar to regular boulder quartz.
Desert crystal was the most abundant quartz in the region but there were also several other varieties found in large quantities. In addition, the unique properties of the desert accelerated the growth of quartz by nearly twenty times the average growth found in mountainous regions. This made the desert ripe for mining. The report also stated that the draining properties of desert crystal were temporary. No matter how long a person stayed in the desert, their adimus energy would return to normal a short while after leaving the region. With this, it became more feasible for companies to mine the area especially since mentus couldn’t be used to extract quartz, so it would take the same amount of effort to mine as anywhere else.
Within a year of this report, a myriad of companies had started operating mines in the desert. At first, workers would commute from towns right outside the desert, but this became more and more unfeasible as mines were opened deeper into the desert. Companies started offering lucrative wages to employees willing to live and work in the desert, and many people, especially those without formal mentus education, flocked to these opportunities, willing to give up their adimus abilities for steady stable work. Soon desert communities started forming around the mines.
As time went on, people discovered that living in the desert had a few more unexpected drawbacks that Richardson’s original team hadn’t discovered. Children born in the desert all had green eyes, and a person born and raised in the desert could not gain any adimus abilities even if they left the region. More research by mentant scientists uncovered that as long as a child left the desert before the adimus became active, which usually happened around age 7, they would be able to gain adimus based skills normally. Children leaving after age 9 or 10 would have a permanently dormant adimus.
This further stigmatized desert life, but even after this discovery was made, many people still moved to the desert for work. One benefit was that war seemed nonexistent in the region, unlike the mining towns in the mountains. In addition, work was guaranteed from generation to generation. Even if a mine shut down, there were many others throughout the desert, and more opening each year. It was easy for desert inhabitants to commute from their home to any of a myriad of mining towns and still earn money.
By 2462 PM there were dozens of desert towns, and the region was officially renamed the Crystal Sands Desert. This name came about because it was determined that the properties of the abundant desert crystal leached into the sand itself, giving the grains their white color. This was also the reason why even when an area was stripped of quartz, the effects of desert crystal were still just as strong.
Research into desert crystal was fairly stagnant after the Richardson report. It wasn’t until 3014 TS, almost 5000 years after first being discovered that a breakthrough was made on the uses of this specific variant of quartz. Leonard Garmond, mentant scientist, perfected a new way of refining desert crystal that capitalized on its enate properties. This new way of processing desert crystal resulted in a myriad of uses in the fields of medicine, education, and research and greatly increased the value of desert crystal which until then had only been used as a boulder quartz substitute with no special properties.

Modern Desert Life

Though desert life started out fairly prosperous, over the course of many centuries, wages within the region didn’t keep pace with the overarching world economy. People who lived in the desert almost never traveled beyond its borders and most received no formal education. Corporations were able to take advantage of this, keeping wages low so that workers could not gain the funds or resources needed to move or otherwise better their lives.
This meant that generation after generation continued to live and work in the desert, creating an insular society. In addition, since children born and raised in the desert couldn’t use adimus based abilities, they had very few prospects for employment in the outside world. This was great for the corporations that mined the desert but created a continual decline in quality of living for the low level employees who actually worked the mines. Things progressed in this way for millennia. Multiple attempts to unionize or form functioning governments that were not controlled by the mining corporations were consistently crushed. Since the desert was so isolated from the wider world, their plight went virtually unnoticed.
Things began to change during the TS era. At first, people hoped that the newly formed Fantasmal Government would step in to help the disenfranchised desert inhabitants, but they were offered little relief. Most desert towns were too small to be accredited by the Fantasmal Government, and the larger ones were owned and run by corporate executives who actively refused to. Without accreditation, the Fantasmal Government offered no services to the towns and therefore had little influence. It wasn’t until the rise of the Sunnin Social System, that the desert inhabitants saw real systemic change.
Sunnin opened free schools and medical clinics in the desert, helped the poor and orphaned, and lobbied the Fantasmal Government for resources, especially in stamping out slavery. They even helped people with infants and young children relocate if they wanted to make sure the children could gain adimus abilities. By 2000 TS, the quality of life in the desert was steadily increasing, and corporations were also forced to provide higher wages in order to keep employees since there was now the fear that they could actually leave if unhappy.
However, all of this collapsed during the TA era. After the Daughter of the Sun disappeared during the Great War, Sunnin services slowly started to decline in the desert. The reason given was that there was a rise in crime and the workers no longer felt safe. Without the Daughter of the Sun at the helm, advocating for workers rights became far more difficult as well.
By 500 TA, living conditions in the desert had declined, and corporations were exploiting their workers in much the same way as they did before the TS era, if not worse. Poverty and crime steadily increased as did the wage gap between workers and executives in the mining companies. In addition, the slave trade, which had almost completely died out, became more and more rampant throughout the area. Desert crystal had become an even more lucrative resource and mining in the desert was at an all time high, but desert life remained difficult for the working class. Only time will tell if the return of the Daughter of the Sun will change this for the better again.

Society and Culture

The Crystal Sands is home to approximately two million people, though the exact population is unknown due to the transient nature of most towns. The inability to use all Adimus skills within the desert region makes it an extremely unfavorable environment to live in. However, despite this, many people choose to live there due to the abundance of mining jobs.
Quartz is the most valuable resource on the planet and the desert has the highest concentration of quartz mines. Since mentus cannot be used to extract and mine quartz, mining is a viable career for those with little to no mentus education. Most people who move to the desert for work are willing to trade their nominal mentus abilities for a chance at a stable income.
Unfortunately, another side effect of living under the effects of desert crystal is a significantly shorter life span. Most desert inhabitants are crystal-nons, meaning they were born and raised there and have a life span of 70 to 90 years. Even those who move to the desert later typically live less than 100 years. In addition, desert inhabitants are far more susceptible to illness due to their completely suppressed adimus immune system.
On the other hand, those with adimus-based afflictions or rare abnormalities may move to the desert to find relief, especially if their disease is incurable or they do not have the means to be treated. Adimus illnesses are uncommon and each one can require extensive treatment to cure, however, almost every known adimus affliction is nullified in the Crystal Sands Desert due to the adimus draining properties of the area. Therefore, a person with a chronic adimus illness can live there in good health, and this is often the preferable solution to expensive and uncertain treatments, especially for those who are already near the end of their lives.
A curiosity surrounding the Crystal Sands is that every person born in the desert have emerald-green eyes. Much research has been done into this phenomenon and the leading theory is that it is a side effect of the abundance of desert crystal and being born in an environment completely devoid of latent mentus energy. Because of this, green-eyes, in general, are seen as a stigma since all crystal-nons have green eyes. However, there are no negative side-effects to being born in the desert. Even a child born in the Crystal Sands can use their adimus normally and learn adimus-based skills as long as they leave the desert before the age of seven, which is when the adimus becomes active and starts to develop.
People in the desert live far simpler lives than even those in small mountain towns. This is because without mentus and other adimus based skills, people are deprived of a host of conveniences made possible by those abilities. For example, the extremely simple and common ability of mentus fire is usually used for cooking, lighting, and other needs, but it is impossible to produce in the desert, even with fire stones.
In addition, the Fantasmal Government has no presence in the Crystal Sands. Guardians are not assigned to the area because they are not immune to the draining nature of desert crystal. At most, guardians that are assigned to the cities just outside the desert may occasionally go into the desert if there is a significant need, but this is exceedingly rare. The Sunnin Social System did once have a significant presence in the desert, but this has been removed in the most recent era due to the rise in crime and lack of protection from any formal governments. This is said to be a direct result of the disappearance of the Daughter of the Sun during the Great War.
One other phenomenon of desert culture is that there are hardly any wars between the various towns. Though there is a large amount of crime within the desert due to the lack of guardians and law enforcement agencies, wholesale war between towns is virtually non-existent due to the harsh environment and abundant quartz resources. Most conflict within the desert is between the major corporations that operate within it. Occasionally these can cause wars if there is significant dispute over the rights to a particular town or mine, but typically hostility between these companies is handled through more subversive or political means.

Cities and Towns

There are no nations in the desert, only independent towns and cities, the vast majority of which have less than ten thousand residents. All towns within the desert are unaccredited, leading to a lack of resources and world government representation. There have been dozens of attempts to form an overarching desert nation or even a loose confederation within the desert, but all have failed.
There are a few reasons for this:

• Many towns in the desert only last a few centuries at most.
• Communication and travel between towns is more difficult due to the lack of mentus, quickening, and other adimus skills
• The large corporations that run mining and other major industries have little to no oversight and want to keep it that way

Because of the myriad of subterranean rivers and underground reservoirs throughout the desert, it is fairly straightforward for new towns to be built and gain a source of water, especially mining towns since the area being mined for quartz is almost always near some source of underground water.
In general, there are four types of towns in the desert, border towns, mining towns, community towns, and hub towns.
Border Towns
Border towns are typically the smallest towns in the region and, as their name suggests, are near the western and northern edges of the desert. These towns serve as the first stopping point for desert commuters and visitors. Many people who live in the cities west and north of the Crystal Sands travel in and out of the desert region for work or other reasons.
Border towns serve as waypoints for travelers offering necessary goods for their journeys and transportation directly to other towns deeper in the mountains. Their economies are dependent on the commerce provided by these travelers, so border towns usually consist of several shops and cafes along a main street, with the residential area further back.
Border towns can typically exist for a few thousand years. Transportation companies depend on them as junction points for desert ferry routs and typically that is enough to ensure a steady stream of visitors and income. When routes change due to large shifts in mining town locations, a once vibrant border town can die within a year.
Border towns tend to be the most susceptible to raiders, bandits, and slavers. They’re deep enough in the desert that external towns will not aid them, and furthest from the center of the desert away from the hub towns where the rangers typically patrol. Because of this, border towns are usual close-knit communities that look out for each other, and their populations are low.
Mining Towns
Mining towns are formed around quartz mining operations and typically last for one to two hundred years depending on how long it takes for the mine to be completely stripped of quartz. Once that happens, the town will immediately die out as people move to the next mining site. Because of the temporary nature of such towns, their populations are less than five hundred as most people commute in from either border or community towns. As such, most mining towns are controlled by the companies that run the mine and are kept secure by either rangers or private security forces.
Typically, mining towns will have a small residential section, a few inns, and several commercial establishments for food, clothing, and other necessities, but do not have the infrastructure and resources that community or hub towns have to be fully self-sufficient. The towns exist solely to support the mine.
In some instances, mining towns may grow larger if the mine lasts longer than two hundred years. In these cases, the mining town may grow to support more residences and businesses.
Community Towns
Community towns are where the vast majority of desert dwellers live. These towns are fairly permanent within the desert and usually have between 5000 and 10,000 residents. They have a myriad of shops, a small, yet functioning government, a warrior guild branch, and some form of protection including walls with manned gates. They are usually patrolled by the desert rangers and many towns even have some form of internal law enforcement as well.
Families within community towns are extremely close knit. In general, it can be hard for an immigrant to take up residence in one of these towns because they are occupied by people whose families have lived there for several generations. Most community towns have a few dozen entrenched clans whose families make up the core of the population. They are suspicious and unwelcoming to outsiders as a matter of security. As such, most communities require a reference from an existing, long-standing community member before a new family can move in.
Community towns are fairly self-contained and safe. Though they are still targeted by raiders and bandits, they are still more protected than the smaller border towns. Most residents of community towns typically work for one of the major mining companies and commute to mining towns for work.
Hub Towns
Hub Towns are the largest towns in the desert and are the most permanent of all desert towns as they are either owned or largely controlled by one of the big corporations that operates solely out of the desert. These towns basically serve as hubs for their particular businesses and as a result have far more amenities than other desert towns since chief and senior staff live there. It is not uncommon for a community town to evolve into a hub town once it reaches a certain size or level of importance. In contrast, an existing hub town may devolve into a community town as its importance wains.
Hub towns have populations between 15,000 and 20,000 and typically function as hubs for one or more transportation companies as well since its lower-class residences usually work in the mining towns. Hub towns also function as central areas for merchants and traders who buy the mined and refined quartz. As such, a few hub towns are located at the southern and eastern edge of the desert giving them access to the ocean. Large ports are used to take in ships that transport quartz to other areas around the world which is preferable to translifts considering the myriad of destinations they have import and export arrangements with.
Like community towns, hub towns are fully self sufficient and are well protected since they are usually the homes of high-level officials of a particular company. The desert rangers typically have stations within community towns, and they are heavily guarded. It is slightly easier to move into a hub town than a regular community town as long as you have the money to afford it though the cost of living can be high depending on what part of town you live in.
Most hub towns meet all of the requirements to be accredited by the Fantasmal Government but actively refuse to since these towns are essentially owned by the companies that control them and they do not want world government interference.

Nomadic Tribes

In addition to the dozens of towns sprinkled throughout the Crystal Sands, the desert is home to another fairly large population of people known as desert nomads. These are small tribes of people who move throughout the north-eastern section of the desert not staying in one place for longer than a few years. Each individual nomadic tribe is around one hundred people and comprised of several families.
They do not build permanent dwellings and survive by hunting the local wildlife for food and using special implements to gain access to underground water reserves without building large wells or complex plumbing systems. They make their own clothing and tools, and each tribe is completely self-sufficient.
Despite each tribe’s apparent independence, it’s presumed that they all function as one large community. All of the nomads speak the same language which is distinctly different from the almost universally adopted Common language. In addition, there are no quarrels or conflicts between the individual tribes, and they seem to coordinate where each tribe will settle so as to not interfere with one another. Tribes will also come to others’ aid if they are attacked by bandits or slavers.
The nomads tend to confine themselves to a relatively small area of the desert near the northern mountains and have little interaction with any of the towns, though they are not hostile in any way, unless provoked. Mining companies tend to stay away from the nomads to avoid conflicts. Since mining towns tend to be very small, they can be established in areas that coexist with the nomadic population. Because of this, the prevailing opinion is that since the nomads are easy to work around, provoking them in any way is bad for business.

Crime & Law Enforcement

The Crystal Sands Desert is the only populated region in the world where the Fantasmal Government has virtually no presence. This is due to the adimus draining nature of the desert crystal. Because of this, guardians, which are the force dispatched throughout the world to enforce global law and be an aid to the people, aren’t present at all, since their powers would be completely nullified. In addition, the Fantasma does not deploy military troops from the Fantasmal Forces to the desert since the military cannot be used as local law enforcement as that would be a violation of the government’s core tenants.
The only presence the Fantasmal Government has in the desert is by way of the Fantasmal Prison complex located there. Particularly dangerous and powerful adimus users are sent to this particular prison location since none are immune to the draining affects of the desert crystal, making it easier to control the prison population.
Given all this, the desert towns must be completely self-reliant when it comes to combatting crime throughout the desert. Far from complaining about this outcome, in general there is no opposition to this because the massive corporations that operate within the desert prefer autonomy. It allows them to rule over the desert region in a way that serves their interests. They actively prevent towns from becoming accredited by the Fantasmal Government to avoid taxation and outside interference and also control the flow of information leaving the desert to cover up the rampant crime, poverty, and abuse of power that occurs throughout the Crystal Sands.
Bandits, raiders, and slavers are more prevalent in the desert than anywhere else in the world, and in some cases are even covertly sanctioned by certain companies if their exploits align with corporate interests. Despite this, law enforcement or protection of some kind exists in almost every town. The Warrior Guild has a strong presence in the desert and their members are typically hired as guards, security, or other forms of protection. In addition, there is a formal policing body that operates throughout the desert known as the desert rangers, though their influence is limited.
Desert Rangers
The desert rangers are the only officially sanctioned law enforcement agency that cover the entire desert region. They are not a government sponsored agency but rather a private organization that all towns within the desert recognize.
The desert rangers were formed by several large mining corporations in 3734 PM as a way to combat systemic crime in the region. As hub towns became larger, there was a need for a policing force, but the companies wanted an agency that they could have more control than a government run agency. So, the three major mining corporations at the time came together and established the desert rangers. In the beginning, the rangers only supported the three hub towns of the corporations that founded them, along with their mining towns. However, over the millennium, the major corporations that run mining operations throughout the desert changed and eventually the rangers became a fully independent organization.
Though the rangers are now advertised as a regional law enforcement agency that support all towns throughout the desert, the truth is more complex. As a private organization, they receive no official government funding. Though some towns, specifically community towns, pay for their services, the bulk of their funding still comes from large corporations who pay them to safeguard their interests. Because of this, the rangers focus is often skewed toward the hub and mining towns of these companies, and other towns, especially those who cannot afford to pay their regular fees, may be overlooked.
Slave Trade
The Crystal Sands Desert is the only region in the world that has had an active slave trade since slavery was banned in 95 TS. Throughout the TS era, the slave trading slowly declined due to a concerted effort from the Sunnin Social System but it wasn’t fully eliminated. Later, in the TA era, the slave trade started to ramp back up and after several centuries reached a height not seen since before slavery was banned. This rise in slavery correlates with a withdrawal of the Sunnin services in the desert region

Page Contents

Domain Profile:

Domain Type	Region
Established	2462 PM
Population	≈ 2,000,000
Government	N/A
Time Shift	+2 / +3 FT

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by chaimholtjer