The Diesel Fields

The smog-choked fields that run thick with the black diesel-blood of The Iron Emperor, which surround and connect the lands of the Iron Empire

O Emperor, we ask of you in the name of your people, to bless and sanctify our lives with our sacrifice.
Offer unto us, O Emperor, your breath - for it is the steam that powers our pistons;
Offer unto us, O Emperor, your body - that we may forge it into the mightiest cities and cathedrals of steel;
Offer unto us, O Emperor, your diesel blood - so we may heat our homes and burn your enemies;
Offer unto us, O Emperor, your radiant light - that our souls may find their way back to you even in the deepest darkness;
Your Breath, Your Body, Your Diesel Blood, Your Radiance - bless us this rite and grant us Steel Communion!
That we may live and toil in remembrance of and in witness to you, O Emperor!

— The Prayer of Steel Communion

Geography

The geography of the Diesel Fields is unlike anything else in all the world, for it is both ever-expanding and a wholly alien biome to the planet of Ea at large - marked by lifeless ash-grey rocky badlands where no plantlife can grow, the skies of the Diesel Fields are almost constantly choked with smog and polluted air which keeps the sky almost entirely hidden at all hours of the day and night; a constant sky of roiling black ash and smog, byproduct of the massive Dieselstacks of the Hive Cities of the Iron Empire which churn and roil with thundrous aplomb, unendingly. Massive canyons and deep gouges mar the landscape as well, as the ground cracks and grows ever dryer with each passing year as mighty waterfalls of Diesel Sludge roll off into the depths...
Here, massive rivers of thick diesel sludge cut through the landscape like enormous blackened snakes as runoffs from the massive factories of the Iron Empire's settlements as massive gears, cogs, and fragments of steel litter the ground - ruins of landships, abandoned settlements, massive war machines, and even on rare occasions one of the Iron Empire's Blacktrack Rattlers whose tracks hang hundreds of feet above the ground shuttling cargo at thundrous speeds. Here, in the ruins of what was once verdant grasslands turned to blackened soot and lifeless rocky ground by the ever-churning factories of the Iron Empire, scavengers, undead, outcasts, exiles, and more eke out existences in the shadows of the Iron Empire's ironclad glory and the shadows cast by the enormous Iron Suns which burn above the Iron Empire's cities, casting constant sunlight in and around their walls.

Ecosystem

Wholly unique and disturbing, the Ecosystem of the Diesel Fields isn't what many may think or assume - rather than being wholly dead and dying, the Diesel Fields have a twisted and monstrous ecosystem brought on by the rampant, unchecked pollution of the gigantic Factories of the Iron Empire that cause the Fields' formation to begin with; Here, monstrous acidic and sluge-like rain is a constant occurance alongside ashfall during the winter months(All that remains of what was once snow), while on the ground a terrifying assortment of beasts, inhumans, and more thrive in the brutalistic shadow of rampant industrialization.
Giant megaflora and megafauna grow and live in the fields as twisted aberrant versions of what they may have once been - enormous iron-skinned Grizzly Bears with hides of iron and veins that pulse liquid diesel through swollen hearts, massive plants that tower hundreds of feet into the air adapted to extract what miniscule nutrients remain in the diesel rivers that knife through the landscape, and a vast variety of exiles, settlers, and other outcasts live here among the towering ruins, discarded cogs, abandoned settlements, and warmachines left to rust and rot, growing beneath and around the rusting megastructures of the fields.
In short, the ecosystem of the Diesel Fields is one where only the most brutal, cunning, or lucky can survive - especially if one does not align oneself to one of the "gangs" or "groups" that prowl the fields eagerly hunting for outcasts from the Hive Cities, making a living in the shadows of steel that dot the landscape.

Ecosystem Cycles

There remains little in the way of seasons in the Diesel Fields - the rampant pollution of the Iron Empire under Tavross, The Iron Emperor has dampened all sense of time in the Fields until little more remains than some changes that occur during the height of summer and depths of winter - where the sun is visible for short periods of time and ashfall replaces acid rain, respectively. The temperature here remains hot and arid almost constantly, with temperatures dropping slightly at night but little else otherwise.
Essentially, the entirety of the Diesel Fields experiences a muted version of the passing of the seasons - barely recognizable beneath the smog-choked sky.

Localized Phenomena

Most notable among the phenomena in the Diesel Fields is the much-maligned acid rain that falls from the sky in semi-regular intervals - the pollution in the sky so chokingly thick that any rainfall that collects in the sky falls to the ground as mildly acidic vapor and runoff liquid, wounding or even killing those caught outside in it without adequate protection or shelter for extended periods of time. Aside from this acid rain, however, are a myriad of other minor phenomena such as Ashfall(Replacing snowfall during the winter months), and unique points during the summer months known as "Smogburst" when the normally thick curtain of smog clears during the peak of the Summer Months when the power of Tavross, The Iron Emperor is at its apex, allowing for much easier travel across the Fields as day and night cease to change for days or weeks at a time as the sun shines almost all day and night.
Perhaps most dangerously of all are the much feared "Steam Geysers" that dot the landscape, which the locals refer to as "Airholes" - massive and sudden gouts of steam which burst from the ground from hard to see emergence holes which are capable of not only sending creatures flying into the air, but melting flesh from bone and stripping paint from steel. The cause of these geysers is unknown to the Field dwellers, though many assume them to be bursts of energy from underground steampipes or wrathful outbursts of air from Tavross, The Iron Emperor's godly lungs.
Otherwise, most normal phenomena exist here, but at a much more dangerous level than normal - if it exists in normal biomes, it likely is present in the Diesel Fields albeit much more dangerous or lethal than normal.

Climate

The Climate of the Diesel Fields is a constant barrage of heat and arid dryness that assaults the senses - though near the massive diesel rivers that flow as runoffs from the Iron Empire's Hive Cities, the air turns a great deal more acrid and humid.
Aside from slight variations in temperature, the Climate stays fairly constant across the Fields year-round.

Natural Resources

The Fields's natural resources are measured in Smog, Steam, and Diesel - though raw steel is also a massive resource here, giving rise to a huge scavenging industry all across the Fields for those daring enough to delve into the ruins and beneath the towering scrapyards to make a living, as the Iron Empire happily and eagerly trades with those who scavenge the materials left behind in the Fields.
Many of these very resources and more which lurk above and below the ground are a result of centuries of abandonment of settlements, warmachines, half-completed construction projects, diesel rivers and lakes, and other such resources created by the Cities of the Iron Empire.

History

The Diesel Fields are not a natural biome of the Planet of Ea, this much is widely known - and is was not until the rise of Tavross, The Iron Emperor and his Iron Empire that they came into existance at all. Formed in the decades after the creation of the first of the Empire's Hive Cities after the Skyfall Calamity which nearly cracked the Planet of Ea in half and created the feared Black Desert, the Diesel Fields were a slowly-arriving cancer created as a byproduct of the rampant pollution of the newly created Iron Factoriums which recklessly absorbed the nutrients from the land to ensure the survival of the Hive City dwellers, uncaring for the land outside the walls.
The Diesel Fields, unfortunately, were the result of centuries and even milennia of this reckless pollution - dead, smog-choked land linking the cities and fortresses of the Iron Empire which now stand as an unfortunate hallmark of when a traveler has entered the heart of the Iron Empire's territory.
For its part, the Iron Empire cares little for the existence of the Fields - often even seeing them as a useful advantage and natural barrier against land-based attack.

Tourism

No one visits the Diesel Fields voluntarily - most of the population in the Fields consists of outcasts, exiles, roaming Diesel Gangs, and the extremely feared and well-protected Iron Caravans that occasionally travel between the cities of the Empire through the Fields. In fact, the Fields are often used as an area to send exiles and outcasts who don't quite deserve outright execution - a practice that has created suprisingly large populations in the Fields.

Alternative Name(s)

The Iron Wastes, The Deadlands

Type

Region

Owner/Ruler

Tavross, The Iron Emperor