Desert of Coasnia

The Desert of Coasnia covers a large portion of the countries eastern side where the mountains block much of the approaching rainfall. As with many deserts its temperature varies wildly depending of if it is night or day. The sand reflects the sun's full force during the day and has little to no cover to hold that heat in the chill of the night allowing the temp to become freezing.

Wildlife

Despite it's harsh conditions many creatures inhabbit the desert including Coasnia's famous Crabwalker snakes that slither sideways over dunes with grace their name doesn't do justice. Other inhabitants include western jackals, sand deer, boulder lizards, and haremice. These animals subsist of both each other and several hardy desert plants including the desert peony tree, tumbleweeds, and many species of cactus including the blue castle, pumapaw fruit, and crucible of thorns.
While it is usually considered rude to refer to them as wildlife humans are known to inhabit the desert as well.

Resources

While the heat and cold are punishing and the scarcity of water makes large scale operations hard to manage there are several valuable resources that exist in the desert. The one that comes to most people's mind is the opal and amber mines. Both have use as magic crafting materials, decorative value, and as a trade material with nations across the world.

Erosion

Ussually with unique climates the issue is that they end up shrinking. This is a fascinating fringe case in which that is not wholly true. While human settlements do continue to expand into the Desert of Coasnia the desert also is creeping further and further south into the bordering scrub land. The main causes to the expansion have been identified as the removal of important cover growth that is hard to replace in the heat. Studies are ongoing to develop ways to naturally halt the desert's spread with several planting arrangements being tested currently. The attempts are spearheaded by the Coasnian Department of agriculture and supported by several major agricultural companies and educational organizations.