Sahran
Sahran, a great and vast desert, its dunes baked by relentless daylight and left bone-chillingly cold by its merciless nightlight. It is not a welcoming place, yet live still thrives here. Hardy animals traverse the sands in search of food, nomadic tribes journey together bedecked in protective clothing and brave travelers search for treasures yet lost in the sand.
Sahran is a place of danger and oppertunity in equal measure, but to thrive, let alone survive, requires determination, toughness and a clear mind. Anything less and the desert will leave nothing but polished bones to be bleached by daylight.
Geography
Sahran is a vast, hot desert, a veritable sea of sand and dunes. The monotony of its landscape is occasionally broken up by clusters of greenery centering around naturally occurring springs and oases. In other places, the sand gives way to jagged rocks and rising cliffs, many of which contains vast mineral riches.
In between the dunes also like many abandoned structures, once home to the jinn before the War of Broken Chains. Adventures and explorers alike comb the Sahran desert for yet to be explroed sites, as they are usually treasure troves of magical curios and valuables.
Ecosystem
The most present danger of Sahran is the temperature, which swings from baking heat to freezing cold depending on the time of the cycle. Most creatures living there are either protected against it or have other methods to secure themselves.
The second issue is the lack of ressources. Most organisms therefore have incredibly efficient metabolisms that allows them to sustain themselves for long time on sparse food and water.
Finally, the sheer size of Sahran makes it a challenge to navigate. Native lifeforms tend to have good memory for the geography.
Localized Phenomena
Having been home to jinn for many thousand years, the desert is also pockmarked with their work, ranging from strange works of art to curious magical phenomena. Other phenomena are more natural, including patches of hollow sand that magnifies sound or pools of semi-liquid much that can drown the careless.
Fauna & Flora
Many hardy animals manage to live in Sahran. The hardy camel is one of the most famous. Capable of living off very little food and water, they make their journeys across the dunes.
The desert elephants live a similar lifestyle. Their flocks wander from watering hole to watering hole, their herds migrating along routes traced by their ancestors many generation ago.
Much slower and solitary is the giant desert tortoise. Lacking speed, they must endure even long periods in between respite from oases. As such, their shells help reflect the heat and cold, while their bodies store as much liquid as possible.
Sand cobras lurk in the dunes, basking in the daylight and lurking in hollows to hide from the cold night. Large and venomous, they are one of the primary predators of the Sahran desert.
Other animals make forays into the desert, but do not stay for long. Jackals come down from the more rocky regions to hunt camels and very young elephants, usually in the time that the world heart shifts between day- and nightlight. Migrating troops of oasis gorillas quickly cross the sands to settle new territory, having few options other that speed to beat the heat.
Natural Resources
Sahran is rich in minerals of all sorts and many miners have dug up a wealth of iron, copper and gold. The magical phenomena of the desert can also be harnessed by the creative. The town of Jhaleed, for example, was built on top of a massive underground deposit of ice, a rarity in Sabiralsahra. Finally, many magical items and valuable art objects have been left buried in the sand by jinn, attracting brave adventures to crisscross the sands for any sign of jinn architecture.
History
Before anything else in Sabiralsahra, there was Sahran. This vast desert has been around since the birth of the sphere. The first of the jinn congregated among its scorched dunes to build their beautiful palaces. The first of humans and ogres to serve the jinn toiled and wandered it's parched landscape at their behest of their masters.
The War of Broken Chains raged across the sands, painting them red and black with blood and ash. After the Pact of Three Wishes, it became the primary home of the Qawramal nomads. Suqaran and Rishine trade caravans began travelling routes mapped by brave explorers to earn money and accolades. Adventuring parties began delving in the dunes to look for lost relics of the jinn, while the jinn of the modern day began searching the dunes for their abandoned history.
The Sahran desert has seen all this and more. And most assume it will yet witness many more things before the world heart finally goes dark.
Tourism
Certainly, tourist travel through the area, but rarely is it to visit Sahran itself, outside of adventuring types looking to strike rich. Most travelers cross the desert alongside trade caravans to faraway destinations, like Rishinile, Wahah or the jinn city of Madinal Aljamr.
Type
Desert
Included Locations
Related Ethnicities
Inhabiting Species
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