The Shifting Sands
The continent of Taisha is home to many of Pax's differing biomes. This includes sub arctic tundra, tropical rainforest, biodiverse coastlands and temperate forests. Highland snows amongst the mountains are not uncommon. And yet, Taisha is home to the largest expanse of desert in the world. Within the seemingly endless boundaries and infinite sand of the Rhegev Desert, lie regions known only to the deep desert dwellers; they who call themselves Singers.
The Singers and their priests, The Tchamut, are the only peoples living and thriving in the deepest desert, other than small pockets of well organized and exceptionally hardy individuals. This has made it difficult for The Bardic College Campus School of Geography to accurately map the area; travel to these regions is at one's own risk. Indeed the very cursory works we do have come to us through the use and testing of Dr. G. Gnormand Gnomanclature III's barrier suits for forays into the lower planes, such as Avernus. Or Phlegethos. So we will endeavor, here, to lay out what little we do know about the area of the Rhegev Desert known to the locals as the Shifting Sands.
While the name may seem underwhelmingly underimaginiative, there are several layers to to moniker that detail the area in a manner enlightening to the mindset of the population. A population so scarce that, statistically, the entire area is uninhabited. The sand, themselves, are made up of silicate spheroids, as opposed to simple grains of crystalline, cubed sand. So, while they may be comprised of the same elements, the Simple Sands and the Shifting Sands are very different from one another. Firstly, to move about upon the Shifting Sands, one must be able to displace the spheroidal micrograins of glass as one would water. Indeed, a vessel is necessary to travel upon the slithering sands. These conveyances are wider and shallower than their oceangoing counterparts, although they are powered by wind one as like the other.
One could be forgiven for asking why, under heaven, anyone would want to sail on a sea of glass spherules. This is a question The Bardic College Campus's anthropology department has been trying to definitively answer since early 4120NG. It has been deduced that there must be places of great difficulty to get to, but great worth in going. And, guaging by the items sold in the bazaar at Cannat Glaine annually, the bounty involves crystals. Many different types, for certain, but those used for the creation of psi-crystals are sourced from the bazaar, alone.
Admittedly sketchy tales of geode oases abound amongst the Singers, but there is cause to beleive these are just flights of fancy told to outsiders.
Attempting to walk upon the Shifting Sands will always result in a slow death, as the creature caught walking upon the tiny orbs of glass will slowly sink and be suffocated over the course of perhaps ten minutes. Imagine the secrets held at the bottom of the Shifting Sands?Geography
A geological anomaly, the Shifting Sands are, in essence, a massive and deadly ball pit.
Ecosystem
Nothing known grows naturally in the Shifting Sands.
Localized Phenomena
One can reliably steer one's hisser with the plethora of drafts and wind streams above the desert. One can reliably navigate by the stars.
Climate
Reaching 112° F regularly, the glass spherules making up the sands and dunes retain quite a bit of heat, and will burn if touched unprotected.
Fauna & Flora
There is no known flora or fauna aboriginal to the area, as far as the College is aware.
Natural Resources
Glass.
Tellus SR
Hisser Hissen
Vehicle
Legendary Not required
These contrivances allow safe travel throughout the The Shifting Sands region of the Rhegev Desert.
Hisser Hissen by nightcafe ai
Each hisser is as different from another as people are from each other, and that is because there is no mass production of them. At any given time, there might be up to five of these craft. Each of them is hand crafted by the owner and operator, and each is such a personal feat of engineering that when the builder dies, the hisser winds up succumbing to dry rot in the middle of the desert, and sinking into the spherules of glass that make up the Shifting Sands.
Hissers are powered by wind. Some have used conventional sails, as would a ship at sea, but most have used a large box kite that is launched at the beginning of the day. as the sun rises, and the drafts really ramp themselves up.
Cost: Variable; they are all "custom" made.
Weight: Variable, very heavy
Alternative Name(s)
The hissing sand
Type
Desert
Vehicles Present
Location under
Related Traditions
Inhabiting Species
Related Professions
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