Ashurians

The Ashurian Desert is a deep sand desert between the Zakros Mountains and the Sea of Spices or the Ammuyad Caliphate’s Desert Wall. In the southeast, it blends into the arid lands in the southwest of the Istaflumina region. Its primary inhabitants are nomadic tribes, though several permanent settlements exist around oases, especially along the Great Caravan Road across the caliphate.
The area is named for the ancient Empire of Assuria to the east, which held sway over the area thousands of years ago when it was fertile farmland. Following the creation of the Tropic of Arden 180 years before the arrival of the Hyperboreans, violent earthquakes and volcanic activity in the western Zakros Mountains drove the Assurians out of their cool mountain villas. On The Plains, weather patterns changed and the rains ceased to fall. Within a generation, the entire area became as dry as dust, and the Assurians were forced to abandon the cities they had built and return to their protected homeland. Gradually the sand rose and covered the ruins and continued to rise until great dunes blow constantly. Sometimes when the wind is persistent in an area, enough sand moves to uncover the houses or ziggurats of the ancient ruins.
The dunes have dried out and covered all the rivers but the fast-moving Havari, which begins deep in the Zakros Mountains. However, some of these river beds still serve to transport moisture from mountain runoff or the occasional desert rainstorm into the earth where it provides water for oases or wells.