Vast Desert Region
The Vast Desert is a climatological anomaly. This hot and dry wasteland stretches across terrain neighboring the cold Northlands. According to Hyperborean records, in the past this land was merely a dry, steppe grassland. But upon the destruction of Tsen, the temperatures in the region began to rise and rainfall became even more scarce, which resulted in the sandy, arid landscape of the Vast Desert today.
Scholars who consider the matter largely believe that the event that destroyed Tsen and created the Burning Wastes interacted with the Tropic of Arden in a manner that caused these climate changes to occur. Others, however, speculate that an additional factor may be a heat source lying deep beneath the desert’s surface.
The fine particles of sand in the Vast Desert are hot to the touch, as many travelers can attest (and prove by producing at least one pair of sandals or shoes scorched by prolonged contact with the searing ground). The explanations for this phenomenon run the gamut from natural occurrences such as a subterranean river of lava or an underground peat fire to the fantastical as exemplified by the legends of the sprawling efreeti city to the totally bizarre theory about a perpetually burning crematorium. Supporters of these theories point to the Vast Desert’s temperature data. While daytime highs are fairly normal for the biome’s standards (110° Fahrenheit during the summers and 80° Fahrenheit during the winter), nighttime lows rarely drop more than 20° Fahrenheit overnight, suggesting the dry air either retains more warmth than it should or an alternative heat source keeps the night air downright balmy.
The Sea of Grass is a vast steppe land that stretches from the Northlands in the north to the verges of the Vast Desert and the Xircos River Valleyin the south, from the Stoneheart Mountains in the west to Seagestreland in the east. The long, slow Vindelsalven River runs through its northern reaches and provides a means of transportation from the Stonehearts and Lake Hargos all the way to Seagestre Gulf in the North Sea.
Roaming the Sea of Grass are the K’Haln Tribes, the Mongat Tribes, and the Lundhargo Tribes, the descendants of the Hundaei who once settled these lands during their campaigns against the Hyperboreans. Great beasts also traverse The Plains, tracing ancient migratory paths. There are dangers within the Tanomir Fens, which are said to be the home of strange men with the heads of lizards, great black wyrms that can break a ship in half, and worse.
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