Malignom's Forge
Geography
The desert stretches over 1,700 miles east to west and 600 miles north to south, covering 550,000 square miles. The north and east are bordered by the Estaes Ocean, and the west by the Sinefin Ocean. The southern edge is defined by the Saxis Mountains and the Salle River.
Most of the terrain consists of rocky plateaus and canyons, where deflation has removed most of the sand. Stretches of dunes exist throughout the desert, although their locations tend to shift over the seasons. The eastern stretches of the desert, within a hundred miles of the coast, are consistently sandy, with dunes that can reach hundreds of feet high. Even there, however, there are rocky stretches, as well as oases and stretches of wet riverbeds that has desert scrub and grass.
There are several mountain ranges inside the desert, one in the northeast with several active volcanoes. The southern stretches have a large number of mesas and plateaus, where most of the permanent settlers of the desert live.
Ecosystem
Rainfall totals across the desert vary, with the eastern dunes having as little as 1-2 inches a year, while the southern reaches can have 9-10. Almost all of this rain comes during two rainy seasons. The first comes in the months from just before the southern hemisphere's summer solstice, up to the fall equinox. A shorter season with more total rain hits after the winter solstice for two months, with almost no rain for the three months thereafter.
The heavy winter rains raise the levels of all the mountain streams and rivers that feed the Salle, bringing flooding to the Salle Delta on the eastern coast. The flooding fertilizes the valley, turning an arid stretch into a massive producer of food. Both rainy seasons also fill the wadi in the central regions of the desert, providing food and water for the nomadic tribes that move around the foothills of the northern mountains, and the permanent settlements around the southern mesas.
In the wadis near the settlements, crops are grown in multiple layers. The highest are the date palms, which provide protection and shade for the lower layers. Below that can be fruit trees, cereal grains, or other vegetables. Along the mountains in the north, there is not enough water to sustain farming, so the nomads circle the various oases and wadis, taking wild grown food and water as it is available.
The nomads also rely heavily on the fauna living in the area. Reptiles of many species are found throughout the desert. Notable species include the venomous spitting lizards, which are less than a foot long but can spit venom over fifty feet, the fast moving and deadly atrox lizard, or the 10 foot long dragon lizard. Along side them are many species of smaller lizards that are harmless to most humanoids, and are used as food by both humanoids and other animals. These lizards feed on insects, seeds, cacti, and other plants.
In addition to the lizards are a number of birds - including, according to legend, a phoenix that reappears every thousand years - and some members of the dragon family. Psuedodragons and drakes are rare sightings, but not unheard of, while the blue and brass dragons are almost never seen by anyone who lives to tell the tale.
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