The Osmad Desert
A harsh, dry climate, yet also the golden crown of civilization.
Far south on the continent of Veridia lies the Crown of Civilization, the Osmad Desert. Despite searing heat, hostile fauna, and little water, civilization thrives in this region. Its largest city, Bekilk, is situated the large Dawnbreak Oasis, providing water for crops that feed almost the entire region.
The Osmad Desert is infamous for its vicious sandstorms and deadly fauna, including but not limited to, basilisks and wyverns. It is also known for a lost civilization, buried in its infinite and shifting sands.
Geography
The Osmad desert is mostly dry and flat, with the exception the oasis that is home to the city of Bekilk. It is surrounded almost entirely by mountains, which block the moisture from the ocean from traveling over the land, giving the Osmad its dry climate. Particularly loose sands make travel somewhat of a hassle to the unprepared, but this is not a problem in the vicinity of the Emerald River that cuts through the land, emptying out into the ocean to the south.
The Vagrant Dunes
The Vagrant Dunes, traversed by the very first vagrants from the north, and still traversed by present day vagrants and merchants, is a vast expanse of nothingness. It consists of miles upon miles of barren dunes. It would be trivial to get lost, since there are no noticeable landmarks and all the dunes tend to look the same, thus many early vagrants have met their end in these sands. Fortunately, a main path has since been marked and maintained, so as long as one sticks to the road, they shouldn't have to worry about getting lost. Surviving the searing sun and occasional sandstorm? That's a different problem.The Ember Fields
Traveling east from Bekilk, a perceptive individual might notice something shiny among the desert sand. Due to the heat, or a high concentration of raw elemental energy, or perhaps both, small red glass-like crystals form in the sand in this area. These "Embers" can be as small as an average coin or as large as a person's head. Though not particularly valuable, these crystals can serve as a nice piece of decoration and are also tools to channel the Weave for use in arcane magic. Some people make it their profession to comb the Ember Fields for these crystals. A lucky Ember Collector can make up to 5 gp a day (though most are not that lucky) by selling the crystals to artisan jewelers or mages.The Emerald Gulch
A hundred or so miles upriver from the Dawnbreak Oasis, the Emerald River has chiseled away a giant ravine into the earth. The Emerald Gulch is massive - about 50 miles wide, 100 miles long, and 500 ft deep in most places. The earth here is much more rocky and solid than elsewhere in the desert, with which over thousands of years of erosion have created stunning rock formations unlike anywhere else in Veridia. This would make it a popular tourist destination, however, the Gulch is also the home of a large concentration of deadly creatures, including Wyverns and Basilisks.The Dawnbreak Oasis
Named after the god of sun and agriculture, the Dawnbreak Oasis is the centerpiece of the Osmad Desert. It is a haven for travelers, a spot of green in an otherwise bleak desert, an area of vibrant life in an otherwise barren land. It is the middle point of the Emerald River, where it gathers before continuing downstream to the ocean. On the north side of the Oasis, the city of Bekilk is established. The Oasis provides fresh drinking water for the people of the city, and hydrates the farmlands around it. There are rumors that an ancient vault of treasure lies underneath the Oasis, but this just a rumor.The Badlands
Believed to be a site where the boundary between the Elemental Plane of Air is the thinnest, The Badlands experiences searing heat, constant howling winds, and hazardous sandstorms which make it a terrible place to be. Few people live here, and those that do are driven to extreme levels of madness by the wind and heat that they are considered to be uncivilized marauders by the Osmad Sultanate. It is rumored that even a blue dragon that made its home here went insane from the nature of the Badlands.Localized Phenomena
The Osmad Desert at its best can be a treacherous land to explore unprepared. Some places are days away from any source of water or civilization. The extreme day and night temperatures often make travel difficult except at certain times. Unfortunately, the Osmad Desert is rarely that tame.
The largest threat anywhere within the Osmad are the sandstorms. Also referred to as Flaywind, the loose sand particles can easily be swept up by violent winds and form a cloud of pure sand, dust, and debris. Some sandstorms range from about a mile in size and only last a few hours, while the most deadly can swallow whole towns for days at a time. Sandstorms occur with more frequency and magnitude towards the southwest of the desert, with The Badlands almost constantly shrouded in a veil of sand. Sandstorms are believed to originate there, due to the strong winds from the region's overlap with the Elemental Plane of Air. Exposure to a sandstorm is extremely dangerous. The Osmad people have experienced many such storms, and when traveling, often wear thick headscarves to stop them from inhaling the sand, as well as goggles to allow them to see. When a sandstorm hits a town, the residents are advised to stay at home and cover all windows and doors with spare cloth to stop the sand from getting in. The especially violent Flaywinds can be very destructive. Such storms are known to generate huge amounts of static electricity that result in discharges of destructive lightning. Storms originating from the Badlands can even summon air elementals that wreak havoc.
A much less common phenomenon, but just as deadly, is the fabled mirage. Legends speak of weary travelers with no hope spot a vibrant oasis in the middle of nowhere, only for that hope to be crushed when they find it to be an illusion. No one understands exactly how this occurs. Some claim it to be a hallucination resulting from severe thirst or heat exhaustion, but mirages have occurred to people who were healthy. Multiple people also report having the same hallucination. Regardless, Osmad inhabitants spread stories of these mirages in an effort to warn travelers not to trust everything they see far from civilization.
Fauna & Flora
Not much lives in a desert, but the Osmad has found itself home to a number of creatures which range from donkeys, camels, hares, snakes, and scorpions to deadly basilisks, wyverns, and blue dragons.
Natural Resources
The only accessable clean water in the region is available in the oasis near Bekilk. In addition to that, the extreme desert heat has created small but pretty crystals in the sand known as embers. Many of these embers can be found around Embercity. In the Modern Era, large oil reserves were discovered and exploited, making the region one of the largest exporters of oil products in the world.
History
Long before the Osmad Sultanate controlled the region, a civilization of dragonborn, known as the Ibzians, ruled from their capitol of Ryna. They built great monuments and structures that would rival even those of the present day. However, a tyrannical red dragon known as Rhenos the Terrible attacked and ruined the Ibzian society, enslaving the survivors.
In 50 CE, vagrants from the north entered the Osmad in search of riches and a new home. What they found instead was a mighty red dragon and a ruined society. Still vengeful from the end of the Chromatic War (which ended only 50 years prior), the vagrants took up arms and gathered some of the locals and fought the dragon. In the end, Rhenos was defeated, and shortly afterwards, the city of Bekilk was founded on the dragon's lair by the Dawnbreak Oasis. Soon, this expanded into the Osmad Sultanate. The Sultanate has since expanded to cover the entire Osmad Desert (except the Badlands), mostly uncontested, ever since.
The only major conflict in the region in recent times was when the Church of the Sun conspired, and succeeded in taking control of the Sultanate for seven years before it was liberated.
Type
Desert
Included Locations
Included Organizations
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Related Ethnicities
Comments