The Tempest Preserve

Introduction

The beauty and splendor of The Tempest Preserve is a sight that many dream of, but few actually venture into the treacherous desert. Other than the natives who live there, travel through this expanse is recommended for only veteran explorers or those who have made the journey before. Extreme weather, deadly predators, harsh living conditions, and few landmarks attribute to the difficulty of navigating through this deadly region of Vexora.

Geography

The desert reaches just over 100 miles long from it's north-most point to south-most point, and 60 miles from east to west. Ocean waves violently crash hundreds of feet below the western cliffs, taunting creatures as they traverse the otherwise dry and desolate terrain. The expanse comes an end in the east as the sands slowly start merging with the grassy hills and plains of central Vexora. To the south, the sands of the Tempest Preserve begin to fall into The Thirsting River, and in the north they press against the entrance to The Shadowed Peaks. Although a majority of the expanse is rolling dunes of sand, there are still notable points of interest, such as the Magnetic Maze, the Forsaken Groves, and the Hourglass Mines.

Climate

The cool ocean air from the west combines with the dry desert heat, resulting in innumerable and tireless lightning storms throughout The Tempest Preserve during the year. Rainfall only accompanies roughly 5% of the storms that brew in the region, but with how often they occur this results in more precipitation than the typical desert. Since the desert resides hundreds of feet over the western waves, brutal winds often pass through the terrain.
Vexora as a continent falls geographically in a location with lengthy summers and short winters. The desert averages between 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit on the typical summer day depending on if storms are brewing, and the nights drop to 50-70 degrees Fahrenheit. During the winter the temperatures drop an average of only 10 degrees Fahrenheit from the day/night summer temperatures. These slightly cooler temperatures are accompanied with higher wind speeds and more violent lightning storms.

Unique Features

Unlike the usual desert, the sands of The Tempest Preserve range from colors of deep navy to bright silver. For a few reasons this material (that only exists throughout this desert) has been given the name "Storm Gravel".
First, the individual pieces of the sand are slightly thicker/bulkier than the sands you would find in the oceans or other deserts of Vexora. Because of this, low winds are less likely to disturb the terrain, but high velocity gusts can pick up these pebble-sized grains and cause significant damage to structures or creatures caught in them.
Next, the individual sand particles are magnetically attracted to other pieces of sand that share a color with them. For example, a piece of navy Storm Gravel has a slight attractive force that pulls other navy pieces towards it, whereas the sand particles that are more on the silver color spectrum aren't as influenced to move in that direction. Even when winds have settled in the desert, the sands continue to slowly shift around due to these magnetic pulls. Because of the similar colored sands migrating towards other portions that share similar tints, an aerial or elevated view of the desert portrays that of a night sky lit up with silver lightning. *Note: the sand is only magnetic towards itself, it has no attraction to metal like a typical magnet.
The third and final feature of Storm Gravel is that it has an incredibly astounding reaction when introduced to lightning. Due to the high occurrence of lightning storms in The Tempest Preserve, the ground is struck with high voltages of electricity on a semi-frequent basis. The Storm Gravel reacts to this by violently exploding, and when the dust settles an opaque glass replica of the bolt of lightning has been created. The strength of the voltage determines how large these "Lightning Trees" are when they form. Areas with high chances of lightning strikes, such as The Forsaken Groves, are so full of these Lightning Trees that the area looks like a forest of glass. And as thunder rolls through The Tempest Preserve, the glass sculptures emit a vibrant golden glow.

Type

Desert