The Great Basin Desert

The lands to the west of the Inland Sea include the homelands of three races of the Folk of Cartyrion: the Orcs in the north, Feliseans in the south, and the Chittiki in between. Most Orcs and Feliseans live outside the ring-wall formed by the Eastern and Western Basin Wall mountain chains, but the Chittiki homelands lie within the huge basin formed by these mountains. When they were first Awakened, the ratfolk found this land challenging, but it did provide for their needs. Since the Drying, which happened during the Great Strife, though, this region has become one of the most inhospitable places on all of Cartyrion.

Geography

The Great Basin Desert is a roughly egg-shaped region. To the west, the Western Basin Wall mountains separate it from lower Lanlokan and the Cold Lakes regions. To the south and east, the Eastern Basin mountain range separates it from the narrow strips of land along the Inland Sea and Great Sea. These two ranges form an almost continuous wall of peaks around the desert, with only a narrow gap at far north providing passage to the grassland plains of Lanlokan.

In the center of the desert, a large lake can be found. Before the Great Strife, rains that fell within the basin would drain into this lake, and the land around it teemed with life. Since the Great Strife, though, it is acidic, and except for the abominable Spitters that now make their home there, it is completely lifeless. THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR MAP

Flora, Fauna, and Population

Few things can live for very long in the desert. There are a few varieties of succulent plants that grow roots long enough to reach down to deep underground water reserves. A few insects and small reptiles survive by feeding off these plants. Only two larger, predatory species can be found: the One-Frilled and Two-Frilled Sandrunners. The aforementioned Spitters near the central lake, are said to subsist on the acids and minerals of the lake itself.

There are no permanent settlements in the desert. The Warrens, the Chittiki homelands can be found where it meets the Basin Wall along its eastern edges, and most of the ratfolk do not venture into the wastelands. There is, however, a subculture of Chittiki - the Sandfolk that live a nomadic life in the open expanses of the great desert, herding and hunting Sandrunners, and harvesting Spitter Spit to trade. Within the mountain ring in the southwestern corner of the desert, the Dwarven Delve known as the Sandhold

Climate

Since the Great Strife, the climate of the Great Basin Desert is the drier than anywhere else on all of Cartyrion. The magic responsible for the Drying apparently still remains in force; it has not rained within the basin in over two thousand years.

Unique Weather Phenomena

The northern gap between the Basin Wall chains provides a narrowing passage which funnels the prevailing westerly winds of the Cold Lake and Lanlokan regions into the Basin. Once inside, large, counterclockwise swirling wind patterns establish themselves. This hot, dry wind of approximately ten miles per hour is more or less perpetual, though it does fall calm sometimes at night. Conversely, windstorms do occur from time to time which lead to the most dangerous conditions the desert has to offer.

Sandstorms

Occasionally, storms will blow in through the northern gap, and while the dessicating magics of the Great Strife era may strip those storms of their precipitation, they do nothing to slow the winds. When these windstorms strike they will raise up great clouds of the dusty sand of the desert.

Sandstorms will appear as a billowing wall of yellowish brown roiling over the terrain. Anyone or anything engulfed by them will find visibilty reduced to near zero. The air becomes practically unbreathable as it fills with the fine sand; anyone without adequate protection will find it difficult to survive.

Sandstorms are also known to generate a large number of lightning strikes as well. These strikes will seek out anything - or anyone - that stands above the surrounding terrain; making them highly feared by the nomads in the desert as well as any merchant caravans skirting the desert's edge.

Shredders

As fearful asa the Sandstorms are, even more terrifying are the rarer, but far deadlier storms that the Sandrunner Folk call Shredders. Sandstorms are huge, affect large swathes of land at a time, and can be seen approaching hours before they strike. Shredders, on the other hand, are tornado-like storms that can appear almost without warning from a clear sky if the wind patterns are just right.

When the funnels of swirling wind, which can be spinning at over a hundred miles per hour, touch down in the sand, they immediately raise the desert floor up into an opaque cone-shaped zone of death where the sharp-edged particles of sand can flay the skin and muscles off any living creature in minutes. Larger Shredder storms have been known to visibly erode rock formations with their passing. Fortunately, these storms rarely last more than several minutes, and dissipate as quickly as they form.

Credits

Banner Image and left panel of page background by Greg Montani from Pixabay
Right panel of page background by kevberon from Pixabay