Kailen Desert
The Northumbrian desert refers to the large desert area in the west of Northumbria, otherwise known as Southern Aefareth, and the arid/semi-arid kingdoms that exist within its boundaries. The largest of the territories that make up the Northumbrian desert is the Ørken Desert, a vast expanse of rolling sand dunes, that borders the prosperous and very nature-focused kingdom of Roselia to the east, and the desert kingdom of Aevarin to the west.
Geography
The Northumbrian desert is a large desert area in the middle of Northumbria, historically known as Southern Aefareth; it includes of the Ørken Desert, the territory belonging to the Ørken Tribe, and the desert kingdom of Aevarin. Although they are not desert areas themselves and are instead semi-arid steppe kingdoms, the kingdoms of Nerian and Nainyth are also considered as part of the Northumbrian desert as they experience much of the same climate and temperatures as the actual desert areas despite not being considered deserts themselves.
The Ørken Desert is littered with small oases, and the kingdom of Aevarin has one central oasis in the centre, and smaller ones spread throughout the rest of the kingdom; the semi-arid steppe kingdoms of Nerian and Nainyth have rivers running through them from the neighbouring kingdoms of Nisha and Olympia. Nerian also has a large lake near the border of Nerian and Airolyra.
Ecosystem
The environments of the Ørken Desert and the kingdom of Aevarin are a traditional desert environment--extremely dry with very little vegetation. The Ørken Desert itself consists mostly of sand dunes, although these sand dunes recede into flat sand plains around the oases. Meanwhile the kingdom of Aevarin is mostly desert rock and usually experiences very little sand coverage.
In the steppe kingdoms of Nerian and Nainyth, they are generously covered in grasslands and small shrubbery, but are still no where near to the extent of the forest- and greenery-infested kingdoms in the rest of the Northumbria. Nainyth is more sparsley covered, but enough to sustain the human population living there (with the support of the bordering kingdoms of Alunait and Olympia), where Nerian is more thickly covered in grass and vegetation, and even sports some sparse woodland near their rivers and around their sole lake. They can usually sustain themselves on this vegetation, although rely on Airolyra, Nisha, and Alunait for timber.
Ecosystem Cycles
The large majority of the Northumbrian desert experiences little change to the ecosystem throughout the passing of the seasons. Aevarin and the Ørken Desert both maintain their high temperatures year-round and this does not change even during the autumn and winter months of the year. However, the kingdoms of Nerian and Nainyth, although the high temperatures stick around for the entirety of spring and summer, experience a sharp contrast in the seasons of autumn and winter, where temperatures drop drastically and remain in a very low state until the end of winter and the beginning of spring, where temperatures begin to steadily rise once more.
In the actual desert regions, although the hot temperatures last year round, they do experience their own share of cool temperatures during the evening and night periods of the day, and close to their borders with the forest-covered kingdoms of the rest of Northumbria the temperatures are still warm but are more tolerable to handle.
Localized Phenomena
While the Ørken Desert, Nerian, and Nainyth experiences very little special weather phenomena, the kingdom of Aevarin, although mostly consisting of desert rock, is very nearly always submerged in thick layers of sand during the summer period due to Aevarin's spring windstorms blowing the sand from the Ørken Desert into Aevarin. During this sand-infested summer, these windstorms turn into heavy sandstorms; these sandstorms cover almost the entirety of Aevarin's territory, and most Aevarins know the season of summer to be a period of time where they can very rarely leave their homes. During the early autumn season, the sand brought in during the spring is blown away again back into the Ørken Desert by the autumn storms.
Aevarin also often experiences large rockfalls; the kingdom has large desert rock structures throughout its territory and many of its settlements are built in the shade provided by these rock structures. However, the near constant and heavy sandstorms of the summer erodes at these rock structures, and it is very common for many rock falls from these desert structures to happen throughout the rest of the year, causing widespread damage to the settlements that are sheltered at their bases. These rock falls are the reason for why there are very few settlements in the outer reaches of Aevarin as when they happen the inhabitants often have to evacuate to another nearby settlement until the damage can be repaired, but the outer settlements are all mostly poor and cannot always support the citizens of another for however many months necessary; therefore, there are more settlements concentrated in the center of the kingdom, surrounding the capital, so that when these rockfalls happen, the citizens can evacuate to more wealthy settlements until they are able to return to their homes. The majority of outer settlements are ones found on the desert rock plains, near the outer oases, rather than ones sheltered by rock structures.
Climate
In both the Ørken Desert and the kingdom of Aevarin, the climate is stable year-round with very little changes in it apart from at night when the sun goes down - however, the climate itself consists of scorching temperatures and very little rainfall, which has made their territories very inhospitable to fauna and flora. It is only near the borders with other kingdoms that the climate cools down enough to be tolerable; no longer considered scorching but still hot.
Meanwhile, in Nerian and Nainyth, the temperatures are seasonal; during the spring and summer months, they experience the same scorching temperatures as Aevarin and the Ørken desert, however, during the autumn and winter months, these temperatures drop to freezing. On top of this, although they experience similar temperatures as the desert territories for part of the year, they also experience semi-frequent rainfall. Precipitation is not much and is usually very short lasting, mostly happening during the seasons of spring and autumn, but it allows for vegetation growth. Nerian, being more fertile in terms of greenery, experiences more rainfall per year than Nainyth, and also experiences snow during the winter months.
Fauna & Flora
Aevarin and the Ørken Desert are almost completely devoid of any flora, apart from a few species of desert flora that exists scattered about the territories, typically closer to oases and shaded areas of rock structures (in regards to Aevarin), as well as close to the borders of the forest-covered kingdoms, but they are also found throughout the exposed and sandy areas of the two territories. Fauna consists of mostly cold-blooded creatures; Aevarin typically has a higher population of snake species, and the Ørken Desert has a higher population of lizards. However, there are also various species of warm-blooded, mammalian species, and Aevarin, especially, has a high number of avian species.
Nerian and Nainyth are both covered in mostly grassland and shrubbery; Nainyth experiences less of this over the majority of its territory, with the least amount being on the border with the Ørken Desert, and the majority being on the borders with Alunait, Olympia, and even Nerian; Nerian experiences more flora than Nainyth, even have some trees scattered about the kingdom's territory, close to the kingdom's main river and around the Nerian's lake - similar to Nainyth, there is also more vegetation on Nerian's borders with the kingdoms of Nisha, Airolyra and Alunait, and less on its borders with the Ørken Desert. Fauna in the kingdoms of Nerian and Nainyth is more warm-blooded, they have less avian species than Aevarin and more mammalian species, but their proximity to the Ørken Desert has also resulted in a prominent population of lizards and other cold-blooded creatures - particularly in Nainyth where there is less vegetation available to sustain herbivore and omnivore creatures.
Natural Resources
The Ørken Desert has a lot of trade relations with the kingdom of Ehatia-Auridor, with their primary natural resource being minerals found beneath the sand. The Kingdom of Ehatia-Auridor is the leading kingdom in terms of crystal and mineral extraction, and even production, and so they often send delegates to the Ørken Desert to extract the minerals from the sand, the Ehatia-Auriodorians would then sell the minerals extracted in other kingdoms in exchange for materials and supplies that the Ørken Desert need before bringing these supplies back to the Ørken Desert. As the wealthiest kingdom in Northumbria, they often do this free of any charge other than the Ørken Tribe sheltering and feeding them during their time in the desert.
Aevarin, with a large avian population, trade with the other kingdoms in carrier birds; they breed their many species of birds, train them to be carrier birds for messages and small packages, and then trade these trained birds with the other kingdoms in exchange for supplies they need.
Nerian and Nainyth are both home to a species of plant that can be used to make fabric, as well as various other rare species of plant that are ingredients for magic; as such they trade the fabric-producing plant with other mainland Northumbrian kingdoms and the plants used in magic with the island kingdon of Ayuipan in exchange for timber and other supplies that they need.
History
It is unknown, exactly how the Northumbrian desert came to exist, as Northumbria was supposed to remain a fertile land for its inhabitants, being that they respected the spirits of the earth during the building of their settlements. However, it is theorised that the desert territory initially all consisted of the Ørken Desert, and that it became like that not because the inhabitants of the land disrespected the earth's spirits themselves, but because - somehow - survivors from Felhedell had managed to flee to the land that later became the Ørken Desert, and the inhabitants of that land sheltered them. In punishment, the earth's spirit turned the land into a desert, but only that part of the land - the spirits didn't touch the rest of Northumbria.
Over time, bits of the Ørken Desert broke off and formed their own territories, becoming the kingdoms of Aevarin, Nerian and Nainyth; the founders of Aevarin didn't bring with them any of the refugees from Felhedell or their descendants, but also did not pay their respects to the earth in apology, so their kingdom remained a desert; the founders of Nainyth brought with them refugees, but they apologised to the spirits for the sins of the Felhedellans, and so their kingdom was allowed to produce vegetation, but not much; and, finally, the founders of Nerian didn't bring with them refugees and also apologised to the spirits for the people of the Ørken Desert harbouring the refugees despite their crimes and, therefore, the spirits allowed their kingdom to be the most prosperous of the four territories, but still did not make them as prosperous as the other Northumbrian kingdoms as a reminder, and a warning.
Although all of this is unproven due these events happening so long in the past, and having not been witnessed personally by the elves, it is the most believed theory, as it is the history that has been recorded and passed through through the generations in each of the four territories.
In recent years, the citizens of Nerian, Aevarin, and Nainyth have been working along the Earth Elves to try and make right the wrongs with the earth spirits - as such, there has been an increase in flora for both the kingdoms of Nerian and Nainyth, and Aevarin has begun to see a decrease in sandstorm intensity, and more oases are appearing with their already existing ones growing.
Tourism
Aevarin and the Ørken Desert, due to their unbearably high temperatures, very rarely experience tourists, with most outsiders who visit the territories being those who come to oversee trade. Nainyth also doesn't often receive tourists, being that there isn't considered to be much of any interest to foreigners there. Nerian, however, often experiences visitors during the winter months from Airolyra as Nerian's lake frequently freezes over during the colder months; Airolyra has no lakes of its own, and so many visit Nerian's main lake during the winter months to play on the ice. Airolyra also experiences little snow, unlikely Nerian. Because of this, the majority of tourists to Nerian are usually parents and young children.