The Taesi Wasteland
The Taesi Wastelands are a vast stretch of land where nothing grows, and everything dies--as such it has become known by the Aesians, whose kingdom borders the wastelands, as the Deathlands. They are bordered by the Deserts of Kinomere to the west, the Maelia Glaciers to north, and the Kingdom of Aes to the east; to the south are the Aefarethen Mountains.
Geography
The ground of the Taesi Wastelands is cracked and dry. Although it encompasses a large stretch of land along the Aefarethen Mountains, and spreads all the way over to the eastern coast, it doesn't benefit at all from the lush greenery that the mountains are covered in, nor does it receive any water from being so close to the coast. This is not due to any natural environmental cause but instead due to the ancient magic of the earth that currently permeates the land of Felhedell.
Ecosystem
The Taesi Wastelands are an unnatural occurrence, and the state of the land is not influenced by any nearby areas; as such, they are not benefited nor negatively impacted by being next to both the Maelia Glaciers and the Deserts of Kinomere, nor are they affected by the mild and stable climate of the kingdom of Aes.
Although the temperature is calm and stable, the land is barren with no vegetation and the air is dry; even when on the border of the glacier or the deserts, the freezing and scorching climates of the bordering regions can not be felt until one has crossed over into one of those regions.
The Taesi Wastelands is very loosely considered to be the safest region of Felhedell, as the lack of hospitality of the land has made it so that the monsters that now run rampant through Felhedell cannot survive in it. This has made the Kingdom of Aes, which sits on the coast on the other side of both the wastelands and the glaciers, the safest of the Felhedell kingdoms to live in, followed by the Nyx Kingdom, which is also found in a stable area of Felhedell.
This does not, however, mean that the wastelands are completely safe. Although they lack monsters, the lack of anything else makes it completely foolish for a person to try and make their way through them. Travelling via the steampowered carriages from Aes or the enchanted carriages provided to the other kingdoms by the elves, it takes five full days of constant travel to make it through the wastelands; making the journey on foot therefore considered impossible. As such, exploration of the wastelands is not permitted by any of the kingdoms, and even when travelling to and from Aes, most prefer to risk the stormy waters surrounding Felhedell and travel by sea or pass through the Maelia Glaciers with a stop in Tuntemattomaan rather than cross through the wastelands.
Ecosystem Cycles
The Taesi Wastelands is not affected by the changing seasons or by the passing of time; the climate and ecosystem remain the same year-round.
Localized Phenomena
The barren and inhospitable land is centralised only to the wastelands, and instantly changes to ice or sand as soon as one crosses the border of the wastelands into the deserts or glaciers, or into the sparsely vegetated but mild lands of Aes. This is a result of magic.
Climate
The climate is stable year-round, with mild temperatures. The wastelands do experience changes in weather, with overcast days and sunny days; but very rarely does it rain or storm, and any rain that does fall does not get soaked up by the ground.
History
In 276 PFA (Post the Founding of Aefareth), the damage that had been done to the land of what would become Felhedell came to a head; after years of devastation and destruction to the natural and flourishing greenery of the land, the spirits of the earth retaliated against the inhabitants of Northern Aefareth in the exact manner that they had promised.
They transformed the land, changing the lush vegetation into barren, dry lands, rolling sand dunes with scorching temperatures, and huge glaciers of ice. The animals that once inhabited the land also transformed into bloodthirsty and mutated monsters. This is how the Taesi Wastelands came to exist.
Initially, they even included a large portion of the land that the kingdom of Aes was built on; however, after the elves negotiated with the earth's spirits to allow the surviving inhabitants of Felhedell to settle and build kingdoms on the land, a section of the wastelands, and a smaller portion of the glaciers, once again became livable, although far from the fertileness that it had been previously, and two years later became the kingdom of Aes.
For the past 12,800 years since, the wastelands have remained the same, and are very rarely travelled through.
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