The World’s Grave
Aptly named The World’s Grave, this gargantuan sea of sand spans most of Norgas and is the largest desert on the continent. It stretches two and a half thousand miles long and roughly a thousand miles wide. By all accounts, this desert is an anomaly in the otherwise cold and wet province.
The World’s Grave is mostly empty. Plagued by constant gusts of hot dry wind, the area is known for its sandstorms and endless sea of dunes. There has never been a record of rain within the desert. Those who have mapped the arid wastes have noted that there are no natural bodies of water within the desert’s vast expanse. There are very few signs of vegetation within The World’s Grave. The only things capable of growing there are small shrubs and desert trees. However, travelers who have gone into the depths of the desert have reported encountering giant tree trunks half buried in the dunes. These dead trees are a complete biological mystery. There is no record of there ever being enough water, ground or otherwise, to sustain such vegetation.
Much of The World’s Grave is a mystery. The outskirts of it have been mapped extensively, and there are even trade routes skirting its edges. However, the heart of the desert remains mostly uncharted. There are few with the knowledge and expertise to brave the deadly expanse, and even fewer who are willing to. By all accounts, The World’s Grave is a giant, lonely, and inhospitable wasteland.
This wasn’t always the case...
The World’s Grave is located in central Norgas, the northernmost province of Atlaggios. It stretches from the eastern border into the heart of the province. The desert is flanked by mountains in the north and south and mellows into grassland and more mountains into the west. Its eastern edge borders the sea.
History
The World’s Grave is not a natural desert. When the land that would eventually become Norgas was created, it was a cold, wet, and mountainous region. There was no swath of sand between the northern and southern ranges.
Instead, this area was a lush, wooded grassland. Patches of forest bordered the mountains and tapered down into a verdant valley below. This was where the great Arche Illiu was raised from the earth. The name most nearly translates to City Illiu, named as such to honor the Archon who created it. This city holds great historical importance to scholars of the Archonian Series as it was believed to be where the final battle of Taa Morsi Est took place: where the Archons were made extinct, and Eos’s wrath wiped clean the continent. It is theorized that Eos’s hatred was at its strongest here in order to contend with the combined forces of the Archons and heroes. At the height of its power, some scholars believe that this storm could be responsible for creating a veritable dead zone around Arche Illiu, wiping away not just the physical vestiges of life, but expunging the will that fostered them from the land itself, ensuring no plant or animal could ever inhabit the land again. From that point forwards, the plains of Norgas would be reduced to miles and miles of sand and sun. Those who would eventually settle the province would never know the history of this desert. Instead, they would fear it, and marvel at its sheer scale and power. They would name it The World’s Grave, for even without ever knowing what transpired here, these people understood the long and level sands held only death.
Environment
The World’s Grave gets little to no rainfall all year round and, due to the lack of humidity, exhibits a dry heat higher than anywhere else in the continent.
The borders of the desert are cooler than the desert proper, and possess rockier, rougher terrain. The cooler temperatures allow for small plants to grow. Thus, most of the vegetation within The World’s Grave is found here. Although less intense, the sun beats down incessantly upon the land. Even at the extremities of the desert, sweat drenches the clothes of unfortunate travelers in minutes. The air here stings the lungs, drying the mouth and throat with every breath. Even eyes become dry and painful, assaulted by the desert’s dusty miasma. Farther in, the rock mellows into sand dunes. These dunes still possess some vegetation and are not as prone to movement. These outer dunes are more traversable. The winds here have less force, allowing for much higher and more permanent sand dunes. This topography makes up much of the area.
The heart of the desert is a completely different matter. The wind whips at the ground, lashing sharp grains and rocks into the air and sending them skidding at force across the land. The air is impenetrable, made hazy and hazardous by constant sandstorms that ravage the land. Debris rends bare flesh, killing most organisms within minutes. Surprisingly, because of the frequency of these deadly storms, the heart of the otherwise scorching desert is its coolest part. The sun cannot be seen most days, plunging the land into perpetual twilight. Cool winds propel the storms that characterize the dark heart of the desert. The topography here dips many meters in a long slope as the sand is sheared away by the storms. Instead of towering dunes, the ground stays much flatter. Any dunes here only reach a couple of feet before being shaved off by the wind. The sandstorms themselves are something to behold. The storms pick up within the desert proper. Fueled by the constant cold fronts that hit the desert from all sides, tossing sediment into the air. This is helped along by the arid conditions of the desert. These sandstorms reach the height of their strength as they approach the heart of the desert. At their apex, the storms tear apart the dunes, sending sand miles into the air. Heavier sediment stays low to the ground, often striking the smaller dunes and sending even more particulates into the air. The conditions here are most akin to a storm at sea and are just as lethal. The earth is rent in explosive bursts. Heavy waves crash down upon the land, rocking and beating anything unfortunate enough to have wandered into this dreaded place.
“The storms pick up within the desert proper. Fueled by the constant cold fronts that hit the desert from all sides, tossing sediment into the air”
The heart of the desert is a dead place. The only sounds here are the wind and the whipping of earth and sediment upon the barren land below.