TBS01: The Setting

The Burning Sands:

This location was inspired by the artwork of Brom, ancient Egyptian mythology, and my actual travels across Northern Africa and the Middle East. It is set during the Dawn of Man or at least one of them, on the continent, known as The Untamed Wilds, occupying the western side of the mountain range called the Dragon’s Spine. Nothing is known of the other side, because there are no known means of crossing the range. Due to the geographic placement, shape of the mountain range, and cyclic tendency of the weather, all the land is dry and rugged. Separate from the main range, there is a smaller line of mountains along the western coast that are called the Dragon’s Footprint. Badlands and scrub stretch from the Footprint to the Spine and across the northern end of the wastes, though outward to the coast is nothing but sand or almost nothing.

A river snakes its way from a lake, called the Dragon’s Belly, in the Spine, out of the scrub, and cuts almost centrally through the sand before emptying into the ocean. Life exists along the river and within its ravine. Various patches of microhabitats can also be found within pockets of the badlands. Some are large enough to support a community of people. Hardy vegetation that mostly consists of grasses grows in the tidal zone and marginal estuary along the coast. While the area of fluctuating tides is critical for nearshore sea life, away from the river, it is not really habitable for anything requiring more than a trivial amount of fresh water.

A story is told from the elder to the younger, in each successive generation. Long ago, an Astral Dragon soared across the Aether to the realm of the Gods. No one knows what the dragon had intended, but the encroachment angered at least one of the Gods who cast the beast to the Barrens. When the dragon crashed nine days later, it landed with such force that it sent one planet of the Barrens across the Aether for three more days and into the pattern of another galaxy, albeit one that could sustain life. The dragon’s remains formed a range of mountains that gave birth to a surrounding land. As the dragon expired, its blood flowed out to make the seas that now surround the land. It is believed that some life may yet remain within the dragon, for occasionally the ground spews forth steam, smoke, fire, or molten rock.