Blood Desert

The Blood Desert is a large desert-like area, filled with fine light-red coloured crystals. These crystals are not just a thin layer over more ordinary ground but instead go all the way down for hundreds of meters. It is roughly circular in shape, with bits spreading out at the very edge of it. North and south of it, this circle is interrupted by the Grey Mountains - as if the long line of the Grey Mountains was abruptly broken just there by the Blood Desert. The locals believe that the Blood Desert is sentient, a spirit or god even, and that living within the desert - or even just traveling through it - requires one to pay tribute to the Blood Desert. This belief is not far from the truth for the Desert is constantly changing and navigating it is almost impossible. The local guides through the desert follow ancient rituals where they pay tribute to the Desert and, while keeping their destination firmly in mind, recite certain invocations. Afterwards, one should simply walk and the Blood Desert would naturally shift in such ways that one would end up at one's destination. Curiously, no group traveling across the desert in such ways ever met any other group - as if the Desert itself was steering them in such ways that they would never run into each other.

The Blood Desert is home to three great cities that are build within large holes within the desert. These holes are many kilometers in circumference and reach down for kilometers into the ground. Their walls are of the same granite as the Grey Mountains. Their bottoms are used as farmland, with water supplied by water flows deep in the earth and light let in through carefully carved holes into the granite walls of the hole through which sunlight shines through - sunlight that is reflected by the crystals of the desert all the way to this depth. The desert is said to be home to five such great holes, but the true names of only three are known and without their true names, it is impossible to request passage to them through the desert.

The local religion is based on the great spirit of the Blood Desert, Re'Telduran, and the way in which it protects its inhabitants - while many of the surrounding nations have tried to conquer them, no army can reach their cities without the help of local guides. The locals usually take a small crystal from the desert and embed it into their skin at the center of their forehead. The skin then grows around the crystal, holding it firmly in place without covering it.