Gammordah Desert

GAMMORDAH DESERT

The southwestern region is split between the great western desert of Gammordah, the arid refuge to the disparate and savage Gnolls of Yeenoghu, those that survived the Cataclysm. Its extended borders known as the Dismembered Sea, a dead waste of upheaved ocean floor that broke ground level after a terrible quaking disaster centuries ago that permanently slanted the land - revealing coral reef-beds, rockpools and coral forests up to the surface that have since died, baked in the sun and its earth salted and sandy. The smell of rotten decaying kelp, dead fish and saltwater permeates the still air here; with briny pools and lakes dotted across its surface. Gammordah is a dead flat of savannah grasses seemingly and slowly petrified into a dusty orange-black grained desert region, with fairly divided trees, thorn bushes and red-black sands filled with the bones of abandoned giants and dead mammoths, likened to a graveyard blanketed by an ever-present hurricane wind that travels and lifts the sands in the sky for miles around all across Vangolia. Here the roving bands of Gnoll's hunt and ravage the countryside and the dunes, giving offerings to their great Demon Prince Yeenoghu - in a never-ending war with their nemesis, the Minotaur's to the North-East in Blightholme. The region is pockmarked by multiple salt-lakes, slowly turning the region into a wasteland, with resilient vegetation trying to grow within the lands, jagged rocky terrain and sandy pits pockmark this region and constantly filled with howling winds. Much of the savannah has been desolated into a thorn-bush terrain, endangering the seasons to potential flash-fires and wild-fires. Many stones seem marked by bloody prints, claw marks and teeth - with visceral totems that lay rotting and twisted across the land, trophy totems to the Gnoll's, torn and ravaged of any meat and viscera, but decorated to horrific effect. Within the upended regions of Gammordah, within the territories of the Dismembered Sea, lies a strange array of dead coral reef forests and smoothened rock pools, used as shrike grounds to impale and bleed victims on sharpened rocks and coral barbs, left distended and ripe for scavengers.   It was once home to many wandering herds of animals and predators that cross the savannah - with seasonal migrations of great birds that come from the east. But the creatures have largely been hunted and sacrificed into extinction, with only the most dangerous and largest game residing in the land - and the tenacious and cunning flights of birds that migrate seasonally. The wild creatures that call this place home, all once under the protection of the Surrogate Huntress. Dominated by grasses and dead grasses, in which the great herds parcel out the different strains between them and co-operate for the search of better water sources. Intense competition drives the birds and large animals to search for water in great migrations; each one changes seasonally depending on the rainfall. Leading them from the north, to the south, following the Terrors Trail, searching for watering holes and warmth and shelter. The region is also home to a great amount of Termites, a delicacy for the Gnoll's. The animals that try to cope in the heat, will often at times burrow. Others will wallow in the mud of the plains. Some of the creatures exploit the heat, with birds of prey soaring through the hot rising air, expending no energy, spending all the day soaring above with their keen eyes. Here in the wilds, the laws of the hunter are clear - gain a clean kill, take down the weak and slow, the sick and the old. This helps predators keep their main food source, the great animals, free from aging and disease, to maintain the health of the herds.

DEN KHAIRN

The region is pervaded by minor demonic entities that swear their lineage to Yeenoghu, like hyenadons and maw demons, but also others. Here they are ruled by the Flinds (the Curse-Swallowers), that rule in competing pack-lands, where the tantekurash (Spirit-breakers) enslave and consume and manipulate those they capture to their will - turning them into kryshantel, (Savage-Souls). There, they rule within a great bone-graveyard of mammoths and giants at Den-Khairn besides a great red salt lake, known as the Demon's Cauldron - bargaining and sacrificing to whatever wandering demons which they grant favour to and desire their boons from. Here the Chimeradonis reigns supreme.  

GEOGRAPHY

WEATHER & SEASONS

Halfway between a desert and a forest, filled with large game animals and birds. Generally warm in climate, with short wet seasons to nurture the growth of new vegetation, with long dry seasons that prevent tree growth. Defined by the region's low rainfall. The climate here is extremely hot and dry. Though, due to the climate of the continent, it is cooler than average, and has two main seasons: a Warm Wet Season, lasting 6-8 months, with short rains beginning at winter solstice and long rains continuing perpetually through early to late spring. The average temperatures are 38 Degrees Celsius in daytime, and when the night comes it reverts to a great drop up to -4 Degrees Celsius. Sometimes when it rains in the Hot Dry Season, 2-3 times a year, rainclouds fill the air quickly and the rainfall evaporates before it even touches the ground, raging violently and quickly disappearing. It holds mainly cloudless skies, where most of the daylight escapes to the ground. It is dry and warm all year long, its temperatures dropping slightly, but still reaching temperatures of 24 degrees on average. The prevailing winds in the Warm Wet Season is west-to-east, then east-to-west in the second half of the year - turning on the equinox's. Due to the stormy nature of Vangolia, it is not unusual for the west-to-east winds to summon warm humid air and conjure great sandstorms and thunderstorms that strike down through the desert in the Warm Wet Season, uprooting and spilling out across the land sand and dust, carried out for dozens of miles. Winter in Gammordah is not cold, but hot, with warm winds travelling from east-to-west, and drying out many of the regions grounds and surfaces - a danger for wildfires, and the rise of dust cyclones.