THE CHENDIURIAN SIMOOM

“When the sky screams, you get inside or you die.”

— Bedouin Proverb

1. THE EASTERN MOUNTAIN RANGE

• Name: The Asterion Range
• Reasoning: Asterion evokes star imagery, ties into Chendiuria’s high UV star, and meshes with the world’s naming conventions.

The Asterion Range spans the entire eastern edge of the continent, a jagged geological scar formed from ancient tectonic uplift. Its peaks are black-brown with fused basalt and silica glass from prehistoric lightning storms and meteor clusters.

2. CLIMATIC CONTEXT — THE ONE-SEASON PLANET

Chendiuria has:

• No axial tilt
• Near-zero precession
• Minimal seasonal variance

So instead of seasons, the planet has:

• Daytime hell
• Nighttime slightly-less-hell

Its “atmospheric breathing” cycles—including the daily simoom—are entirely driven by temperature gradients, not seasons.

3. WHAT THE CHENDIURIAN SIMOOM IS

The Chendiurian simoom is a daily, planet-defining atmospheric event:

• A hell-wind
• A flesh shredder
• A moving wall of dust, heat, and razors

It erupts every afternoon when the Great Valley Desert begins its brief surface cooling while hot, thin, ultra-dry air descends from the Asterion Range, slides down the basalt shelves, and slams into the valley floor like an avalanche of boiling glass.

The result is a hyper-thermal, silicate-laden windstorm that tears across the Great Desert with terrifying consistency.

"Life is like the wind."

— Bedouin Proverb

4. WHAT IT DOES TO FLESH, LUNGS, AND THE LANDSCAPE

The simoom carries:

• Micron-scale silicate needles
• Razor-edged
• Electrically charged
• Capable of stripping paint off vehicles
• Heavier basalt particulates
• Teeth-breaking size
• Capable of cracking and scratching Crystalline-Polymer goggles
• Dryness so extreme it pulls moisture from lungs
• Inhaling unfiltered simoom air results in:
• Instant throat desiccation
• Lung tissue shredding
• Internal bleeding
• Death within minutes

5. ITS DAILY TIMELINE

Afternoon (30:00–36:00¹ local time):

• The simoom awakens along the Asterion slopes.

Peak Fury (40:00–00:30 local time):

• Winds reach 160–240 km/h, with recorded spikes up to 300 km/h in narrow canyons
• Visibility drops to less than one meter
• Animals burrow; nomads drop blinds; automated buildings seal shutters

Dissipation Phase:

• By the time the simoom reaches the Palo Duro Canyon, hundreds of kilometers to the south, its fury is spent
• Dust persists, but wind power becomes a “dry whisper.”

6. GEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES

The Chendiurian simoom, a howling force, has sculpted the planet for eons. Its furious breath, felt as a gritty rasp against exposed rock, has carved and shifted the landscape.

Rock formations in the Great Desert show:

• Smooth, geometric edges
• Hexagonal basalt columns etched like glass sculptures
• Chendiurian snowflake obsidian, polished smooth
• Sandstone spires carved into tapered, near-perfect cylinders
• Honeycombed hollows cleaned by daily abrasion

Why the spires look impossible:

• Every day, the wind sands them micro-layer by micro-layer, creating:
• perfectly smooth planar faces
• fractal filigree along joints
• mirror-polished surfaces in deep caverns

Even ancient meteorites embedded in sandstone were reduced to iron shells.

7. NOMADIC CULTURE — THE BEDOUIN OF THE GREAT DESERT

Generations of Chendiurian Bedouin, descendants of Middle Eastern and North African colonists who returned to their traditional nomadic pastoral lifestyle, have built their lives around the simoom.

Shelter

They use south-facing hollows in basalt columns because:

• The simoom blows from north to south
• Hollows shield from the cutting wind
• The basalt’s density absorbs heat spikes
• Entrances can be sealed with polymer panels and tarps to create breathable pockets

The biggest basalt hollows, located in the largest columns, contain deeply drilled wells, a desalinator, and a small fusion plant for power.

Livestock

Their herds include genetically modified:

• Chendiurian Desert Goats
• Double-layered keratinized eyelids
• Heat-tolerance adaptations
• Produce nutrient-rich milk despite low forage availability
• Chendiurian Camels
• Two-layer gut filters to remove dust
• Thickened skin
• Asymmetric gait optimized for loose basalt dust
• Behavioral instinct to kneel and shield calves during the simoom

"The Chendiurian camel is the animal that remembers the wind.”

— Bedouin Saying

8. THE SIMOOM AND THE PENAL ZONE

The Negasi-Luwam Correctional Exclusion Zone (NLCPC)

Located partly in the simoom’s path. The northeast corner regularly suffers full brunt impacts.

Effects include:

• Shred-zones where the wind carves trenches
• Routine equipment failures because of particulate infiltration
• Drones becoming sandpapered mid-flight
• Guard towers requiring weekly poly-crystalline window replacements
• Prisoners lose eyes, ears, noses and fingers, even limbs if caught outside
• Sand-blasted fencing becomes brittle in months instead of years

NLCPC guards use the simoom as a deterrent. The prisoner areas are not fenced as the environment is deterrent enough. The fencing is to keep feral camels, ostriches, emus and Chendiurian BUMGEFs out.

“Simoom’s blowing. Try to escape now, and the wind will take your skin before the desert takes your bones.”

— Common NLCPC Guard Saying

Escapes attempted during simoom conditions are effectively suicides.

9. WHY THE SIMOOM HAS NOT ERASED HUMAN SETTLEMENT

Underground and semi-submerged structures

Chendiuria Eastern Continent’s architecture is:

• low
• aerodynamic
• heavily shielded
• built with the simoom winds in mind

There are no cities on the Eastern Continent, but the few scattered settlements have:

• weather sensing equipment
• alloy-reinforced automatic shutters, replaced every two to three years
• polymer dust screens
• exceptional air filtration and cooling
• airlocks at all doors, especially street level
• scratch-resistant dome plating

Daily Predictability

The simoom’s reliable schedule is paradoxically what makes Chendiuria habitable. People plan around it. If it were random, some colonists would never have survived.

10. OTHER PERTINENT DETAILS

• Simoom winds create electrostatic discharges, beautiful but deadly blue-white plasma flickers across the dunes
• Dead bodies left in the open are skeletonized in hours
• Native predators hunt after the simoom, tracking blood trails revealed by wind-cleared sand
• Bedouin parents teach their children their first words in relation to the simoom.
  “Inside by wind-rise."
• Legends say that the simoom is the planet’s breath—“The breath of Asterion.”
• Some cults believe voices whisper in the simoom’s gale, claiming the desert “remembers.”