The Steppe

The Steppe is an enormous grassland that lies between the Great Western Mountains and the Great Eastern Mountains, north of he Great Equatorial Desert.   Just to the east and in the rain shadow of the Great Western Mountains, the land is dry and arid, consisting of scrublands, short grass, and low shrubs adapted to the dry conditions. The land there merges without an obvious boundary into the harshest parched lands of the desert.   Further to the east lie the great plains of the Steppe, with vast herds of grazing animals. Predators, like Savannah Wolves, prowl the grasslands hunting for their next meal. Huge Steppe Gyreagles soar overhead, scanning for small animals to swoop down and pounce on. The northern reaches of the plains merge into the tundra of the far north. In the south, the grasslands give way to the burning sands of the desert.   In the far west of the Steppe, nearing the slopes of the Great Eastern Mountains, the land slowly rises, more rain falls, and the land is lush with vegetation. Grass and low shrubs are dotted with trees in increasing numbers, and thickets of small trees line the banks of streams and small rivers that flow out of the mountains. Finally, the grasslands are supplanted by deep forests on the foothills of the mountains.   Over the vast area of the Steppe, enormous thunderstorms roil and rumble, fed by hot air rising from the scorching sands of the The Great Equatorial Desert colliding with frigid air flowing south from the Northern Wastelands and the Great Ice Bay. Tornadoes occasionally rip across the landscape, destroying everything in their paths. Lightning strikes rock outcroppings and trees surrounding waterholes, blasting them to shards. At times, vast sandstorms with howling winds churn out of the desert, enveloping everything in layers of dust and grit, abrading exposed flesh down to the bone. In the north, freezing fogs flow off of the frigid water, embracing every surface, encasing them in ice.   Revering all of its vastness and wide vistas, The Steppe is the home of the Steppe People, a loose confederation of tribes with diverse customs and allegiances. In the far north, some of the Steppe People trade and intermarry with the people of Manyund. In the southeast, influenced by Senyon, the Steppe People organized into a kingdom, which split into the Great Western Steppe Kingdom and the Great Eastern Steppe Kingdom after the Battle for Sendoshi. The Steppe People love the wide plain, with all of its open beauty and wild, distinctive nature.