Sands of Sute
Stretching from the parched ruins of an ancient riverbed to the jagged peaks of the Sun’s Throne Mountains, the Sands of Sute is the harshest and most accursed region in the Domain of Dread known as Har’Akir. It is a land without mercy, where storms howl with voices long dead, and the sky itself seems to hang in judgment over all who dare cross its breadth.
The Sands of Sute are a killing ground of memory, divinity, and despair—a land abandoned by water, haunted by the dead, and warped by time. It is a place where even gods are buried, where the weight of the past becomes the sand beneath your feet, and where each dune hides a thousand unmarked graves.
“Those who walk the Sands of Sute should bring no shadow. It will be taken from them, along with their name.”
Geography
- The Sands of Sute is a sun-scorched expanse of broken dunes, sunken ruins, and wind-fluted rock formations. No oasis or shade offers refuge here—only the bleached bones of beasts and pilgrims who dared tread its wastes.
- The land is treacherously uneven. Underneath the shifting dunes lie collapsed burial vaults, hidden crypt mouths, and thin crusts of stone over hollow tomb-chambers.
- Black sand veins, corrupted by ancient rituals, crisscross the golden terrain like cracks in the earth’s skin. At night, these sands seem to glow faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Notable Features
- The Labyrinth Beneath the Sands of Sute: A sprawling, multilevel necropolis buried by centuries of funerary ambition and forgotten curses.
- The Mouth of the River-God: A dry delta where petrified crocodiles line a cracked riverbed, their eyes weeping pitch at dusk.
- The Obsidian Blade: A dagger-shaped monolith of volcanic glass standing upright in the sand, rumored to be the fang of a long-buried serpent deity. Blood spilled upon its surface hisses and vanishes.
Localized Phenomena
- Local legend claims the Sands of Sute were once fertile farmland, fed by a now-vanished river sacred to the crocodile-headed god Neb-Ka. When the people defied the god’s edicts, their land was cursed, the riverbed drained, and the desert consumed their legacy.
- Travelers report whispers carried on the wind, spectral mirages, and phantoms that walk the dunes—shades of the unburied demanding funerary rites.
- Those who wander too far in the sands sometimes lose all memory of where they came from, speaking in ancient dialects or even chanting embalming prayers they never learned.
Fauna & Flora
- Desert glass elementals, formed from lightning-struck sand and necrotic winds, drift across the wastes like floating shards of obsidian.
- Scarab swarms, unnatural and intelligent, erupt from the ground in waves when sacred tombs are disturbed. These creatures are not insects, but divine punishments given shape.
- A relic-hunting cult, known as the Worshipers of the Final Mouth, seeks out the Labyrinth buried beneath the sands, believing it to be the literal entrance to the afterlife. Their members often suffer disfiguring transformations after too long in the wastes.
- Buried titans, massive mummified behemoths from a forgotten dynasty, occasionally stir beneath the dunes. Entire caravans have vanished in the quakes these slumbering gods produce.
Tourism
- It is said that the dead must cross the Sands of Sute to reach their eternal reward, but only the worthy are carried by the sun, while the rest must walk it on foot, suffering every scorching breath.
- The Mummified Priests of the Distant Horizon perform rituals on the edge of the desert, praying for their ancestors to make the crossing. These priests never enter the sands, lest they draw the attention of Ankhtepot’s gaze.
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