Tayzem Desert

The Tayzem Desert (Tëžem-Ýïšarr) is a large expanse of desert that is located south of the Arbin Watershed and north of the Kalzuth Plains and Ŋaraïðúl Strait. Measuring at around 12.5 million square kilometers, it takes up 60% of the Tayzem Region and 10.8% of the total surface area of the Urnimrine continent. It is the world's largest desert.

The name Tayzem refers to its placement inside the Tayzem Region; the word Tayzem is Illibrivroni for west/western. In Eldrond, it is called Avolur, meaning burnt.

Geography

Today, the Tayzem Desert is entirely contained inside the country of Aurhundi. It measures 12.5 million square kilometers, which equates to 60% of the Tayzem Region, 10.8% of the Urnimrine continent, and 5.94% of the global surface area. The southern border is perhaps the most explicit, as a huge gorge (the Ŋaraïðúl Strait) separates it from the Kalzuth Plains. It is bound on the west and east coasts by the Tlïvhakk Ocean and Ëriðorn Ocean, respectively. However, the northern borders are a bit more ambiguous. The northeastern border has historically been defined in a number of ways, due primarily to its proximity to the Arbin Mountains. While many manuscripts of yore have often included a significant portion of said mountains, the modern limits of the Tayzem Desert reach to just south of the similarly-established border of the Arbin Mountains. The northwest border, which borders the Loðo Desert, has been similarly contested, and modern borders simply extend the line created in the northeast, as there really is no such indication of immediate difference between the Tayzem and Loðo Deserts.

The stretch of land deemed as part of the Tayzem Desert is not actually determined based on dryness. If it was, then the entirety of the Tayzem Region (minus the Arbin Watershed) would be included. Instead, the term 'Ýïšarr' refers to the region's stepped nature (likely a corruption of Ýožýr, or cliff), which seems to be a staple of certain dry regions around the planet. This is in contrast to the term 'Úmilaðir', which more explicitly denotes a flat, dry landscape.

Geological and Chemical Formation

This stepped quality of the Desert is one of the most unique in its formations, and this uniqueness is in turn due to the strange geography of the entire Tayzem Region. The rock of this region, which was strangely made of a crust-like exterior and a much more permeable interior, was likely caused by a series of large volcanic eruptions whose expelled material reacted violently with the water and created this unique circumstance. This is corroborated by the sheer number of mountains, volcanoes, and other such features in this area, any and all of whom could be responsible for this event.

It is thought that the Tayzem Desert was originally a large mountain or at least some geographical feature extremely high in altitude. Given that the highest portions of the Desert easily surpass 900 meters in elevation, scientists generally agree that, upon its initial formation around 250,000 years ago, the elevation of the mountain was around 1,100-1,300 meters. The mountain in this stage was not formed by tectonic activity, but likely from gases and other substances building up in the vicinity. This would have been due to the Ŋaraïðúl Strait's creation, which is in turn caused by the separation of the Tayzem Plate and Northern Kalzuth Plate. Splitting the crust, the interior would be suddenly exposed to the outside air, which would have surged into the relatively low-pressure environment within and thus greatly increase the elevation. Successive reactions between the air and the contents would cause this flexible interior to harden and the scar of the Strait to close up, freezing the landform in this mountain-like shape.

From there, a second influence would contribute in shaping the mountain into its present form. This region, being under the proximal influence of coastal winds from two separate oceans, is home to a series of violent wind gusts that arise from the combination of the winds of each individual ocean. The resultant complexity means that one range of altitudes is under the effect of a different set of winds than a different range, and the boundary between them is unusually well-defined. There exist at least 5 such different ranges, each of whose winds were almost exactly horizontal with respect to the sea level. Over the course of many thousands of years, the winds hammered against this mountain, and the crust gradually eroded away. The holes in this crust, and the now-exposed interior, became subject to the same kind of expansionary processes that the original mountain had been subject to. This process, now just localized and reduced in affected area, served to slightly modify the curved surface of the mountain and render it approzimately a right-angle. That is, the parts whose crusts were eroded subsequently expanded solidified to become the cliff-face, and the parts whose crusts were not eroded became the ledges that rested upon the cliff-faces. This occurred for all five of the wind ranges, creating a stepped appearance where the border between one step and the next was the abrupt boundary between wind ranges.

Cliff-Faces

The Cliff-faces, that are the solidified remains of what are the interior material of the rock, range from 10 to 25 meters in height, depending on the wind range that caused their formation as well as the stability of this wind. Instabilities in the wind would have a better chance for smaller ledges and caverns to appear within cliff-faces. The unique material here, which is thought to be a particularly rare configuration of silicon, oxygen, and trace amounts of nitrogen, is responsible for the general appearance of the cliff-face, that being a surface dotted with liquid-like droplets and globulets and appearing light blue in color. These droplets and globulets arise from the naturally-turbulent nature of wind, especially once it contacts a surface, although it is still theorized by some that they do at least partially come from trace reactions involving the wind, the interior, and the crust in a combined reaction.

History

Pre-Colonization

The history of the Desert prior to the first recorded instance of colonization is extremely hazy, and much like all other parts of history that are not substantiated with extensive writings, one must go by inference. (Note that this section will NOT go into history on the geological timescale; that has been discussed in the Geological and Chemical Formation section.)

There is only one known community that appeared remotely near the Desert before the much-more-documented Khólteð Family arrived in 24981 AYM. These are the inhabitants of the mysterious Kalzuth Ruins, which are aritificial holes driven deep into the ground and which served a vibrant and complex home for their still-unidentified makers. Although the existence of the Ruins was not known until 24978 AYM, when fleeing refugees of the Khólteðian Wars sailed southwards and thus found them, the condition of these holes was, in fact, Ruined and abandoned. More importantly, although the holes themselves were inundated with traces of past civilization, the grasses even among the general vicinity held no such signs of any mobile life, and even to this day researchers do not believe that the beings that lived here ever ventured outside these holes, much less to the Desert in the north.

The reason why the still-unknown beings of the Ruins are discussed here is that, starting from around 19000 AYM, particular objects were found to be buried in numerous parts of the Tayzem Desert that were at least partially composed of materials from the Kalzuth Plains (the region that the Ruins are in), in particular the grasses thereof. This provides substantial evidence in support of the Ruin dwellers being early settlers of the Desert as well. However, others have theorized that the Ruin dwellers actually existed and thrived long before the two regions separated, and thus the flexible structure of the interior rock would have freely transported these materials throughout the Desert without them having to place it there themselves.

Despite the uncertain nature of these early dwellers, the Khólteð Family recountings never mention any artificial damage or presence in the Desert upon first arrival, and more advanced geological analysis shows little subterranean blemishes beyond those of the Family. If the supposed early dwellers did in fact colonize the Desert, this renders the purpose and actions thereof uncertain at best, as the traces in rock that are typical of civilization (e.g. sustenance and shelter) are nowhere to be seen.

The Khólteðtian Wars

The Tayzem Desert was first definitively colonized by the Khólteð Family, who landed upon the eastern coast in late Heta-Eimarae, 24981 AYM. This was the immediate aftermath of the Crisis of 24982 AYM, in which the Family, still in the Ïlýrhonid Tribe, split into 32 separate tribes and engaged in months of deadly violence. It ended with the 24982 AYM Ultimatum, in which Zümiža, the Hyvamto-Rhïlýrhonid, forcibly expelled all tribes of the Family and, among other things, enforced a truce between all 32 tribes that reinstated Šïk-hórom, the disgraced Hyvamto-Žö-Ýšïb, to the title, albeit with limited powers. It was Šïk-hórom and a small band of government officials that first set foot on the Tayzem Desert and began to survey the geography. Quickly realizing the stepped nature of the land, they opted to draw out territories for each tribe whose borders were at least partially determined by the cliffs. It is usually credited to Šïk-hórom, who experienced severe trauma during the Crisis, that the tribes of all three factions (Arðor-Tal, Arðor-Úŋï, and Arðor-Kýï) were mixed and spread out across the entire Desert. It was his hope that in meeting those of different sides, the once-warring tribes could attain peace.

However, this was not to be the case, as almost immediately, the Khólteðian Wars erupted. This was an exorbitantly complex series of conflicts that are too complicated to recount here. However, a key point of contention that fueled many engagements within this was the blatant advantage held by coastal tribes, who were able to gain near-unlimited sustenance through growing crops with the nutrient-rich ocean water. The inland tribes, in contrast, had to resort to the destructive act of mining.

Despite the efforts of Šïk-hórom and his government, the Wars lasted four years and remain to this day one of the deadliest in the history of the Ibrófeneð species. They only stopped when the cycle of conquest had left just four tribes remaining, namely Oragona, Sellmoor, Pinoth, and Zolaus.

In total, the settlement of the Family and the chaos of the Wars did substantially impact the overall layout of the Desert, as the rocks of the ground were used in the widespread building of settlements.

Later Events

This lasted until 22888 AYM, when the tribe of Lotao to the northwest conquered the 4 Kaultedtian tribes in the Tayzem Campaign and created the country of Blivon. Blivon ruled over the entirety of the Tayzem Region and spread out into the Kalzuth Plains in 22812 AYM as well as the Blivonic Valley in 20050 AYM.

In 17021 AYM Blivon fractured, and their expansive territory suddenly became independent. When Suinviyom united the territories in the Blivonic Valley, he led the territories in the Tayzem Region and the Kalzuth Plains become independent, thus placing the Tayzem Desert under the newly-formed jurisdiction of Aurhundi.