Madini Desert

The Madini Desert is part of the dry landscape spanning over the entire Madini basin, beginning with the Paunis river to the West and running east between the Mukebahari Bay and the Ipindi Mountains, until it meets the latter in the East. It is, together with some parts of the Central Erana Mountain Range and the Livaš Šeštaš among the most dry areas in Erana, but also, unlike the other two, hot the whole year round.

Most of the Madini Basin is quite flat, although closer to the mountains some hills are scattered over the landscape. The stretch of the basin called the Madini Desert reaches from a few kilometres off of the eastern bank of the Paunis river to the east, covering most of the area there. The Madini desert is cased by the Madini Steppe, which consists of a larger area southeast of the Úhtisnábjó, that then becomes a narrow stripe along the Paunis river, before meeting the Ipindi Mountains in the South, turns east. Another, but disjoined part of the Madini Steppe, is in the very Northeast of the Madini Baisin, around the city of Ikalo.

The climate of the Madini Desert is hot and dry. The winters are slightly cooler and are the only time of the year where there is a chance of rainfall. The heat of the area stems from the volcanic activity in the area and special properties of the local bedrock, which only helps the transmission of the heat from within Samthô to the surface. Nonetheless the desert is not entirely dry and hostile to life. The desert sand is quite porous and allows water, that trickles in from the Mukebahari Bay and from the numerous small creeks flowing out of the Ipindi Mountains to seep deeply inland, where it comes to the surface in some oases, which have in turn attacted people, leading to the founding of oasis towns.

The Madini Desert and Madini Steppe are both inhabited by the same people, which are the Madini people. They are also the namesake of the area. The term 'madini' means 'born from sand', indicating, that they have been indigenous to the area, as there are no other sandy areas nearby.

Up until the Era of the Trees, the Madini must have live as nomads, as no older settlements of them can be found. Indeed the first permanent structures erected by them are rather small shrines, especially on crossroads or in places with distinctive features, such as small patches of vegetation that hint at deeper lieing ground water or stone formations. These early shrines are very simple in structure, often consisting of two or three wall stones and one cover stone. These stones have often been moved over long distances and refined to fit their purpose. So despite the simple architecture, the logistical investment was immense. Later on, when the Madini became sedentary, most of these shrines fell out of use, marking the landscape as reminders of the Madinis old way of life.

Nowadays the Madinis old way of life is best reflected in their trade activities. They are a highly mobile people and although of course agriculture and crafts exist, most Madini people life at least part of their life on trade routes with their caravans. Also husbandry takes a special form with the Madini, as they mostly feed different half- or undomesticated in the wild to hunt them, instead of herding animals.

Their architecture shows in part an adaption to the necessities of sedentary people trying to fend off nomadic raiders as well as their own historical lifestyle as nomads. City walls as protection for settlements or smaller wall constructions for farming or hunting compounds are a common sight. The building materials used are mostly local, unless a settlement is an oasis town in the middle of the sandy desert. So most structures are built of stones and connected with a primitive form of cement or clay. Also sun dried clay bricks are in use, where there are clay deposits. Bricks are never fired, as wood or other fuel is extremely rare. For this reason wood also plays almost no rule in architecture, except as auxiliary materials for scaffolding. Indeed, like in Andaperna, wooden objects are being part of rental contracts, for example as auxiliary building material or when a wooden object is part of a rented room or apartment.

Although the development of cities is only rather recent, some Madini cities have reached considerable sizes and offer a relatively high level of living, considering the harsh conditions in the Madini Basin. Some of the cities reach sizes of several thousand inhabitants. The limiting factor of course is mostly water, so like with wood, severe limitations and a complex legislation around this valuable resource have developed in some places. Madini settlements in the more water rich areas to the South are less strict about water management, with some even exporting some water in exchange-deals for goods from the nothern states.

The Madini Desert is also rich in wildlife, as many species adapted to life in this dry environment. Some of the creatures found here are among the most ferocious predators of Erana, like the shagreen dog. Even if surface water is rare and mostly occupied by Madini settlements, so called 'mobile oases' spring up here and there at irregular frequency and in unpredictable places, providing water for flora and fauna and ensuring the survival of the unexpectedly rich wildlife.