VIIRATA
LOCATION
LOCATION
A vast, low elevation, arid desert comprised of formations of red sandstone & dunes. Viirata is named by the semi-nomadic people, the Risk, who live there and worship both the Sun (Viir) and Moon (Miir) as deific entities. These Risk call it such as they can sleep safely when the Sun appears to watch over the desert.
Viirata translates directly to Sun (Viir) and Land (Ata) in the language of the Risk. This has lead to the desert also being called the Sunsland Desert. The land is scorched by the heat of the Sun, which lead the inhabitants to adopt a more nocturnal life-style. This was seen as the Sun claiming the land, which lead to it's name.
Region
Arid Red Sandstone Rock Desert
Low Elevation
Arid Climate
Yearly Dry/Wet Seasons
Sandstone
Sand Dunes
Plateaus/Mesas/Buttes
Constant Wind Erosion
Occasional Water Erosion
Ancient Lava Tubes
Upwelling Watertable
Terraced Lime Deposits
Large Canyons
~2500 to 3000 ft
30° N to 37° N
Viirata is what remains of an ancient seabed, sitting at a low elevation compared to its surroundings. Due to millenia of sediment build up, the land remaining after the ocean drained away left a vibrant and stark terrain of sandstone and sand dunes.
Viirata is home to just one race, the Risk, who have adjusted to their home by becoming partly nomadic when times are dry.
Fountain Fruit - A white gourd shaped cactus with edible orange/purple flesh and black seeds.
Sandberries - A small red berry from a dead-looking bush that only grows when it is covered by sand. Poisonous to small insects.
Sourwater Gourd - An underground growing hard surfaced melon (gourd is a misnomer). It is good for lifesaving water, but it generally tastes foul.
Canyon Olives - A small fruit look alike to canyon grapes. Bitter and savory. They grow on the sides of canyons that get the most sunlight.
Canyon Grapes - A small berry look alike to canyon olives, tart and sweet. They grow on the sides of canyons that get the least sunlight.
Choke Succulent - A small proto-cactus that produces a thick syrup goo. It has an addicting sweet flavor, but can be dangerous to eat all at once as it may choke the eater, as the name implies.
Spear Grass - A large succulent with long fleshy leaves with thorned edges that come to a stiff point. The inner flesh of the leaves is nutritious if fairly flavorless, unless boiled which brings out natural sugars. It's sap considered medicinal and can be soothing to wounds.
Welling tubers - When the wet season arrives, these starchy tubers that form a massive network deep under the ground, at the base of canyons, sprout curly tendrils up to the surface to avoid being drowned out. By following these curls and digging downwards, one can find a good source of food.
Golddrop Flower - The petals of this flower are considered medicinal in nature, good for heatstroke.
Darkbud - A maroon flower that can be used as a relaxant, or if in too large a dose, a deadly poison that stops the heart.
Spiny Bloom - A flower that is incredibly sweet, but has a succulent type body with venomous spines that cause frothing at the mouth, delirium, and swelling.
Bright Poppy - A large bloom that only appears during the wet seasons, in canyons downstream from the welling. The white petals are hallucinogenic upon consumption, but the seeds are safe to consume.
Needlebud - A stalk flower with many tiny blooms at the end dull needles. The needles themselves can be used as a spice and insect deterrent.
Rocktea - A flowering plant of thin stalks that appears like a small patch of grass. The flowers are inedible, but the stalks can be boiled to create a tea. Too high a dose of this tea may cause increased heartbeat, raised blood pressure, and other negative stimulant side effects.
Desert Maple - A short tree that grows in cracks in the ground, it produces edible leaves and sweet sap.
Climber Palm - A palm that grows up the shadowy side of plateaus, like a vine, it anchors itself with roots growing into cracks along the rock.
Tower Cactus - An extremely tall cactus that has a single seed on the base of each of its spines, when the cactus is dying, the spines fray into soft fibrous tufts that carry the seeds away.
Desert Bush Pine - A pine that looks like it was crossed with a cactus. Its needles are razor sharp. It drops cones which are a great source of pine nuts.
Citrus sage - A squat tree/bush that produces an edible citrus flavored bark.
Maroon Sage - A plain looking bush with edible, dusty-green leaves. The leaves turn maroon when their deep roots sense water and can be used to detect when the wet season is arriving.
Parched Lichen - A toxic lichen that survives the dry seasons on canyon walls by parasitically attaching to any other vegetation nearby and tapping into it for nutrients. Foragers must be cautious to avoid eating anything afflicted by this lichen or they will lose their mental faculties and die.
Cavern Lichen - A slightly bioluminescent lichen that thrives in the old lava tubes under the ground. When welling occurs, this lichen may be swept up to the surface and live in any dark, damp areas it may be deposited in.
Sand Scales - An arrowhead-shaped, edible mushroom that grows between cracks in rockfaces. By growing in layers, it mimics the appearance of snakeskin, which deters foragers from trying to take it.
Pitcherpot - A small cup-shaped mushroom that grows well in the terraced lime deposits that form due to welling events, it funnels water to its core deep under the deposits. It's not edible due to a bitter taste, but it is not toxic either.
Groundhorn - A tube-like mushroom that grows in tapering spirals. It grows underground and isn't normally seen unless dug up. It likes to follow the networks of Welling Tubers since the tubers' roots do all the hard work of pressing through hard dry soil.
Bopkin - An orange, air-filled pod mushroom that expels spores in a smelly cloud when disturbed. It grows near Desert Pine Bushes as when the pines' cones drop and hit these mushrooms, it helps Bopkins spread their spores.
Hopper - A mouselike creature that has spindly back legs. They are typically docile and slow to panic. For this reason, the natives who may feel so inclined can easily capture and tame these rodents to keep as a pet. They are colloquially called hoppers because they move by short little skips and when they are particularly excited, they do a funny hopping dance.
Whiptail Snake - An unusually long snake species with yellowish-green scales so fine, it appears skin-like. Their tails make up half their total length, and taper to an extremely long point that appears to be somewhat grass-like. They bury their bodies amongst small patches of grass throughout the desert sands, leaving their tail up to act as a lure or tool to detect if prey comes sniffing around.
Sand Scale Snake - A viper with arrowhead-shaped scales, for whom the Sand Scale fungi is named. It comes in a variety of tones of the rocks it lives around. It hunts by ambush via hiding in cracks in rockfaces until unsuspecting passersby can be struck. Its venom has a near-instantaneous paralyzing effect, which stops the heart and other vital functions of its prey. It also somewhat predigests the meal, so that the snake does not become fattened, allowing it to return to its crevice.
Fatworm - This is a bottomfeeding type snake of a muddy tone that lives in any mud it can find. It's harmless to most larger creatures, and survives by luring in insects with the odor of rotting flesh. It lives a sedentary life which contributes to a girthy and stubby body shape.
Fog Viper - A mythical snake that is said to rise with welling events and bite those who unwittingly enter its domain. Its origin is from a type of jungle vipers that once in a great while may gain access to the lava tubes under the desert, and get washed downstream during welling events. It's said that when the welling events are ending, the vipers souls take the water back to the sky in the form of fog or clouds.
Thorny Scorpion - A sand-colored scorpion that is covered in venomous barbed thorns, which have replaced a need for a tail and barb. It buries itself just beneath the surface of sand and waits for prey to brush by. The venom carries a pheromone that allows the scorpion to track its prey down so it can feed on its corpse. It's not uncommon for creatures killed by the venom of this scorpion to attract dozens of them to feast. Unfortunately, the venom is extremely potent even to larger creatures.
Smooth Scale Scorpion - An obsidian-like black scorpion, with razor-sharp pincers and a more blade-like tail, than a barb. It uses its pincers and tail to cut living animals which allows it to drink the prey's blood without killing it. The venom it produces has an anticoagulating effect which may make wounds from this scorpion difficult to heal, but they are rarely deadly to their prey.
Nightcreeper - A nocturnal scorpion with a silvery exoskeleton. This scorpion is the most populace of the scorpion species, and one of the largest. What it lacks in venom power, it makes up for with powerful pincers and movement speed that borders on supersonic when it strikes. They are a favored source of food, the natives describing them as having a mildly sweet and buttery flavor. The larger specimens exoskeletons can be used for various purposes; ie. plates, bowls, light armor, fans, etc.
Nightspawn - A miniature version of the nightcreeper scorpion variety. They are highly poisonous and move in swarms. They are the preferred diet of the nightcreeper scorpion, which will follow swarms, picking off nightspawn it can get. Their name derives from how they appear to be the offspring of the larger species, however, they are unrelated. Nightspawn can be used to bait nightcreepers close for hunting.
Rock Mites - a miniscule and irritating insect with a speckled body. It lives mostly amongst the lava tubes and in underground caves as it does not survive the heat of the desert well. When welling events occur, the unfortunate mites that get swept up to the surface dry out and die. They do make for a good source of nutrients in a pinch as they number in the hundreds of millions.
Viirata's sandstone has great strands of red, beige, and even a dusky maroon color to it. Many of the dunes share this palette. There are buttes, mesas, and plateaus, as well as large canyons formed by some odd natural occurrences. While it is a fairly arid desert and starkly inhospitable to unseasoned folk, there is a surprising amount of life that thrives here.
A wet season may arrive in the form of welling from the water table beneath the rock, where ancient volcanic tubes connect it to a distant jungle upon a plateau, edging the desert. The rains flowing into the tunnels from the plateau cause massive rivers underground to converge.
This creates springs and fountains through cracks in the sandstone, and most importantly, this is cause for the nomadic peoples to gather and celebrate. It is the shedding of this water that has created stone terraces of lime deposits and the run off further down the way to carve great swaths of canyons across the land like scars.