The Maklatan Desert is a desolate region, even by the standards of the Brimstein heartlands. Huge sand dunes that have formed along the coast to the east of the desert prevent clouds coming in from the Mordacious Sound, so no rain has fallen on the Maklatan for hundreds of years.
Winds sweep across the lands driving huge sandstorms that can rage for days and scour the rocks, forming strange rock formations. There is an arch, formed by the wind that, when the wind blows gives off a low hum or whistle, earning it the name the Singing Arch.
The shivering Sands is a region of low sand dunes that are constantly changing due to the winds. Geologists studying the area found that the sand grains were so fine that they were easily picked up by the wind and moved from place to place. Many travellers became lost in the shifting dunes and it’s a very brave, or very foolish traveller that enters the Shivering Sands without a local guide.
During the age of Myth, a huge underground aquifer was discovered and tribes began to move into the area, sinking deep wells to extract the precious water. Small oasis grew up around the wells, as water is such a precious commodity in the desert, the wells became neutral zones in the continuous squabbles between the nomadic tribes that moved into the area. Once each year tribes would gather at the wells for a council of the elders of the tribes to trade, exchange news and feast. It was also an opportunity for the young men and women to meet and exchange vows, thus ensuring the strength of the genes of the tribesmen.
A rich gold merchant from Dinorwig, Seth Borthwick, decided that he needed a route through the Scablands to move his gold quickly and safely to the Caverns of Fulminax, the route through the Polychromatic Sea or along the Coast of Bones had become too dangerous due to pirate raids on his ships and attacks from sea beasts. He raised an army and captured a string of oases, establishing a camp at each for his guards and named it the Gold Road.
When the tribesmen arrived at the Oases to draw water, Borthwick’s soldiers began to charge the tribesmen for drawing water from the wells. The tribal elders tried to explain to the soldiers that the water belonged to no-one and was the gift of the sand gods, but the soldiers beat them and sent them away. The tribesmen attacked the soldiers but were easily beaten by superior fire power and cavalry units, so they decided to use the desert against the soldiers. The tribesmen gathered together and attacked the caravans as they entered the Scablands, killing all the men and taking the women for themselves. They captured the draft animals and killed them for meat or simply to stop the soldiers from eating them, and so they slowly starved the soldiers guarding the oases.
Whenever Seth Borthwick sent an army to destroy the tribesmen, they would simply melt away into the desert and regroup later to attack the columns of soldiers as they tried to return to Dinorwig. Eventually the cost of maintaining the Gold Road became so great that Seth had to abandon the idea and revert to the longer land route that ran along the Flamespires.
