Tracks Across the Sand

The caravan circles the desert in a one-year circuit, never stopping more than a week, always perfectly on time.

Since time immemorial, the Caravan has circled the desert. Travelers walk alongside spirits, beasts of burden, wooden constructs animated by cloth and air, and desert-proofed motorcycles. Now it is your turn, with the wind at your back and the stars ahead, to take your place in the endless cycle crossing this vibrant land. Bearing treasure on your back and stories on your lips, you too can secure your place in something greater.

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The Desert

The Desert is all that was, and all that will be. Illuminated by the light of Taá, the star, and its sister Shimreth, the Desert is a cruel wasteland and verdant paradise all at once, depending on how well you know her whims, ever-changing as they are. The only constant in this land is the Caravan and their yearly cycle, ever unchanged by the impositions of the Desert.

The Sands

The Desert itself is as much a character in the story of the Caravan than any of its most famed antlion-hunters or wealthy traders. While not inhospitable, the Desert is a place where only the hardy and well-prepared can survive. Trekking across the vast, open expanses of her glory exposes one to many a wonderful sight, as the biomes through which the Caravan passes are rich and varied. In a one-year cycle, the Caravan travels through vast sand dunes whose peaks stretch to the sky, inhabited by all manner of fearsome creatures who harness the blazing sun and the intense winds for energy. Massive salt flats, populated by filter-feeders and fortune seekers who make a living in the salty muck, dot the sands. Dry, mountainous karsts exist alongside worn mountains crowned by sky islands: preserves of water and life amidst the dry lowlands surrounding them. Nearly every type of desert climate can be found here, and the path of the Caravan stretches through them all.

Map of the Caravan's route.

The Stars

With the sands of the Desert beneath, the Stars must shine above. The cosmology of this world shapes the movements of the Caravan itself. The two most prominent celestial bodies are the star Taá and the planet Shimreth. Taá is a blue giant, burning bright and hot in the sky. It is a life-giver and life-taker: its energy fuels everything in the Desert, but if one remains for too long under its baleful gaze, death is certain. Shimreth is the gentler of the sisters. It is a gas giant, massive and omnipresent in the horizon, with rings of ice and rock stretching out across almost the entire sky. Twice a year, the Desert passes through the rings, resulting in a glorious and beautiful meteor shower. This meteor shower marks the departure of the Caravan from Yearhome and the point at which the Caravan reaches the half-way destination on their journey. Various orbital phenomena also play a role in the setting, such as mysterious gas clouds from space and radiation storms which cause sand grains to levitate in the air, suspended through unnatural forces. Such storms are deeply intertwined with the mythology of spirits that surrounds the Caravan and, by extension, all life in the Desert.

The Inhabitants

In the Desert, many creatures live, eat, and thrive. Besides the four main sentient races of the Desert, the various biomes and environments lend themselves to extreme biodiversity. Many life-forms are hostile and dangerous, but many more are pleasant, docile, or even essential for life in the desert. Consider how a creature may impact the environment around it, and how the environment might in turn affect the creature itself. Consider the life cycles of all that live in a particular place, as well as the cyclical nature of the world itself: All creatures have adaptions that allow them to live in this harsh environment.

The Caravan itself is perhaps the most important inhabitant of the Desert. It travels in its circuit to nearly all major locations, trading goods and stories as it passes.

The Landmarks

Across the Desert, wherever you are, there are landmarks to orient yourself if you know where to look. Between ancient cities, abandoned building projects, and natural wonders, the Desert holds many secrets. The most prominent of landmarks is the river. Winding its way through the otherwise barren landscape, the river provides a source of water and life to the places it touches. One must be careful not to depend on the river for too long, though, as it violently shifts course routinely, destroying any civilizations along its edges. One such civilization, long since extinct, left a grand monument in the desert: an abandoned imperial city, with beautifully carved buildings and hewn streets, now sits empty in a dune sea, sand slowly filling in the once-grand halls. Stone spikes jut from the earth in a pinnacle karst, insulated from the sands of the desert, though the narrow pathways, encroaching dark, and not-so-friendly fauna. To the east lies the Pyandor Reach, a massive volcanic mountain range fencing in the dune sea, visible from nearly everywhere in the desert on a clear day. Major settlements play a role, too, such as Yearhome. This settlement on the coast serves as both the end and beginning of the Caravan's route, but only when the stars descend from the heavens. There are yet more locales within the Desert, waiting to be discovered.

Peoples of the Caravan

The Caravan accepts all who choose to walk its route, and many have seen fit to join. Four main species make up the inhabitants of the Desert, but there is always room for more.

Yaka: Hexapodal foxes wreathed in silver UV-reflective fur, the Yaka are a nomadic species and are found in almost all corners of the Desert. Legends swirl (though mostly circulated amongst their own) that they were the ones who first founded the Caravan. Highly regarded as guides, hunters, and trackers – as well as for their shed fur, which is often used for protective gear – a Yaka is an invaluable companion on the desert trail.

Kah-Rehm: A species of ram-centaur with hoof-like, three-digit hands, native to the mountains, sky islands, and karsts of the central desert, the Kah-Rehm are excellent survivalists and climbers. They live in large colonies and cities in their mountainous landscapes, trading extensively with the Caravan for foreign and exotic goods. Each member of the Kah-Rehm species prizes and decorates their perpetually growing horns; the decorations become increasingly intricate as they age.

The Spider People: Deep in the Desert's dunes, one can find societies of large Spiders building temporary encampments on the shifting sands of the desert, with intricate tunnel networks excavated in more solid ground. Not much is known about the Spider People, both due to the difficulties in communicating with them as well as their relative rarity in the desert. It is known that they generally consume other large arthropods which seem to be less sentient than themselves, though some splinter groups have disavowed this practice. Rumors in larger cities circulate that the Spiders may possess some form of mental powers, though conclusive evidence has not yet been uncovered.

Tzic: Inhabiting the salt flats and riparian provinces of the Desert, the Tzic build massive ornate structures which dot the horizon in their lands. Large venomous ant-like beings, they are organized in a strict caste system. Queens are called Sathymena, and are considered living gods; as they are not sapient, their rhythmic movements are interpreted by the Suyyu, the albino priest caste. Protecting their cities are the Scithi, the colorful warrior caste; their markings are extremely varied, and the patterns on a Scithi warrior's exoskeleton are taken as an omen of the warrior's life yet to come. The worker caste, or Sottei, is dull in coloration, and extremely numerous. Drones, whose sole purpose is to reproduce with the queen, belong to the Sann caste and share the worker's dull coloration.

Ages of the Caravan

Though the Caravan has walked as long as anyone has cared to keep track, they are not immune to the changes brought on by technological advance. Such advances can be tracked in three ages.

The First Age: The first age is the longest, following the beginning of the Caravan and the culture that surrounds it. Caravanners use beasts of burden to transfer their food, water, and goods for trade. During this era, exploration for routes to new settlements was more common, with caravanners breaking from the main group to strike off into the desert to make their own discoveries. At the very least, they would return with a new story to tell.

The Second Age: Harnessing the power of the desert wind and the spirits which rule over it, the Caravan employs dunewalkers – large constructs made from canvas sails and cactus-rib spars to walk across the desert, carrying passengers and goods alike. Beasts of burden are still mixed in with the dunewalkers, and many more caravanners simply walk on foot. These dunewalkers rely on magic to keep the wind at their backs and the Caravan always moving.

The Third Age: By the time of the Third Age, the Caravan has begun to employ small engines, powered by compressed air and wind-spirits, to engage ever smaller personal vehicles. While some of the larger dunewalkers remain, many caravanners employ individual or dual-seater walking machines to traverse the Desert, and hunters or explorers often use fast moving motorcycle-like constructs.

Collected Works

The Caravan collects many stories. Below rest some of the tales told amongst the dunes.

Lone and Level Sands by UncannyClown
Beasts of the Desert Part I by Arclund
At the Edge of the World, a Red Song by Din-Bidor
A Desert Herbal by Plilt
Eternal Return by AKAM80
In the Salt Flat, a Red Door by Din-Bidor
Beasts of the Desert Part II by Arclund
Underground, a Red Fate by Din-Bidor
Beasts of the Desert Part III by Arclund
Beneath the Waves in the Opposite Sky by Stygian Blue
Beasts of the Desert Part IV by Arclund
A Tale of Two Monsters by Crow-Cat
The Night I Wrote About Her by PallidAlbumen
The Antlion Graveyard by Spoddetman
Sand Dunes Theme by UncertaintyCrossing
A Carcass Without Rot by Rambling Crow
Salt and Stars by 20minutespast
For Ever and Ever by zipzipskins
On the Rails South of Rechemstei by Vishardsh
The Override of Aqueduct 9 by CadaverCommander
Beyond Time, a Red Story by Din-Bidor
How Tetesh Made the World by Plilt
How Tetesh Won a Silver Pelt by Plilt

Writing Guide

The themes of this canon should be fairly transparent, at least during the days where everything is only partially formed. Potential things you might be interested in writing about include:

• Cycles, and the cyclical nature of all things.
• Exploration, wanderlust, and homesickness.
• Nostalgia.
• Survival in the face of the extremes.
• Duality, culture and tradition, and histories.
• Being the alien; becoming foreign to all.

Generally speaking, if you have an idea: write it. Nothing's canon until it's on the site, and even then it's flexible. Nothing exists in this world unless you say it does. The past, present and future are all waiting to be decided. Here and now, you are as gods.

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Okay, but what actually is this?

This page is the fourth hub of our first collaboratively-constructed canon, courtesy of the new Serpentine Sorting System. The full description of how this process works is available on that hub page, but the general gist is as follows:

1. You submit writing prompts.
2. We curate the prompts into a poll. You perform Democracy and whittle them down to a single survivor.
3. This single prompt becomes the seed of a new canon. We nurture it. You discuss it on the Discord server.
4. We curate your ideas into a hub, which with any luck you're currently reading. You write for this hub, and shape the new canon to your will. We update this page as more ideas are spawned and refined.
5. The canon solidifies. Staff and users alike sit back and bask in the new writing. Everybody wins.

The initial writing period is still open, and so much of the Desert remains unexplored. Go out and discover, and be sure to write down what you find!

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This prompt was provided by ch00bakka, and won out of 64 submissions. The Curator of the canon is currently meltedbee. Contact her if you have any questions or concerns.

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