Kesh Karkhan

The Kesh Karkhan is the barren and rugged deep continental interior of Orithea, mostly characterized by a basin-and-range topography with a series of arid endorheic basins separated by formidable mountain chains. 
Etymology: The Kesh Karkhan’s name derives from an archaic Tuvai phrase meaning “desolation of many kars,” reflecting the fact that a traveler passing through the continental interior will repeatedly cross one desert basin and scale the mountain range at its edge, only to find himself looking out over yet another expanse of desert. 
The most prominent basin features making up the Kesh Karkhan are the Kar Kadash, the Kar Gemesh, the Kar Bharaz, the Kar Zahak, the Kar Kuzul, and the Kar Nebehar; noteworthy mountain chains or high plateaus include the Tuzul Massif, the Kirga Massif, Jyord’s Anvils, and the Mountains of Thundering Flame. Broadly speaking, the Kesh Karkhan as a whole can be subdivided into the broad regions of Shiankar (the western part of the interior, where volcanic activity is more common and the desert basins are especially harsh and inhospitable) and Shandara (the eastern part of the interior, where vulcanism is rarer and some of the basin country is only semi-arid, or even sparsely forested). 
The human inhabitants of the whole Kesh Karkhan region are called the Daare Karsha by "civilized" Oritheans. This is a general term encompassing many different peoples spread out over a huge area, most of them widely separated from each other and in minimal contact, and speaking different (albeit related) dialects. 
Despite their harsh and forbidding character, travel across the lands of the Kesh Karkhan is not impossible. A tenuous network of trade routes extends across the vast continental interior, with walled caravan towns and fortified outposts strung along them at intervals. These are the Blood Roads, so-called because of an old saying that the tolls paid to travel them must be paid in blood rather than coin.