Shandara

Shandara is a blanket term for the whole eastern half of the Kesh Karkhan; all the lands of Orithea’s deep continental interior east of the Kirga Massif's front ranges. Though harsh and arid, Shandara generally presents a somewhat less desolate landscape than Shiankar, the western parts of the Kesh Karkhan. In some areas it has dry grasslands, or even sparse forests of scrub pine and baobab, whereas Shiankar is almost completely barren. 
Nevertheless, travel through Shandara is a forbidding prospect; it has scorching summers and brutal winters, drinkable water is scarce, its untamed wilderness is home to all manner of dangerous creatures, and the tribes of the Daare Karsha are often hostile to outsiders. Wayfarers in Shandara must stick to a handful of established routes with caravanserais and fortified towns strung out along them, usually at intervals of a day’s travel; those who stray from these routes gamble with their lives. The most important of these routes are considered to be the eastern branches of the Blood Roads.