Desolation of Xhan

The Desolation of Xhan is an extremely inhospitable region of arid, rocky basin-and-range country in northern Shiankar. Its mountains are generally lower than Jyord's Anvils to the south, though still exceedingly rugged. Cratered terrain, jagged-edged crags, bizarrely shaped rock formations, and dramatic expanses of sheer-sided mesas define the landscape. It sometimes receives sparse snow in the wintertime, but otherwise precipitation is very rare. 
Along the northern edge of the Desolation of Xhan, the terrain turns to broken scablands, and the gulches that wind across the parched earth grow into ravines, then canyons, that merge together as the barren plateau drops away dramatically into the steep-sided river valleys of southern Beraitha.