Sunfire Desert

The Sunfire Desert is a large desert covering the entirety of the Siirin Peninsula in Isla Antrion. The sand is red varying by shade depending on the time of day, ranging from bright orange to deep blood red. There are a few oases and the little sage brush that survives there is rumored to spontaneously combust. Sand dragons have been sighted there and they often set fire to areas to establish the borders of their territory or to help incubate their eggs, as well as keep themselves warm on the cold nights. The deepest layer of the desert sand is a fine powdery red clay, which is used as a spice by the Antrions and in their early trade as a valued export and currency. The Antrions observed how the sand would turn to golden glass at the touch of the dragons' flame, and that their nests were made of shimmering amber stones. Some Antrions have captured dragon younglings and used their flame to melt the red upper layer of the desert sand they harvested, and then they would shape them into golden statues and works of art, of which many survived and are prized expensive heirlooms of the rich families that were the early traders and adventurers. This abduction of the dragons' young, of which they have only a few, incited the Dragon Wars of the Endritch Era, while some Antrion commoners wished to stop the greed of the elite that caused the destruction of cities, they moved against the elite, though they were unsuccessful and that dragons look on all of the humans as the enemy, some managed to steal the stolen dragonlings and raise them as mounts, using them to fight against their parents, where only in the depths of the desert, near the sea, are the dragons hateful of humans, and remembering how some of their young were taken and corrupted against them. While there are small tribes of humans that eeke out an existence in the shallow desert, holding a monopoly on the best sand and dragon products, raising dragons as war mounts for defense and for work in mercenary companies, being contracted out along with their riders who are often slaves. Though the slaves are the dragon riders, only the chieftans can ride the largest grown dragons, keeping the rest in check. The dragons of the Sunfire Desert are actually wyverns, but are called that by the locals as they had heard of dragons and thought that's what they must be, but outsiders call them what they are, though some tourists are tricked only to be disappointed that they are not real dragons. The wyverns are distant cousins of the dragons and are speculated to have originally split off from the dragons of Sorellicor or Sa'hasa, though no one really knows.
Category:Locations
Category:Deserts