Dustren

**Dustren** ( dəst-ren ), is a nation covering the northern arm of the continent of San'Hai and meeting the Passing islands of The Fractured Independence on the northern edge of the Melting Sea. It is also bordered to the south by the Melting Sea, and the east by The Green. Othia is the nation's capital and largest city.

Dustren is one of the most developed regions or nations in Kastacal after the Calamity, placing its official founding with the beginning of construction of Othia upon the Oasis of Stars in 494 AC. Prior to the first foundations of Othia being constructed, Dustren was, for all intents and purposes, unified under a common cause around the Oasis of Stars almost immediately after the Calamity. Scholars have recovered trade receipts scrawled into bamboo rolls from around the original location of the Oasis of Stars that can be accurately dated inside the first decade AC.

**GEOGRAPHY**

Due to the extreme aridity of Dustren's climate, populations are limited to the cities of Othia and Oar's Rest, as well as semi-permanent settlements or even villages around any oases found among the dunes. It is estimated that 99% of the denizens of Dustren use about 5% of the total land area attributed to Dustren under Othia. Apart from the coast, the majority of Dustren is desert, with a few oases scattered in the valleys of the dunes created by the prolific winds coming inland from the surrounding waters or the Passing itself. These dunes can peak at more than 100 feet high and shift comparatively quickly due to the aforementioned winds. The substrate of Dustren is theorized to be compacted or solid stone in most places, with cave systems and ravines being exposed from time to time.

**GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS**

**CLIMATE**

Most of Dustren's rain falls in the winter months. The majority of the desert receives less than .5 inches of rain per year with intervals of dryness of many years at a time. Oar's Rest and the small southern coast can receive up to 16 inches of rain in a year, mostly between fall and spring. The higher elevations of Othia's towers receive an average of 4 inches of snow per year, and the whole of the city due to its position in permanent dune valleys, can record up to 9 inches of rain per year calculated in the central ring. Roughly 4 times a decade the lower levels of Othia will flood and replenish soil and nutrients that are transported and utilized throughout the towers of the city. These floods are, ultimately, a phenomenon that goes largely unexplained, though theories range from natural tectonic movement to close-proximity transit of Gabal and/or Jalamuhke.

**Demographics**

Dustren is one of the most diverse population clusters in the whole of Kastacal. Due to Oathia's location toward the center of the desert, less experienced traders and travelers will often stop once reaching Othia instead of continuing their journey back into the harsh desert.

Humans make up the vast majority of the population in Dustren followed by The Pengembara, a race of goblinoids such as bugbears and hobgoblins that left the Oasis of Stars upon the construction of Othia and the election of the first Vođa. Most of the Pengembara roam the desert and inhabit many of the oases and caves scattered throughout the sands rather than living in any settlements that may be governed by Othia and the Vođa.