Iron Sea Desert (Barbarians)

*You come our place desert, make me mad, your flesh good hmmm, hahaha, come soft one, i kill you my sword yes for master will come to end all of world, cave voices tell me to make others same as me, cant think clearly, SHUTUP VOICES MY MIND!!!!!!!! STOP TALKING HUMAN YOU DIE NOW YOUR BLOOD WILL SERVE ME RIGHT*

### Summary

The Iron Sea Desert is a geographic region northwest of Bhesina and southeast of Calcova; it is an arid and cold desert, supporting virtually no plant life, and no mammalian life of any sort for the most part. The entire landmass has a brownish/orangish tint to it, almost taking on a rusted nature. The area is also very windy, and dust storms are by nature a very common occurrence.

If the dust is able to gain access to ones lungs, a coughing fit will usually ensue, followed by a loss in clarity of perception. If exposure to the dust continues, the person is liable to slowly begin to suffer something akin to lead poisoning; their mental abilities become slowly more impaired, and insanity seems to follow in this wake eventually.

This is the fate of the non-dwarven denizens of the desert, who gave taken on a number of names each particular to a specific culture or nation. The Bhesinans refer to them as the impure ones, the Parthans say they are the afflicted, the dwarves call them the mind-rusted, and the orcs simply refer to them as "The Mad Ones".

### Denizens

These afflicted comprise a large body of raiders that scour the desert, searching for unwitting victims. They slowly become insane, they have a heightened sense of aggression/xenophobia, they lose most of their language skills ( mixing in gibberish regularly in their speech), and they slowly seem to succumb either to some for of schizophrenia, as they claim to hear voices in their heads which guide them down a path of self destructive violence. As the condition progresses, they also become more animalistic, neglecting personal hygienic, but also abandoning most normal civilized customs, such as living in shelters, wearing non-revealing clothes, and eating like dogs ( they eat on all fours occasionally). They grow large tumors all across their skin that appear like the bubbly features common after sustaining a burn, except permanent and more severe; they also suffer from plague like pus boils that form if these tumors are cut off or removed purposely. Those who have bared the disease for years will also begin to bleed from their eyes, ears, and nose at random times. This is seen as a sign of full maturity amongst the raiding tribe, and is almost akin to a rite of passage. They also lose their taste for cooked or cured meat, and slowly come to prefer raw meat, and portions of the kill such as entrails as akin to normal cuts of meat. Cannibalism is commonplace ( towards non infected) and has gained them their incredibly feared reputation amongst the civilized peoples of the surrounding area.

They have an incredible hostility towards all humanoid races that haven't befallen the same ailment that they have, and will attempt to attack said persons on sight if they can get in immediate range. If doing so is impossible, they will often set up ambushes, waiting either for an unsuspecting caravan to pass by, or choosing instead to attack a guarded encampment under the cover of darkness. So it seems, that the condition they are afflicted with doesn't seem to inhibit their ability for tactical decision making, rather, it just takes away everything that makes them "civilized". If one is afflicted with the disease, whether it be in the early, late, or middle stages, they will usually gladly be accepted by the raiders as one of their own. They actually have a very peaceful culture internally speaking, as they don't seem to fight much more often than normal human groups do, actually a little bit less perhaps.

### Organization

Their raiding parties don't tend to extend beyond 50 or so members; part of this comes from the impracticality of trying ti ambush or chase down travelers with such a large group of people, and part of it also comes from the difficulty in distributing raid goods to the members of each troop; as these peoples only survive on the occasional unwary traveler or trader, and only hunt at a subsistence level. They are well known for their fearsome appearance in battle, as they tend to wear the skulls ( sometimes the still fleshy head as well) of their victims, and will even use these as sling projectile, or in catapults ( they will place several dozen unto the catapult and shoot it like a volley of arrows at an enemy, they will also attack dwarven strongholds with these, usually throwing them over the walls of the dwarven cities in an attempt to spread disease). They typically can be witnessed riding on giant makeshift chariots/stagecoaches, usually with terrible blades on the front and on the wheels, used in order to maul those whom they come into contact with, usually decorated with the skins of their victims serving as drapery and even as banners atop the vehicles. There have even been rumors of their usage of several viscous insect like monsters, such as bullettes, and even rust monsters, who they will occasionally use to attack the dwarven strongholds.

### Foreign relations

Their relationship with all factions is of course hostile as one might expect. Very few people actually venture into the dangerous desert itself, as it is well known of its poisonous and hostile nature, instead, they try to circumvent it; the afflicted are well aware of this, and come out from the most poisonous recesses to attack. In short, most people who fall prey to their attacks are just trying to push their luck a bit too far by staying on the periphery of the desert, only to still fall prey to the bandits. The Bhesinans have sent clerical parties into the desert into the past in order to try to cure the raiders, but to no avail, and as such tend to stay far away from its reaches today. The Bhesinans are perhaps the most vulnerable to raiding parties, as their towns are nomadic by nature, so they lack the wall defenses necessary to defend against the raiders.The Bhesinans dont quite understand the disease, and try to heal the infected through prayer, usually not working out.They also tend to conflate ugliness with evil, and as such tend to blame the infected for some moral failure, instead of understanding it as a disease.Every couple of years, a border town on the edge of Parthan territory will also get sacked, ( this is far outside of the reaches of the desert mind you); the Parthans have tried following the raiders into the desert to kill them, but have ti retreat once the disease's symptoms start taking hold of their men. Any Parthan towns in the southwestern quadrant of the country usually have wooden palisades that act as an easy defense against the raiders, and they also have an understanding of the risk that trade caravans might get raided. The Parthans have the most comprehensive understanding of the disease through their advancements in science in medicine. that it is transmitted from the rusted particulates in the air in the desert, though they don't share this information with anyone else. The orcs like having the raiders to their northwest, as it gives them a greater excuse to extorting the trade caravans that run through their regions. The dwarves are the main target of the raider assaults, though they don't pose much of a threat to them, as their strongholds are far too fortified to allow for the raiders to gain access.