Psammos

A sphere covered in dunes and sand with water only flowing from underground springs. Many travel to study or loot the ancient temple complexes of the Ennead.

## History

Once a pristine garden sphere during the First Flood the entire planet was blasted with such intense heat turning the surface turned to glass. The sphere was abandoned and the glass slowly eroded into countless shards which were blunted by wind turning the shards into sand.

In the aftermath of the First Flood in the Silver Era many celestials returned to the desert and built great temples. These celestials dwelled in their great cities until the Second Flood where the Curse of Mortality began to decay the celestials. Some of the celestials began to fear death above all else and so weaved strange rituals to make themselves undead using knowledge gained from eating the brain of Jar-Ri. These ruler would become the Mummies and form a despotic regime called the Ennead. The Ennead rejected the Most Divine Triumvirate and began to work tirelessly to control Soulfog from overtaking their empire. The forces of Antithesis launched one attacked on the sphere headed by a dragon corrupted by the Taknaz-Dutu called Apsis but the Ennead repelled this assault and imprisoned the dragon. Despite this and other victories and accomplishments nothing could prevent the encroachment of death and as the world became coated in Soulfog the rulers retreated into tombs. As the ruling celestials retreated into tombs the lesser celestials died in the dunes without food and water. The sphere fell silent as the sands were covered with Soulfog.

Dza-baa-baa came to this sphere and forged the Lady of Broken Glass from the sands and the Soulfog. Once the Soulfog Crisis and the Second Flood was addressed the sphere was abandoned except for the sleeping undead rulers. Over the aeons many mortals settled the sphere to loot the great tombs. Additionally the Order of Broken Glass moved their order to the sphere as it was the birthplace of their patron. In the site she was forged  they built the Pyramid of Glass as their seat of power.

## Locations

**Azal'Isban:** The capital and largest city on Psammos as well as the center of Oecumene power on the sphere. The Sultan-Magnate rules from their alcazar, known as the Seraglio, from which the money from the many gambling dens and brothels flow. The Wells of Azal'Isban have long since run dry now the Sultan-Magnate sends the so called Dowsers to hunt down and claim other sources of water of the sphere to support the constant Spelljammers that deliver water to the city.

**Oasis:** Built around an oasis, the city of the same name is the second largest settlement on the sphere. The city is ruled by a Watergiver, a inherited title given control of the oasis waters. It is has a growing animosity Azal'Isban who seek Oasis's water.

**City of the Sphinx:** A large ruin sparely inhabited with clerics and madmen dealing in riddles and unspoken truths. It is said within the many deep tunnels and vaults a great sphinx with an unknown name rulers over the entire city. Only those seeking knowledge who've used all the other resources at their disposal would come here.

**Sessikissis Waterways:** A great snake people colony where 12 water springs feed the canals that flow into a central city. At the entrance to their city are great spike gates guarded by great bone naga and an order of fire wizards.

**Graverobbers Redoubt:** A settlement built into the so-called First Tomb after the legendary tomb-robber Ruvara looted the entire tomb and disarmed every trap. In their retirement they furnished and opened the tomb to act as a shelter for a black market in magical relics and stolen treasure.

**Pyramid of Blood Stained Glass:** Main Temple of the Order of Broken Glass where young initiates are brought to undergo the training required to become a Blood Hunter.

**Seekers' Bazaar:** Half a legend and half a an hallucination the Seeker's Bazaar is a ever shifting shaded bazaar where fea will trade weary travelers resources and magical items for memories, feeling and purposes. It is said half mad lost wanderers found themselves at the Seeker's Bazaar and traded their sanity to be found.

**Reliquary:** A magical institute for the study and storage of magic relics. It is a part of the wider Academia Arcanum of the Oecumene.

**The Vultures' Feast** - A dry dusty plane littered with the bones and wreckage of dead beasts and caravans. Only the vultures find any sustenance here. There is said to be ancient tomb buried in the dry dirt but legend has it a vulture learnt to talk and spread this lie to bring foolish travelers to this desolate place.

**Boling Pools**: A system of acidic lakes which are very dangerous to travel through so most caravans circumnavigate the pools. Legends tell of a great undead Roc who died with the pools after it fell from the skies and now this beast hunts down trespassers and drowns them  in the boiling acid lakes.

**The Nameless Trinity:** Around one oasis within a depression stands three great shrines of unknown name and unknown design. They appear abandoned but all who go to the oasis report the feelings of being watched from the shrines. Strange mutated beasts appear more common around the shrines.

**Aem'Atya, the Shrouded Descent:** As mortality infected Creation the arrogant rulers of - dug the Aem'Atya. This deep hole was then carved with runes to keep those thrown into Aem'Ayta trapped there. They then began to throw the dead into the pit, soon it was covered in Soulfog. The wards prevented the Shepard from gathering the souls there. The Gravetenderers have a small enclave called Katabasis at the mouth to send expeditions to retrieve some souls.

**Palace of the Many Colors:** The Festival of Ur-Nes takes place here once a decade for the entire year where people all over the sphere venture to take part in the merriment. The palace is tended by a strange clerical order of veiled Clerics said to be recruited from the unwanted children born and abandoned at the festivities. The Palace is projected by strange magics that make those keen on violence subservient while they remain.

**The Vault of Apsis:** During the Second Flood the Antithesis sent a corrupted dragon to consume the world however this snake was bound beneath the sands and the vault built on top to stop it escaping.

**The Rift of Rulers:** A rift valley where many of the lesser members of the Ennead  built their tombs. It is now the center of tomb robbers and thieves seeking to loot the temples