Dry Steppes

The vast stretches of prairie north of the Sulhaut Mountains and west of the Crystalmist Mountains. Rivers and oases here are scarcer even than the meager rainfall. Once the area was a fertile, well-watered grainbasket, the home of Baklunish Padishahs and Sultans, but the Invoked Devastation utterly ruined this fecundity. It is said that the central part of these steppes is still pleasant and rich and many Balkunish nomads roam there still. The so-called Horse Barbarians who roam the northern Dry Steppes are fine riders and warriors, employing composite bows, light lances, and a variety of scimitarlike weapons.

There are, of course, many legends of ruins and buried cities which have great wealth and wonders that survived the Devastation, but the nature of this terrain is such that few seek them. Most noted are the tales of the Stone Circles on the shore of Lake Udrukankar, reputedly sacred to the people of the lands and said to hold powerful magic and deep latent evil within.