I thought I'd go ahead and write a missing history chapter of how Skarch Forest became the dry desert it is today. (If you didn't read it, the idea stemmed from me and Richter on the Gloriana/Glomdoring thread. I doubt that it's actually correct. It's a good idea, though.)

How the Desert Came to Be:
The Myth of Skarch
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The Liefa Forest was a beautiful and tranquil place, where furrikin, faeling and tae'dae alike lived in absolute serenity with the wilderness. They only took what they needed, and in turn helped the Liefa prosper.
Some claimed the key to the forest's grand prosperity was the ethereal power belonging to one of the two Greater Spirits who protected Liefa - Brother Snake. He was a sagacious Spirit - proud of his flourishing home. Together with Sister River, they made Liefa an unparallelled utopia, shrouded in splendour.

However, while the peaceable commune continued with their harmonious existence, a shadow fell upon them. A demon of terrible iniquity knew of Snake, and of his power. The wraithlike being felt intense jealousy and wanted the Nature Spirit's magics for himself. He was nameless, but since his beginning, he had wanted the key to Nature Magic to be his.

The demon, bringing a malign armada of spectres and ghouls, attacked Snake as he lay basking in the sunlight. Maimed yet not quite dead, the nameless foe channeled Snake's ethereal magics into himself.

His spirit absorbed, Snake fell dead and the forest shuddered as Evil took the reigns. The demon momentarily basked in his newfound power and glory, yet this time was short. Within seconds, the demon lost control of the ethereal magics inside him. Whether the Ethereal Maiden Lisaera had foiled his plans, or the potency was too great for him, it is not sure. Certainly, the demon was obliterated and the essence was scattered by the wind.

As it was released, whatever powers had kept alive Liefa's beauty faded, and the forest was reduced to monotonous sand and rock. Sister River gasped and cried in distress, but too few had survived the destruction of Liefa to aid her. As the intense sun came down upon her, she beseeched her followers to revive the forest once more, before she faded. Both the Spirits were gone, and the Liefa was no more than a desert.

The few that lived on became encased in despair. Their home was gone, and their Spirits. There was no way to rectify the situation.

Within years, all record of the devastating turn of events was gone. Some said before their lives ended, that the not-quite-dead nameless demon had eradicated all proof of his failure.

Whatever the case, it is certain that Liefa is now gone, replaced by the sweltering hot desert known as Skarch.

Hmm...

Skarch is a desert due to geographic placement. Moisture has a hard time passing through the mountains to it, hence it is very dry. However the Skarch IS a forest. Though not one of common conceptuality. Akraasiel grew up in the Skarch and hence sees it as verdant and brimming with life. It is filled with plants and a plethora of beasts, but only those who know the way of the sands can survive within it for extended periods of time.

Heh, you mean I indepenatly came up with the idea that Skarch migh have once been a forest, purely based on Cartigraphical symetry?
How cute.

And, the area that makes us Skarch could just as easily be a forest, or a beach, or plains, or a lake. As much as geology makes sense once you see it, its very easy to explain the existance of any type of terrain in any area, given a fantasy world or just some unseen geological structure. (i.e. underground river, hard clay foundation, tateonic motion in the area)

From the looks of it the desert has more possibility to be a large plain than a forest. Deserts also spread given the circumstances like the Sahara desert in Africa is slowly spreading South. The outside of the Skarch mountains on the coast is where you would find a more humid climate. Possibly like Washington state. Where you have desert and plains in the east and green on the west. So that myth really isn't possible unless of course there is an underground water source or a river to feed it. But the plantlife that grows would be rather limited. An example would be the nile river.

But hey this map could be completely false and I am just a loon.

This continent if you ask me reminds me of the Great valley in Land before time. I don't know how the hell it works but I guess it does. The water evaporates from the two seas but still it would be a rather salty sea over time. It has no outlet and the seas can only collect more feldspar deposits from the various rivers thus increasing the calcium and salt to water ratio exponentially.

Would be nice if it turned into a salt sea, then we wouldn't drown. It would be best if there was an earthquake that split part of the ground and made a new river to get rid of all that salt and feed it into the Ocean east of Avechna's peak. Or you could somehow open a large salt plain in the desert and make salt flats where you can harvest salt in Dairuchi and Gaudiguch.

The calcium is good because that means more reefs which in turn means more coral jewelery and more fish which means more dolphins and sharks to eat the fish - oh my!

Not to mention ancient Merians who ate the animals! Since calcium is breathed from gills too Merians should probably have the strongest bones! Mmmm dolphin breast milk! More constitution anyone?

stop plugging for merian upgrades Qale

the basin of life is flat

*puts on professore robe*
The circular nature of the mountains clearly indicated plate tectonics that push the ne and sw plates towards the Nw plate creating sharp large mountains. The Large Lake/sea in the center is created by the high waterbed level of the area which as the plates push closer together, lowers the land level in the center, thus creating a larger fresh water sea that is created by the melting snows in the surrounding mountains.

Before the closure of the rivers towards the skarch from the southern mountains during the war for River stopping, the Skarch desert was once a forest being fed by both underground waterbeds leaking from the great inner sea, and the streams and creeks that formed in the mountains during the spring when the snow melted.

Do to a high demand of wood, low population and its closer proximit to the equator, over time the Forest became a plain and eventually turned to desert as the people continued to exploit the undevelopeed and protected lands untill the Dracnari came to claim the desert as their own.

Iggy, I thought your story was great, and i'd love to see more involving all the other nature spirits

Or perhaps a soulless god just punched the ground really hard.

Maybe it was a ninja soulless, and he freaked out and killed everyone. Must have been that kid that dropped that spoon.

REAL ULTIMATE POWER!! YES!

I love that website it makes me so happy.