The Garamjala Desert

(ga-RUM-ja-la)

• A desert in the Desolation of Cha’mutte, the Drankorian Hinterland

The Garamjala is a vast arid desert that stretches from the Yuvanti Mountains to the eastern banks of the Istaros, and beyond. It was formed in the aftermath of the Great War as the upheavals in Dunmar raised the Yuvanti Mountains mountains, and lifted the central grasslands. As the rains stopped, the land turned dusty and rocky.

The desert is now largely a landscape of rocky canyons, arid plateaus and rocks shaped by the wind, interspersed with open expanses of sandy dunes that bury lost cities. However, occasional rain does reach the desert during the monsoons, and rare thunderstorms cause the landscape to burst into bloom. The interior, east of the Kharja and west of the Istaros, southwest of Xurkhaz is the driest and least hospitable, with miles of bare, cracked sand. The northwestern fringes, from Kharsan west to Bas Udda and Karawa, tend to be rockier and more likely to get occasional monsoon rain.

River Systems

Three major rivers run through the Garamjala. To the west, the Hara drains the central Dunmari plains, entering the Garamjala southeast of Askandi. In the dry season, the Hara flows quite sluggishly, but it swells during the monsoons on the plains.

The Kharja, once a mighty river, now is mostly dry, and only flows during the rainiest part of the season. It is suspected to peter out before reaching the confluence with the Hara, but few have mapped the Desolation of Cha’mutte to know for sure.

While the desert is mostly inhospitable, the Istaros drains an extensive region and flows year-round, supporting diverse riparian ecosystems, including the desert agriculture of the orcish kingdom of Xurkhaz.

Ecology

The desert supports little life. Nonetheless, the occasional giant vulture or band of ogres eke out a living amongst the rocks and sand, and desert-adapted axebeaks hunt small rodents in the more hospitable regions on the edges of the desert.