Gawaris Desert

This large desert region is divided in half by the mighty Marif river, which turns the central region into an extremely fertile valley prone to flooding. There is a similar contrast between the people who live here - outside the large and bustling cities built along the river and a few oasis, fierce nomads hold sway who mostly survive by raiding caravans and each other.
The region has long been relatively free of strife and prospered under the enlightened rule of the Caliphs, who combined religious and temporal authority. But sixty years ago, a succession crisis was combined with religious differences between the northern and southern populations, and a civil war erupted that ravaged many areas. When the two sides became too exhausted to fight on, a third party appeared on the scene - radical secularists who want to recreate the region in the image of more western lands and who receive covert support from the League of Armach.

Industries

Life and Society

Government and Politics

Groups and Organisations

Khargun: The Gawaris Desert has long been home to several dwarven clans that have lived together with the humans for countless generation, and who owe no allegiance to the main dwarven kingdoms. They do not engage in mining - they leave that to their cousins in Gol Algor - but they are very rich nonetheless. The Khargun, as they are called, instead engage in moneylending - a business on which they have a virtual monopoly in the region - and also maintain a network of caravansereis, which serve as shelter from both the elements and raiders for the merchant caravans. Most dwarven buildings are effectively small fortresses, capable of withstanding a small siege, and most of them have extensive networks of rooms underground, which help with protecting the inhabitants from the oppressive heat during the day.

Religion

Most people who live in the Gawaris Desert eschew the worship of the multitudes of gods found in other regions, and they also do not have the organized clerics gifted with divine spells found elsewhere - the closest they have are their judges, who are skilled in interpreting their religious lore. Instead they worship a being they refer to as the "Divine One", "All-Father", and a large number of similar metaphors, an all-powerful entity that according to them created the world and everything in it. They do so according to the guidelines written down in the "Book of Testimony", a tome written down by a human now only referred to as "The Prophet", and which remains the basis of all their laws to this day. The gods known in other regions are to the believers of this faith nothing more than false spirits whose sole purpose is to lead weak humans astray.
Noteworthy among the religious strictures is the requirement of three daily prayers at their temples, or mosques, and their scripture claims that as long as the faithful pray there, they will not suffer from diseases and other ailments until it is their time to end their life on the material plane. And indeed, few people who adhere to the faith seem to fall ill and barring accidents, most seem to live to a rife old age. Some western observers have speculated that the mosques are a unusual variant of nexus towers, but never within the earshots of the faithful...
Those who don't keep to the strictures and skip the prayer routines, however, can become ill, which causes others to shun them as unfaithful. Many rich sinners keep contact to clerics of the outlawed deities, who offer to cure their diseases for them in exchange for money and protection from the authorites.

Important NPCs

Major Geographical Features

Shafts of Lûd: These large holes in the ground penetrate into the earth for many miles. Fell creatures live in the Underdark below, and sensible people stay away from them.
Thunder Peak: This high mountain is perpetually wreathed in a thunderstorm. It is said that a gargantuan bird of prey lairs at its top.

Important Towns and Cities

Khadeen (Small Metropolis, 834,551): Khadeen is considered to be the holiest of cities among the inhabitants of the Gawaris Desert, and all of the Faithful are supposed to do a pilgrimage to this city at least once in their lifetime. When the Civil War started, the religious leaders of the city declared it neutral to keep the city free from strife and the pilgrims safe, and the two factions have consented, not wanting to commit the sacrilege of bringing war here. But with the advance of the secularists from the West, the city might soon become involved in the war anyway, and all the factions are watching each other to see who makes the first move.
Nazeer (Large City, 375,221): This city is ruled by several large clans of genies, who were bound to this place in the Material Plane long ago by ancient wizards. Despite their magics, they were unable to break these wards, and thus decided to make the best out of their situation by creating a large city they could rule over. While they cannot leave the walls of the city, within they rule absolutely over hundreds of thousands of humans and members of other races - most of them slaves.
Despite the city's dire reputation, it does welcome visitors and traders to some extent, for the genies have long ago realized that the best way to attain new slaves is to trade with human slave traders. Still, visitors are advised to be careful, for the genies still resent their entrapment to this place, and they love nothing more to entrap others here as well by making them agree to ill-considered deals that make turn them into slaves should they fail to uphold their end of the deal.

Important Sites

Gurion's Rest: This remote monastery is the location where the famed mystic Gurion was last seen among the living. His followers, the Gurions, built a monastery on the spot and use it as their headquarters - as much as such a large and diverse group can be said to have a headquarters.