The Vast
From World of Kralis
In 1,800 B.F.A. the Vast was created from the Cold Sea as the magical battle between Magnara and Sargun ended and crashed into the cold waters. The resulting magical explosion causes the seas waters to evaporate leaving behind the salt that creates the Vast.
Like many of the great and legendary Wild Lands of the world, the Vast or the Northern Wastes, sits as a buffer between the Kingdom of Panthias, Mannheim, Zhosarik and the Kingdom of Nashatras and is one of the more unusual and harsh of the greater Wild Lands. Stretching nearly 1,000 miles and nearly 250 miles wide it is a white sand and white grass plain that is home to many creatures, predominately the grey worm.
This is not a hot desert like those found in the deep south, this is a white sand wasteland, the remains of an ancient salt lake that has long ago been dried up and frozen over by the great north. Now, the cold arctic winds that usher down from the Istalik have whipped this dry lake bed into a white sand desert that sees great amounts of snow and rain.
The ground itself is harsh. Due to the high salt content it makes it very dangerous to cross this land. White storms of slat can create some very serious wounds and make fresh wounds worse, causing extreme pain as salt gets "rubbed" into the wound. It also makes it difficult to breath as well as see as the salt is very corrosive. There are "oasis'" of rough red dirt that stand like islands among the dunes of the white sands. Some of these reach nearly 50' high and can be as large as 200 to 300 feet long and wide enough to support some life.
This Wild Land is a very large graveyard whose dead have been dissolved by the sand leaving little if any remains, yet their souls have been left behind. It is also home to a mutated breed of grey worms that live only in this region. They are more aggressive than their cousins. Their very flesh is a rock hard hide that can withstand the blistering salty sand as they burrow through the earth.
While most of the land that is the Vast is covered in this white-salt sand, the fringes are home to a white native wheat that is very popular to the creatures and beings that make their homes around the Vast. It is thick, nearly one inch in diameter and grows to nearly five feet. The wheat is completely white and has a slight taste of salt and sweetness to it.
[edit] The Ancient Cold Sea
The dark blue waters of this ancient sea stretched through the central lowlands that separated the great forest of Storhet from the cold expanse of northern lands that make up the realms of Manneheim, Parika, Zhosarik, Ragnar and distant Jotunar. It was a rather deep sea (average depth 760 feet and maximum depth 1,480 feet), during the harsh months of cold that came from the Iztalik Glacier its northern half would freeze up to 100 feet below the surface. Through out the summer the ice from the melting sea would create minor icebergs.
The shores of the Cold Sea were home to several ancient cities: Asilud,Evmon, and Mirth Durnal on the Isle of Baan.
The sea was destroyed during the resulting magical explosions and the crashing of the great kishtar Navia in 1,800 B.F.A.
