Deserter
Deserter is one of the hottest, driest, and most dangerous areas in the Merican wastelands, a vast inhospitable territory wedged between the Overgrowth, the Vegasia race routes, and the Lone Star shifting sands. Only religious extremists, Diesel Jocks, and the occasional lost Red Star travel here willingly. Everyone else is either passing through as fast as they can or has given up trying to leave.
The region progresses from salt deserts to impassable rocky crags to the outer forest leading into the Overgrowth to the northeast. Progress in the north holds the Green Desert, Crush Valley, the Flats, and the sacred route to the Great Lake. Canvas runs from border to border across the middle, a painted desert of canyons and golden dunes where the fauna grows unchecked. The Glow Wastes irradiate the terrain with chemical sickness buried since before the Fall. The Drylands stretch through the south, a cracked expanse where the Overgrowth has been unable to reach.
Sparse settlements are ruled by self-appointed leaders who have risen to the status of god-emperors in their tiny communities. Religious zealots use the harshness of the region for pilgrimage and rites of passage. The blistering heat and chronic dehydration frequently cause visions that pilgrims interpret as holy revelation. Whether these are genuine encounters with something beyond the wasteland or simply the hallucinations of the dying is a question Deserter does not answer. It rarely answers any question. It simply takes what it is given and gives back heat, thirst, and the slow understanding that the desert does not care whether you came here for faith or for fortune.
The region progresses from salt deserts to impassable rocky crags to the outer forest leading into the Overgrowth to the northeast. Progress in the north holds the Green Desert, Crush Valley, the Flats, and the sacred route to the Great Lake. Canvas runs from border to border across the middle, a painted desert of canyons and golden dunes where the fauna grows unchecked. The Glow Wastes irradiate the terrain with chemical sickness buried since before the Fall. The Drylands stretch through the south, a cracked expanse where the Overgrowth has been unable to reach.
Sparse settlements are ruled by self-appointed leaders who have risen to the status of god-emperors in their tiny communities. Religious zealots use the harshness of the region for pilgrimage and rites of passage. The blistering heat and chronic dehydration frequently cause visions that pilgrims interpret as holy revelation. Whether these are genuine encounters with something beyond the wasteland or simply the hallucinations of the dying is a question Deserter does not answer. It rarely answers any question. It simply takes what it is given and gives back heat, thirst, and the slow understanding that the desert does not care whether you came here for faith or for fortune.
Geography
Deserter stretches between the Overgrowth to the northeast, the Vegasia race routes, and the Lone Star shifting sands. The terrain progresses from salt deserts to impassable rocky crags to the outer forest bordering the Overgrowth. Northern sub-territory Progress holds the Green Desert, Crush Valley, the Flats, and the pilgrimage route to the Great Lake. Canvas runs from border to border across the center, a belt of canyons, colored rock formations, and golden desert. The Glow Wastes contain irradiated zones including Toowilluh and the Silo. The Drylands extend through the south, a cracked desert expanse the Overgrowth has been unable to penetrate. The climate is extreme heat with minimal water, blistering sun that induces hallucinations in the unwary, and almost no natural shelter.
