Progress
Progress is the northern territory of Deserter, and for many who consider themselves faithful, it is a sacred place. The terrain is rough to the point of being nearly unlivable, spanning from deceptive green brush to blinding salt flats to a great lake that serves as the destination for religious pilgrimage. Pilgrims travel through Crush Valley into the Green Desert, across the Flats, and onward to the Great Lake. The journey is so dangerous that corpses caked in salt line the paths like markers, and many pilgrims do not survive.
The City of Saints in Crush Valley serves as the territory's center of civilization, the only place in Progress where multiple faiths gather and trade operates under a fragile truce. Beyond the city walls, the Green Desert hides predators in its deceptive brush, Crush Valley breeds raiders who grow stronger each year, and the Flats stretch as a vast white salt desert that claims the unprepared without mercy. The View mountain villages sit above Crush Valley, and the Slums shelter the exiled in remote cave networks at the peaks.
Progress earns its name not from advancement but from the act of moving through it. The territory tests everyone who enters, and the test is survival itself. Those who reach the Great Lake carry the salt and the scars of every step it took to get there.
The City of Saints in Crush Valley serves as the territory's center of civilization, the only place in Progress where multiple faiths gather and trade operates under a fragile truce. Beyond the city walls, the Green Desert hides predators in its deceptive brush, Crush Valley breeds raiders who grow stronger each year, and the Flats stretch as a vast white salt desert that claims the unprepared without mercy. The View mountain villages sit above Crush Valley, and the Slums shelter the exiled in remote cave networks at the peaks.
Progress earns its name not from advancement but from the act of moving through it. The territory tests everyone who enters, and the test is survival itself. Those who reach the Great Lake carry the salt and the scars of every step it took to get there.
Geography
Progress occupies the northern portion of Deserter, encompassing rough, nearly unlivable terrain that spans from green brush to salt flats to a great lake. The Green Desert offers deceptive green brush hiding predators. Crush Valley holds a farming valley with the City of Saints at its heart and raider gangs surrounding it. The Flats stretch as a vast white salt desert where pilgrim corpses mark the paths. The Great Lake serves as the destination of religious pilgrimage. The View mountain villages perch above Crush Valley, and the Slums occupy a cave network in the remote peaks.
