Zheef Mesa Canyon

Place

Place Name:

Zheef Mesa Canyon

Biome:

Mesa Canyon

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

Geography

The Zheef Mesa Canyon is a midsized region located East of Sulysh Thousand Isles. When the Sulysh region’s mountains collapsed, the Zheef region also dropped to nearly half its original altitude. The drastic change in altitude caused what used to be a vibrant forest to change into a barren desert. It would be decades before the first zu’aan settled into the new region. At one point there was a branch of the river flowing into the Sulysh that cut through the Zheef forming the ‘Canyon’ in the region’s name, but it has long since dried out. Left behind was a mountain type canyon.

An underground cave system had formed over time from animals, zu’aan, and some of the previous sections where parts of the river moved underground. The caves connected the two sections of the canyon allowing for quick travel between the two sides. With the river dried out, there is little to no constant water in the canyon. Rain now is extremely rare, so it was gathered as much as possible when there was a shower. Because of the heat of the days, droughts became extremely common over time as more and more water left the region. This resulted in conditions that lacked the basic necessities of farming plants not native to the region.

Famine became a serious problem in the region before the kin’toni invasion. The original Zheef city had built walls, creating a citadel when the kin’toni Awakening started. These walls did not extend to the caves that lined where the old river ran through the region, nor the small town for travelers that sat a little outside of the city. Inside the caves, mines were built for harvesting various metals available in the region. Most notably iron and gold; the iron used to make strong armor that impressed the surrounding regions, and the gold for ornate jewelry the wealthy (both zu’aan and then later kin’toni) wear as a status symbol.

In the mines, as well as in the side of the canyon, red sandstone and terracotta was harvested. The terracotta was used in the floors and to make mosaics, and the red sandstone bricks were the most used material in the architecture of the building of the region. Before the kin’toni invasion, the zu’aan had made many shrines, extravagant temples and idols dedicated to the sun god Zuin. After the invasion the region was ‘cleansed’ and anything revering Zuin was destroyed. They replaced the shrines, temples and idols with their own for the moon god Kinsi, whom they believed tested their patience during the day and rewarded those who persevered with cool nights.

Despite the cave system being rather large, the huge population caused there to be very little in the way of individual space. As a way to cope, they created many painting on the cave walls to express all the turmoil they were dealing with in their emotions; frustration, sorrow, loneliness, etc. The caves were also extremely dark, even during the day. So, the Belraygha started designing safe but simple lighting. Over time the lighting systems became more extravagant as they had excessive amounts of time to burn.

Plants

Back when the Zheef was at its original altitude, while it had a great amount of snow, it was covered in a lush forest. When the region collapsed to its current place, all the plants in the region were shocked from weather, gravity and the stress of the fall. All but a few mosses and fungi lived through the first season; leaving an extremely large amount of nutrients in the soil from the plant’s remains. The levels dropped over time, as there was a flush of growth again from plant seeds brought by birds into the region (such as from the Sulysh or Undtur regions), but the climate quickly disposed of those.

The plants in the region now are exclusively from grassy or bush plants that adapted to the region, or were brought from other desert regions. One such plant was the diayclamatida, a succulent like plant found originally in the regions surrounding the Old’kali region. A botanist traveler had been returning from the region with some of the plants, when during a storm lost a few of the plants. Being succulent like, they naturally were suited for long drought periods, retaining the water they gained in their leaves. They evolved over time to go longer than the single season without water like their predecessors.

Over the centuries, the plant became distinctly unique and was given the new name of Zuin’s blessing; though after the kin’toni take over, it was renamed Kinsi’s blessing. They act as one of the major water sources of the region, as they’ve evolved to hold water for near a century, and have developed to absorb the slightest moisture in the surrounding soil and air. Due to the extreme weather, the more grassy plants of the region often only last for a month before dying off. With winds, they clump together and form tumbleweed like balls, though they are often more hair like than root like.

The ‘nariytha’ is one of the major grassy plants to make up the tumbleweed like balls. A hardier species than most, it can last almost 6 months from the first sprout before dying. It was named whiskers as the plant grows in small clumps with a variety of lengths giving it a similar look to whiskers. Nariytha are often used by the ‘kathmedia’ scarabs in forming their homes, as they’ll take some of the off shoots and weave them together to create a shaded canopy at the base of the plant where the scarab will live until the plant dies.

The weaker grassy plant types will often grow in clumps near succulent or cactus like plants, in attempts to gather any water they can from the plant. The ‘shiia’ cactus developed properties to encourage this, as the other plants act as a barrier and will often (if dense enough) end up killing any bug or creature before it ever reaches the plant itself. It received its name because to outsiders, the plant often looks like another zu’aan or kin’toni from a distance who is standing in water. While actually holding water, few risk attempting to get to the plant, as the surrounding plants tend to have hazardous properties like densely packed thorns or spikes or give the illusion of poisonous animals living in the brush which dissuades all but the truly desperate.

Animals

The Zheef region does not have many animals due to extreme levels of heat and lack of water in the region. Most of the creatures in the region are of the small insect variety, as they need little in the way of water and nutrition. The region has 2 species of fennec fox like creatures, named day-daarida and night-daarida by the Belraygha. The major difference between the two is that the day-daarida has a full coat of golden yellow, sometimes leaning on orange fur. The night-daarida species has a coat of dark near black-brown fur, sometimes more of an extremely dark navy-blue color.

The two species had diverted from a species that found their way to Zheef Mesa Canyon from the Lyerod Red Desert, named the Lyerod adri. Over the years the Lyerod adri developed a mutation in its temperature tolerance that caused the split between the day and night-daarida; the day-daarida being better suited for the heat and sunrays during the day. Both the daarida have dens near the base of the canyons, staying in the canyon’s shade when not hunting or searching for water sources. They are often featured in the Belraygha’s cave paintings, as the younger creatures have a habit of wondering into the caves and mines when they get overly curious having never crossed paths with the kin’toni.

There are a hand full of rodent sized creatures in the Mesa. The daarida will often hunt these creatures as they’re the easiest to hunt for the walker’s small size but are usually large enough to provide a substantial meal. The most common found in the region is the disrindia. It’s a kangaroo mouse like creature that gets its name from how it packs the sand in its den and creates a maze-like system to make it difficult to hunt them in their den. They have a tendency to mate for life, unless that mate is killed. disrindias live together, forming small underground labyrinths where they hide their young.

There can be anywhere from 5 pairs of mates to a couple hundred. Its happened in the past that an entire disrindia colony had been wiped out because their den was too large and deep, causing the roof to cave; a few daarida had found the sink hole before they could properly form a smaller den system resulting in the babies and all but a few pairs of mates to be killed. The most common insect species in the Zheef was scarab type bugs. They would vary from micro sized (barely larger than a few grains of sand) to the largest being about half the size of a zu’aan’s palm.

A highly sought after species was that which was called kathmedia meaning ‘liquid metal’, which highly resemble a jeweled wcarab, except for that they secrete a fluid from their shell that makes it look as though they are melting. They come in a variety of colors, so the same species but different colored is often called by the color the merchant is seeking as opposed to the species name which could get them a huge variety of colors. Such as, kathaisha, meaning ‘liquid gold’ refers to the yellow brown gold-like color, while a grey in a specific color range and reflective scale would be called kathpathri meaning ‘liquid silver’.

The remains of their shells are found around the region when not caught alive, as they are commonly eaten by the disrindia, and even daarida if they cannot find any other meals.

Historical Timeline of Ages

Age Name	Dates	Controller
Stone Age	Before 1E 0	Unknown
Copper Age	1E 1–1E 2200	Unknown
Bronze Age	1E 2200–1E 4400	Unknown
Iron Age	2E 0–2E 700	Unknown
Ancient Age	2E 700–2E 2200	Unknown
Middle Age	3E 0–3E 2050	Unknown
Early Modern Age	3E 2050–3E 2600	Unknown
Industrial Age	3E 2600–3E 2700	Unknown
Machine Age	3E 2700–3E 2800	Unknown
Atomic Age	3E 2800–3E 2850	Unknown
Space Age	3E 2850–3E 2875	Unknown
Information Age	3E 2875–3E 2900	Unknown
Genetic Age	3E 2950–3E 3000	Unknown
Awakening Age	3E 3000–3E 3415	Unknown
Twilight Age	4E 0–4E 500	Belraygha Kin'toni Clan

Place

Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

Zheef Mesa Canyon

Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

This article is written by Crystal Iris. Copyright 2026 Crystal Iris. All rights reserved.