Elmon Red Rock Mountains

Place

Place Name:

Elmon Red Rock Mountains

Biome:

Red Rock Mountains

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

Geography

There used to be a flourishing city in this desert called Aquia Duria. Nobody remembers the real name anymore; it’s just called ‘The Eagle’s Well’ now, after the red marble statue of an eagle that stands over the ruined city’s well: a well with a diameter of 40 feet. The Bether have not destroyed the well, because they own this city. It’s said that the architects of the city of the Eagle’s Well measured the desert of Elmon very carefully and built their city in the exact middle. Since then, the desert has grown, taking over fertile land in all directions but especially to the east.

Hence, the Eagle’s Well is no longer in the exact middle of Elmon, but its inhabitants still call it the Heart of the Desert. The city stands at the foot of a red mountain, but this mountain is not the only one in the desert. I don’t suppose the mountains could be numbered if every spike of stone in this desert counted as a mountain. But if you require all rocks to be at least a hundred feet tall before deserving the status of mountain, Elmon still has closer to two thousand mountains than one thousand. Most of the mountains are red, because they’re rich in iron.

No other land in all Taerel has nearly so much metal as Elmon — even the sand has a ton in it! It’s as hard to count the mines as the mountains. Bandits and Bether alike are glad to take full advantage of the ore that’s as common as dirt is — as common as dirt in more fertile places is, that is. As a result, there are nearly as many foundries and smithies as mines. What with all the mines and smithies and ruined wells scattered everywhere across the desert, you’re bound to run into wrecks of civilization wherever you go. They all make excellent hiding places, so long as you have the food and water to sustain yourself while you hide.

They also all make excellent places to hunt for iron treasures: even today, even after bandits have been picking over these ruins for decades, you can still find never-used weapons in fair condition, thirsty for battle. In the northeast corner of Elmon is the wrecked mining city of Buron’kel. It sits amidst a group of the largest red mountains and was infamous for the skill with which its smiths fashioned instruments of war and torture. m When civilization collapsed, it’s said that some men took advantage of the lack of order just to get their revenge on Buron’kel, and massacred everyone they could find there — so hated was that place.

Rumour has it that some of the men who took their revenge weren’t above contracting the plague just to make their revenge the more complete. It always strikes a visitor to the ruins of this city that the sand just seems… a little redder than it should be. Some people try to explain it away by saying that the ground is just richer in iron here, but deep down, nobody believes them.

Plants

On the extremely rare occasion that in rains in Elmon, it always rains extremely hard. This is usually the time during which most generals decide to try to conquer Elmon, since the land is soaked and significantly less able to kill an army with thirst — but there are other, non-sentient things with less desire for military glory that are willing to take advantage of this time of rain. These things are mostly cacti. Very occasionally when turning a corner in a mountainous area, you’ll stumble upon a purple ivlor. These plants have thorns like spearheads and are moderately poisonous.

They tend to grow in small valleys or at the bottom of ravines, or wherever water would gather during a rainfall. If you’re desperate for water and dying of thirst, you can cut them open and eat the flesh of a purple ivlor like a pointy watermelon. It tastes awful, like a strawberry but acidic and bitter, and it’ll kill you if you eat too much of it, but it’s definitely refreshing to a man dying of thirst. Many bandits make a habit of ingesting some of the poison every week or so to build up an immunity to the poison. The Bether know that the purple ivlor can save a man dying of thirst.

But, nevertheless, they don’t try to destroy every ivlor they see, like they do with the wells. The main reason for this is because the poison of the purple ivlor has a bad smell. Zu’aan can stand it, but most kin’toni absolutely loathe the smell — and the Bether hate the smell even more than the average kin’toni. Something to do with their hyper-sensitive noses, most likely. They don’t tell anyone they hate the smell, though; their given excuse for not smashing the purple cacti is that it’s not actually enough water for an army to live off of.

And therefore does not pose a threat, unlike a well. During a rainfall, purple cacti swell to enormous sizes to catch and store as much water as they can. They taste significantly better during this time, but smell just as bad. Another variety of ivlor grows in Elmon, the red ivlor. It’s like a normal ivlor except red. Nothing fancy about it.

Animals

The Bether clan and the bands of bandits all make use of the hardy desert rayuvakas, which eat purple and red cacti and produce a very strong tasting milk, which is entirely drinkable and delicious. If you train them well, the rayuvakas also make good pack animals. You can even hitch them up to sand sleds and transport your goods that way if you plan a route around rocky terrain. (Sleds don’t run well on rocks, for obvious reasons.) If you train the males extremely well and feed them on only the best food, the rayuvakas can also become mighty and surprisingly quick war steeds. Not quite as mighty as a good horse.

But horses can’t run nearly so well on sand and mountains now, can they? Every so often, a band of Bether scouts, searching for bandits to massacre, will find a strange thing in the desert: a hollow tube of scales large enough for the tallest of them to walk through if he stoops a little. The scales are dry and brittle, and snap if one of them swings his weapon at it. If these scouts are either very brave or very stupid, they’ll continue to examine this molted husk of scales. They find that whatever creature shedded this skin was at least a hundred feet long. Probably longer.

The scales, though almost colourless, are somewhat red. That’s no surprise, though, everything in this desert is red. Then, the stupidest scout will see something buried in the ground nearby. Unsure of what it is, he goes to touch it.

It’s a tongue.

“Did you hear something?” one of the other scouts asks.

“No,” a third scout replies. “Wait, where did Curi’purth go?”

The scouts glance at the place where their comrade had just been, then start looking around, and let their eyes wander off their rayuvakas and each other. Then, one scout — the last scout — realizes he’s alone in this red rocky desert. Unnerved, he goes to leap astride his rayuvaka and ride far away, but he can’t find his rayuvaka. How could he not find his rayuvaka? Where could his rayuvaka even disappear to? There’s nowhere for it to hide…

The scout sees something like a ruby suddenly emerge from the sand. Then a second ruby appears. Then a wide, serpentine head. And following the head, the rest of the scarlet body that is all a singular tail. It arises like a giant scarlet tree. Then, the snake opens its mouth and sprays forth a jet of red gas, which burns the scout to death.

Soon, the desert is quiet, still, and empty once more.

The dreaded sralaa-ralia forces the Bether clan and thirst to work hard to keep their positions as the first and second most deadly things in Elmon. These treacherous snakes can hide in a single place for years, waiting for victims to pass by. They need only a single feast and a single drink every few years to survive.

Not much is known about them otherwise. There’s a rumour that some bandits once slew a pair of sralaa-ralias, who were guarding their eggs, and that they took these eggs, and tried to domesticate the hatchlings. These bandits were never heard of again.

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	Bether Kin'toni Clan

Place

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Elmon Red Rock Mountains

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This article is written by Xerxes Worldweaver. Copyright 2026 Xerxes Worldweaver. All rights reserved.