Introduction

The Lowlands are the exposed bones of Earth’s former oceans—flattened seafloors lifted by crustal rebound and abandoned by the hydrosphere’s retreat. Once abyssal plains and upper continental slopes, these regions now form vast tracts of salt-hardened terrain stretching between the Dust Basin and the Plateau.

The land is largely wide and smooth, interrupted only by fractured depressions, collapsed vent chimneys, and mineral breaks left behind as sediment dried and split. At the thinnest it can be less than 1km between the Continental Wall and the Great Salt Basin, but at the largest it can extend out for 150km or more.

Most of the terrain sits between 500 and 1,400 meters below pre-collapse sea level, with topography so minimal it is navigable by sight alone—if not for mirage, haze, and thermal distortion. The Lowlands don’t offer shelter. They offer reach.

Weather

The environment here is harsh, but consistent. Surface temperatures regularly exceed 60°C under full exposure.

Key Effects

  • High Temperatures—often near or higher than 60°C under full sun.
  • No Rain.  Not ever.
  • Hot, dry, still days are the norm. Not the exception.
  • Silt and dust penetrate everything.  On a windy day the Great Dust Basin and the Lowlands can be indistinguishable.
  • Giant Scirocco have replaced tornadoes and spouts as a hazard.  These can rise out of nowhere, powered by sudden convection.
  • Silt laden Haboob clouds slam into villages, oases, and the rock walls that form the base of the Plateau.  These come from the Dust Basin.
  • A precursor to violent winds is normally an overcast series of days and a rise in ambient temperature.

Subsurface fluids rise intermittently through cracked brine channels or evaporate out of heat-stressed fumaroles. Most oases are toxic—fed by leached metals, salt intrusion, or sulfur saturation. Crust plates fracture along predictable paths, exposing raw seams of iron, copper, manganese, and nickel that are rare elsewhere on the surface. These exposures, and the salvage buried around them, make the Lowlands valuable to those with the protection to exploit them.

Depressions

The Plateau rose when the sea retreated and the crust surged upward to fill its absence. What was once coastal shelf became continental crown: fractured, salt-scored, and dry enough to survive. The old cities that survive here cling to lonely aquifers and the rare hope of rain, but they still survive.

Coming Soon

Salt Flats

Lowland salt flats stretch across the old abyssal plain—broad, level, and layered with mineral crust. The surface fractures in slow, regular patterns, shaped by heat and pressure over centuries. Underneath is compacted silt, sometimes dry, sometimes not. They’re stable enough for travel, but the sound of steps is amplified by the flat terrain and crunching of the salt underfoot.

Coming Soon

Fumaroles

Fumaroles in the Lowlands vent heat through breaks in the salt crust, rising from old seabed faults. They exhale steam, sulfur, and trace gases—some briefly, some without end. The ground around them blisters and softens. Nothing grows nearby, and no one stays long. But they’re known. They mark where the ground is thin.

Coming Soon

Continental Shelf Wall

The shelf wall is where the continent lifts—an exposed faultline of granite extending nearly vertically from the flattened expanse below. It rises in broken layers, steep and wide, dividing the Lowlands from the Plateau above. There are few crossings, and none are easy. Traders tempted to wait for shade should think twice, large predators lurk in the badlands here.

Coming Soon

Shelf Break

A break in the shelf wall is a place where water once moved—cut deep by ancient runoff and left behind when the continent rose. The slope is broad and even, but it can also be steep. Layered with stone and old sediment, some routes are still walkable. Others are unstable, prone to slippage. Still, these are the most reliable routes for trading caravans and wahka.

Coming Soon

Dust Edge

The Dust Edge is where the Lowlands end and the Great Dust Basin begins. The ground flattens, the crust thins, and salt and grime give way to a powder that ebbs like water. Often the weather here is hot and still. The soil holds nothing, it is nearly if not completely barren. The ever present dust ensures any tracks are covered within a day.

Coming Soon

Terrain Features

Life exists, but it has no rhythm. Microbial colonies cling to vent rings and mineral perimeters. Scrub brush and stunted trees exist around oases, their distance from the water often an indicator to how toxic it might be. Extremophile insects and scavenger species move between salt crusts and thermal shade. Larger beasts prowl the cliff bases and the exposed plane, able to spot prey for miles in any direction and run fast and hard enough to catch it.

There are no ecosystems in the traditional sense—only persistence in chemically and thermally viable pockets. Yet it is enough. The Clone Kings fund extraction colonies here: client villages staffed by conscripts, debt-bound laborers, or internal faction dependents tasked with surface mining, brine scraping, or vault debris salvage, usually as a form of punishment.

These colonies are harshly governed, structurally minimal, and dependent on regular supply convoys—caravans that move ore out, and food, coolant, and technology in.

Trade routes snake across the Lowlands not for culture, but for yield. They are patrolled, regulated, and sometimes contested—not just by rival city-states, but by raiders, bandits, and rogue traders looking for quick gain.  Some villages stand not because they can protect themselves, but because they ensure caravans arrive steadily—and can therefore be harvested as needed.

There is little shelter. Stopping would invite a predator, a raid party, or both.  All caravans find their mark and travel as quickly as possible to it, regardless of heat. Navigation relies on signal towers, dust-sunk relay beacons, and line of sight.

Dryrunner Hakū are a frequent sight in this area, and many client villages engage in illegal trade with the Tangata Moahtai as a necessary means of survival. This arrangement works well for both parties, so while it is publicly opposed, in practice trade and interactions continue.  

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