The Dust Plains

The Dust Plains are a dry and inhospitable land. The barren dirt that covers this great expanse is powdery and moves with the wind quickly creating dust storms as frequently as tropical locations receive rainfall. Fragmenterra has revealed the Dust Plains to border the Frozen North, the Rage Forest and the Deserts of Light.

Settlements
It is only through generations of innovation and persevering through adversity that those with Dust Plain hailitage are able to survive in these inhumane conditions. While the majority of municipalities around the dust plains are distantly spread and are nomadic out of tradition and necessity, the largest settlement called Formcaste is the only city in the land.

Formcaste contains the majority of all population, wealth and influence across this land and some would even argue, across Paracelsus in its entirety. Existing as a mobile hulking metropolis of technological advancement, Formcaste resembled to many of the nomadic tribes an unholy amalgamation of machine and desire for progress. This top-heavy mobile pyramid is a perfect portrayal of itself as a society forever growing upwards without a foundation able to sustain itself. Until the year of 52AF, Formcaste would wade through the red-brown landscape plowing the earth asunder with a titanic dust-plow at its bow and a series of giant steel archimedean screws underneath. Anything large enough to be of use within the dust was filtered out as raw material, recycled by the Formcaste Underbelly for additional city growth. Every time Formcaste inevitably deals itself a fatal blow, it begins preparations for rebuilding at which point it changes its suffix to the next iteration of Formcaste.

52AF marked the failing of Formcaste IIX’s remaining archimedean engines which were heavily worn after the climax of the War of Fragmenterra in which the city of Formcaste itself did battle with the earthen titan. With resource costs run to evaluate repair costs, the decree was forged to make Formcaste a stationary city until repairs could be afforded. Its current location is within alumoxyn train trip to Portcaste, a large port built for the purpose of servicing Formcaste in its stationary state.

Geography
While the majority of the land is inhospitable and bears very little in terms of sustenance to most mortal races, the land does occasionally hold occasional oasis and patch of vegetation. Despite extensive research, tests have come up literally fruitless in resolve of where these springs draw their water. Most in land sources of water come out at high temperatures ranging from 70°R to 376°R.

Despite the Dust Plains bordering both the Paleo Ocean and Neo Sea, all food and resource from these bodies and their surrounding vegetation are carefully guarded by Formcaste authorities leaving any nomadic establishments to scavenge and trade among themselves to survive.

The only other notable vegetated area is the Saltwood that runs right along the western coast of the Dust Plains adjacent to the Paleo Ocean. Only since Fragmenterra has this area been revealed where it was cleaved in twain. Quickly claimed by Formcaste as prime cultivatable land, it is the biggest food bowl used to nourish those within the city. Prior to 0AF, mortals of the Dust Plains had never experienced the ocean or sea with the idea of a body of water larger than a pond or oasis something relegated to books as children's stories.

Where the Dust plains do lack Paracelsus’s gifts of nourishment, it is highly rich in minerals and ores that the denizens of the land have been crafting into tools and technologies for centuries. Many rare minerals such as Gorgoneyeite and Raexide are only found in this part of the world.

Culture
While the two main societies of the Dust Plains exist as those within Formcaste, and those outside of it as nomads, the line between is occasionally blurs where communities have formed agreement with the Formcaste government, the Techumverate. These communities are allowed to operate within parameters implimented by the law setting bodies, almost always to Formcaste’s gain. Notable examples include the working of quarries such as Basalt Bowl where the mining community is provided with the bare rations needed to survive and protection from being ‘assimilated’ into Formcaste’s five year slave program.

The overarching theme that defines the Dust Planes as one hailitage of people is their indomitable spirit. Without the drive to push past the obstacles that this land presents you with, nature or those within it will decide you unworthy of existing and someone more able will likely take your place and your progress. This is a hard and steadfast rule that does not change whether inside or outside of the city walls.

Although the Dust Plains were the only land to never experience an ocean or sea until Fragmenterra, Formcaste’s desire for new ways to progress as a scientific people and defeat their earthen invaders lead their seafaring technologies to explode onto the scene during the War of Fragmenterra. While many lands encountered each other by sheer chance, Formcaste was the only land to actively seek out the unknown across the distant sea in hopes of finding solutions and answers to their homeland’s threat. With the war finished and no predators at its doorstep, Formcaste kept a focus on creating an empire that would fuel the rebuilding of their home and expand it rather than remain inwardly focused.