"Perhaps it will not come as a surprise to anyone if I say that Almyr is a nightmarish wasteland where few adventurers survive by mining various minerals, mainly salt. The place has a monstrous climate. The earth, or rather, a solid substrate, warms up here during the day so much so that frying scrambled eggs, for example, is not difficult on it. The air is cooler, but there is still nothing to catch heatstroke. At night, the temperatures are very low, sometimes frosts occur. there are winds in Almir. Monstrous and all! Moreover, I will not dwell on the fact that water here is worth its weight in gold - rains are rare, and underground sources are toxic from dissolved minerals. In such conditions, only a few succulents and grasses survive, as well as animals such as reptiles, llamas, armored bulls, scorpions with spiders and other similar evil spirits.
However, just a few millennia ago, Almir was the center of a flourishing culture. The ancient people built cities here, grazed cattle on fertile pastures, and fished in Lake Ainum. Ainum literally means an immortal lake, how ironic... Then such great cities as Khimir, Barlad, Uykharsha and others were created. Each of them possessed untold riches, grandiose monuments and the most complex external and internal relations. Traces of which can still be found along the Old Shores.
So the question is, what destroyed such a prosperous land? The answer is simple - the climate in all its inconstancy. Now, as you know, everything here is dry and lifeless. However, in those distant times, the climate was more humid, powerful rains reached Almir, feeding rivers and lakes. Then there were a lot of fish in the water, cattle roamed the lush meadows and even mushrooms grew everywhere.
But closer to our time, for some reason, the flow of moisture into this country has sharply decreased many times over. When I say bluntly, I'm talking about a period of 50 to 100 years, which is incredibly fast for such a dramatic change. As a result, the flow of water from the rivers was sharply reduced and the lake began to shallow. All the fish died from overheating and salinity. The grass was scorched by the sun and the cattle began to die. According to the chronicles: "And the dead earth was strewn with the bodies of starving cattle, and the clatter of hooves was no longer heard across the steppes." As a result, a famine began, which Almir had never seen before. Cities were littered with emaciated bodies, many tried to flee north but often died on the way.
It was such a horrifying event that even the chroniclers, who usually avoid describing the atrocities, wrote about mountains of bodies, carrion eating and even cannibalism in the cities. In fact, the once great civilization degraded to a bunch of wild and emaciated barbarians in just a century and ceased to exist.
However, it is worth noting that among the fugitives there were also "lucky ones" who were able to go to the fertile north, from where they once came. But their number was comparatively small. Most of them remained in the deserted steppes…Those who, despite everything, were able to survive in the desert have changed beyond recognition. The once proud, tall and beautiful creatures have become ridiculous dwarfs adapted to the challenges of the wasteland. This is how Almiret appeared - small, but incredibly hardy desert dwellers. "- Vukahen recalled the words once spoken to him by the teacher. Then he thought of it as something distant, unknown. But now it is not so .... Now he is a lone traveler walking through the streets of the deserted city of Khurt centuries ago, he sees with his own eyes the remnants of the former greatness, wealth and power, which have fallen to colorless ruins, swallowed up by the sands.


Ules's part in art trade. It's cool art! Thank you, Ules!
Author:  ules

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