Desert Monoliths
Baskaroon
Monoliths that hum in the storms, and something wired to them.
Ochre dunes run to every horizon, broken by enormous stone monoliths and half-buried arches left by builders nobody can name. During long electrical dust storms the monoliths resonate, and some of them seem to repeat messages.
Prophecies about the Gygaplex are carved into these stones, each contradicting the last. Locals treat them as fascinating stories, not instructions.
No one knows who raised the monoliths. They are older than any civilisation now living nearby and older than the dunes around them. Some stand alone; others form rings and long avenues stretching for hundreds of kilometres, as if they were once a road.
Baskaroon is poor in water and rich in rumours. Treasure hunters come for the arches, scholars come for the carvings, and almost everyone leaves with sand in places sand should not go.
Atmosphere
Hot, dry, electrically charged during storms. Sand gets into everything, including feelings.
Local quirk
Dust seals and anchor beacons are sold on every corner. Zamfyr refuses to buy one.
Regions · proposed names, not locked canon
Desert Monoliths
The great standing stones and their storm-singing fields.
Buried Arches
Ruins of unknown builders, mostly underground.
The Singing Avenue
A straight line of monoliths that hum one long chord in every storm. The nomads time their migrations by it.
Oasis Markets
Tent towns that move with the water. You can buy a map here, but the map moves too.
Hazards
- ▲Electrical dust stormsCharged sand scrambles instruments and gives everyone extremely tall hair.
- ▲Shifting dunesA parked ship can be buried by morning, or found three dunes over.
- ▲Monolith echoesThe stones repeat voices back. Sometimes voices you haven't spoken yet.
Visitor tips
- ✦Park on rock, never sand.
- ✦Insulate your boots before a storm.
- ✦If a monolith calls your name, don't answer straight away.
Local life
- ●Dune nomads
- ●Kye herds at the edges
- ●Storm-eating lizards
A day on Baskaroon
Mornings are cool and silent. By noon the heat makes the horizon ripple. In the afternoon the sky turns copper and the first static crackles over the dunes, and everyone heads for shelter.
When the storm hits, the monoliths begin to hum. Nomads sit inside their tents and listen, the way other people listen to the radio.
Locals & customs
The Klapati courts
Six-armed Klapati diplomats hold court among the monoliths. The applause you hear across the dunes is not always friendly.
Old Tesh
A nomad storyteller who claims she can translate the monoliths. Her translations are mostly complaints about the weather, which she says is accurate.
Sparkbacks
Storm-eating lizards that soak up static and glow for days. Lovely pets. Do not touch with wet hands.
The Arch Diggers' Guild
Treasure hunters with very nice shovels and very little success.
- ◆You must greet a monolith before you climb on it. You must also not climb on it.
- ◆Water is offered to guests first and to the host last, even when there is almost none.
- ◆Each prophecy carved here is read aloud once a year and then politely ignored.
Legends & history
The Contradicting Stones
Every carving about the Gygaplex says something different: it is a door, a song, a mistake, a promise. Scholars say the builders couldn't agree.
Old Tesh says they agreed perfectly. They just wanted you to go and ask the Googleplex yourself.
Crew log
“The rocks were talking. I talked back. I think I won.”
“Sand in the gears again. Sand in my hair again.”
Story seed · in development
The Monolith Is Calling
An ancient monolith starts redirecting a signal straight at Earth. Someone has wired it to a karaoke machine. Zamfyr suspects Grimlash. It might actually be Grimlash.
The karaoke machine is only a booster. The real signal is coming from under the dunes, from an arch no one has opened in ten thousand years.
Earthward stakes
A redirected signal could scramble Earth's orbital traffic network.
Onobo packs
Related lore