Sea of Silt
The vast Sea of Silt is located at the east of the Tyr Region.
In the very center of the Sea of Silt is a valley, a wound in the very earth itself. A furnace wind screams endessly through this devastated realm, carrying away the silt in an eternal pall of choking dust, scouring the earth to bare rock. If someone passed into this valley, he found fire and death. The earth is warped and barren, devoid of life. The sun is hidden behind the endless clouds of blowing dust. And at the heart of this tortured place a ring of burning rock encircles a city so large the eye could not encompass it in one glance.
Water has long since ceased to flow on the surface and can only be found in the last sea, some oases, tiny lakes and streams, as well as west of the Ringing Mountains in the Forest Ridge. Not only are the mountains nearly impassable (the name Ringing Mountains refers to the lightheaded feeling one feels from lack of oxygen when traversing them) but the Forest Ridge is the home of Halflings, which in the Dark Sun world are small creatures that live in tribes in the forest and do not hesitate to capture and eat intruders to their realm. This makes the prospect of going west across the mountains a near impossibility.
In the place of an ocean, the world of Athas, due to Defiling magic, has a sea composed entirely of silt. The silt is incredibly dangerous as it is not capable of supporting the weight of humanoid creatures, and the particles themselves are extremely fine and get into the lungs quite easily. A strong wind from the Sea of Silt can cause people from nearby villages to have to remain indoors all day, though with a certain amount of water some people often make use of a mask-like object called a silter which is placed over the mouth and nose and kept wet in order to help the user breathe.
The silt actually becomes hard-packed a few metres below the surface, but this is of no help to a Human as the level within the first two metres is extremely loose and fine. However, Giants often make use of the packed silt roads further below and can be seen wading chest-deep through the silt. Humans have sometimes built crafts that can navigate these silt roads much like Giants do, though the going is much slower and both humans and giants still have to deal with the creatures that live in the sea.
There are also Shipfloaters, which are psionicists who, through use of a large obsidian orb to focus their power, can telekinetically levitate and sail the ship as if it were sailing through water.
Sources
- DnD Wiki. Canon: Dark Sun.
- DSR4. Valley of Dust and Fire. Dark Sun Accesory. TSR Inc, by L. Richard Baker III (1992). ISBN 1-56076-316-7.