* Restricted Information: Sandwalkers only
The Druids of the Great Deserts of the Overworld and the Underworld are a mixture of different Cults, refecting the many factions of the South. Many of these are Animal Cultists (Beastmasters); particularly Scorpion, Snake and Rat Cults. But the common features of all are the ability to instress from the shapes and sculptures of sand dunes and a specialist Ranian Cycle of the Sands with a specialist set of plant Media that grow in desert conditions. They also have the lore of foregoing cutting Media (plants being precious in the desert) and storing the pluses in gems, totems or vials of sand, which has given rise to the belief that they use sand as Media.
All Druidic Cults of the Southern Deserts are commonly referred to (at least by outsiders) as "Sandwalkers", but the term properly refers to the Desert Nomad Druidic Sects of the Deep Desert, who are not specialist Beastmasters and have a mystical side akin to the Seekers of the Lost and their own Trance Cycle of the Sands.
The Nature Spirits (Araids) and Elementals of the Desert are referred to locally as "Djinns" or "Djinni". The Sandwalkers (properly so-called) have a special affinity with Them.
The sands of the Desert are formed of Earth and sculpted by Air. Fire gives the extremes of hot and cold. Water is precious, but not entirely absent. Gravity makes His home in the heart of the Desert, but on its edge. The boundaries between the Planes can be weak in the Deep Desert, where the mind can wander and the body may follow. The Ranian Cycle of the Sands is concerned with the command of these Elements in their shaping of the Desert and their interaction with Nature. Its associated colour is orange and its Medium is Moonlight Cactus (Selenicereus).
All Druidic Cultists of the Southern Deserts may learn Spells from the Ranian Cycle of the Sands.
Some say the Desert can play tricks on your mind. The Sandwalkers believe it can open your mind. The heat, the light, the landscape and the privations can cause hallucinations, known as mirages, and a form of madness, known as Desert Madness. The Trance Cycle of the Sands is concerned with illusion and mind magic, and also with controlling and riding the Giant Sandworms of the Deep Desert. Its associated colour is pink and its Medium is Peyote Cactus (Lophophora williamsii).
Only Sandwalker Cultists of the Deep Deserts may learn Spells from the Trance Cycle of the Sands.
There are many beasts of the Desert but those with particular Cult followings are the Scorpions, Snakes and Rats. The Scorpion Cult is a Desert Cult (though it has adherents elsewhere, notably in Hell) and its Scorpion Cycle is a Desert Cycle. The Snake and Rat Cults are not unique to the Desert and their Snake and Rodent Cycles have versions adapted to the sands. All have desert plant media and the option to forego cutting those media and to store the pluses.
Only Scorpion Cultists may learn Spells from the Scorpion Cycle.
Only Rat Cultists of the Southern Deserts may learn Spells from the Rodent Cycle of the Sands.
Only Snake Cultists of the Southern Deserts may learn Spells from the Snake Cycle of the Sands.
Druids of the Desert learn in their Initial Basic Training to appreciate the beauty of the sands as well as the creatures of Nature that live amongst them. This is reflected in the Druidic Ic Table. This gives the typical Inscape of a sand dune as 5, but does not mean that every dune in the desert has Ic 5. An Ic of 5 represents a large, perfectly-shaped and evenly-coloured crescentic dune in good light, that a Sandwalker would stop to appreciate. Typical Ic values for a variety of sand-sculptures are as follows:
| Sand sculpture | Typical Ic |
| Flat (coloured) sand | 1 |
| Linear Dune | 2 |
| Y-shaped compound Linear Dune | 3 |
| Longitudinal / Seif / Transverse Dune | 3 |
| Dome Dune | 4 |
| Crescentic / Barchan / Transverse Dune | 5 |
| Simple Parabolic Dune | 5 |
| Compound / Complex Parabolic Dune | 6 |
| Star Dune | 7 |
| Unusual sand sculpture | 8 |
| Reversing Dune (of any of above types) | +1 |
| Sand Sea (view of multiple similar dunes) | *3 |
The Ic values of individual specimens may vary by size, perfection of shape, beauty of colour and lighting conditions. Sunrise or full moon can increase values by +2 and sunset by +1. Unusual or beautiful shapes or landscapes of salt, volcanic ash or rock sculpted by the wind may also have Ic for a Sandwalker.
Instressing the sands is a learnt ability which may be acquired by non-Sandwalker Druids, but it requires a long time spent in the desert, ideally alone. To most non-natives the Desert seems a harsh and forbidding environment and they are not truly able to appreciate its beauty.
The heat, light and thirst from prolonged exposure to the Desert can be too much for the minds of some. It can break the mind, and cause one to enter the Realm of Madness. The victim's body is still wandering the sands, but his mind has entered a mirage. This is Desert Madness.
When such forces prey on the mind, a saving throw is made against Desert Madness at BTS = (as per table below)% (Wp+Co). Both Wp and Co are deducted in full from BTS. The exact BTS depends on the extent and duration of the physical privations and the depth of penetration into the desert, as follows:
| Contributing factor | Add to BTS (all cumulative) |
| Temperature | 1% per degree centigrade |
| Light Intensity | 5% per LI > 0 |
| Hours without water (apply lesser % if insufficient water) | 5% per hour |
| Distance from edge of Desert | 1% per 20 miles |
| Desert Nomad making st | -50% |
| Sandwalker making st (in addition to Desert Nomad minus, if applicable) | -50% |
For each 10% (FRD by which the saving throw is failed, the victim's Level of Madness increases by 1 (see the Madness System), and if he Hallucinates, he spiritually enters the appropriate level of the Domain of Delusion. Alternatively, depending upon the circumstances and his current mental state, he may enter the Domain of Delirium or the Domain of Despair. The Hallucination will typically be of wandering the Desert (often seeing a distant oasis or finding imaginary water), but may become stranger as the victim continues to wander the Realm of Madness.
Mirages may be seen without entering the Realm of Madness. These are in the Domain of HALCYON.
The Sandwalkers of the Deep Desert are Adepts at wandering the Realm of Madness. They can choose not to save against Desert Madness (even where they would need a st roll of < 0 to make it), and then exercise a degree of control over their wanderings in the Realm of Madness. Many are also Dreamers.
Beastmaster Sandwalkers may walk the Dream Kingdoms of their Totem Animals; being the Blasted Desert of the Scorpions, the Endless Burrows (Catacombs to non-Desert Cultists) of the Rats or the Serpentine Empire of the Snakes. The latter two are entered in their desert-like aspects from the Desert. The boundaries between these Dream Kingdoms and the Realm of Madness can be thin. The Blasted Desert and the Domain of Despair are often indistinguishable.
The boundaries between Madness, Dreams and Reality can often become blurred in the heat haze of the Desert.
SOROK has many followers in the Desert, and Sandwalker Druids often do not share the aversion to Undead of Druids from wetter climes. Vampirism is prevalent among the Rat Cult and a few powerful Sandwalkers have chosen to become Liches rather than surrender to death. Mummification is often practised in the Desert, and some who do surrender to death may return as Mummies. Some of the Darker Sects are rumoured to practice Ghosting.
There are six Light Sites in the Overworld and six Dark Sites in the Underworld which are their converse (as indicated by their numbers; e.g. Light Site 5 has Dark Site 5 as its converse). The Sites on the other side of the World are Linked from Stones or Trees 7 to 12 of the Circle.
The Oasis of Pineapples and Coconuts was formerly the Kasbah (stronghold) of the Warrior Priests of ORIL, but the Cult broke up on the death of its Goddess, since when a number of factions have vied for its control. The Oasis of Olives and Eucalyptus is famed for its poison trade, and is the not-so-secret Kasbah of the Black Scorpions Cult. The Oasis of Oranges and Acacia is the Kasbah of the Grey Rattlesnakes Snake Cult, and is also active in the poison trade. The Oases of Dates and Pomegranates (the Kasbah of the Rat Cult) and of Broom and Tamarisk (the Kasbah of the Sandwalkers of the Deep Desert) are secretive and discourage visitors. Hublor Circle is a little-known and seldom-visited stone circle in the hills above the Valley of the Gnolls.
All the Underworld Sites have little or no water and appear to be unoccupied except at festival times. The Oasis of Dreaming Cacti is in fact the stronghold of the Black Sandwalkers, a Sect who explore the Darker Side of the Desert, but their Kasbah is situated at its counterpart in the Domain of Despair (sometimes known as the Oasis of Despairing Cacti). The Bronze Kasbah of the Bronze Scorpions Cult is hidden behind a Mirage at the Circle of the Bronze Scorpions.
The Sandwalkers understand that each Site also has its counterpart in Dreams or Madness. There are many Ways and Links between Light and Dark Sites and the Dream counterparts of each. The Black Sandwalkers are the greatest adepts at navigating these.
Due to their factional and sectarian nature (even within the same Cult), the Druids of the Great Deserts have no single, overarching aim. The Beastmaster Cults follow the Creeds of their Gods or Totem Animals. The Sandwalkers may seek to rescue those who have fallen victim to Desert Madness, but are selective in whom they choose to rescue, and may leave non-Desert Nomads to their fate. The Black Sandwalkers appear to be intent on furthering the Darker Side of Nature.
The Media used by the Sandwalker Cults are as follows:
| Druidic Cycle | Colour (for sand in Media storage vial) | Medium | Date to harvest for maximum bonus | Stone / Totem (for storing Media pluses) |
| Sered Cycle | black | Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) | Mid-Spring Caeriad (13 Varech) | Jet |
| Yribt Cycle | red | Desert Holly (Atriplex hymenelytra) | Midwinter Caeriad (26 Yarom, or 25 Yarom in a leap year) | Ruby |
|
Scorpion Cycle |
copper | Eucalyptus | Midsummer Caeriad (26 Oscow) | Copper Scorpion |
| Rodent Cycle of the Sands | grey | Silver Leaf Nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium) | Mid-Autumn Caeriad (12 Garrack) | Silver Rat |
| Snake Cycle of the Sands | gold | Snakeroot (Ageratina) | Mid-Spring Caeriad (13 Varech) | Gold Snake |
| Ranian Cycle | yellow | Nightblooming Cactus (Hylocereus) | Mid-Autumn Caeriad (12 Garrack) | Citrine |
| Ranian Cycle of the Sands | orange | Moonlight Cactus (Selenicereus) | Midwinter Caeriad (26 Yarom, or 25 Yarom in a leap year) | Topaz |
| Trance Cycle of the Sands | pink | Peyote Cactus (Lophophora williamsii) | Midsummer Caeriad (26 Oscow) | Quartz or a Sandworm's Tooth |
| Druid Cycle | white | Tangleweed | Midsummer Caeriad (26 Oscow) | Diamond |
Instead of harvesting a specimen from a live plant to be used as a Medium, a Sandwalker Druid may touch an associated totem to the plant, incanting in Old Speech to the effect that he foregoes taking the specimen, and expending SP equal to the plus on Spells the specimen would have given (depending on the means the Druid had available to harvest it, and which he demonstrates and refers to in the incantation: e.g "I forego taking a specimen from you with this golden sickle, into this golden bowl, on this Midsummer's Day"). The plus is then stored in the totem, to be expended later. No more specimens may be foregone during any Caeriad than could properly have been harvested from the plant.
The totem may either be a vial of sand of the associated colour for the Cycle or a gemstone of the associated colour. For the Beastmaster Cycles of the Sands, the alternate totem to the sand is a likeness of the Totem Animal cast from metal of the associated colour. For the Trance Cycle of the Sands, a Sandworm's Tooth is a further alternate totem.
The total pluses that may be stored in a gemstone (aggregating their values) equal its weight (in weight points) times its value (in gold pieces).
The total pluses that may be stored in an animal totem (aggregating their values) equal the maximum number of instress points the Druid has instressed from the totem animal whilst also meditating upon the totem during a single Caeriad in the past period of one year. It is therefore necessary periodically to spend a day instressing from the totem animal and meditating upon the totem.
The total pluses that may be stored in a vial of sand (aggregating their values) equal the maximum number of instress points the Druid has instressed from the sand from which it was taken during a single Caeriad in the past period of one year. It is therefore necessary periodically to spend a day instressing from sand of appropriate colours and refilling vials if necessary.
There is no limit to the number of pluses that may be stored in a Sandworm's Tooth. Ones with many stored pluses are believed to attract Worms.
Pluses must be expended in amounts equal to the pluses that would have been given by the specimens that were used to store them. Each stored plus decreases in value by one on each New Moon, in the usual way. Already harvested specimens may be stored in totems for half effect (FRD), but at full SP cost. Pluses expended from totems are not cumulative with any other media plus.
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© P.R. Wild, 26 October 2010