KOVALLI DESERT

REPORTED FAUNA/BEASTS/FOES:    Anteater, Spiny    Boot, Giant (GMU)    Corbie, Giant (GMU)    Demon (GMU)    Dornbeast (GMU)    Eldritch Vapor (GMU)    Frobgoblin (GMU)    Glutton (GMU)    Hangman (GMU)    Hedgehog    Hellhound (GMU)    Horror (GMU)    Jackanape (GMU)    Lerf (398, GMU)    Lucksucker (GMU)    Nymph (GMU)    Quelbees (GMU)    Rat-ant (GMU)    Roc (GMU)    Scarecrow (CMU)    Yellow Grotch, Mutant (GMU) REPORTED FLORA:    Cactus    Morgia (398)

The Kovalli Desert lies beyond the Mithicus Mountains which formed the western boundary of ancient Quendor. It is an uncrossable wasteland believed to stretch to the edge of the world. Even to this day, the furthest ends of these expanses have not been explored. There are virtually no shadows to provide shelter here, only bloit upon bloit of cracked, dry ground. Some legends say that the sun is a god. If that is true, then the sun that shines on Kovalli is a merciless and brutal god. No plant or animal is spared the torture of the daylight in the parched Kovalli--these include the lerf, the hedgehog, spiny anteaters, along with the cactus and the morgia plant (which grows very often even in the desert).

Nearly every civilization ever studied passes on tales of a great warrior empire in the lands across the ocean to the east. Among these are the persistent tales among various Kovalli tribal cultures, including the Nezgeth, insisting that their forefathers came from an ancient powerful civilization on the far side of the world, across the sea and many lands away. Many archaeologists strongly theorize (some consider it factual) that the tribes of Kovalli were the primary scattered remnant from the Eastern Empire which was destroyed circa 1000 BE by divine wrath when they forsook The One God for idols and serpent worship. The homeless tribe took the lesson of their glorious rise and abrupt fall, adhering to the strictest principles of pacifism. Generations later, the Nezgeth found a home in the hellish deserts of Kovalli, and every day became a constant struggle to stay alive, believing that they had been led to this cruel land as penance for their misdeed. Gradually the tribe returned to its former warlike ways, but even then refused to give battle no more than necessary.

Oracle of 392 GUE placed Belegur at the heart of a deadly plague that shook the kingdom of Quendor. Coupled with the Great Famine, this was a deadly time. Although the famine in Quendor had been confidently dealt with by Zylon the Aged, those outside the kingdom in the Kovalli Desert suffered greatly. This unceasing famine plagued those barren lands for over six years. Throughout the course of languishing under the torture of the drought, the Nezgeth tribe was under the superstition that their gods had turned away from them, abandoning them to this famine.

The Kingdom of Quendor was once invaded by Kovalli natives in 398 GUE, having been woven into the plot of the fallen Implementor Belegur. Although this evil being intended to use the Nezgeth tribe as a distraction against Quendor while he initiated his true scheme, these natives were used against him, resulting in his defeat.

When Pseudo-Duncanthrax conquering the surrounding regions between 660~662 GUE, he neglected to absorb the Kovalli Desert into the kingdom of Quendor. The most likely reason may be that the endeavor to harnass a parched wasteland of such a vast size that provided no significant benefit was too much of a hassle.

During the war between Galepath and Mareilon in 888 GUE, the nations of Vriminax and Quendor were in no position to help either of the two opposing powers, as they were both involved in protecting themselves against the incursions made by Kaldorn and Kovalli respectively. These conflicts did not stop Syovar the Strong in the early tenth century from inviting representative from Kovalli to the Conference of Quendor (the old city of Quendor in the Northlands). The wise king saw that with an exchange of resources, the water-rich Antharia could irrigate the deserts of Kovalli in exchange for Kovalli's secret insect-extermination spells that would cure Antharia's perennial locust plagues. The tremendous respect the nations felt for Syovar made the conference possible. Kovalli signed the Treaty of Quendor, thus uniting with many of the other nations and city-states, bringing them all into Syovar's Kingdom of Zork.