The Endless Dunes Information

[Omni]

The Endless Dunes

Accessible from the Nexus, Coruscant and the Ashen Steppes. The Endless Dunes a verse ruled by the laws of survival.  The Dunes were once a far more verdant area, but in the Empire’s efforts to fuel its war effort, the Dunes were drained of resources, leaving behind the nearly barren wasteland that exists today.  The Empire maintains a fleeting influence over the region from the city of Carrefore, and if one travels far enough (and survives, for that matter), they would stumble across the remains of old Imperial dig sites, refineries, and production plants.  Long abandoned by their former masters, these weathered shells are now hosts to beast and bandit alike.

When one emerges from the gates, they find themselves in a savanna, with sparse trees and grasslands.  The climate here borders on bearable, with a rainy season not present in the interior.  There is one settlement here, the city of Carrefore, nestled around an oasis.  A little over half a day's travel from here will take you to the Town With No Name, the last bastion of civilization in the Bowl.  

The surrounding mountains and valleys are the home of many tribes of psychotic, cannibalistic bandits who have succumbed to the life-or-death nature of the verse. Many other bandits have fled Coruscant with Empire tech, only to find that life here is no better than gang life in the lower tiers of Coruscant. Here, you are as likely to die to a bullet as you are to wild beasts.

Beyond the valleys, the land becomes more arid and so does the danger of death by dehydration or starvation. The further you go, the less there is, until there is only sand in every direction. Even Primes have been driven to the brink of their sanity after becoming lost and following mirages for days before dying and reincarnating at the Nexus. It is said that past a certain point, the passage of time becomes even more distorted than the rest of the Omniverse. It can seem as though weeks pass in a single day. But should you make it to the end of the end of the dunes, something amazing awaits.

Status

The collapse of Nippur (stemming from the banishing of Gilgamesh), the banishing of Ganondorf, and the disappearance of Sinestro has returned to Dunes to what it was in the aftermath of the Imperial withdrawal -- chaos and little more.  The Town with No Name endures, and Carreforre has continued to develop its own, unique identity.

Sub-zones

[anchor=Carrefore]Carrefore[/anchor] - The region where Carrefore is located is all that remains of the original Endless Dunes.  Even still, this savanna-like region is still populated by various walks of life that would sooner kill a traveler than look at him or her twice.  The city of Carrefore, nestled on an oasis, provides an important waystation for travel between Coruscant, the interior of the Dunes, and the Ashen Steppes.  With a gate to Coruscant further in the Dunes, Carrefore keeps an eye on the nearby Nexus gate.  This allows Coruscant to further track traffic from the heart of the Omniverse, as well as control the flow of resources through a region they once utterly dominated.  The town looks and feels much like one might expect an early 20th century town in North Africa, albeit with an infusion of technology.  Although initially little more than a waystation, the area has developed its own cultural identity over the years, much like Costa del Sol in the Vasty Deep.

At the cultural heart of Carrefore is Rick's Cafe Americain.  Always a site for drinks, music, and gambling, Rick's provides the closest thing to a nightlife in Carrefore, and the place is never dull or quiet.

A railway connects Carrefore to the Town With No Name.

[anchor=TownWithNoName]The Town With No Name[/anchor] - At the peak of the war between the Kingdom and the Empire, the Endless Dunes became pivotal due to its wealth of resources.  The people sent here to extract precious materials and OM centered in the area that would become the Town with No Name. The Town with No Name is as close as you can get to civilization in the interior of the Endless Dunes.  Yet, to use the term ‘civilization’ would be a stretch.  When the region became a wasteland, the Empire pulled out its military and the Town and the Dunes themselves became a bastion of crime and madness.  It is only the presence of Roland Deschain that prevents the town from descending into complete and utter chaos.  

A railway connects The Town With No Name to Carrefore.

The following non-player characters are centered in the Town with No Name: Roland Deschain

Nippur

Once entering throug h either of the Gates, anyone who desires to travel to the broken city must undertake a half a day's journey via vehicle or many days of walking. The city seems to be another half-day's journey from that of the Town With No Name. Formerly a mining settlement abandoned by the empire, the town was founded by King Gilgamesh and his loyal followers. Nippur grew quickly after its founding and attracted settlers from the more remote parts of the Dunes seeking refuge beneath the leadership of a man deemed a 'controversial' individual due to his penchant for violence and strong-armed responses to opposition. Nippur resembles an ancient Middle Eastern town, with sandstone walls, temples, and other various structures. Like many locations in the Omniverse, its culture is not homogenous, and there are plenty of more 'modern' structures, utilities, and services.

A monarchy led by a charismatic man with a deeply developed cult of personality, Nippur was thrown into permanent disarray when it suffered a string of attacks. Two solitary acts of violence against Nippur was followed by a full-scale assault by a force of primes under the loose leadership of Sinestro, the Deputy of the Town with No Name. Breaching the walls of the city, the primes besieged the streets of the city. Various skirmishes broke out throughout Nippur's districts. The Siege of Nippur was not as lop-sided as many journalists and historians account, but during the battle, King Gilgamesh was defeated and banished. Without their leader and with many of his lieutenants abroad, the city fell into chaos.
 
With no one to fill the power vacuum, Nippur's people fractured as some clung to the old regime and others sought something new. Alongside this internal strife, the city also became the target of various raids from nomadic warlords and psychopaths, namely the Deathchew Clan, led by Baron Deathchew. 

The Golden Cross, an organization set up by several inter-verse companies, has sought to provide the city with humanitarian aid and although successes were originally limited due to the Dunes' chaotic nature, with Gilgamesh’s recent return, they have become a big help to the citizens of Nippur. Enabled by Gilgamesh’s building of Nippur’s first hospital, Golden Cross Hospital, named to honor the organization, morale within the city has begun to increase for the first time in years. In fact, with Gilgamesh's return to the city, comes proclamations of a rebirth to grandeur, a set of new laws to uphold, and an ensemble of primes tasked to enacting the betterment of Nippur's state. More can be found about New Babylon here.


The Forgotten Fortress & the Ghost Village - For few years now, this imposing structure has stood out in the wilderness of the Endless Dunes.  A large black fortress above a cooled obsidian threaded with veins of lava, the fortress has stood without an owner for years.  Vagrants and travelers have taken to using the decaying fortress as a waypoint for their travels further into the Endless Dunes.  Efforts to modify the fortress have met with failure, resulting in its gradual decay and its usage as a staging point for all sorts of travelers.

Across from the fortress used to be a village.  A few adobe brick structures remain, although most of the structures have long since been cannabalized by travelers, nomads, and/or vagrants.  The village was once inhabited by a tribe of 'gerudos,' but any record of those peoples has since vanished.

The Lost Civilization - The Endless Dunes is dotted with a variety of landmarks.  Old Imperial mineral stations, oil refineries, and shanty towns.  There are also the relics of before the Imperials arrived.  Pyramids, obelisks, and temples of various shapes and sizes can be found.  Some have been plundered, while others are waiting to be found... buried beneath hills of sand or collapsed mountains.

The 'lost civilization' isn't so much a full civilization as a cluster of such landmarks.  Sandstone and blackstone, the structures are adorned with hieroglyphs that seem to span a few languages, based on limited scholarly study.  Due to its remoteness and the dangers of the outer Dunes, there aren't many (sane) individuals that frequent the area.  The Lonely Ziggarut, a monolithic piece of architecture, is roughly twenty miles out from this fragment of a lost society.  

The Dark Tower - Far out in the vast wastes of the Dunes lies the Dark Tower.  A monolithic tower that blends human architecture and natural geology, the landmark is said to house an entrance into the Void, for those who can find it.  Beware, the region is known to be the home of Jhen Mohran (read the quest for more details), a monstrous beast that reigns supreme in the rarely visited area of the Dunes.

Roaming NPCs

None currently

[Proto Man]

Faction Quests

Eye of the Storm

Location: Endless Dunes (Various)
Requirements: Not affiliated with the Empire or any other faction in the Dunes (psychos, bandits, etc)
Difficulty: Challenging (8,000-16,0000 words, dependent on quality)
Reward: TWNN Deputy Star


The Town With No Name exists on the precipice of eventually collapse. A town like Darkshire, with a long history of previous riches and success and stability, lingers on through sheer force of momentum. The Town With No Name doesn’t have that vibrant and stable history as a crown jewel. Even at its heyday, it was little more than a rich way station between the Empire and the riches that still awaited travelers in the interior of the Endless Dunes.

Nowadays, the human refuse left behind by the Empire’s withdrawal to Carrefore cling to the Town With No Name much like anyone would clutch the hull of a sinking vessel. At the heart of the town is Roland Deschain, the sheriff who stepped in to fill the power vacuum years ago. Normally not so open to outsiders, Roland has become more willing to deputize primes who can prove that they’re not out just to satisfy their own interests.

Those who are properly vetted by Roland are usually given the authority to enforce the town laws, and they are also often sent out to secure supplies or deal with outside forces. This has allowed Roland to spend more time inside the Town With No Name, while also helping him to build up a reliable backbone of powerful supporters in case the situation in the Dunes takes a turn against him.

Quest Stipulations – Character must travel to the Town With No Name. They must meet Roland and show him that they are genuinely good-natured. They must then serve as his deputy (examples of tasks above). If the prime can prove their mettle a few times and survive, they may keep the deputy star and the status it entails.

Repeatable Quests

In Chaos Renewed [/b]

Location – The Endless Dunes
Requirements – Level 2
Difficulty – Moderate (5,000-10,0000 words, dependent on quality)
Reward – Chaos Emerald (Artefact)

Overtime, Primes often make mistakes—they summon unwanted things or modify themselves in irreversible manners. It is said that out in the reaches of the Endless Dunes lies an oasis. At the center of this oasis is a pool of what seems to be water to the hapless observer. To a prime who is driven by the need to start anew, this is not water but a gateway into a realm surging with chaotic energy. By drinking from the oasis, the prime will be shifted into this realm. In it, they must confront themselves. The prime will be challenged by what he aspires to be and must emerge victorious. When they have, they will awaken renewed and refreshed, with a strange gem in their possession.

Quest Stipulations – Character must travel to an oasis in the remoter parts of Endless Dunes. They must drink of the oasis, which places them into a place very similar to the Astral Verse, where they must confront their shortcomings and what they hope to be. After a positive judgment, the prime wakes back up next to the oasis, with a colored gem in their possession.

Artefact = Chaos Emerald (Color) – Using this permanently removes 1000 Earned OM from a prime, but it then reverts all of their remaining Spent OM into Earned OM. This removes all proficiencies, powes, moves, super moves, transformations, assists, and unlocks. It also removes any Consumed OM that was a result of previous respecs (but not that spent on items). The prime may then respend their Earned OM on whatever they desire. A prime may also redistribute their Stats, if they so desire.

The emerald is good for one use. After being used it will continue to emanate power but has no other apparent function.

Bear in mind that new moves and power ups have to be approved, like always.

Unique Quests

Starlight over the Lonely Ziggurat
Location – The Endless Dunes (Various)
Requirements – None
Difficulty – Extreme (20,000-40,0000 words, dependent on quality) + Instant Notoriety
Reward – Orange Star Piece (Artefact)

a.) Collaborate – Seek out Bud Dupree, an astronomer from Dalaran doing some work in the Town with No Name. He’ll ask you to prove your trust by procuring something from an abandoned dig sight nearby. Once you return, he’ll divulge the results of his research over the last few months. He believes he has tracked the star piece to a landmark called ‘the Lonely Ziggurat’ far out in the Endless Dunes. With his bodyguards, he’ll join you on the trek. Expect resistance from just about everyone and everything once you leave Roland’s careful eye. The Lonely Ziggurat itself is a strange, black temple hidden with traps and old terrors. You’ll eventually find the star piece in the central burial chamber, where its strange powers have reanimated an ancient pharaoh. The creature must be returned to oblivion so the piece may be recovered. Bud must survive the battle. When you win, he’ll entrust you with care of the star piece. If he perishes, you will be contacted by one of his peers to deliver the artefact to Dalaran for safekeeping. Failure to do so results in a Camelot bounty.

b.) Theft/Solo – Seek out Bud Dupree in the Town with No Name. Subdue him and his bodyguards. After that, you can rifle through his work and discover that the star piece is possibly inside the Lonely Ziggurat. Expect resistance from psychos, raiders, and all other filth out in the Endless Dunes. If you didn’t have the heart to kill the astronomer, you can expect that he will trail you down seeking revenge. Once you finish this quest, you can expect a Camelot bounty and a Town with No Name Bounty when the astronomers piece together the puzzle.

C.) Town with No Name Ally - After obtaining the intel through whatever means, you can turn it over to Roland. After a conversation, he’ll determine that whatever the star piece is, it will only bring more trouble to the Endless Dunes. He wants you to recover it and then get it the hell out of the Dunes. He’ll scrounge up some people from town and some equipment to go with you. If you betrayed the astronomer, Roland will see to it that he cools in a jail cell until after you’ve finished your mission. Once you acquire the artefact, you don't need to check in with him.

D.) One for All and All for One (PVP) -If you’re lucky, you may find the astronomers just as they are dealing with another prime. At this point, you can either join the other prime or fight them to the death, the astronomer won’t mind.

Once someone has allied with the astronomer or stolen their information, you will have to go through extra means to try and follow the trail: You come across the empty astronomer camp. It may have been packed up nicely or left behind in a rush (with possibly some traces of a struggle). Either way, there’s no one home. You are behind on the chase, but not all is lost for you. Gossip travels quickly and there are eyes in many places in the Omniverse, as well as people who can see beyond their sight. You may even find an angry, bruised astronomer chasing someone who stole his work. Do whatever you need to do to discover where the astronomer went or the thief who killed him.

With any luck, you can catch up to the other person. At that point, you can either join them or fight them. Losing one of these fights can result in death. Leaving someone alive gives them the option to continue trailing you.

Void Entrance Quest

Gate in the Dunes
Location: Endless Dunes
Requirements to complete (can be started earlier). May be completed alone or as a group.
5+ ATK between entire group (may use powered-up stats as basis). Requirement lowered by 1/2/3 if any participant has a Tier 1/2/3 Super Attack.
5+ SPD between entire group (may use powered-up stats as basis). Requirement lowered by 1 for each Movement power that a group member has.

Difficulty: Extreme (20,000-40,000 words dependent on writing quality)
Reward: Void entrance in the Dunes.

Far beyond the safety of the gates and the Town with No Name lies the vast desert from which the Dunes takes its name. Once it was rumoured that these lands were savannahs, before the Empire drained the land dry of its value.

There are rumours that beyond the sands lie all manner of treasures. Palaces remaining of the old verse, great oases. Many primes follow these rumours in hopes of striking the proverbial oil. Most go mad before they die; if the strangely-real mirages, scorching days and freezing nights don’t take do it, the loneliness does.

The truth is that the wastes hold far greater horrors than even those lands closest to the gates. For the desert belongs to the force of nature known to man as ‘Jhen Mohran’. He will stand before you and the Dark Tower. But should you find it should you traverse up those steps past images of your past and possible futures, you will find a gate. And there the Void awaits.

[Alex]

Endless Dunes FAQ (updated 2-17-2017)

Q:  “What’s the general layout of the place?  What type of desert is it supposed to be?”

A:  The area near the Nexus gate and Carrefore is almost nice.  That region (roughly five square miles) is a savanna.  There’s some grass, shrubs, and scrawny little trees, and the temperature is more mild.  Carrefore is also the only place in the Dunes with rainfall, even if that’s only once or twice a year.  Think of Tanzania or Kenya if you’d like a real-world comparison.  Once you go beyond Carrefore, the rest of the verse is inhospitable desert.  The majority of it sand n’ cactus desert (hence the name), but there are regions in the east where it resembles a rockier desert like that in Arizona.

Q: “Area by the gates?”

A:  As mentioned in the previous question, there are areas of the Dunes that’s devoid of dunes.  The largest of these borders the gate to the Ashen Steppes.  The temperature here is also higher than the rest of the Dunes, given its proximity to the hottest place in the Omniverse.  On the other side of the Dunes is the gate to Coruscant.  While there’s a roadway connecting this gate to Carrefore and the Nexus gate, the area itself is nondescript.  There’s an imperial watch tower, and beyond the gate is one of the most fortified security checkpoints in Coruscant.  Have fun with that.

Q:  “What’s it like out there in the Dunes?  Outside the little pockets of civilization like Carrefore, TWNN, or Nippur?”

A:  Kind of a shitty place.  You got your roving psychopaths, you got your gangs of roving psychopaths, and you have an abundance of monsters lurking beneath the sand that want to murder you.  Plus it’s hot and there’s no water for miles at a time.

Q:  “What are the uncivilized residents of the Dunes like?”

A:  Think of most apocalypse or wasteland tropes, and you’ll find that stuff out in the Dunes.  ‘Psychos’ a la the Borderlands and maniacs from Mad Max are plentiful.  There’s also some pretty normal-looking people out there who are still vicious and sadistic.  You’ll find everything from wannabe gangbangers to nigh-unslayable cannibal maniacs.  It’s a dog eat dog world out there in the wastes.  Wander at your own risk.

Q: “Wildlife?”

A: In terms of monstrous inhabitants?  All those terrible things you’d expect to find in a fantasy desert region.  Giant sand worms, oversized scorpions, perhaps the wandering corpse of a dead pharaoh.  Probably got golems and elementals out there in the harshest regions, as well.  Perhaps the Empire left behind a few rogue things, who knows?  Go find out.  When it comes to normal animals, you have what you’d expect in a desert.  Scorpions, lizards, camels, etc.  

Q: “So, the Empire used to run this place?”

A:  Correct.  Much like the Pale Moors, the Dunes originally used to be a much nicer, more verdant place.  The area around Carrefore is what the entire Dunes was like when Palpatine ‘discovered’ the place.  There was also a vast wealth of natural resources like gold, diamonds, coal, and oil.  Seven years ago, it is said you couldn’t travel more than 10 miles without running into some sort of extraction operation.  Over a period of a few years, the Empire essentially strip-mined the entire place, leaving it the desolated, desert-ified landscape you see today.

Q: “I read somewhere that they left stuff behind, right?”

A: You’d be correct.  There are plenty of Imperial mining stations, oil refineries, purifiers, and all sorts of facilities that lie abandoned out there in the Endless Dunes.  Bear in mind that the Empire gradually and calmly withdrew from the region.  These facilities have since been subjected to the desert and looters for a few years, so it’s not like you’d going to stumble upon elite Empire tech that’s been miraculously stashed somewhere.  Mostly these places just acts a throwbacks to the past and to add more to the landscape, so don’t overthink it.  

Q: “So they wrecked the whole place?”

A: For the most part.  The deeper into the verse you go, you might find places that, although still desert, may perhaps have value.  Adventurers often set off on deep expeditions into the Dunes to find such hidden troves of oil or precious stones.

Q: “There are other landmarks, right?”

A: Yes, of course.  Obelisks, temples, pyramids—most of it is Egyptian/Sumerian in theme. While there’s no history of civilizations before Coruscant, the Endless Dunes (like a few other verses) contains many structures that appear to harken back to an older civilization.  Was there a previous civilization, or are these ancient-seeming structures just another by-product of Omni’s vast imagination and limitless will?  Either way, these ruins provide a draw for adventurers, archaeologists, and historians alike.

Q: “Can I get more about the lifestyle of people in the Dunes?  Is everyone nuts?  

A: Not everyone in the Endless Dunes is a raving lunatic or a criminalized sociopath.  You’re bound to find nomadic tribes that get by without eating people’s skin off or melting them into guzzoline.  Earlier it was mentioned that regions out in the Dunes have some resource value, so you might run into merchants transporting goods to Carrefore.  Those opposed to the Empire or on its blacklist are forced to detour through the Ashen Steppes.  The ‘placid’ natives and treasure-seekers usually keep to themselves.  

Q: “Are there settlements beyond the established ones?””

A:  The main settlements in the Endless Dunes are Carrefore and the Town with No Name.  The Town With No Name has gradually become a more important waystation for interior traffic in the verse, given its central location in the verse and continued stability.  Carrefore has likewise prospered and grown into a genuine imperial city.  Travel into the interior of the Dunes from Carrefore and Corascant has grown more common as well, at least in the months since the Gold Cross has attempted to placate the discord in Nippur.  Outside of these three cities, there are plenty of smaller settlements that come and go.  Often tribes will settle down for a few months, creating a little tiny village, and then mobilize and head to a new location.

Q: “Wasn’t Nippur a faction base?”

A: Yes, it was, it belonged to Gilgamesh, and the stories of its creation, rise, and fall are there for you to read.  Gilgamesh has been inactive for at least a year, if not longer, and the faction he created has been gone for nearly as long.  Nippur was ransacked in a base assault, which has led to its current state (perpetual civil war and general malaise of its citizenry).  If Gilgamesh returns, it’ll be there for him to claim, since the initial investment was his own OM.  Currently, Nippur is treated like any larger settlement in the Omniverse due to its history and former influence.  If Gilgamesh returns, it will resume its duties as his base, but in the absence of that, it is officially considered the city version of a Site NPC.