On the world of Maldene, on the continent of Degaloth, there is a piece of terrain called The Strip Desert. So named because of its shape. A desert thousands of miles long that divides the fields and farmlands to the north from the jungles to the south, it keeps its fifteen-hundred mile width pretty uniform all along its entire length. Why is this so and why would I make something like this? After all, it can’t be a natural phenomenon, can it?

For the answer to this, we have to go back to the premise of Maldene being a world of mystery and ancient secrets. This would be one of them. Could a desert belt be natural given the conditions prevalent on that part of Maldene? Possibly. Is there something else behind it? Weeeeeeell… You’ll have to wait quite a while to find the answer to THAT one (specifically for the 2-book Prequel I wrote for after the 13-book series).

So, what possessed me to put in this oddity? Just for that very reason: it’s odd. It’s unusual, it’s something that might not be natural. The idea for it? when initially drawing the Maldene world map I was throwing down any and every type of terrain oddity that I cold think of; Maldene is a really big world so there’s plenty of room for them all. Some of them have a very specific reason behind their origin, some might be distraction to lead the reader away from the real plot points. As to which one the Strip Desert is, that you’ll have to discover for yourself.