Bronze Sea

The Bronze Sea, occasionally called the Sea of Grass, is one of four geographical regions the comprise the Miran continent. This region is bracketed by the Republic of Irill on its western border and the Anor Mountains on its east. This region receives the harshest weather found on Miran with highs reaching over a 120°F during the summer and dipping below -30°F during the deepest part of winter. Unlike other parts of Miran where rainfall is moderated by prevailing jet streams, the Bronze Sea suffers from a feast and famine pattern that makes life difficult.

The region is sub-divided into four smaller regions, each one roughly based upon the amount of rain that falls. The Shifting Sands is a vast desert in the southeast that borders the western edge of the Anor Mountains. The Redlands is a large steppe region that extends fully east to west across the north and is the largest sub-region of this area. The Badlands dominate the center to center-east lands. Finally the Grasslands, the second largest sub-region, Runs from the center-west to the edge of the Shifting Sands along the Serpente Sea.

The weather in the Bronze Sea is marked more by its extremes than its temperate location as the area is dominated by two powerful jet streams, the White Sea to the north and the Serpente Sea to the south. The White Sea winds are cold and dry while the Serpente Sea produces warm and humid air. Depending on the season these two streams can heavy monsoon-like rain or snow along the middle belt stretching from the Grasslands to the Badlands.

During most years the southern jet stream does not reach far enough north to cause more than a 20-25 inches of snowfall for the entire winter. However, every 15-20 years the southern jet stream gains in both strength and moisture which causes very large snowfalls in the Redlands with some areas experiencing over 120 inches of snow during the winter. Typically this is followed by heavy rains during the spring which can result in heavy flooding throughout the area as the rivers flowing into the Serpente Sea overflow their banks.

The Grasslands is considered the most hospitable of the regions in the Bronze Sea. It is comprised of large flat plains dotted with thousands of mesas and buttes. There are many rivers that run north to south along the plains with the Bicani River and Yavari River being the largest. Most of the rivers run dry or are reduced to less than a tenth of their size during the summer.

The exact size of the Shifting Sands is not simply sandy dunes, but in fact comprised of three distinct areas. The eastern edge that borders the Anor Mountains is a desert steppe filled with deep canyons, salt pans, sharp crags, and small brackish lakes. Large variances in height and box canyons make travel through this area nearly impossible. The Qarnas Valley is a small arid desert enclosed by two mountain ranges in the far southeast near the shoreline of the Serpente Sea. The largest area is the Ashari Desert in the west and comprised almost fully of white fine sand. Travel is very dangerous not simply because of the predators that call this area home, but the sand often collapses into sinkholes from which nothing escapes.

The Redlands steppe and Badlands share many of the same features with most of the difference caused by the heavy erosion of the softer rock of the Badlands. The mesas found in the south become larger and more numerous in the center, eventually becoming the high lands of the north. These lands are divided from the grasslands by large ridges of volcanic rock the nearly create a continuous wall stretched from the Druyen Highlands in the northwest to towering Anor Mountains in the east. Large plateaus, tableland prairies, and high plains carved from hard rock leaves only sparse vegetation clustered around small lakes and mostly dry riverbeds.