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The Sea of Silt is surrounded on all sides by the Tablelands, a band of relatively flat terrain ranging from less than fifty miles wide to more than four hundred. This is where the civilization of the ancients flourished, at least if we are to judge by all the ruins they left. It is here that the remnants of civilization cling to a few verdant oases today.
Generally, the Tablelands are arid, hot, and barren. Even on windless days, the sky is filled with a yellow-green haze of floating silt. The crimson sun blazes with merciless fervor, and the breeze feels like the hot breath of the dragon itself. The ground is parched and desolate, either baked to ceramic hardness or so lacking in moisture that it has the consistency of fine powder. Here and there, thorny bushes and clumps of spiny grass cling to the soil, waiting for the once-in-a-decade rain in order to release their seeds.
The plains of the Tablelands are home to a wide variety of societies composed of all races. Here, the traveler will find hermits, thri-kreen packs, nomad tribes, villages, and the few cities that remain. He will meet people of all races and classes; human slaves, elven nobles, and even, in one or two cases, halfling merchants. The Tablelands are the great mixing bowl of Athas, where the different cultures of many people are forced to fuse or clash.
This is not, by any means, to say that the Tablelands are tame. In the Tyr region alone, there are tens of thousands of square miles of plains, and I am sure that fewer than a million people live in that area - most of them in cities, villages, or other
groups located near a good source of water By and large, the plains are empty and wild, populated by untamed tribes and savage beasts. All in all, the Tablelands are an excellent place for adventure - and death.
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