The Empty Quarter

Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter, is the particularly inhospitable tract of desert that forms the border between northern and southern Arabia. No caravan tracks have crossed it since the fall of the kingdom of 'Ad in the third century and the loss of its trade in frankincense from the south — even the Bedouins skirt around its fringes. Several miles beyond the settlements in the periphery of the region, the dunes climb to great heights and the traveler enters the domain of al-Khali ("the Empty One"), a powerful elemental jinn said to stand guard over the lost lands of the al-Jahiliyya, the pre-Islamic times.

This vast trackless expanse forms one of the largest and strongest Magic auras in the Mythic Middle East. Beyond the thousand foot tall dunes that mark its periphery, the aura strength rapidly increases to 10 and the mundane terrain breaks down into an ever-shifting landscape of brightness. Multiple regiones of bright featureless sand lie within its boundary, providing subtle traps for the unwary. Such pockets of space may only be entered involuntarily, but can be accessed with astonishing ease — add 6 to the roll for entering a regio described in ArM5, page 189. Unfortunately, leaving the regiones is not as easy — there is a –3 penalty when trying to leave, making escape difficult for those without Second Sight, Magic Sensitivity, or other supernatural abilities.

Some travelers even find themselves directly transported into the mystical space of the Twilight Void, seemingly without passing through a detectable regio. By passing through this soft place, they find themselves adrift in the ageless space, most commonly just outside the boundary of one of the provinces of Auram, Imaginem, or Terram. Some explorers describe encountering vestiges of ancient cities or migrating nomad tribes, or have reported passing through provinces aligned to other Forms. Details on the Magic Realm and Twilight Void are given in Realms of Power: Magic, pages 24–26.

The ready access to the Magic realm appears to be the result of some lingering effect of an ancient magical disaster and a ritual level power of the genius loci al-Khalil, while the featureless mundane landscape appears to magically resonate with the emptiness of the Void.