The Desert Caravan Meme

[cornichaun]

The Desert Caravan Meme



The sky is unimaginably large. Infinity as a pale, blinding blue, never a cloud. Your eyes always sting from the sand and from the bright, painful light.

This is the desert. It is the desert that lives in poetry: the shifting, formless sea of white and gold and red, in slow, sinking dune-waves. This is the desert of scorched cliffs and ancient stone; it is the desert of vast, eternal wind, bringing the bite of grit to bare skin. Sun’s heat untempered by mercy and parched land flickering with false hope of oasis.

This is the desert of legend: the desert that hides prophets tucked in endless emptiness, where djinnis whisper on the winds and magic wells from the sands themselves. This is the land that can trap you and drain you, of memory, of past, of weakness; the land that secrets treasure away in caves and holds salvation in hidden water. This is the land that bakes you and cures you, lets the soft clay of your soul shape into something new.

The desert is a place forever between, broken with paths, sliced and scarred for the sake of trade. But the desert is a place itself, too, home for the nomads, the caravanserai, the dotted strips of live eked out of the dry. Home to the snakes and the birds and the twisted, thorny scrub, the camels and the horses.

It will seduce you with the rapture of quiet, the beauty of an emptiness that is never truly empty. But it will deceive you, too: a mountain days away that seems close enough to touch; a camp close enough to hear, but hidden in a fold of the dunes. If you lose your way, you could die of thirst an arms length from salvation. Dunes shift; paths bend. If you do not know the desert, it will kill you.

Who are you?
A traveler, trusting in the grace of a guide to bring your caravan safe to the other side;
A guide, walking by stars and distant hills through the land you know by heart;
One belonging to a caravanserai, an enclave of the desert, by precious water, gleaning a living from the harsh land and the travelers passing through;
A bandit, preying on the slow, plodding merchants;
A nomad, with the desert in your blood, watching the intruders pass through;
A hermit, solitary and empty, grown accustomed to the silence;
Or a creature of magic: a djinni, a sorcerer, a witch, a prophet?

What has happened?
An ordinary, exhausting day of travel, your mouth dry as dust?
Have you lost your way, straying, along and baking in the sun —
A raid by bandits, to take money, goods — people?
War, over territory? Over water?
Strangers arriving in the caravanserai?
Happening upon a celebration, of life, water, harvest?
A rainstorm, for the first time in years? A sandstorm, deadly, and far more common?
Or something else?

Comments

Balthazar | Supernatural

[badpuns]

Dia Starfall | SW:TOR OC | F/M for shipping or smut if it comes up

[pathfromdarknesstogrey]

(She's most likely a Traveler)

Anakin Skywalker | Star Wars | ota

[morally_cryptic]

[regular canon-ish, au stuff, cross-canon stuff, thought could maybe even roll a "anakin never left tatooine and now he's fighting to free the slaves" sort of thing or something]

rey | the force awakens

[sensitively]

[ desert rat open to all things! ]

Re: rey | the force awakens

[prevailsthelight]

[Desert rat meets hermit-nomad? Even the loneliest of hermits needs to come into town for supplies sometime and they're bound to run into people no matter what.]

[sensitively]

[ omg, yess! she could meet him at Niima outpost for scavenging or trading supplies. and I apologize profusely for not having gotten to your other tag, yet. I still mean to, if that's alright with you? ]

wil ohmsford | shannara chronicles

[shannaran]

[probably a traveler.]

Slash | TMNT IDW

[specimenvi]

[Most likely the nomad.]

Nickov // Original Character

[paintednoble]

[ooc: Knows the desert well, pretty much open to all scenarios, PM me with any questions!]

sinjir rath velus | star wars

[drunk_ish]

[ So many different options!

Drunken loser Sinjir drinking in a crubby corner of a caravanserai tavern;

Hermit Sinjir, veteran of some recent war, who was rumored to have done terrible things;

A guide/soldier guarding a caravan on its way.

Can be Tatooine/Jakku/desert planet in Star Wars-verse, or can be a total AU, I'm open to either. In total AU, I'd be interested in playing around with some kind of magic. ]

Re: sinjir rath velus | star wars

[ataashihunter]

You want him as a guide running into Bull as a guard? Could be AU could be something ))

Re: sinjir rath velus | star wars

[drunk_ish]

Works for me! Has to be some kind of AU, otherwise how are they even in the same location, lmao. How about a vague desert-magic-verse -- I wish I knew more about Dragon Age.

yo it's shaz <3

[stereotyped]

[ sorry this has taken me so bloody long BUT how about dorian as a fire mage/djinni/idk in charge of some magic oasis in the wastes that traps travellers and keeps all their gold and precious jewels (although actually dorian prefers books and wine) like a fussy dragon with great hair. AND THEN sinjir stumbles across the oasis in his travels and is doomed to never leave UNLESS he can persuade/trick/trade his way out of there. Idk. Magic oasis prison shenanigans. ]

Re: yo it's shaz <3

[drunk_ish]

[ I LOVE THIS let's do it. You want Sinjir as a ex-torturer drunk? ]

Eas | Fresh Precure

[switch_over]

[Very likely to be a bandit.]

malak | original

[treasureling]

[ Malak lives in a settlement in the desert, a village, perhaps a caravanserai. He is a blacksmith, a quiet man, sweet and calming. The society where he lives is strongly matriarchal, famous for its women warriors. ]

Belgarion of Riva | The Belgariad/Malloreon | OTA

[why_me]

[He'd either be a traveler, a guide, a nomad, a hermit... or possibly that bird circling overhead?]

Zane | Mistborn

[godsays]

[ An assassin; the son of a nobleman who travels with the caravans, who has strange and unexplained powers and often will disappear at night. No one knows where he goes.

He moves like a dancer, like a warrior, tense and graceful. He does not often speak. ]

Kylo Ren | Star Wars

[darthvaderfanboy]

[Could be a bandit, a nomad, the options really are endless!]

Rider | Fate/zero | OTA

[hellenization]

[Best as a guide and traveler]

Fubuki | One Punch Man | OTA

[blizzardofhell]

[A Lady of great importance, who may have hired a caravan to guide her to a new city!]

Dejah Thoris || John Carter || Gen, m/f for shipping pls

[dejah_thoris]

[ A djinni, either wandering in the desert or at her home in a tiny box canyon home to a freshwater spring and an ancient temple carved into the sandstone. ]

Guts | Berserk | OTA

[sacriferity]

Flynn Carsen | The Librarians | OTA

[becausemagic]

Hinahoho | Magi: Sinbad no Bouken | OTA

[coldadapted]

[ooc: he's most likely a traveller...and going to melt. Heat is not his friend.]