#9 Cold Sands

Age: Time Has No Meaning

Hidden or Lost?: Not Hidden, Ever Lost

History: Beyond death, beyond eternity, and just past the end of all things, there's nothing but Cold Sands.

An ethereal shore, where the sun is perpetually half buried beneath the horizon, casting purple and gold rays across the endless, silent beach, Cold Sands is a place of quiet and finality. It is lonely, but far from empty. Ancient bits of forgotten detritus and the eternally lost can be found among the Cold Sands, alongside the impossibly large creatures that smoothly ply the dark waters of the Final Sea.

Wanderers who find themselves lost on the chill blue expanse of strange dunes would do well to be aware that even at the end of what is known as existence, there are wonders. One might stumble across the enormous skull of an impossible equine reptile, larger than houses and stripped clean of all soft matter, the remains of the Mother of Scales. The bones hold only nightmares of eons past, and the memory of the First Bite, which birthed humanity’s fear of the other. There is also the Sinking Firm, a leaning skyscraper whose entrance is buried deep beneath the Cold Sands. Peering through one of the windows, you can still see an army of dredging souls, forever processing a job with no end, hypnotized by control and momentum. But stare too long and you might discover that you are suddenly on the inside looking out. One might come across the Empty Dunes, hills of blank books that you could swear once held the secrets of the universe. Or you might find an empty shack that appears so comforting as to lure you into an eternal malaise. Or you might step into the Scuttle Nests, where small, gelatinous crabs swarm wanderers, weighing them down until they are drowned by the strange tides of the Final Sea. The bizarre landmarks stretch on into infinity.

But beware, Cold Sands is also home to a being known as the Cambion, a soft-spoken terror in a wide-brimmed hat. He may invite you to share his fire, hiding his many multi-jointed arms beneath a hypnotic cloak, but do not accept his warmth. The price is too high for any conscious being to pay.

1. The Not-Sun

2. The Final Sea

3. An Empty Shack

4. Scuttle Nests

5. The Empty Dunes

6. The Cambion’s Camp

7. Sandfall

8. Skull of the Mother of Scales

9. Dry Dream Bed

10. The Sinking Firm

11. Paper Riches

12. The Hills Beyond