How does anyone survive in a arid dessert climate?

[J5P9VC]

I'm makeing a campaign and I'm wondering how cultures of people survive in desserts?

How do people build structures? Sand to me would seem like a terrible foundation for any sort of permanent building.

Where do people get the matrial to build permanent strctures? How common are trees? I plan on having some rocky and hilly areas but no huge mountions.

How common is plant life? What type of plants would one find in a arid dessert area?

What kind of animals are going to be there? No such much monsters as typical animals. What sort of large mammals could a dessert eco-system sustain?


thanks for your answers in advance.

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

I'm makeing a campaign and I'm wondering how cultures of people survive in desserts?

How do people build structures? Sand to me would seem like a terrible foundation for any sort of permanent building.

Where do people get the matrial to build permanent strctures? How common are trees? I plan on having some rocky and hilly areas but no huge mountions.

How common is plant life? What type of plants would one find in a arid dessert area?

What kind of animals are going to be there? No such much monsters as typical animals. What sort of large mammals could a dessert eco-system sustain?


thanks for your answers in advance.

Read or watch "Dune"

 

[J5P9VC]

I'm not to familiar with "Dune". What is it?

 

[Henry]

I'm not to familiar with "Dune". What is it?

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT DUNE IS!!!!!

I'm just kidding. Seriously, first of all, welcome to the boards!

Secondly, a great series of Sci-Fi Literature is the Dune series by Frank Herbert. It covers the generations of verious families who seek control of an arid desert planet called Dune, containing a very valuable spice (called "The Spice"), and the messiah-type figure who comes to Dune. I can't tell you a whole lot, since I never finished it myself, and did not care for it much, but it has some great ideas for cultures in a desert world.

As for your question, in the real world, there are very few cities and permanent structures in desert areas without massive amounts of organization and technology to create an infrastructure that suports humanity. This is why all the original great civilizations (Egypt, Sumeria, India, and China) grew up from fertile river valleys. Most cultures in a desert would be nomadic, rather than settled.

However, with sufficent magic to replace technology, any site can support a city or town.

 

[Bob Aberton]

How do people build in a DESSERT?

Well, I should think that fruitcake should be a hard enough substance to use as bricks...

Of course, if the only material around is custard, say, or whipped cream, then you have problems...

As for surviving, I should think the high calories provided by the DESSERT should make surviving an easy enough manner...

 

[Wicht]

Deserts (one s) are all different. Not all of them are sand covered wastelands. The southwest United states for instance is generally considered desert, but there are many plants and animals that call it home. Furthermore, there are many natural sandstone deposits and foundations.

In deserts life operates around water. Waterholes teem with plant and animal life. Villages and towns spring up around ponds and the like and cities are built along the rivers. There is rock in the desert (sandstone commonly) and quarries are developed to bring in rocks to centers of civilization.

Underneath the sand, one would expect to find more solid ground to build on (somewhere) and while no one builds houses on sand, where on finds both rocks and water, one can build.

Away from the rocks, men live as nomads, dwelling in tents, not houses and moving from place to place in search of water.

 

[EOL]

As Wicht mentioned not all deserts are enormous areas of shifting sand. Utah, where I live, is considered to be a desert, and what that basically means is that the vast majority of the population is along the foot of the mountains. The mountains get much more precipitation then the surround desert and basically you can use the water coming out of the mountains to irrigate and otherwise sustain life.

Also if you want to integrate a desert-lifestyle into say a fantasy campaign, I also highly recommend Dune.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The biggest thing is that humans depend on animals to survive. In South America it was Lamas, in other places camels, in Dune the great worms. If there were no animal like that, people did not make it.

Food, milk, cothes, fuel for fires all come from those animals, you have to think about building your culture around that.

Next is other resourses, feed and water. Nomads moved from place to place to give resources a chance to regrow.

Structures depend on your weather, do you have winds, to you have a hot sun beating down, do you have a season of rains? Sand can be packed, mixing with plants and packing it makes strong walls (parts of the Great Wall of China was done this way).

 

[jester47]

Research desert cultures. A great source is national geographic.

Aaron.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Well, the Food Network often has some good shows on desserts...sorry; couldn't resist!

As was mentioned above, Dune is absolutely a great book to read if you want to read about fictional desert-dwellers (I honestly don't know how you haven't heard of it; the books have been around since, umm, 1965 (I think) and there has been one major film and a TV miniseries based on the books).

But, for real-life sources, jester47's suggestion of National Geographic is a great start. Do a search at the library or online for bedouins also; that is another good way to start.