The Singing Desert

In the vast southern deserts of Gzewak, there is one they call Ela Jhatra, or, “The Singer”. As the winds weave and wind their way along the sandy slopes and dunes of this place it gives rise to an unlikely song.

Not merely some illusion of nature, the singing is at once melancholy and moving. Even the nomads who have trekked across the desert their entire lives frequently weep for the sound of the sad song.

Among the Yawehn, one of the largest nomadic tribes, they have dubbed the singer “Alanah” and tell a story about the voice is the spirit of a woman who was abandoned in the desert many ages ago. It is her spirit that is responsible for the singing, they say, as she walks up and down the dunes, eternally seeking her lost lover.