Why is desolation full of sulfur but crystal desert not?

Answer here is probably a game design timimg. (when building prophecies, the designers just used regular terrain for all the areas, so crystal desert was a regular desert. Wehn making Elona, they needed something cool to make it stand out, so added the sulfur) However, it is interesting that the whole area was supposedly created at the same time, but the area south of mouth of torment somehow became sulfurous and craggy, but the northern area is flat.

Any thoughts on this? (I'll be back later with my own as well).|||The Mouth of Torment is in the Desolation, which probably has something to do with it. I believe I recall an NPC saying that the sulfur is seeping from the Mouth of Torment. The Crystal Desert is at a high elevation than the Desolation, so it's likely that the sulfar is just flowing down the gradiant and not effecting the Desert because it is above the area.|||How did you figure the elevation? I figured that since Crystal Desert was once a Sea, it'd be near the sea level.|||that might help explain why the elonians had to take boats to the crystal desert instead of just walking there, cause of the sulfur content in the sand.|||Go to the portal in the Crystal Overlook to the Crystal Desert, then back again. To reach the parts of the Desolation that are sulfur covered, you need to go down. And remember, the Manuscripts say that the gods "raised" the Crystal Desert, so whatever caused it to dry up, also changed the land elevation.|||QA, you may be overthinking things a touch.

I assumed the gods had 'rased' the desert, meaning to level to the ground, rather than raised, or elevated the land. But I don't have the manuscript in front of me here.

Anyway, I think the sulfur has a simple explanation. Look at the map of the area, the desolation is a large volcanic expanse. The arae may be largely dormant but it is riddled with small to mid-size volcanic calderas. The entire region may itself be a large supervocano cladera similar to (but vastly less hospitable than) Yellowstone Park.

Sulfur fields and sulferous springs are relativly common in and around volcanic areas. It wouldn't require any explanation beyond basic geology. Extreme geologic conditions, sure, but that seems to be a theme in the GW universe. The crystal desert itself is little more than the Bonneville Salt Flats taken to the extreme, isn't it?|||Sounds good NameAlreadyInUse. |||Except that official sources pretty much explain it. I don't see how reading and paraphrasing directly from a source is "overthinking".|||Quote:








Except that official sources pretty much explain it. I don't see how reading and paraphrasing directly from a source is "overthinking".




Sorry if that comment came off as insulting, that wasn't my intent. I was just trying to say that there wasn't really much need to get into elevation issues to explain things.

If it is a geologic issue, related to the past or present vulcanism in the area, then it would be quite resonable to expect sulfurous conditions in and around the caldera, but not much if any beyond the geologicly active area.

Granted, taking the walk to Crystal Overlook it does look like the desert may be on higher ground, but judging scale and elevation over great distance is difficult even in the real world, and regardless of actual elevation, most explorable areas in the game tend to be 'bowls' in which cliff faces and walls halt progress beyond the bounds of the zone (where the zones don't end in the universe's most abrupt continental shelf that is).

In any event, no harm intended there Quintus. For the record, I generally enjoy following your thought processes in your posts...|||If you go to the edge of the the desolation, closest to the Crystal Desert, you will see there is a rift, maybe this is stopping the sulfur from spreading.