The Scorch Exile

The desert wind howls, a rasping whisper that carries secrets and sand equally well. You open your eyes, the coarse grit already clinging to your eyelashes. Above, the sun bleeds a ferocious orange across the sky, painting the endless dunes in shades of fire and blood. You don't recognize this place. You don't recognize *yourself*. Your clothes, once fine, are now tattered and stained with something you dare not identify. Around your wrist, a simple leather band holds a single, tarnished copper coin. It feels strangely familiar, a nagging echo in the silence of your mind. Memory. It's a shattered mirror, reflecting only fragmented glimpses. A face, contorted in rage. A roaring bonfire. A chilling word whispered in the dead of night: "Exile." That's all. You have no name, no past, no purpose...except perhaps survival. Before you stretches the Scorch, a wasteland whispered to be cursed. A land where civilizations rose and crumbled, leaving behind only whispers of forgotten gods and the bones of those who defied them. Legends speak of shimmering oases hidden amongst the dunes, guarded by creatures born of nightmare and desperation. They speak of powerful artifacts, relics of a bygone age that could either save you or damn you utterly. The silence of the desert is deceiving. It hides dangers both seen and unseen. Scavengers, driven mad by thirst and hunger, roam the sands, preying on the weak. Ancient automatons, remnants of a lost kingdom, patrol their silent territories, their gears grinding in the eerie stillness. And then there are the whispers…the voices that slither into your mind, promising power, knowledge, oblivion. You are an exile, stripped bare and cast adrift in a land that wants you dead. But you are also alive. You have the sun above, the sand beneath, and the will to survive, however faint it may be. Your journey begins now. Will you succumb to the Scorch, becoming another forgotten bone bleaching under the unforgiving sun? Or will you carve out a new destiny from the ashes of your past? The Scorch awaits. Choose wisely. Your life, and perhaps more, depends on it.