The planet Sanddoom (er, sorry, its inhabitants insist on the name al-Saḥra’, these days) will figure pretty largely in the first half of The Lion in Paradise, so I thought I might provide a teaser map. (Click to enlarge.)
The map was generated with the planet generator found here. “Sea level” (if a completely dry desert planet can be said to have a “sea level”) is located at the black outlines. The lighter the color, the greater the elevation.
A couple of notes about the place names: Kanz al-Sultan (كنز السلطان, “The Sultan’s Treasure”) is the location of the great mine which has already been described in The Lion and The Lizard.
The city al-Madinat al-Jadida (المدينة الجديدة, “The New City”) is the name finally tagged to the Nameless City which was the original dumping ground, er, relocation target, er, place which was built rather rapidly for all the forced migrants back in the 2030’s and was never given a formal name. When the USMC intervened on Sanddoom (sorry, al-Saḥra’) in 2047 (as described in The Lion and The Lizard), they found the ruling Islamic Council had refused to name the city because they had never accepted being exiled in the first place. So the Marines, being Marines, simply called it, “The Nameless City.” Of course this was taken up by Space Force and the Space Force Marines, as well as by the new Governor they had imposed on the planet, and was used incessantly and officially until the Islamic Council finally broke down and gave the city a name — which was meant to evoke the city of Medina back home in Saudi Arabia, but since “Medina” just means “City”, calling the place “The New City” was just as much of an asshole move as calling the planet, “The Desert” (which is what al-Saḥra’ means). For what it’s worth, the inhabitants mostly call the city “Jadida” for short.
“First Water” and “The Great Rift” will be explained in the book.
The book, by the way, is about half done. Or half baked. Whatever.
Oh. Wanna see what the planet looks like, terraformed? Of course, that’s much later.
This book is kicking my ass, but it’s going to be fun when it’s done.