Desert of the Diviners

Beyaban az Falgeeran, or Desert of the Diviners, is where the Archmage Javed has made his towers and his home (1)
The deserts greatest threats were the Purple Worms that burrowed underneath the deserts suface (1)
But Javeds and his mages crafted Steam Golems [essential iron golems with a drill hand instead of sword and have a pilot] (1)
that are able to combat the worms without taking damage (1)
They are piloted by elite mages (1)

I feel like I want the Diviners to use their foresight to combat the Worms, rather than brute force [contest 2].

I feel like their foresight has created indestructable magical solutions.

lol.

Proposed compromise: They purchased them from Gnomish House Orin, halfway across the continent, along with their gnomish operators. House Javed then outfitted the gnomish mechs with divination-techmagic augmentations, which display pre-images of their foe's moves on the mech's console (mech has Action Surge - recharge 6).

Hmm . . . then they get too mechy for me. Maybe let's scrap the pilot program. I do like the idea of desert tamers just because the desert is savage and is being tamed by the wizards away from prying eyes. I like them on autopilot so that they scour the desert without involvement from their creators. They are infused with divination magic that allows them to as a reaction add ____ to their AC and as a bonus action grant advantage on a single attack that turn from their multiattack. What asthetic do you like if not mech? Could go straight Iron Golem. Their walking creates enough vibrations to summon the worms and their resistances make them essentailly immune to the beasts. Because essentially this is saying, "If you wander in the desert you will probably run into a purple worm or one of these things or perhaps both locked in combat." If you want to keep House Orin involved, that's cool. Opens up some trade. I also think we see these diviners differently.

Can I throw my (2c) into this? (I... don't really know how the contesting thing works)

What if the mechs were designed to fight the worms from the inside? Say, Stone Golems with a special coating (traded from gnomes?) that renders them immune to acid damage (Clay Golems are the only ones naturally immune to acid, funnily enough). They attack worm, worm swallows them, they tear up its insides. Wizards would also infuse them with divination magic - Detect Creature and Find the Path - to enable them to hunt the worms and return to base for repairs in the otherwise trackless wastes. Or, hell, the wizards could use a combination of scrying and golem amulets to "pilot" the golems remotely, thus creating "drones" to send out into the desert and attack--

waitaminit.

I like that we got hung up on these defenders of the desert.

The diviners hunt the worms because years of feasting on adventures make them full of magic items (1) which can be "melted down" into their base components of residuum (1). Javed, his college of diviners, and their hanger-ons travel from tower to tower (1) following the celestial bodies (1). Sometimes desert lizardfolk take up residence in the numerous abandoned towers (1).

OH man. They eat SO MANY adventurers. There should probably be some ancient tombs somewhere in the desert that bring adventurers from far and wide to seek their fortunes (1).

Also, what if the Worms' digestion itself does the melting down?! (1) And their bloodstreams are just alive with residuum as a result! (1)

Oh man, if I was a super evil wizard I would find a way to control the Worms and make them trace the patterns of huge state-sized arcane runes below the surface of the Earth. Enormous beacons of magical energy tracing the words of a great spell in an endless living loop! (1)

Well . . . I don't know how to proceed. Actually I guess I do but I've been hesitant to let this one go. Remember, divorce worldbuilding knowledge from character knowledge. . . here goes.

Javed is a sort of a super evil wizard. (1) Actually, he's an undead wizard (lich) that has grand plans for the world that some may construe as evil. (1). Javed is one of the original four adventurers from the history of the world that you found. (1) Along with his compatriots, he found ways to extend his life indefinitely. (1) He uses his own powers of divination to cloud others from discovering his identity. (1)

ahahaha XD

In that case:
[tentative idea -- not sure if you already have a different thought for the towers & worms that doesn't jive with this]

Javed's towers form key foci in the runes being traced by the purple worms (1). The mechs that are 'patrolling to defend against the worms' are in fact slowly leading the worms along prescribed routes (1). The heavy thudding of House Orin's Automata sends subsonic vibrations through the sand that the worms seek out (1).



Also, I feel like that makes this...
...mean that Barnabas was present at the last harmonic convergence. As a result of the extraordinary power channeled during convergence, he was briefly able to pierce the veil of Javed's deception. Of course, this had to be 'corrected.'

Barnabas currently believes that his ego led him to undertake a fool's quest for knowledge. The incapacity of his mind to comprehend the Whole led to his downfall, and the crumbling of his faith as he pursued more extreme (and off-target) paths to knowledge in an attempt to recover from his failure.

Barnabus has made a outside entitity to forget much of the happenings of the convergence. Why he did this he cannot remember.

The towers have been built over a period of millenia. Javed has cultivated the desert from a once thriving civilization. The towers litter the desert and can sometimes be used to map the wastelands though sometime the shifting sands will cover or reveal an old tower.

Ooh, I love the idea of traveling in the desert and coming across just the tip of an old covered tower, and then digging down inside. Deep down into the purple worm tunnels? That would be a great organic way for the adventurers to discover a piece of what is going on, though they might not know what carved the tunnels, or what they're for. They just hear a thudding passing overhead and see a little sand and rubble crumble down from the ceiling...

بیابان از فالگیر

Naming conventions used for places in the Desert is the Farsi language.

The lizard folk of the desert know something is wrong about the towers, and most fear to go near them.

There is a hero among them. Fierce and tactical, the lizardman is a hardy desert species. There is one that stands against the habitat destruction that is perpetuated by Javed. It is the present and really only thorn in his side and is becoming more than a minor annoyance to the undying wizard.

There are other taurians that live in the area. They differ from the camel nomads in the north that rarely mingle with the small Nubian Ibixians and the Antelope folk in the south.

Nomadic Desert Giants stalk the sands of the Desert of the Diviners. They follow herds of some sort of animal (or perhaps humanoid when times are desperate) and know the secrets of survival in the arid sands. They know the truth of their continent and the truth of Javed but due to the shame of losing their empire to the lich, they would rather silence inquisitive minds then be subject to humiliation of their what remains of their honor.

The giants cultivate rare desert roses. They are the tender weakness of the giants.