Description

[Kannon]

False Wall West is a latitudinally stretched belt of rugged volcanic rock elevated well above the sand by some ancient orogeny. Not as high as the Shield Wall, it still bars many winds from the outer desert - the Tanzerouft - from entering the sinks and depressions around the northern pole. While its southward rim shows significant signs of erosion, the cliffs of the northward one remain spiky and sharp, very difficult to traverse on foot, from one small basin at the bottom of a chasm to another. The height averages between 600 and 800 metres above sand level, with the highest spot at c. 1200 metres, but the ascents are very steep.

The winds that circumvent it from the east often are subject to anomalies in the Cielago Depression, what makes them unpredictable to all but the most desert-savvy. The ones coming from the Great Flat and the Habbanya Erg into the Sink are quite straightforward and strong - what has led to the development of Wind Pass as a place replete with free electricity. Windtrap complexes scattered along this gap in rock between the Shield Wall and the False Wall West make the area more self-sufficient in terms of water and power than most other places on Arrakis. It is thus no wonder that some crucial industrial facilities have been located there by the Harkonnen. In addition to that, the areas are highly defensible and sufficiently remote from the troubles of overpopulated shielded basins to the northwest.

This westernmost tip of the False Wall West, however, is the only one that is functioning as a part of Harkonnen administration. The rest of the rocky feature has no known bases. If they had been attempted by the Harkonnen or their predecessors in the past, they were long abandoned and forgotten. Most of the area can thus be considered wilderness, though Fremen hideouts can be hypothesised.

Habbanya Ridge notwithstanding, there is little more beyond the False Wall West to the south than the open desert where Coriolis storms and worms obliterate everything that dares encroach.