First appears in: The Splinter Soul
Yana Taesi, known in the common tongue as the Desolation, is a horrific, ruined landscape on Valaralda born of a magical cataclysm. When Arra and Trey step through a gate into this region, they are met with a "charred, blackened wasteland spread out before her, filled with craggy, sharp rocks that looked like they’d been burnt to a crisp". The geography consists of jagged volcanic rocks that climb into "impossible formations to reach the sky," giving way to "a flatland of dry, cracked earth" where "No plants grew anywhere that she could see; no animals or insects made an appearance". The environment is incredibly hostile; the air is thick with smoke and a "sulfur smell" that waters the eyes, illuminated by a red sun, while the unstable ground frequently rumbles and shakes.
The Desolation was formed five thousand years ago when a rogue darkprime mage named Iliphar pushed his magic too far while battling the Department of Magical Research. The ensuing magical overload caused "catastrophic terror upon the land" where "Volcanoes reared from the ground where none had been before" and "Great cracks in the world opened, spewing hot gas and magma". Today, the wasteland is inhabited solely by the Aiqua, a resilient people trapped in this dead land that is "thousands of miles from anything else". During their brief visit, Trey and Arra use their Prime magic to heal the sick Aiqua and transmute abundant food and water, a miraculous act that earns Arra the legendary Bow of Ancient Kings.