House Lyrandar has a strong alliance with the Darkwood Crown, and if Taer Valaestas is your destination you should consider traveling by airship or elemental galleon. If this is not an option –- if you must travel south from the Talenta Planes –- you will find it a hard road.
The first you will see of Valenar is a pillar of stone rising up from the barren flatlands, a spire that seems unnatural in its height and perfection. It should seem unnatural; it is a taer, one of the fortresses of the Valenar. Stories say that these monoliths were raised from the earth during the Age of Monsters, shaped by the hands of the legendary druid Maezan Shal, also known as the Thunderhand. Six of these stone keeps ring the Blade Desert -- Stonefeather Spire, Taer Valior, Griffonclaw, Zephyr Keep, Taer Shantara, and the Aerie -– along with the broken spires of Taer Zanathar and Taer Elladorn.
Depending on the day that you arrive, you may find a Lyrandar airship docked at the fortress, or you may see a patrol of the Kel Gryfaen, the griffon riders of Valenar. The Valenar are best known for their wondrous horses, but they are warriors through and through, and they know the value of commanding the air. The Kel Gryfaen were born in the struggle between the Valaes Tairn and the hobgoblins of the Dhakaani empire; today a single warclan has reclaimed that heritage, bonding with the wild griffons to claim the air over the desert. Each taer is also the home base of a full warclan of ground troops. Only a small complement of soldiers walk the walls of the keep; the elves prefer to remain in motion, and most of the warbands are in the field, patrolling the lands around their fortress. However, animal messengers and other tools are used to signal the soldiers in the field, and the danger posed by the elves is always greater than it appears.
The only people who can find shelter at a Valenar fortress are the Tairnadal themselves and their Lyrandar allies. If you travel with a Lyrandar heir or a Valenar warrior, you might be allowed to rest and refresh yourself, but don't plan on staying long.
Beyond the line of taers lies the Blade Desert, sharp and deadly as its namesake. In addition to the natural dangers of any desert, strips of the Blade Desert are touched by the planes. Manifest zones bound to Fernia are filled with unearthly heat and furnace winds. Fearsome flaywinds tear across areas bound to Shavarath, and it's said that the ghosts of fallen warriors -- Dhaakani hobgoblins and other soldiers who have died in the desert -- haunt these regions. A good guide can avoid these treacherous areas, and possibly even find a Lamannian oasis within the burning sands. But traveling blind is a deadly business; a few tales even speak of unlucky wanderers who entered the desert only to end up on Shavarath itself.