The Shoals are small, rocky outcrops that lie far from the Citadels and other large rocks in the deserts of Viride. Among these smaller rocks and shallow sands are small settlements. Populated by people from the Citadel as well as Sandsmen and Outcasts, they provide essential links between citadels and a place for the weary desert traveller to rest though they have little to offer but meagre food, drink and accomodation. They are, without exception, hospitable. They have no formal social or family structure – people come and go as they please.
Though their situation is precarious, living without the protection of the great rocks and constantly in danger from greyfish, bladeshell and a host of other vicious predators, the Shoals are a welcoming community, their primitive huts built upon foundations of rock and suspended with dried and oiled sandvine so that they do not touch the shifting sands and become prey to greyfish. The sands around the shoals are often too shallow for larger bladeshell hunters.
A shoal will often have a small farming community attached to it which will provide them with a ready supply of greyfish meat and all the sandvine (and precious water) they need. These farmers are typically burned almost black by the glare from the sands and are reputed to be extraordinarily stubborn folk.