The sandstorms of the sapphire desert.
The blue sands of the sapphire desert are perilous enough to tread against in the best conditions. But mysterious winds kick up sandstorms and change the rules. These sandstorms are sentient winds that take on different colors and unleash things that cannot be controlled or undone.
Yellow is careful and moves objects, people, or even settlements from place to place.
Red is cruel and brings forth illusions of places, creatures, or even just colorful patterns. These illusions are disorienting and often cause one to get lost or leave them in a permanent state of hypnosis.
Blue is playful and forms strange shapes from the sand for unknown reasons. These can be dangerous spikes or rolling wheels, but are rarely complex shapes.
White sandstorms are some mix of the three. Leaving behind physical manifestations, such as entire environments or creatures that didn't exist before. Sometimes these new entities may intertwine with other materials or even people pulled from other parts of the desert.
Black sandstorms are actually just like regular sandstorms. They can be disorienting, but not inherently dangerous.
The deeper truth to this destructive magic is that it stems from the corruption in the sands.
When one dies in this world, they are buried under a small mound of white sand. The sand will turn blue as a result of their corruption being drawn from their body and held within the sand. This gives the person the chance to escape their body and leave for the afterlife. Any who die and are not purified are said to be tormented by their corruption forever.
The more heinous your soul, the more the sand will change. Murderers often turn the sand a darker blue, if they are buried at all that is.
There is an old legend, the tale of an old man, a stranger who came to a small settlement one day. The man was at first distrusted but quickly became part of the village. He had many wild tales of gods and spirits and magic, and many saw him as eccentric, but harmless.
No one suspected a thing until he died.
When he was buried, it was near a family burial mound. Specifically, one of the children under his tutelage had decided to treat him like a fallen father. After the farewells were said, and the man was buried late in the evening, all would sleep with terrible nightmares. And when they woke, the desert, as far as everyone could see, had turned a terrible sapphire blue.
Whether this is true or otherwise, the fact that white sand and is so rare now, troubles many.