Map of Canticula, 1226-1264
During the First Continental War (Canticula, 1221-26), the nation of Prove developed a blueprint for a bomb whose most active ingredients of detonation were derived from the sands of the Red Desert. Named the Red Desert Bomb, this device was tested numerous times in the Red Desert Federation in a remote location during this time period, but was never be used until much later.
The structure of the Red Desert Bomb basically consisted of a core made of condensed Red Desert Sandstone derivatives, a large layer of Red Desert Sand derivatives, and an outer metal shell. A thin wire running through the center of the core gives off a trigger-charge operated by a special spellfire script and set off by a geo-proximity clock that indicated how close to the ground the device was after it was airborne and falling. Such a trigger was designed to happen when the device surpassed a set altitude (usually 300 feet).
When the device detonated, it would release an initial fireball about 500 feet wide and 500 feet tall. However, this fireball would travel upward for many miles, creating a mushroom cloud. The magnitude of the explosion would be enough to severely damage large structures and destroy small structures within a quarter mile, cause substantial structural damage within a mile, fling debris up to 5 miles away, and send a noticeable shockwave up to approximately 200 miles away. This initial explosion would be triggered mainly by the core. The middle layer of the device also played a part in the explosion, but was also responsible for the next and deadliest phase of the detonation: the Red Dust Cloud. This Cloud would rain fallout and small pieces of flaming debris up to about 25 miles away but would also drop Red Dust up to about 200 miles. Inside this radius, Red Dust would block out the Sun for approximately a week and will give off Red Dust Radiation, responsible for the potentially deadly Red Dust Sickness.
Warfare and Retirement
Map of Remikra, 1264-1308
The Provan Republic is the only nation in history to use the Red Desert Bomb in active combat, and did so first in 1267, during the invasion of the now-former Chokian Republic and the Midland River States. In 1287, the Provan Republic launched an attack against the Early Retunian Republic, dropping Red Desert Bombs on South Masonia, Hasphitat, Egdir and twice on Retun. Such attacks led to significant losses of life and property.
Map of Canticula, 1287
During the Second Continental War (Canticula, 1287-96), enemies to the Provans discovered a tactic to detonate Red-Desert-Bomb-carrying aircraft in mid-air and strategically arranged for these counterattacks to occur over remote regions. This tactic led to the eventual defeat of the Provan Republic and its eventual downfall as a significant global power. Meanwhile, Remikran nations and other Circlarian nations convened to establish thorough and consistent defense protocols against Red Desert Bomb attacks. And in 1297, the Congress of Circlaria acquired the rights to the spellfire script of the Red Desert Bomb trigger-charge, placing it into a restricted library and amending the script, itself, with an invisible and consistently self-altering "salt symbol." Doing so rendered every copy of the original script invalid and the amended script impossible to decipher by even the most intense spellfire-script-decoding devices. And thus, to this day, the Red Desert Bomb is no longer able to be deployed for practical use.