It was time for a return to Jim Garand’s Grauland at the start of June to see what his creativity had brought forth since my last visit back at the start of 2026. I arrived to find that Jim has once more turned his mind to a sci-fi style theme which he’d entitled Spires of Sector 7.
On my arrival, I was immediately struck by the uniformity of the landscape: a rolling surround of hills covered in regolith-like material: lumps of grey rock and stone lying atop a grey covering of dust and dirt. Only the turquoise of the sky prevented me from uttering “Buzz” Aldrin’s words on seeing the surface of our Moon close-up: “Magnificent Desolation”.
Within these hills, the region itself offers a far more rugged landscape, flat-topped mesas and plateaux (courtesy of Cube Republic’s Sedimentary Rock Set, here given a new finish) rise from the undulating dusty/rocky ground, braking it up into gully and ravine-like cuts with broad, low-lying open areas.
Two of the larger plateaux have solar arrays standing to attention on their backs, three abreast on one with a third standing ahead of them on another mesa. All with their photovoltaic wings angled to the sky as if on parade. Slightly further away, the round face of a large antenna scans the sky from the top of another outcrop, the turning of its large dish suggesting it might be a radar system rather than a communications array or radio telescope.
The group of solar arrays and radar all appear to serve a squat, square blockhouse hunkered down between the rock formations, a long stairway descending one of its sloped sides from the landing pad sitting on its flat top.
The stairs make their way down the side of the structure alongside of a large opening above which an illuminated sign states Sector 7. Whether this is in reference to whatever planet / moon / planetismal on which the blockhouse is sitting as a whole, or simply referencing this region of said body is up to visitors to decide.
The massive pressure doors to the building stand open to reveal its interior offers a large garage area, together with modular units which together make up a research facility, a medical bay and living quarters. The fact that none of the modules is equipped with an airlock and the heavy pressure door into the blockhouse is open suggests the atmosphere of this world is breathable by humans.
The blockhouse is not, however the only sign of human habitation to be found here; off to the north-east stands a lone solar array looks to the sky. It sits above a glass-walled prefabricated habitation unit offering a comfortable residence away from the more techno-looking facilities within the blockhouse.
However, it’s not the signs of human habitation which give the setting its air of mystery; it is the vegetation and standing stones which occupy much of the landscape.
The former sit nestled between or sitting upon the rocky clusters, their vibrant reds and purples flowing over the grey landscape as if parts of it are on fire. Together with the rocky pools of water, they prove without a doubt that this place is far from arid and dead; that just below the rough, powdery and stone-strewn ground, life may well be abundant. Indeed, the presence of the water holes adds to the feeling that this is a landscape formed by the passage of water in times past, its passage resulting in the gently rounded sides of the mesas and plateaux, and its remnant now trapped in the pools, perhaps added to by rainfall or perhaps from subsurface springs.
The standing stones, meanwhile, speak to life of a different kind; one that most likely came along well after the water had shaped the landscape. They stand in ranks and groups right across the setting, both down on the stony ground and up on the raise tops of the rocky outcrops.
Whilst lacking perfectly vertical sides and geometric forms, these stones are far too regular in their shape to be the result of happenstance and erosion; they have more than likely been placed here. This is a view supported by the fact that five of them, clearly cut and shaped, sit atop smoothly rounded columns of rock to form a line resembling stone-cast torii gates or a marching line of henge trilithon.
Exactly who or what shaped and placed these stones is, alongside the study of the plant life, likely the reason for the research being carried out inside the bunker. There are no obvious clues to the creators of the stones – although the presence of hewn stone steps rising between and around some of the larger rock outcrops suggest those responsible for making and placing the stones may have been bipedal.
It is these kind of touches which so often make Jim’s regions designs so engaging; they add to the overall design by offering snippets of a back story not fully formed, inviting visitors to fill in the blanks and weave a tale to suit the landscape as they see it.
Surl Details
- Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)
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