Arborat was actually a type of terraformer, the design of an alien intelligence that could not exist in life-rich environments. The three spiral Collectors, Nirn, Glut, and Vauz, now copy Arborat's orginal function, which was to reduce Rym's ecosystem to nothing. Arborat leeched moisture from the prevailing winds and destroyed it utterly, but its main function was the combustion of the planet's life force. As Rym grew weaker, Arborat grew stronger, until the very air of the surrounding desert was charged with the corruptive emissions of burning souls. No organized resistance could be mounted against this insideous citadel, and for nearly a century, Arborat stood as a seemingly indestructible symbol of the Spiral's power.
Before more Collectors could be constructed, however, the Spiral came to see firsthand what had obliterated the previous civilization to inhabit Rym.
"It was Nigh who destroyed Arborat. I will never forget what I saw that night, standing in the foothills and looking out over the desert. The roar of Nigh's passage, no longer dimmed by distance, rolled across the desert in a wave that flattened dunes and levelled a legion of skeletal troops. And then, when it had stopped high above the tower, it called down a single phrase in the language of gods...I could hear it clearly a hundred miles distant. I could see the tiny flickers of fire against the darkness, and I knew they were trying to fight it, to drive it away, and then the horizon filled with a blinding light, and I was forced to shut my eyes. I could see the light even then; I was lucky not to be blinded. The sound that followed struck me like a wall, and when my senses returned, close to morning as I recall, I could see naught of Arborat but a smoking black burn on the pale hardpan. Nigh was gone, and so was the Spiral. It was then that we knew, at last, that our enemy could be defeated."
Arborat's intense magical emanations attracted Nigh's attention, and the Collector was subsequently destroyed when the Machine's ancient, failing AI decided that it was a god. After this great loss, the Koz were forced to re-evaluate its approach to the planned conquest Rym. Furthermore, they were now beginning to face oposition from the newly-formed Solinar Order, and with their capital unexpectedly anihilated, they were forced into hiding. To the people of Rym, it seemed a great (if inexplicable) victory.
Unfortunately, when Nigh destroyed Arborat, the deadly residue of its weapons poisoned the souls that should have been set free from their necril prison. These hideous spectres dwell within the shifting sands now known as the Creeping Wastes, and their howls can be heard in the frequent sandstorms that ravage the blighted landscape. Even now, they continue to spread the desert outwards across tablelands of southern Erdanis. These spectres are often referred to as 'sand wraiths'.
The actual blast site is mostly buried, but chunks of black glass jutting out of the dunes form a rough perimeter around where Arborat once stood. It is a place of immense evil, a kind utterly alien to mortal minds. The spirit of Ir'Heon, one of the first alien Eater-spawn to descend upon Rym, is trapped within these ruins. Ir'Heon was a bloated monstrosity of flesh that filled much of the ziggurat's interior, and the destruction of its 'carapace' and physical body drove its dark spirit deep into the desert. As a result, Ir'Heon can control the desert as if were a great amorphous lifeform. Most of these undulations and shifting motions are too slow to cause any immediate harm to travellers until they try to camp or establish any sort of structure. The sands will swallow anything that stays still for more than an hour or so, and entire caravans will simply disappear overnight.