In the daylight the sun beats relentlessly, thermals kick up sandstorms, and mirages of old ruins and golden beacons deter would-be travelers. At night, wild winds crash upon the dunes, breaking them like tidal waves at shore, burrowing scorpions as large as men emerge for their nocturnal feasts, and bat-like fliers steal away horses that wander too far. Among these endless sands time has shown that only a crepuscular company makes it across intact, with progress best made quickly and quietly while the last light of dusk lingers and the stars have not yet shown their faces.

What lay in the depths of this ocean that is worth braving its follies? Exquisite bounties for big-game hunters, exotic flora for intrepid botanists, open land for corporate business best kept private, and a straight shot for merchants connecting the Highlands and the Plains. And if the whisperings of traders from the desert tribes in the taverns and alleyways of scattered human towns are to be believed, secret caves and tunnels lead from the surface to a vast underground labyrinth, a hidden realm no civilized man has seen.

This is the Desert, its sands as countless as the lives its claimed, falling through ones fingers like the riches it promises.