Deserts in Fantasy

Deserts are one of the most frequently used biomes in fantasy, but they are often written by people who have never been in one. I count myself in this, although I have experienced the arid areas of northern Victoria in Australia. Most writers who include deserts in their stories seem to feel that all that is needed are some descriptions of never-ending heat and sand dunes, replacing horses with camels, and offer a twist to local cultures which makes water a precious resource, and you’re done.

Wouldn’t it be nice if that was actually the case? I blame the endless sand dunes of fantasy deserts down to the popularity of Frank Herbert’s Dune series, but I long for more variety.

First, let us address the issue of heat. You do not need heat to form a desert. You just need a lack of precipitation, and because of that lack, they are usually accompanied by a distinct lack of vegetation. Our polar regions form the largest deserts on Earth.

Even if you do have hot deserts, you do not need to have sand. The deserts of North America are more rock than sand, with large outcrops of rock that wind and water sculpt into fascinating formations. Such things offer a great deal of scope for the fantasy writer in terms of vivid descriptions of multicoloured landscapes.

Deserts are not necessarily barren, either. A plain that seems barren one day can be transformed almost overnight, given that most desert regions do have distinct patterns of seasonal rainfall. When these rains arrive, the desert bursts into life. Dry and scrubby bushes that seemed dead burst with green shoots and a profusion of flowers, and that barren plain becomes carpeted with more flowers. The wildlife of such areas also springs to life, gathering and preserving what food is there for the leaner times of the dry season.

Naturally, water is a scarce resource in desert areas. If there is not a major river such as the Nile nearby, any characters travelling through such an area are going to have to be careful with their supplies. Depending on the politics, water sources can be controlled by different groups, and negotiating access with these groups offers interesting points of conflict for your characters. Even if there is a river, the fertile areas are likely controlled by groups of people, which could make access to the water challenging.

If your characters are seasoned desert travellers, they will have a much better idea of how to gain hydration from organisms better equipped to get to water than you are. Having some nursing camels along with you is an excellent idea, because they can gain moisture from plants inedible by humans, and then you can drink their milk. It is commonly held that you can drink water from cacti, and this is occasionally true. Unfortunately, the liquid found inside most species is loaded with a cocktail of toxins which will only make things much worse for anyone who believes they offer a safe source of water.

Knowing when to travel can be as important as knowing where you are going to get enough to drink. Even in a hot desert, the night is often cold. This is because air with very little moisture does not retain heat very well. People who are experienced with travelling in desert areas are likely to travel from dawn until shortly before noon, rest for a few hours to let the heat of the day pass, then start up again at sunset and go on until late at night, thus sheltering from the hottest and coldest parts of the day/night cycle.

Sandstorms are a serious danger if you are travelling through areas with extensive sand, and even in rocky desert any reasonably strong wind will contain uncomfortable particles. What is far less focused on is the fact that water is just as much of a threat. If the ground is dry and then the first of the seasonal rains shows up in the form of a thunderstorm, most of that water is going to become runoff rather than sinking into the ground. If you happen to be travelling through a gully or slot canyon when this happens, you can be killed very quickly. This can happen without any warning if the storm is happening upstream of your location.

One of the biggest frustrations I have with deserts in fantasy is none of the above, however. I have occasionally spent a day or so wandering around the area of the Victorian Goldfields, and even with modern sunscreen, if I am not very careful, I spend the next week or so nursing sunburn. This is a very real discomfort that is frequently ignored in all forms of fiction. Don’t be fooled into thinking sunburn is only the uncomfortably warm reddened skin most tourists have encountered, either. Severe sunburn can produce blisters, vertigo, fainting, and more.

Just to be clear, I have made every one of the mistakes I have mentioned here. My first desert nation was a mass of great sand dunes, and while they did not have camels, I glossed over how characters crossed the expanse with very little water and on horses - animals really not adapted to desert conditions.

Deserts are an excellent place to include in your stories, because they offer dramatic challenges, and they force the civilisations that emerge from such regions to evolve in ways very different to those in more temperate regions. But if you are going to include deserts, as with just about everything else, do your research. Make the issues your characters face realistic. It will help your world burst into vivid relief, and save us as readers from more cartoonish depictions of deserts.