50+ Desert Features For Fantasy Worldbuilding32 min read

When talking about desert worldbuilding, I’ll start out with a few recommendations: Famous Hippo’s Guide to the Desert For D&D 5e, and Stoneworks Worldbuilding’s “Everything About Deserts” video, which covers aspects like where deserts arise (e.g. the Western edges of continents), and many other considerations. You’ll also want to know where desert water tends to stay (i.e. the side facing away from the Equator).

Let’s talk symbolism. In The Anatomy of Story (2007), John Truby identifies the Desert as a narrative symbol of scarcity, of death and dying, of isolation, of will. A realm of extremes, invoking the supposed “primitive” past, or the desolate future. We usually think of deserts as barren landscapes, though technically not all deserts are highly arid, and natural deserts, as opposed to overgrazed ones, have high biodiversity in fact. Those less arid deserts, what we may call “the steppe”, I will cover in a later entry on plains. Likewise, more on ice deserts will fall under tundra.

Circling back, let’s revisit my minimalist framework for my worldbuilding. The six archetype tags with which I will flag all the various real-world land features in my Mythic Ecology Series:

1. Settlements: habitable regions of either Work or Play, Familiar or Exotic, offering diverse narrative functions: a Day in the Life, Home Base, Personal Reasons, Gathering Supplies. Can subvert tropes with Ruins or Escape.
2. Omens: sensational, temporal, or particularly pointed features that offer narrative functions of forshadowing, and good or evil portents. Can subvert tropes with a Wild Goose Chase.
3. Overlooks: sites of magnitude and grandeur, living monuments which can function narratively for finding resolve, invoking spirits, or as a Call to Adventure. Can subvert tropes with Dread or Betrayal.
4. Passageways: transitional journeylands, including magical portals, functioning narratively for initiation and return, thresholds and tests, shortcuts and setbacks.
5. Abyss: a void or confined space presenting scarcity or temptation, desperation and danger. Can subvert tropes with a Timely Rescue or Secret Refuge.
6. Battlegrounds: sites fit for epic, sprawling encounters and climax conflicts. Can subvert tropes with Alternative Solutions.

Feel free to submit your own ideas, or draw outside the lines. Alright, let’s see how deserts fit in.

Trade Wind Desert – equatorial, dry winds dissipate cloud cover, adding sunlight and thus heat. Example: Sahara Desert.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mid-Latitude Desert – interior drainage basins far from oceans, with varying annual temperatures. Example: Tengger Desert.

[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Rain Shadow Desert – formed when tall mountain ranges prevent clouds from reaching areas on another side, stripping the air of moisture as it passes. Example: Tian Shan Desert.

[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Coastal Desert – less stable deserts usually on the western edges of continents near the tropics, affected by cold ocean currents parallel to the coast. Can have winter fogs, but extremely infrequent rains. Example: Atacama Desert. Typically includes Fog Deserts.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Monsoon Desert – features seasonally reversing wind and rain patterns from temperature variations between continents and oceans; the inland areas receive little of the monsoon’s precipitation. Example: Thar Desert.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Montane Desert – arid regions of high latitude, often very cold, or extremely hot by day and extremely cold by night. Example: Mount Kilimanjaro.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Polar Desert – polar regions which remain ice-free from strong downhill winds from mountains. Example: McMurdo Dry Valleys.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Paleodesert – former desert areas currently in non-arid states. Example: the Nebraska Sandhills.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Barchan / Crescentic Dune – a crescent or U-shaped dune with horns pointing away from the wind, with a ridge approaching its tips. Typically arises with limited sand supply, hard ground, and constant wind, anchored at its tall side by shrubs or rock.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Coppice Dune / Dune Hummock / Nabkha / Knob Dune / Rebdou / Takouit – a sand dune which forms around vegetation and shaped by wind, often allowing biodiversity in otherwise barren lands.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Dome Dune – oval or circular mounds, rare and occurring at a sand sea’s far upwind margins.
[Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Linear / Longitudinal / Seif Dune – long, straight or slightly wavy line-shaped dunes, often forming in parallel. Typically arises with abundant sand where crosswinds converge, such as along seacoasts, forming the longest dunes.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Lithified Dune / Slickrock – compacted and hardened sandstone formed from marine- or wind-shaped sand dunes. Stacked layers can form into cross-hatching patterns.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Lunettes / Source-Bordering Dunes / Bourrelets / Clay Dunes – fixed crescent-shaped dunes composed of clay, silt, sand, or gypsum eroded from a basin floor or shore, deposited by winds on the convex side of a dune from the concave side.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Parabolic / Blowout Dune – a crescent or U-shaped dune with horns point into the wind, with a depression between its tips. Typically arises with limited sand supply, hard ground, and constant wind, anchored at its short side by shrubs or rock.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Star Dune – resembles a star with many arms, the crests slow upward, forming a central point. Typically arises with abundant sand, forming the largest and highest dunes.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Transverse Dune – a sand ridge perpendicular to wind direction, often with a steep face. Typically arises with abundant sand, and groups may resemble ripples from an aerial view.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Reversing Dunes – occur where winds periodically reverse direction, with faces temporarily in opposing directions.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Complex Dune – when a smaller dune forms on top of a larger dune of a different type.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Compound Dune – when a smaller dune forms on top of a larger dune of a similar type and orientation.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Hoodoo / Tent Rock / Fairy Chimney / Earth Pyramid – a tall, thin pillar of rock protruding from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland, usually topped by harder rock and having varying thicknesses along its height.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss]

Mushroom Rock / Pedestal Rock / Gour – a mushroom-shaped rock forming from differential wind erosion and weathering. Related to Ventifact.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss]

Ventifact – a stone or bedrock surface shaped or eroded by wind, whether abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss]

Yardang – a streamlined, wind-formed ridge exposed down to the bedrock, which can have sandblasted hollows within it. Related to Ventifact.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss]

Badlands – dry terrain with softer, highly-eroded sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils, lacking loose rock and vegetation, and marked by steep slopes as well as color displays alternating from dark black or blue coal stria, to bright clays, to red scoria.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Bajada – a series of coalescing alluvial fans along a mountain front, formed as fan-shaped deposits of sediment, such as from flash floods in dry basins and playa lakes.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Butte – an isolated hill taller than its width, with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top. Smaller than a Mesa or Plateau.
[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mesa / Table Hill – an elevated area with a flat top and steep cliff sides. Much larger than a Butte, but smaller than a Plateau. Forms from surviving erosion of surrounding area, with top layer resisting denudation of underlying rocks; often in arid areas.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Plateau – elevated upland with at least one steep side spread over a large area; bigger than a Mesa or Butte; formed from tectonic, volcanic, or erosive activity.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Desert Pavement / Reg / Serir / Gibber / Sai – stony plains or depressions covered by interlocking gravel like pebbles and cobbles, usually atop alluvial fans. Related to Hamada. Accumulates Desert Varnish.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Hamada – a high, rocky, barren desert plateau landscape where wind has removed the sand. Related to Desert Pavement.
[Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Erg / Sand Sea – a vast, dune-topped expanse with shifting sands.
[Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Sandhill – sandy, wildfire-adapted habitats which burn often.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Sand Sheet – flat, gently undulating sand surfaces with grains too large for saltation and winds too weak to form dunes.
[Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Note: in real life, trying to drink water from the cacti, succulents, mosses, and gymnosperm plants adapted to store it actually sickens people. But in a fantasy roleplaying context you can choose to handwave that away and add “desert-adaptation” plant sources for characters to the list of watersources below. Your fantasy magic or tech might also allow fog-harvesting.

Arroyo / Wash – a dry creek or stream bed with waterflow after rain. Can become filled by Flash Floods. Discussed in Part 4: Rivers.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Dew Puddle – a spot where dew condenses on rocks in arid environments, allowing for limited vegetation to grow.
[Settlements, Omens]

Dry Lake / Playa / Clay Pan – basin or depression which formerly contained a body of water, but evaporated. Includes alkali flats and salt flats / salt pans. Discussed in Part 3: Lakes. May possess a phenomenon called Sailing Stones.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Flash Floods – rapid flooding of low-lying areas like washes or dry basins, lakes, and riverbeds. Caused by heavy rainfall or melting ice.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Dryland Channels – after rainstorms in deserts, water can pool on surfaces before traveling underground in dryland channels, recharging aquifers.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Guelta / Agelmam – a pocket of water forming in arid conditions within drainage canals, valleys, or dry riverbeds.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Oasis – an isolated and larger source of freshwater in a desert, often exposed water table, fed by underground streams.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Vlei – shallow lake varying considerably in level by season. Discussed in Part 3: Lakes.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Playa Lake – shallow, intermittent and occupies playa either in wet seasons or in especially wet years only. Discussed in Part 3: Lakes.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Wadi – river valley, especially a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain. Can become filled by Flash Floods. Discussed in Part 4: Rivers.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Watering Hole – a depression in the ground where water collects and remains. Often gathering points for animals.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Blowout – a sandy depression in a sand dune ecosystem caused by wind removing sediment or soil.
[Omens, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Boojum Tree – many desert plant species adapt in unique ways, such as this boojum tree.
[Omens]

Decomposition Chimney / Devil’s Stovepipe – a hole formed when a sand dune buries a tree and the bark remains even after the tree core has rotten away, leaving a cylindrical void within the sand.
[Omens, Passageways]

Desert Varnish / Rock Rust / Desert Patina – orange-yellow to black coating on exposed rock surfaces in arid lands. Arises from a complex interplay of clay, iron and manganese oxides, wind, and dew.
[Omens]

Mirage – an optical illusion of a vibrating, towering, or stooped projection of one surface onto another. In a hot desert this can include projections of the sky onto the ground that appear as water, a Mirage Oasis.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Sandstorms – particles of sand particles (thicker than dust) carried aloft by strong winds and falling out of the air quickly, usually ranging from 10-50 feet above ground.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Dust Storms – severe weather featuring strong winds which distribute dust-filled air (thinner than sand) over an extensive area, launching high and far and dispersing slowly. Dust Storms have several variations by season, including Haboobs.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Haboobs – large, high, and dense Dust Storms produced by downbursts in severe thunderstorms during seasonal monsoons, creating a blast that can lift dust nearly a mile high, move swiftly, and cover massive areas.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Singing / Whistling / Barking Sands – sand which produces sound, often as winds pass over crescent-shaped dunes.
[Omens, Abyss]

Sailing Stones / Walking Rocks / Rolling Stones / Moving Rocks – a phenomena where where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a surface without human or animal intervention, arising when wind acts upon ice sheets to slide rocks on cold nights, often in deserts.
[Omens, Abyss]

I hope you enjoyed this sixth entry in my Mythic Ecology series! I look forward to continuing with it, I have some greater ambitions for developing this series into worldbuilding web tools. Give this a share if you liked it, and let me know in the comments if you have any feedback. I publish new posts on Tuesdays. In the meantime, I post original D&D memes and writing updates daily over on my site’s Facebook Page. Also, if you want to keep up-to-date on all my posts, check out my Newsletter Sign-Up to receive email notifications when I release new posts. A big thanks as always to my Patrons on Patreon, helping keep this project going: Anthony, Bewby, Chris, Eric & Jones, Geoff, Jason, Rudy, and Tom. Thanks for your support!