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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 6033501" data-attributes="member: 78958">Hmm... most of the large desert areas of Faerûn came to be due to a magical cataclysm of sorts:Raurin desert marks the spot where Imaskar collapsed in a magical war between their Magocracy and the Mulhorandi deities. Calim desert is the result of two powerful genies battling for half an eternity (they're still there, btw...).Anauroch is, of course, the result of Karsus' folly and High Netheril's fall.Narfell is a frigid desert wasteland due to the old Nar Empire's demonbinders' war with the Raumathari battlemages.Even the Shaar used to be green and forested until the Crown Wars, IIRC.You may want to connect your sinister group to this theme somehow. Maybe they spread knowledge of epic magic and supercharged destruction spells - with subtle, intentional breaking points built in? These make it so that after some (spectacular, safe, and extremely useful) castings, the energies released by the spell in question suddenly increase a thousandfold, resulting in something akin to a nuclear detonation. Maybe they were the ones who taught Karsus his ritual? Maybe they made sure to equalize the balance of power between Calim and Memnon, so their destructive battle would never produce a victor? Maybe they seeded antithetical magics among the rulers of Narfell and Raumathar? Maybe they even had a hand in the Crown Wars in some way?I'd make this sinister cabal come from another plane, an interminable desert. Its rulers have long since figured out how to do practically anything with desert magic. Now they only need to spread the desert, and they become all-powerful.Furthermore, I'd connect them to the forces of entropy. Maybe they have a deal with Shar, whose goals can only be furthered by large-scale desertification.</blockquote>

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