The word desert conjures images of sandy dunes stretching for miles around, but that’s not the only kind of land that comes under this category. Many areas that are hostile to animal and plant life can be considered a desert, whether it’s dried out from the beating sun or too cold for life to find a way.
Good Desert Names
Whether they’re arid wastelands or mountainous polar expanses, deserts can strike awe and fear in the heart of any who wander within. A good name will entice the reader with promise of what may await visitors, perhaps hinting at some dread creature who has managed to make the desert its lair despite all odds.
- Amarok’s Playground
- Scorched Earth
- The Undulations
- Sands of the Saboteur
- Burnished Basin
- The Lost Lands
- Polar Plains
- The Wishing Wastes
- Desolate Dunes
Howling Flats
As soon as the last treeline is broken, the winds of the Howling Flats begin to assault the ears. Not one person has yet found their source, but everyone from meteorologists to disciples of the occult have been lost to the wilds trying.
- Tundra of the Tyrant
- Boundless Barrens
- Shifting Sands
- Plate Shift Plains
- Uncharted Flatlands
- The Lava Beds
- Pining Plateau
- Tomb in the Dunes
- Untold Plains
- The Sand Sink
The Sunken Battlefield
There’s no sorrier sight than a mass grave, except perhaps The Sunken Battlefield. So many were the corpses that fell here, the Gods chose to salt the earth as an eerie reminder of man’s hubris.
- Garden of the Sphinx
- The Swallowing Snows
- Scorpion Sands
- The Choking Wastes
- Nomad’s Home
- Desiccated Desert
- The Everdark Plains
- Unholy Nesting Grounds
- The Silent Tundra
- Sandworm Run
The Ice Trap
Surrounded by mountains on all but one side, this polar expanse can only be safely traversed with the help of a local guide. Otherwise, the endless white of The Ice Trap plays tricks on the eyes, showing exits where only deeper paths await.
- Wendigo Wastes
- The Defiled Fields
- Boiling Beds
- Land of Endless Horizon
- The Dry Sea
- The Waveless Shores
- Waste at World’s End
- Dancing Light Plains
- Savage Sands
- Forgotten Beach
Grave of the Giant
When the great fall, the earth remembers. It had been many years since the last giant walked these lands, but their legacy lives on in the stretched and bloated forms of what hearty wildlife clings to life here.
- Wild Dog Wastes
- Glacier View Plains
- Ijiraq Fields
- The Hallowed Grounds
- Navigator’s Nemesis
- Vanishing Point
- Tundra of the Trickster
- Sands of the Serpent
- The Barren Burrows
- Forsaken Flatlands
Expanding Sands
Gentle streams and great lakes alike have lost the battle against the Expanding Sands. What was once a natural wonder has slowly become a matter of deep concern for those who track the planet’s development, if only the general public would listen.
- Course of the Camel
- Fields of the Void
- The Whispering Wastes
- Desert of the Deathless
- Eyeless Hills
- Lizard Lands
- Chill Winds Way
- Basilisk’s Burrow
- The Cracked Grounds
- The Dunes of Dawn
Did these desert names give you the creeps? I definitely felt a shiver as I imagined finding myself stuck in a barren landscape. I’d love to hear which are your favourite, and any more you can come up with in the comments. As always, please do share on with any fellow fans of fantasy landscapes!
