Raurin Raurin , known as the Dust Desert and the Desert of Desolation , was once the center of the ancient empire of Imaskar , but it was transformed into a wasteland in - 2488 DR by the battles between the Imaskari and the avatar s of the Mulhorandi pantheon and Untheric pantheon . After the fall of Imaskar , the ancient city of Solon sought to carve itself a new empire from the desert wastes . It succeeded for a time , gaining control of most of the land south of the Raurin Alta . It traded with Ra - Khati and Durpar . Slowly , however , as the desert spread further and as Shou invaders cut Solon ' s ties with the lands to the north , Solon lost its grip on its territories . After a succession of weak kings over a period of centuries , Solon was only left with the city itself . Since that time , many other desert kingdoms have risen in Raurin ; the most recent and perhaps greatest of these was Bakar , although even Bakar is a pale shadow of the Imaskar Empire before it . . In approximately 357 DR , the wizard Martek , called " The Greatest of Mages , " served as Bakar ' s grand vizier . He imprisoned an efreet i of great power and , knowing it would one day escape , he set up a magical quest allowing heroes to resurrect him when the time was right . At this time , the River Athis flowed through the Dust Desert from a magical fountain in Terbakar , the capital of the kingdom of Bakar . The River Athis ran generally northward , creating a fertile corridor that ran by the garden city of Pazar , the Oasis of the White Palm , and Carthag . Then the nation ' s last pharoah , Amun - Re , called down a curse on his people that caused the River Athis to dry up , the river valley subsequently becoming barren . The trade routes once used by the people of Durpar to travel to Mulhorand and Semphar were covered by sand . Eventually , though , the demand for trade grew great enough for caravans to attempt to make the crossing from Durpar to the northern cities of Mulhorand and Semphar once again . The journey to the dry valley of Athis was deadly , but it could be made , and subsequently the Sandvoyager Guild has made it their business to run caravans through the desert . Ecology . Raurin is a waste of sand , which blows into great dunes , and round hills . The hills and dunes are cut with gullies terraced with strata of pinks , reds , and browns . Salt crystallizes on the surface , giving northerners the impression of snow . What few pools of water exist are too salty to drink . It is consistently hot , and there is very little rain . Inhabitants of Raurin include two - humped , shaggy camels , centipedes , gophers , desert jackasses , lizards , rats , mice , sheep ( near oases ) , falcons , hawks , Raurin horse s , vipers , sand cats , foxes , vultures , jackals , scorpions , and tortises . More fantastic creatures include cockatrice s , brass dragon s , brown dragon s , blue dragon s , copper dragon s , dragonne s , dustdigger s , firenewt s , hill giant s , jackalwere s , lamia s , pyrolisk s , roc s , sand boa s , sandling s , giant tarantulas , thri - kreen , giant strider s , giant bats , fire toad s , ogre s , purple worm s , manticore s , thunderherder s , skriaxit s , desert wraith s , hieracosphinx es , dracosphinx es , dao , and a handful of djinn , jann , and rogue efreet . Locations . Al Qahara : An elven town hidden in a cavern in the south of the desert .