The Great Barren Desert dominates most of the Western Continent, rendering it uninhabitable except of some narrow zones of lands. Bugheads have their hives there and raid caravans which travel between the kingdoms around the desert. Its dunes also hide sandworms which are attracted to a type of spice. It was thought that the former Order of the Scribble member Girard Draketooth had built his protection of the Snarl there, although the Order of the Stick found out that this information was incorrect.