Anauroch, or The Great Sand Sea, is a magical desert in northern Faerûn. It holds the remnants of the once-powerful Netherese Empire, their flying enclaves having crashed to the ground when their greatest mage Karsus, in a desperate bid to end the war against the phaerimm, challenged the goddess Mystryl for her divine mantle, causing the Weave to falter and all magic to fail. For generations since, Anauroch, the greatest desert in Faerûn, encroaches relentlessly on border nations, burying them beneath the sands.

The only people to call Anauroch home are the nomadic Bedine tribes and a small Zhentarim garrison, tasked with patrolling and defending a line of oases along the Black Road, the trade route that winds west from the ruins of Teshendale to Llorkh at the foot of the Graypeak Mountains. A diminutive people called the D’tarig are the only other major inhabitants, who live long the borders of the desert and interact somewhat with peoples from surrounding countries.