Help Desert Placement!

[SharpCub]

I need to put a desert in my world it doesn't have to be large, just big enough to make it dangerous.

[Mapsburgh]

I assume you're looking for a placement that's consistent with real-world climate principles, since a magical desert could be anywhere. For that you have two main options:

1. Rain shadow. If you have a major N-S mountain range, you can get a desert on the lee side of it, as the air loses its moisture while going up into the mountains, and comes down the other side dry. Which side is the lee side depends on what latitude your area is at. (The following assumes your planet is Earth-sized and spins in the same direction.) In the tropics the prevailing winds go from east to west, so rain shadow deserts appear on the west side of the mountains. In the mid-latitudes, the prevailing winds go west to east, and rain shadow deserts appear on the east side of the mountains.

2. Subtropical high pressure. There is a permanent zone of high pressure around 30 degrees north and south latitude. High pressure zones are dry (because the air is descending, after losing its moisture while ascending at a low pressure zone). So if part of your area crosses the subtropics, you're likely to get a desert there.

Working on the assumption that your mapped area is in the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes, your most likely areas for a desert are:
1. You could get a rain shadow in northern Igneau if those mountains through the central part of the continent are high enough. That clashes a bit with the Caged Sea, but maybe that sea has a magical origin.
2. If your region extends far enough south, southern Igneau may stick into the subtropical high and be a desert for that reason. You'd probably have a Mediterranean type climate (hot dry summers, cool wet winters) in northern Igneau and the southwestern lobe as well.

Hope this helps!

[rdanhenry]

More magically, maybe the mountains are low enough to let plenty of water over, but some phenomenon causes the clouds to precipitate over the Caged Sea, leaving the lands to its east in the rain shadow not of the mountains, but of the thirsty Caged Sea.

[Aristotle]

Mapsburgh's advice is spot on with the research I've done. On Earth, deserts typically occur on the west side of continents (particularly west of the first mountain range that occurs inland from the west coast) between 0-30 degrees. A quick spin around google maps drives that point home.