If anyone was wondering why there was a huge fortress in the desert - that's the desert faction's new base! The desert faction can now be fully interacted with, even joined, by any characters who are brave or wicked enough to do so!
To join? Simply make sure one of the desert faction's current leadership players - Asha, Ani, or Ursa are online and arrange for one of them to be out there when your character approaches the fortress!
