The Kalihari Desert was a large desert in southern Namibia, a human country on the continent of Africa which was, in turn, located on Earth. Considered a harsh land by human standards, the Kalihari Desert had temperatures reguarly soaring into the triple digits, proving to be unbearable, and even deadly for many Humans. However, its relative dearth of resources largely protected it from humanity's expansion, and it was one of the few unspoiled lands on the planet. Primitive humans lived here, descendants of Bushmen who had inhabited the region for tens of thousands of years.
Though it was relatively uninhabited, the Kalihari Desert was the site of one of the most brutal wars in Human history. Landmines still left over from the Coalition for the Advancement of South African Interests' invasion of Namibia, which hosted the capital of the African Union, the supranational organization that controlled much of Africa and several islands in the Caribbean before South Africa's revolt and formation of CASAI, are not; however, the deadliest inhabitants of the Kalihari Desert: the krogan are. Some eight-hundred krogan have made the Kalihari their home.
More than fifteen years after they were hired by the Coalition for the Advancement of South African Interests and the riots against it had ended with its fall and the ascension of the xenophobic Terra Firma political party, the krogan held the region in a state of constant conflict. Skirmishes between the krogan and the human inhabitants over resources were almost invariably bloody - the well-publicized 2171 CE krogan attack on Karasburg resulted in the deaths of over three-hundred humans, most poorly armed merchants and farmers, at the hands of twenty-eight krogan warriors. Though the krogan involved in the attack were ultimately hunted and exterminated by South African private armies, the krogan proved fantastically well-adapted to Namibia's harsh climate, and with local warlords, human and krogan alike, in need of a constant supply of mercenary forces, they did not lack for work. They had found a permanent niche, and due to the Systems Alliance's policy towards them, they were there to stay.