I remember a french ad saying "Without honor, a clan can survive for centuries. WIthout Water, it wouldn't stand three says" . Here is the flavour of the game : In the desert water is life, and noone can expect to rule a city without ensuring first to live. Here are how Wizards described the game in 1999 after acquiring the game's right :

Storyline

It has been said that this was a bleeding land, a wounded land. Those words were written by a man who had never set foot here, for all the blood from this land dried up long, long ago. It was not a bleeding land, it was a burned land, a wasteland.

It has also been said - by a much wiser man than the first - that the land was cursed long ago by Lady Sun, and it was only by her merciful grace that we were allowed to live. That is why we invoke her mercy with each mention of her name, so we do not draw her wrath once again as we did so long ago.

In the heart of this wasteland, this burning land, there was a city. Ah, but not just any city, but the most beautiful city in all the world; the Jewel of the Desert. It was a city built on the only river Lady Sun allowed to survive her Day of Wrath. Within this city, thousands of merchants barter over fruits, milk, silks, and - of course - life-giving water. It was a city where sorcerers sold their hearts for arcane power and the children of the smokeless fire that we call the jinn can be bound with a single word. It was a city where steel and sorcery were common place, a city where shadows breathed and legends walked with men.

Her name was Medinat al-Salaam, the City of Peace. But everyone called her the City of One Thousand Stories.