What if the snarl...

[MrBanana]

Is essentially a reverse version of the world we know? By some logic, an ocean is the opposite of a hot desert. It'd explain why they see only water, they're in the middle of a huge desert.

Sorry if this has been brought up before.

[GameJudge]

That doesn't fit with Blackwing seeing the entire world from the rift over Azure City.

[BaronOfHell]

You can always make these kind of opposites fit, if you try hard enough and are willing to accept the flimsiest excuse.. So maybe Blackwing was really close to the rift, whereby the planet was really far away.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

The ocean seen in the rift and the desert are only opposite in the sense that one is wet and the other is dry, and maybe a few other minor differences. However, there are also several similarities.