Help me explain a geographical impossibility?

Hey y'all! So I did my best to design my map to be as conforming to science as we know it to be. I took into account climate and the equator, plate tectonics, and the whole sha-bang, but I made one slight mistake that I did not catch until after I had it printed out on giant poster paper and laminated to keep it safe (I'm using my novel's setting as a homebrew campaign for D&D).

Basically, I made a rainforest bordering a desert.
(facepalm)

I know an easy fix would be mountains, but again, the map is already complete and I'd prefer not to have to redo and reprint.
My world does have magic, but I'm struggling to come up with a reason for such an event to occur.

Here's the map, for anyone who needs a visual.

The first thing that came to mind would be some sort of magical desaster that turned a part of the rainforest into a desert, basically just destroying all life and/or turning it to dust, maybe because of a spell that went terribly wrong, or a "natural" magical outburst. Of course the aftereffects need to continue to keep the rain out… don't know if that was helpful ^^;

The first thing that came to mind would be some sort of magical desaster that turned a part of the rainforest into a desert, basically just destroying all life and/or turning it to dust, maybe because of a spell that went terribly wrong, or a "natural" magical outburst. Of course the aftereffects need to continue to keep the rain out… don't know if that was helpful ^^;

Ive been thinking about that as well. Just gotta come up with the disaster then, haha. Thank you!

I know you mentioned you don't want to add mountains but this is just a thought. The Sahara Desert is in very close proximity to the jungles of central Africa. Air that moves over the Sahara is cold and dry, whereas over the equator the air is warm and moist. This creates a rain-shadow rainfall, being caused by a mountain range. Placing a mountain range in between the wind won't pass through, however, clouds will form on the wind-facing side of the mountains, creating very wet conditions. Now I know you don't have mountains on your map, but they could be an extremely old mountain range that has simply been reduced to hills and the climate has changed since the start of time and the rainforest is being fed through a series of small rivers or maybe even underground rivers while the desert has stayed the same. Sorry for the long comment.

I know you mentioned you don't want to add mountains but this is just a thought. The Sahara Desert is in very close proximity to the jungles of central Africa. Air that moves over the Sahara is cold and dry, whereas over the equator the air is warm and moist. This creates a rain-shadow rainfall, being caused by a mountain range. Placing a mountain range in between the wind won't pass through, however, clouds will form on the wind-facing side of the mountains, creating very wet conditions. Now I know you don't have mountains on your map, but they could be an extremely old mountain range that has simply been reduced to hills and the climate has changed since the start of time and the rainforest is being fed through a series of small rivers or maybe even underground rivers while the desert has stayed the same. Sorry for the long comment.

That’s excellent! Thank you so much

The first thing that came to mind would be some sort of magical desaster that turned a part of the rainforest into a desert, basically just destroying all life and/or turning it to dust, maybe because of a spell that went terribly wrong, or a "natural" magical outburst. Of course the aftereffects need to continue to keep the rain out… don't know if that was helpful ^^;

Ive been thinking about that as well. Just gotta come up with the disaster then, haha. Thank you!

What if that desert area was an area where large dragons live? The dragons would be too big for rainforests, so they cleared out a portion by breathing fire and letting it burn

The first thing that came to mind would be some sort of magical desaster that turned a part of the rainforest into a desert, basically just destroying all life and/or turning it to dust, maybe because of a spell that went terribly wrong, or a "natural" magical outburst. Of course the aftereffects need to continue to keep the rain out… don't know if that was helpful ^^;

Ive been thinking about that as well. Just gotta come up with the disaster then, haha. Thank you!

What if that desert area was an area where large dragons live? The dragons would be too big for rainforests, so they cleared out a portion by breathing fire and letting it burn

But then what would the dragons eat? Aside from cacti and whatnot, there would be very little food and water for something as large as a dragon. Also, deserts take a very (read: VERY) long time to grow anything or for animals and such to adapt, so for a hundred years or so, it would all just be bark mulch and ash.