>>43396422Traveling in a cool, fluid way over deserts is a trope for a reason, if you don't have giant worms to ride I think those would be pretty cool.
>Literal sky burialIt's like you misread those Tibetan rituals, awesome! Are there desert vultures? The tibetans relied on those to pick the bones clean, I guess in a desert of this size you'd be more likely to be completely mummified.
>20 secondsAh, that reminds me. "For All Mankind" had a really stunning scene of the effects of a solar flare on astronauts on the moon, the high energy solar wind hitting the regolith looks amazing.
https://youtu.be/WLLoe4M6skYWould the effects of the flares on Despina look like this, you think? Even the thin atmosphere would dampen the effect, but the proximity would make the flares way more intense, I'm not sure how it would work out.
And yes, underground cities are always cool.