let's build a bizarre and abstract Desert World I'll

>>52997314
>People sail on desert sands with wind and floaty magic.
>Mineral sifting mega-fauna that shits lumps of mineral waste and metals
>molted skin, bones and other body parts used for construction
>sand sharks
>flesh layer tentacle grabbers
>flesh layer is self aware

>>52997880
>large sections of the flesh membrane will vibrate for days, anything caught in the vibration is sucked down into the sand as it shifts around them
>people must either find ways to float above the sand or live as semi-nomads, moving when the tremors start in their area
>scavenging in post-tremor dunes can be lucrative, but the trapped livestock, wildlife, the poor trapped folk and scavengers draw in predators adapted to burrowing through the sand
>the beast is large enough to ignore the tremors, fully capable of pulling its leg out of 20ft of sand

>>52997314
Bump for interest

There's a giant golden pelican that lives underground and does nothing but eat sand for about 3 years. It then converts all its sand into water and emerges from the ground, flying around from location to location with its mouth open and water dripping from its mouth. After 3 days, it buries itself and the cycle repeats. It is known as the Rain Giver by most and is respected as a creature of hope and salvation whenever it is seen. Many expendions are set out to track its movements in order to collect all the water it drips when it flies.

>oasises (oases?) are mobile and constantly moving throughout the land on top of swirling plumes of water coming out of the flesh layer (like underground water tornadoes with a small islet on top of them)
>during autumn the sand turns different hues of gold, red and brown like tree leaves would
>during this season insects breed like crazy and desert crabs will try and hide in every corner of inhabited buildings they can, but they're harmless and taste quite good cooked
>in winter, a strange gravitational effect caused by the angle of the moon causes the sand to appear blueish white and slowly drift upwards like reverse snow
>this builds up in the sky, making the world progressively darker until, at the dawn of spring, the effect ends as the moon returns to it's usual angle and all the sand falls at once in a massive yearly sandstorm
>it's easier to find holes in the flesh layer as the sand rises during winter, but those who stay out near the end of winter run the risk of being caught outside when the moon changes position and being buried alive in the spring sandstorm
>across a great plain of unending sand visible from the capital beast's usual stomping grounds, tiny points of light can be seen flickering at night
>no one can determine what their cause is since no one has ever survived journeying that far across the wild plain and returned alive
Someone come up with what the lights are, it's always more interesting to hear other people's ideas of what the answer to a mystery is than your own.

>>52997945
>The fauna migrates when the vibrations start as well
>There are nomadic animals that will try to settle on your land
>The nomadic insectoids use all the materials around themselves to build a large, irregular structure before they start building homes for themselves, which means they'll pull apart older constructions for it, and that they can be seen from far away.
>This structure has no apparent use

At night the sky is tinged purple and the gleam of all the sand in the starlight reflects onto the clouds which reflects back down, appearing almost like a dark mirror in the sky showing off the world below. Many believe it to be another world which you go to when you die. Armies and caravans have difficulty moving at night since enemies and bandits might have trained cloudwatchers, who use telescopes to survey the cloud reflections and pick out enemy positions from above. This can however be of use to adventurers and travelers, as they can see the terrain ahead of them if they possess a skilled eye and plan their route at night.

>>52997314
You lost me at "thin but impenetrable layer of unknown flesh".

File: 392f7c4d078db30b42b40653202c8581.jpg (72KB, 570x712px) Image search: [Google]

72KB, 570x712px

>>53000812
>Rather than flags, settlements saturate their airspace with kites
>Groups of kites correspond to family units, while the biggest corresponds to the larger settlement

>>53000937
>Flying a kite for too long while you travel is seen as bad luck (because of the bandit situation), but sending your kite up is a way to identify yourself as a trustworthy person to a passing caravan

>>53000931
Yeah, the flesh part makes no sense OP. Why not have it be moving bedrock or treebark. It's way less edgy

>>52997314
>has caves that distort space and can take you to other caves miles and miles away with just a few steps

>>52997314
>"The Cleanse"
>Sometimes, after a unknown number of vibrate cycles, pores in the flesh membrane opens.
>Pores works like geyser, shoot up water mixed with "dregs".
>Ephimeral oasis is formed, atracting Mega-fauna & scavengers