WRITING OBSTACLE
Write a descriptive piece about a desolate landscape.
Think about how you can describe both the physical aspects, and atmosphere, of this place.
Skalg: Reptilian Home World
From the dark recesses of their star system, blanketed in the blood red glow of their mother star, the Reptilian home world of Skalg appears like a yellow diamond glinted with pale blue rings of ice. A geologically inert planet whose vast iron-silicate core ended its magnetic whir during the last expansion of their already hyper-inflated red giant star, Benex Prime (Gliese 674), Skalg is a “Class H” desert planet, approximately 44% larger than Earth. The only rocky world revolving around its star, Skalg is a desolate planet of mainly arid, granite terrain and ancient canyons, vast sandy plains and craggy, eroded mountains. The capital, Yaslek, is situated on an open terrace, surrounded by dry mineral lakes and hundred foot high hoodoos, well north of the equator. Most of the population lies in the heaths surrounding the capital and in the semi-temperate zone that bands southward from the vast arctic ice cap. The southern hemisphere is devoid of most large surface population centers, but contains multiple underground communities that provide vegetation and nutritional harvests, including banks of water and livestock to the rest of the planet. The southern glaciers that surround the Antarctic ice cap lash into the deserts to their north like many wild tongues. Skalg is inhospitable to most life forms other than the extreme wildlife and hearty native population of reptilian peoples. Their atmosphere is think and heavy with Argon and Carbon monoxide, with low oxygen and nitrogen levels, making it difficult for most mammalian species to breathe without technological assistance