Carl Jung wrote of the shadow self. In the Beasts In The Sun -Skeleton Test-, the beast is that shadow dragged into the blinding light of noon. There is nowhere to hide. The test begins when your internal predator—your ambition, your lust, your rage—is stripped of the cool cave of denial and forced to walk under an unrelenting sky.
“In the Ember Expanse, the sun does not set. It waits. And every beast, no matter how thick their hide or sharp their fang, must one day walk the salt flat to the God-Ribs. There, the light peels away the lie of the living. Flesh is a story you tell yourself. But bone? Bone is the witness. This is the Skeleton Test. And the sun has never been wrong.” Beasts In The Sun -Skeleton Test-
Use this as a premise: A civilization that worships the sun subjects its criminals to the Skeleton Test, exposing them on salt flats until only the truth of their bones remains. Carl Jung wrote of the shadow self
Your flesh begins to feel separate from you. You are no longer a "self." You are a collection of decisions. The sun asks: Why did you come here? What were you chasing? “In the Ember Expanse, the sun does not set