The Day Side

The day side of Duskara is a scorched wasteland where temperatures soar beyond 400°C (752°F). Battered by relentless solar radiation and powerful solar winds, this barren region offers no refuge for life, its surface a desiccated landscape of parched rock. Despite its inhospitable nature, the day side plays a crucial role in shaping Duskara’s climate. The extreme heat drives thermal updrafts that fuel the planet’s unyielding winds, and the stark temperature differential between the day and night sides generates violent superstorms in the twilight belt.

Human interaction with the day side is limited to heavily shielded robotic mining operations. These machines extract rare, heat-resistant materials essential for sustaining Duskara’s advanced technologies. Manual exploration is perilous, as the region’s extreme conditions pose immediate threats such as heatstroke, radiation exposure, and rapid equipment failure. Consequently, the day side remains a forbidding yet vital component of the planet's ecosystem.

Mining Frontier

While no permanent human settlements exist on the day side, robotic mining operations push the boundaries of the habitable zone. Heavily shielded autonomous systems, deployed from twilight belt cities, extract heat-resistant alloys, rare earth elements, and crystalline formations impossible to synthesize. These operations face constant attrition—solar storms disable communications, thermal stress fractures equipment, and dust storms bury entire facilities.

Salvage crews venture into the scorched margins when mining drones fail to return, recovering valuable machinery before it's completely degraded. These expeditions are lucrative but deadly, requiring specialized thermal suits and psychic thermal-sensing abilities to navigate. Competition between settlements over productive mining claims occasionally escalates into sabotage or claim-jumping, adding tension to an already hostile environment.

Some settlements employ "daywalkers", individuals with exceptional thermal resistance who can endure brief forays to oversee critical repairs or retrieve high-value materials. These specialists command premium compensation and hold near-legendary status, their exploits celebrated in wind-songs and tavern tales.