Detailed info
Wicked ways in which Jashenon expresses its day-night cycle leave even the most inquisitive Scholarborne scientists in astonishment. On occasion, should they stay planetside for long enough, it leaves them in an infirmary as well. And that's even before the psychological aspects of it all start to kick in.
Awash with ultra bright light of a blue Type-B star, 12 times the size of Sol, the orange planet is under bombardment with UV rays. Normally, because of thick, reflective layers of dust and ozone, the UV light stays away, albeit keeping Jashenon warm like the inside of a greenhouse. However, once a day there's a phase called "the Blue Noon" when the intensity is high enough to pierce the protective shell, for a short while painting the sky a viciously bright shade of violet and making unprepared bystanders suffer something akin to serious snow blindness.
One effect of dense ferric oxide dust being omnipresent in the atmosphere is that, whenever it isn't pierced by the star's UV, it blocks it almost entirely. The planet doesn't accept a single stroke of blue color. This red wash makes most of the 'night time' and a chunk of the day on Jashenon quite surreal, with extra detailed shadows vividly blood-orange during the day, and black as the Void during the night, when the world becomes completely monochromatic.
This aberrant day-night cycle would be an issue even if it didn't last a quarter of that of Terra. However, the need to shift to different visible spectrum every 6 hours creates a strain on the more animalistic members of Armada, especially Evermarchers. It muddles the senses, causing claustrophobia and the feeling of the desert "leaning in" as any visual sense of depth disappears. Navigating such an environment is a nightmare even with specialised equipment, like infrared sensors and AI-augmented virtual "recoloring" of the landscape. Shadows are long sharp and startling; infrared wash, beneficial in other circumstances, keeps hearts pacing and senses aroused, making the fight-or-flight response kick in regardless of fatigue, or even sleep. Sleep itself can be either deep and lethargic or hyper-vigilant, as the brain struggles to find a stable baseline. It truly is a place that can make an Evermarcher rethink the virtues of constant transformation...
All the more ironic, that all of this can be mitigated to a minor inconvenience by the Cortex subconsciously, by applying a Father-shard AI to visor subroutines.
Both Armada and Cortex, as well as some Independent parties, treat Jashenon as a "real-deal" proving grounds. Cortex's Artturisir academy regularly sends their sophomores planetside without helpful Chorials, whenever they feel overconfident and need some breaking. Armadian Scholarborne forces treat this celestial body as the ultimate test of designed accomodation skills and a reminder that, as magnificent as the body's adaptability is, we are still humans and should use brains and technology when biology comes short. Moreover, each Armadian Dynasty contains a sub-house for which Jashenon is a special place - House Orpheo's Foxtrik and House Veltari's Fubai sub-houses saved themselves a collective century of research on masking, detecting and localizing, on heat signatures and reflective coatings, just by observing local fauna. On the other hand, House Taelith's Indastar, once defectors from Cortex, with all their technological solutions, find themselves extra useful here military-wise.
What Jashenon really emphasizes on is the vital importance of Commanders, who don't develop Sensory Disassociation from constant spectrum swings, who find solace in night's deep shadows and embrace the healing aspects of infrared light without 'seeing red' from longer exposure.
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Locations
Silent Sea
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Red Rock Desert
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Mithril Mountain
Into Battle Redux
Desolation
Death Valley
