Dawnlight

"They say the planet's name comes from the ever-burning forges just over the horizon. The light is so bright that you swear the sun is about to burst over the skyline, but you look at your watch and it says midnight."

— Omar al-Saddari, "Commonwealth Space: The Core Worlds"

Dawnlight (also called Sallax II) is a habitable continental world, colonised by the Commonwealth of Man in 2226 CE. The planet has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere breathable by most sapient species and a sizable hydrosphere, with liquid water covering approximately fifty percent of the planet's surface. The planet has one moon, and generally has a mild climate from the equator to the sub-arctic regions.

Much of Dawnlight's surface is covered in extremely dense vegetation and tree analogues. These range from subtropical rainforests at the equator, to temperate rainforests for much of the planet's temperate region, and becoming boreal forests as one approaches the poles. The planet has regular seasons, ranging from warm and raining to cold and snowing. The regulated climate has created a relatively uniform distribution of native fauna, with the main differences in species distribution coming from different continents.

Dawnlight was first discovered during the Commonwealth of Man's initial exploratory period in 2213 CE, though it was at the edge of the Commonwealth's logistical capability at the time. Although it was well-suited for Human habitation, other colonial ventures on worlds closer to Unity drew the Commonwealth's resources and population. It wouldn't be until 2225 when the colony ship CNS Purpose landed on the world with 200,000 initial colonists.

Despite the long distance from Unity, early colonisation efforts were aided by a compliant environment suitable for Human life. The Dawnlight colony soon developed a substantial manufacturing industry, as resources from the nearby mining world of Aurora were shipped through the Sallax System on their way to Unity. Many freighters ended up instead depositing their cargo on Dawnlight, giving it vast quantities of cheap titanium, carbon, and lithium from which to construct new starships.

Today, Dawnlight is the Commonwealth's premier hub for stellar construction. Forge complexes dominate the planet's surface, producing thousands of starships, heavy vehicles, prefab components, and starbase sections every day. Dawnlight boasts one of the few orbital rings within the Commonwealth, and hundreds of starships dock at it each day or planetside starports to collect heavy industrial goods or drop off raw materials.