Payiferen is the largest continent shown on the map on the DRC table in the museum, and the landmass the map centers on. It's hot, arid and windy, although the winds die down a little at night.

On the pod map, Payiferen has four pods, numbers 1, 12, 13, and 19. The pod we can link to is number 13, which is located near the mid-southern coast.

This picture shows the pod's internal layout. I'm looking into a window from the outside.

Here's Payiferen around the local version of midnight. The phosphorescent stones have lost their energy and are no longer glowing. The light you see on the right is a flood lamp from the pod.

Wildlife:

Payiferen is mainly a desert, and so much of the wildlife is invisible to the eye, consisting of insects, arthropods, lizards, and snakes that mainly burrow underground to keep out of the heat and constant windblown grit. The only animal that can be observed now is the Payiferen urwin, also called the sandskrit. It feeds on the insects and other small animals that burrow beneath the sands around the district. It scoops up mouthfuls of the sand, and filters its food out as it expels the particles.

Note the glowing rocks in this nighttime photo. They seem to be phosphorescent, or of a similar nature to phosphorescence. They apparently gain energy from the sunlight, and glow at night for a time. As the night wears on, they stop glowing. During the day, the stones are dull and look much like any other rock, but when they glow, they show a crystalline nature and there are many different colors to them.

The sandskrit while calling. The sound is eerie enough to send shivers up your spine.

Feeding behavior, as it scoops up a mouthful of sand to filter.

More pictures of the sandskrit, but taken during the daytime. Keeping up with it to take the pictures is hard. Even though it looks like it's just lumbering along, those long legs cover ground quickly. I had to run to keep up with it walking.

This is an area fairly close to the pod. This area was chosen because it has bedrock close to the surface that makes it a stable foundation for the pod.

This is farther out in the desert. Most of the ground in the depressions here is sand, and it's where the sandskrit spends most of its time. It can't feed close to the pod.

Payiferen Sunrise:

The air of Payiferen has some peculiar properties, possibly because of all the sand and dust in it. The district around the pod seems to be surrounded by high mountains, but they are actually a mirage. This can be seen at sunrise. Sunrise can best be witnessed from the midlevel window of the pod.

This picture shows the colors of the horizon just before the sun begins to rise. You can see the mountain range mirage in the distance.

The sun is above the horizon. It looks like it's in the middle of the mountain range, although it's really just shining through the mirage.

The sun is several degrees above the horizon now, and halfway above the mirage. You can see the lower half shining through what looks like a ridge line.

A little while later, it's almost fully clear of the atmospheric effect. Just a little of the lower edge is still being obscured.

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