Magic in a tidally locked world

What kind of magic would you expect to see in a world that is tidally locked to its sun? (this means one side is perpetually facing the sun).

The sun facing side (or subsolar pole) is an impenetrable desert, while the night side (antisolar pole) is a frozen wasteland, The middle zone (terminator) is in perpetual twilight and is comfortable to live in.

The planet has two moons, one moon marks the months (12 periods a year), the other moon marks what would be the week equivalent, this week is divided by 8 to create somewhat akin to real world days.

Thermic magic - as in, such magic that allows one to control the distribution of temperature.

Elemental magic. It might be cliched to some, but in the sort of world you're describing it would be necessary for survival. Regulating the temperature and humidity of the local environment to either extract moisture from the air or harvesting ice would be viable with magic. If you could apply that magic to your shelter or preserving food, then you could live in what would normally be an uninhabitable environment. One thing that would work well is killing an animal then removing the moisture from it's body. You'd end up with potable water and preserved meat.

This could help so there could be more settlements than just the "eternal twilight" zone.

I also suggest water- or liquid-based magic, so people can drink. It's hard for life to exist when the water is all evaporated or frozen.

EDIT: Actually, lonelylion's suggestion is better.

edited 14th Jan '14 8:22:05 AM by AwSamWeston

What sort of sentient life is there on this planet? Or rather did they evolve naturally or are they transplants from another world? Because an extended form of polar day and polar night can really screw up the brains of humans. If your people evolved on this world, then it probably won't be a problem save for immigrants from one zone to another. If you choose to have it effect your people, then artificial light or artificial darkness generated by magic could possibly improve their mental states.

If you go the elemental route, then breaking down molecules might be a way to supplement the gathering of resources. Taking what's in the human body for example you could break it down and gather everything that's in there so it's not wasted. The deathstill from Dune gathered water, but an elemental magician could also gather all those elements left over.

It would never be very efficient, but you could gather iron, salt, and other useful things from corpses. Granted you'd need a lot of corpses to get a useful amount of elements, but there's no reason for it to go to waste either. It could be a pragmatic thing or a religious one. Obviously people would do it to their enemies, but maybe you do it to people you love as well. That way their death helps to ensure your survival.

edit: Actually someone posted a link to how much iron one could gather from blood, but I can't remember what thread it was in or even if it was on this forum.

edited 14th Jan '14 8:49:53 AM by lonelylion

Astrology-based magic would also work. Even if the planet is tidally locked to its sun, which stars are visible where in the sky and in what configurations will change with the rotation and orbit.

edited 14th Jan '14 9:39:44 AM by Madrugada

Thanks for the suggestions so far

The inhabitants of the world are humans, but since it's fantasy I'm just hand waving the effect of the night/day cycle on them.

I like the idea of astrology based magic and the elemental control, maybe combining them someway could work out. Especially considering that without a day/night cycle the importance of stars becomes much greater. I'm thinking of maybe drawing power from certain celestial bodies or constellations in order to do magic

edited 14th Jan '14 9:43:28 AM by mbartelsm

Also, there can be more than one kind of magic. Just like there are multiple ways that animals developed wings.

Combining the two (astrology and elemental) is plausible. After all, in Earth astrology, various celestial bodies are often credited with an affinity for one or more elemental substances.

Definitely this. Alchemy and Hermeticism are things to look into if you choose to go that route. The seven planetary metals and alchemical processes pretty much give you an outline for aligning elements and magic to the astrological signs and planets.

Yeah, I think I'm going that route, I don't really want my characters to control heat and light because that would defeat the purpose of having extreme conditions