System: Altais

Young, hot, and in every way cursed with an oppressive atmosphere, many feel that Altais was colonized solely out of human stubbornness and some early settler's thirst for a challenge. More practical critics have suggested that the plentiful metal ores constantly churned up by the planet's many volcanoes drew those seeking fortune through mining and manufacturing industries. In fact, the first settlers to come to Altais came during a geologically brief dormant period in its development, when the planet's atmosphere was much more terrestrial and its surface far less unstable.

Within less than a century of the first colonies' establishment on Altais, however, a massive shift in the planet's three large tectonic plates began when a stray meteor - the remnant of a failed second planet in the Altais system -slammed into the shallow waters close to a major fault line. The shifting plates created a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions across the planet, destroying several cities over the next few decades. Ever since that fateful event, Altais has remained an unstable and less than hospitable world.

Though the initial city-leveling disasters have dwindled to extreme rarity, active fault lines and volcanoes still mar all four of the planet’s main continents, transforming much of what once were fertile tropical and wooded lands into a mix of scarred, rocky wastes. A side effect of the constant eruptions has been the gradual tainting of Altais’ atmosphere with greenhouse gases that have raised the temperature a full twelve degrees over the last five centuries and caused the extinction of thousands of native plant and animal species.

Yet, despite all these hazards, the people of Altais have continued to work the lands and exploit the mineral wealth of this world. The capital city, Gaines, located on the southern polar continent of Tanzaria, is home to four mining and refining corporations that supply raw materials for every application from commercial power generation to heavy military hardware. Novaya Kyev, a domed city on the equatorial continent of Greater Elauria, maintains shipping ports for both off-world and transoceanic traffic. The northern continents of Lesser Elauria and Welasia also feature a handful of large cities centered on the mining and refining trades, as well as major spaceports.

There are no functional factories located on this planet.