Vesk-4
Due to its extraordinary density, Vesk-4 has a tendency to pull smaller astronomical objects, like asteroids and comets, into its gravitational field, creating many craters and a diverse geology. Millennia ago, Vesk-4's three moons crashed into it in the span of a few months, knocking its axis askew and causing it to experience extreme tectonic activity.
Most of Vesk-4's surface is covered in a supercontinent full of jungles, swamps and volcanoes. The massive Vyskandi Range bisects the continent from northwest to southeast, and its central peaks contain two underground tunnels: the Upper Antreway and Lower Antreway. Northeast of the Vyskandi Range are the Lodelands, a mineral-rich desert which languishes under the punishing sun, where vesk miners wear environmental suits to protect themselves from the radiation. East of the Lodelands, the desert gives way to crater basins that collect rainwater, creating the Mudflats, a miles-long stretch of treacherous mud. The southwestern corner of the continent is the Dredgelands, an inhospitable swamp full of quicksand and volcanoes submerged in acid. The supercontinent is surrounded by three small oceans: the Iron Ocean in the north, the Unyielding Ocean in the south, and the Yielding Ocean in the east and west.
Three of Vesk-4's most notable landmarks are the sites where its moons collided to it: the Moonfall Plateau, a plateau in the plains west of the Vyskandi Range where the vesk built the planetary capital Command 4; Second Sorrow, the site of Tribulation, another vesk outpost, located in the Dredgelands; and Spinebreaker Island, jutting off Spinebreaker Gulf off the southeastern coast, which is Vesk-4's tallest mountain.
High Despot Kamilzanva holds absolute authority on Vesk-4, advised by a democratically elected Council of Labor, and appoints officials to serve in the military-like police and courts. Most officials are vesk, and the cardinal law is to honourably serve the Veskarium.
Under Kamilzanva's rule, all of Vesk-4's citizens receive basic healthcare, shelter and food in exchange for menial or mental labour. Life is austere, luxuries are almost nonexistent, and material excess is frowned upon. Unlike many of her predecessors, who ruthlessly oppressed native dissenters (like the Dawning, a group of talphi who resist vesk occupation), Kamilzanva actively negotiates with them, something which has been seen as controversial among the wider Veskarium. She recently instated a law that allows talphi workers to retain their employment while travelling their ancestral routes.
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