Akiton

The third planet from the sun of the Golarion System, and is also known as the Red Planet. It is mostly a destitute world with few laws suffering from ecological and economic pressures that have been slowly diminishing its importance.

Geography

Its greatest canyon is the Edaio Rift, which nearly circumnavigates the planet. Across the ice caps known as the Winterlands, winds blow down at extreme speeds, colliding into powerful twisters that blast the ice into short-lived clouds. Its crust contains immense veins of thasteron a substance once vital in the production of starship fuel, until obsoleted by the advent of Drift Travel.

Thasteron

In the uncounted years of The Gap, Akiton was the main source of the mineral thasteron, which is vital in making the fuel needed for sublight space travel. This made Akiton the center of the Pact System's mining production and brought tremendous wealth to the planet. The introduction of Drift travel in 3 AG, however, made the old sublight engines obsolete and sent the economy into a downward spiral, triggering a mass exodus from which it has never recovered.

Flora

The barren surface supports various species of cacti, grasses, and shrubs. Dust storms are common and can last indefinitely until blocked by mountains. Prior to The Gap, a terraforming operation called the Bounty was conducted to stabilize Akiton's soil and restore its flora, although when funds dried up, the project was prematurely ended and most sites withered, except for the Bounty's core.

Government

Has no central government, and most of the planet is lawless except for a few city-states. Most oligarchs in charge of these governments prefer to fight over resources and hire mercenaries to perform covert operations against each other instead of fighting crime or enforcing regulations. Akiton is a hotbed for organized crime and smuggling.

Although slavery is openly legal in a few of Akiton's cities, a vibrant slave market for gladiators and workers exists. Most governments offer a bounty on slavers' heads, while also accepting bribes from them to look the other way.

History

The rise of space travel begun a centuries-long thasteron boom as all kinds of businesses and immigrants came here, bringing their wealth with them. When Triune revealed the technology of Drift Travel to the galaxy, for which thasteron was no longer needed, the demand for it plummeted. Within decades Akiton's economy crashed leading to a massive exodus of its population, and only the purest and most accessible veins are being mined today. After several centuries, the economy stabilized, but was a shadow of what it used to be.

A huge number of starship hulks are scattered across Akiton that seem to have crashed around the same date during the Gap, suggesting that a battle once took place on its surface and in orbit.

In 422 AG, when the Drift Crash disrupted Drift Travel, investors became interested in reviving Akiton's old thasteron industry, refining impure sources and researching on the prospects of faster than light travel. However due to the planet's reliance on imports, especially food, Akiton has been pushed to the verge of a famine, as the rich hoard food while the poor starve. Especially in large cities, people are indulging in vices to ease their worries, particularly in blood sports. The most desperate migrate to the Bounty, never to be seen again. Only the Shobhads who are no stranger to scarcity have been unaffected.

Inhabitants

The population can be broken down into three economic groups: the officers of the few corporations still surviving on the planet, traditionalists living off the land, and the desperate poor. Large governments have collapsed, most infrastructure has decayed, and any form of law enforcement is few and far between, making Akiton a hotbed for criminals of all kinds along with unscrupulous corporations.

The Stewards do have a presence on Akiton, it is limited to a few shelters that provide protection and supplies to those in need. Most Akitonians are forced to fend for themselves. Descendants of former mining company executives hunt khefaks for food in the shells of abandoned cities, work as laborers in one of the few remaining mines, or join one of the gangs on the plains that battle for territory.

Species

Members of most of the common species of the Golarion System live on Akiton, including a seemingly native scarlet skinned human ethnicity, but the best known sentient species are the Ysoki. The ysoki have adapted well to their homeworld's recent economic downturn, living in either warrens below the cities, or in nomadic motorized caravans that cross the surface.

Similar in appearance to the red-skinned Humans of Akiton are the red-scaled Ikeshtis, lizardfolk who seem calm most of the time until their reproductive cycles cause them to become violent.

The four-armed Shobhads are also native to Akiton, but were nearly driven extinct by corporate interests. Their numbers have rebounded significantly in recent years, and thanks to their traditional way of life, they sidestepped the Akitonian economic downturn, and they are now in high demand as mercenaries and scouts.

Nearly opposite to the highly physical shobhad are the Contemplatives. Their physical bodies are almost vestigial, and only serve to support a highly-evolved brain. The contemplatives excel in supernatural tasks, and spend much of their time pondering esoteric matters in the legendary Halls of Reason.

Cities

The best known population centers include the blood-sport hotbed of Arl, the half-irradiated city of Daza, the city of Estuar that is home to a criminally-backed ice mining industry, Great Gwaz, located in a fey-influenced forest, the mercantile Hivemarket that is Akiton's most successful commercial center, and Maro, built into the walls of the Edaio Rift. Most of Akiton's smaller settlements are company towns, slums, or outposts for homesteaders, but in all of them, life can be brutal. The planet's city-states battle not only each other but various other clans, corporations, tribes, and off-world factions.