Klondike-5 would have been an extraordinary world if our ancestors had discovered it in the 2nd Millennium. The planet is rich in gold and other heavy elements and in addition it has an atmosphere capable of supporting Human life. While the metric crap-ton of gold is nice, and is probably the source of the planets name, it isn't so rare as it once was back in the day. Which is why the planet isn't the un- literal gold mine(get the pun?) its first settlers hoped it would be. And lets not get started on how habitable the world is, its gravity is abit high and its air pressure is bit low but atleast it contains the right mix of oxygen and nitrogen that allow us to walk its surface without rebreathers or environmental suits, but the downside(there is always a downside) is the airs methane and sulphur percentages which makes this bounty of a breathable atmosphere stink of old socks and rotten eggs, something the locals seem to have grown used to based on their body odour.
The locals are quite open and welcoming in comparison(probably due to rarely getting visitors due to the smell) and each community seem to value its own independence, from what I can gather the Human Klodites have changed slightly from the Terran norm, beeing nearly a head shorter and stouter than the average Maerthian. But are otherwise unchanged as far as I can tell(outside of the immunity to bad smells). While I never got to meet them, there is also a semi-large population of atleast two Sentient Aliens living in enclaves om Klondike that too are not native to the world. One of them is a clan of Kzak living near a crashed shrine-ship from the Gospel of K'zon.
The local quisine feature alot of umami, salt and spicy foods made from the mix of Klondikes biosphere and the imported fauna and flora that is able to tolerate the planets conditions. (they got Elysian rice and Bovine here!) The more common foodstufs are supplemented by the edible aquatic vertebrae and the local spices and veggies found in the native shrub forests that grown around the planets equator.(the tallest "tree" on Klondike is roughly 1,5m tall)
The planet itself is quite beautiful from space being the 5th planet in the Klondike system(who would have guessed). The planet is located roughly 212 Light years from the Soul-system and feature a planetary ring that contrast against the planets bluish-green atmosphere. Klondike-5's surface has a single large mountainus supercontinent on the northern hemisphere and a smal narrow salty ocean near its ice capped south pole. The landmass was once multiple continents, and is quite volcanous with geysirs and hotsprings beeing common across the globe(source of the rotten egg smell probably). According to the locals the planet have between 7 and 9 biomes, ranging from dry hot mud fields with, wet sqampy mudfields to frozen mud fields with rocks, and of course the strip of "vibrant" forests along the equator the only sign of how young life was on this world when humanity first settled it.
I'd rate Klondike-5 as a tourist destination a 4/10 - There are worse planets in the Last Hand, but I'd only visit this once to see it's beautiful gold roofed cities constructed out of greenish clay bricks and glass. If you are a space pirate it would probably rise it up to a hard 9/10. Note: according to local history, the planet have been ruled by a total of four different pirate lords across its 3000ish year long history, most likely the locals now have become experts at toppling tyrants, as all four was dethroned by revolutions.
- Maya