I am in fact, not dead:
Ryska is an atmospheric, semi-arid, xanthophyllic planet in the region near the edge of explored space called the Achaean Reach. It was primarily settled by settlers fleeing wars in the Rindaal Sector in the 23rd century of Erf Reckoning [about 400 years prior]. It is known as a fractious but stable planet, mostly dominated by small collections of farming republics, with more centralized nations near the rivers. Ryska is divided into five major regions: the Icecap at the North Pole, the Glacial River Valleys, The Prairies, the Southern Coast, and the Roaring Ocean.
The Northern Icecap is home to the Miner’s Republics, which both are some of the most independent-minded states on the planet, but also the ones with the most communication off-world. True habitation doesn’t penetrate very far onto the icecap itself, with settlements ringing its edge, and rail lines connecting them to the mines. These mines are predominantly one of two types: ice mines and coal mines, both of whose products are immediately exported, explaining this region’s contact off-world. The most notable is the Republic of Schwartzhorn, in the shadow of the namesake peak, home of the planetary headquarters of Achaean Consolidated Mining Enterprise, owner of most of the planet’s mines, granting Schwartzhorn outsize soft power around the Cap
The Glacial River Cluster is born of the meltwater from the Icecap glaciers, in three strands descending the prairies until they flow into the Roaring Sea at Elisabeth Bay, Vochtigmond, and Geraldston. It is not strictly accurate to call this a single region, as the three rivers start, run, and meet the sea without ever intersecting; but they share many characteristics. They all flow north to south, they all have eroded large, fertile valleys, and they have all become centers of habitation on Ryska. The largest and most populated valley is the Vochtig River, which flows from its source in the glaciers around the Schwartzhorn to the sea. The valleys by their nature lead to political centralization, with each of them having larger nations, but the nations of the planet are fractious, and no such project has succeeded in any real centralization efforts.
The Prairies cover most of the planet but ironically are less inhabited than the Roaring Ocean; this sparseness renders government above the town level nonexistent. They are hard to make a living on, its soils, if a farmer could pierce the thick sod atop it, are so poor they cannot support more than grasses. Due to these limitations, farming is impossible, and these wild plains are dominated by massive cattle herds, fiercely guarded resources of the massive beef concerns. These most uncivil of corporate employs, everyone has some reason they end up a Ryskan cattleman, even the ones running the enterprise on-site were kicked upstairs, often for reasons involving other executives’ spouses. But make no mistake, everyone out here is well-armed, and there’s lots of space for troublesome cattlemen to disappear on the frontier’s frontier.
The Southern Coast is a harsh place, battered by the omnipresent storms of the Ocean it borders, and thus it has never been a popular destination for settlement. Nonetheless, nations have been established, most subsisting off maritime produce, with fishing and canning providing most of the economy of this region. Generally, the stability of the coastal republics decreases the further from the Rivers you get, it’s often said that a man on the Far Coast is one of the toughest on Ryska because he chooses to be far from Civilization. It is not the sparsest populated region, but it shares the independent spirit of the Prairies, rejecting any major corporatization of its industries.
This is not true about the Roaring Ocean, mostly because no one lives in an ocean of constant maelstroms by design. But the drillers get paid lots of money to man the offshore rigs that extract the glowing gloop known as Luminor. These rigs are basically floating small towns, and many have struck up a trade with the coastal towns, in goods both legal and illicit. They ship their barrels on the Company Convoy, the most heavily guarded airship system on the planet, where it’s distributed through all of Space.
