Saef

Saef

Saef is a major Sulsuan Protectorate colony and military installation under the sovereignty of the Sulsuan League. Holding significant strategic importance as a major shipping lane between the Gaia and Theios clusters, the planet serves as one of only three easily-traversable locations between the two star clusters. Despite the relative youth of the planet's colonies, having been inhabited for only 400 years, its strategic location in shipping has resulted in a vast influx of wealth.

Saef is infamous for its abusive labour practices and legalization of nearly everything excluding murder. Despite the dangers of its products, Saef is renowned for glamour, luxury, and safety (provided by near-total surveillance), making it a favoured tourist destination.

Regardless of the character of its economy, Saef's self-congratulatory media exalts its own society with the provincial arrogance of "new money," glorifying in "sexiest CEOs" and "ten richest residents" lists.

## Characteristics

### Geography

Saef's surface is largely covered in immense salt flats, giving off a shining white appearance to the planet's vast expanses of land. Underneath the crust of salt, several large quagmires of mud are known to be concealed, making walking on the surface potentially dangerous. Before new settlements are erected, extensive surveys must be enacted to ensure that a new investment will not simply sink beneath the salt. The general lack of height variation in the surface leads to intense winds to sweep across the land, kicking up ferocious salt storms.

### Atmosphere

The atmospheric composition of Saef is unsuited to non-Mithadorn life, being composed largely of methane, helium and carbon monoxide. Non-Mithadorn visitors are advised to retain breathing equipment at all times or to don envio-suits for safety. The high concentrations of methane and carbon monoxide have led to a strong greenhouse effect on the planet, raising it's otherwise too-cold temperatures into a range comfortable for most Andromedan species.

### Biosphere

The biosphere on Saef is still in its primordial stages, with few animals present on the surface of the planet. What little life does exist is thought to be aquatic, swimming in the highly-salted inland seas that dot the surface. Many scientists have taken to studying the creatures for their significant capacity to flourish in waters with salinity in excess of what was previously accepted to be survivable.

## Society

Known derisively as 'Impiety in high heels', although Saef holds stringent civil laws, its cut-throat hyper-capitalistic society and rampant corruption have led to lax enforcement and unlawful arrests of corporate competitors. This is in stark contrast to its preferred image as one of the most secure and safe places in the Gaia Cluster, which is not entirely untrue - until one falls off the grid.

Almost all drugs in the Andromeda galaxy, and imported from the Milky Way, from Aenix and Meth to Sparrow are all legal when correctly labeled, and can be purchased easily in most highstreet stores. Drug cafés are a popular tourist hotspot, where visitors can experiment with substances they would otherwise be unable to try.

Prostitution is also an openly endorsed buisness which Saef promotes openly to tourists, although the poor conditions sex workers are made to work with are often a source of conflict with visitiors, the sex industry remains highly popular on Saef.

### Language

The vernacular language on Saef is not Mithraele as with the majority of Protectorate planets. Instead, the citizens of Saef utilise the native Saefen language in everyday life. Although Saefen is derived from Mithraele the language itself completely mutually unintelligible with Mithraele. New colonists and migrants moving to Saef in hopes of financial gain often struggle with the grammatical shift between the two languages, as a result, Mithraele is spoken as a lingua franca on the planet when dealing with non-locals.

Saefen possesses seven vowels, unlike the six in modern Mithraele, and features a mutated tonal system, unlike traditional Mithadorn languages. These differences often lead to learning difficulties for non-native Mithadorn learners, although similarities with several Ankoran languages has resulted in a significant number of native-speaking Ankoran migrants.