Maiala's Rest

**Maiala's Rest** is the second planet in the Maiala's Rest System. The desert planet was settled as part of hasty colonisation efforts by the Centrum Assembly in the 0210s PCU, and now houses some of the Tantalus Cluster's most neglected and desperate colonists.

## Characteristics

### Geography

Maiala's Rest is a hot desert world with minimal surface water. In the planet's recent geological history, it was a considerably more habitable world with more significant surface water, though it does not appear to have ever developed native life. Much of the planet's water has evaporated, leaving desiccated seabeds and salt flats. The only remaining surface water is found in salt water lakes near the planet's poles.

The planets runaway water loss has actually made it more hospitable to human life than it would have been in the past, with evaporated water being decomposed into molecular hydrogen and oxygen by ultraviolet light from the star Mirage in the upper atmosphere. This has oxygenated Maiala's Rest's atmosphere to the point that it is breathable to Humans, though visitors typically require a period of acclimatisation.

### Settlements

Maiala's Rest's capital is the city of Second Landing. A handful of settlements have been established alongside the planet's polar lakes, relying on desalination for water, however most of Maiala's Rest's settlements, and all of the planet's spaceports, are found along the equator. Huge condenser wells providing a supply of potable water form the centres of sprawling settlements, which are largely composed of prefabricated colony shelters still in use nearly a century after their planned replacement by permanent housing. More recent constructions on Maiala's Rest make use of native sandstone or compacted mudbrick, reminiscent of structures in Centrum's ancient past.

### Satellites

Maiala's Rest is orbited by three moons; Chiang-Sin, Jharid-Selan, and Khori-Jiro; and Adelaide's Steed, an orbital trading port.

## History

Maiala's Rest was rapidly settled by the Centrum Assembly with little regard for forward planning or self-sufficiency. The planet was named after the packet schooner *Selari-Maiala*, which experienced a disastrous fuel explosion on its first landing on the world and crashed in the Nasharia Mountains. The crash site is now a heritage site.

The failure of the Centrum Assembly to competently provide imports of essential food and supplies to Maiala's Rest meant that famine and plague were endemic on the planet long before the Great Famine struck the entire Tantalus Cluster. In the years immediately prior to the Frontier War, terrorist attacks against Centran infrastructure became a fact of life on the planet.

## Society

Maiala's Rest is almost entirely dependent on food and resource imports from the rest of the Tantalus Cluster. An inadequate supply line, made worse by frequent piracy, means that the planet is racked by rampant poverty and disease. The world has one of the highest crime rates in Tantalus.

The language later adopted as Teldrani originated on Maiala's Rest as a creole of the native languages of the moon's original colonists. As part of an effort to assert cultural independence from the Centrum Assembly, the language and many other aspects of Maialan identity were appropriated as a pan-Frontier identity by the regional government based on Teldrin. Accordingly, the Maialan variant of Teldrani is often looked down upon within the Frontier Union as uncouth and impolite compared to "Standard" Teldrani.

## Notable people

Captain Tamika Jinn of the Frontier Union Militia was born on the Crestin Peninsula on Maiala's Rest. Tamara Melari, another Maialan, briefly operated a clinic on the planet, but left for the Centrum Assembly at the outbreak of the Frontier War.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Maiala's Rest | Worlds of Tantalus | The Sojourn
2. ↑ *The Sojourn Visual Dictionary - Edition One*
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Sojourn: Worlds of Tantalus - Frontier Union
4. ↑ *Bright Promise*
5. ↑ Teldrani | Official Lore Short | The Sojourn
6. ↑ *The Cold Divide*
7. ↑ *Yesterday's War*