Spintir

Spintir is a wild planet, largely untamed even by the standards of the Outer Rim. It holds only one settlement of real note by galactic standards. The rest of the surface, where civilization has encroached at all, is dotted with small farms and hamlets. Over half of Spintir’s landmass is unexplored from the ground, and stretches of dense forest obscure orbital scans. Some of Spintir’s mountains contain unusual mineral concentrations that interfere with scans, although the deposits are not considered significant enough to attract investors for mining efforts.
In fact, Spintir’s colonization is something of an anomaly, as there is little the planet offers that cannot be had more easily elsewhere in the galaxy. In truth, its seclusion is the very reason the planet was chosen for the original colony, which was an outpost the Jedi Order used as a meditation retreat. When the Jedi moved to construct their temple in the valley atop Mount Tellec, they left behind their original outpost to use as a starport, and a gradual stream of pilgrims transformed it into the city of Reles. The city’s origin has been long since lost to time, but for most of Spintir’s rustic inhabitants, it doesn’t matter why their ancestors arrived—it is enough that they have a home.
In addition to the strange turns of its history, Spintir has one other claim to notability. The biodiversity of the planet is curiously limited, with an overwhelming majority of the species being mammalian in nature. The rare exceptions are believed to be off-world transplants rather than native species, but there is no prevailing theory as to why the planet would produce overwhelmingly mammalian life. The University of Reles maintains an archive of genetic data from which its scholars hope to learn more about this strange phenomenon but, so far, it seems to be a simple quirk of fate.

Reles, The Capital City

Spintir’s capital city, Reles, is also the planet’s only city, other habitation being limited to small concentrations of a few hundred beings at most. However, the city’s inhabitants pride themselves in making up for the lack of sophistication elsewhere on the planet. Money earned in logging the planet’s forests or exporting local animal specimens to zoos and universities is almost invariably funneled into maintaining a lifestyle better suited to the Core Worlds than a minor Outer Rim outpost.
Those who can afford it dress in expensive imported materials, shunning native furs, and build up Reles with palatial dwellings and exquisite sculpture gardens. The most extravagant of these dwellings is the governor’s palace, currently occupied by the planet’s corrupt Imperial representative, Caria Haal. Citizens without the means to participate in off-world trade make do by attaching themselves to those who can, acting as laborers or servants in exchange for whatever pay they can get. In the days of the Galactic Republic, a patronage system helped curtail the gap between rich and poor, requiring the wealthiest citizens to sponsor talented or struggling individuals so that they could better their lives with a new career. The University of Reles was renowned for generous scholarships, and several prominent galactic academics came from humble beginnings not far from its doors. This system was centered around the trade of information and services in Reles’s open-air bazaar district, where the rich and poor mingled freely. However, since the rise of the Empire, the patronage system has been dismantled, and the divide between the economic classes has grown ever wider. The city’s elite attends the bazaar with bodyguards or aboard closed landspeeders, while the less fortunate fearfully avoid them instead of hoping for aid. Mounting discontent led the First Galactic Empire to establish a small garrison in the heart of the city, as it fears Rebel influence could take root among the disenfranchised citizens.

Fields and Towns

Outside of Reles, the lives of Spintir’s inhabitants change dramatically. The rich sophisticates of the capital often sneer at the more rustic lifestyle of those in the smaller settlements, even as the labor performed there creates the city’s fortune. The assorted loggers, hunters, and farmers are often dismissed as crude and unsophisticated, unable to understand technology or appreciate the finer things in life.
In truth, they simply lack the infrastructure that Reles has built up over centuries of habitation, and they know how to use what tools they can afford with expertise that puts the capital’s artisans to shame. Their limited resources mean that more advanced technology is hoarded like treasure, and less sophisticated alternatives like slugthrowers and draft animals are often substituted for blasters and landspeeders. Despite this scarcity, the small towns outside Reles are often better managed and more content than many districts within the capital, as there is simply not enough for any one individual or group to hoard resources. Necessity breeds a sense of common cause and camaraderie among those who have little else to spare. Nevertheless, the lives in the fields and towns beyond Reles are far from idyllic, and as the Empire’s grip on trade and industry tightens, even the most distant hunting lodge has begun to feel the mounting pressure.

The Great Wilds

Despite centuries of habitation, much of Spintir’s surface is unexplored, and even the known regions are full of wild forests and rough hills that defy easy settlement. Logging near Reles has cleared some of the original forests, though the planet’s laws limited the extent of such operations until fairly recently. Small towns, some quite ancient, expand the reach of civilization somewhat, dotting the countryside with their fields and hunting camps, but the stretches of land between them teem with thick vegetation and wild beasts. Some of the local fauna are known to be harmless, from quick-moving flitterbats and placid armored sloths to gas-filled floating herd beasts called “bloaters.” However, predatory icewolves lurk in mountain caves, and the forests are home to packs of roaming Spintiri lynxes. Travelers between distant settlements on Spintir are typically limited to the brave, the foolish, and the well-armed—or some combination of the three.

Lost Valleys

Spintir’s mountain ranges are dotted with small valleys and other secluded areas that are rumored to hide ancient secrets. Old ruins from early Republic settlements have been found across the planet’s explored regions, and old campfire tales tell of even stranger discoveries in hidden caves or atop high plateaus. Stories of ancient complexes full of unheard-of technology have circulated for many years, although little there is little evidence to show for them. The curious sensor interference among many of the ranges makes such tales more plausible than they might be otherwise, as such technology might not be detectable from outside such a discovery.

Included Locations

• The Dawn Temple

Included Organizations

• Heavy Gan's Movers

Owner/Ruler

Governor Haal

Owning Organization

First Galactic Empire

Characters in Location

• Governor Haal
• Heavy Gan

Related Plots

• Lure of the Lost