Uyiq-Mest

Uyiq-Mest was a planet in the, home of the Vorsyts and a member system of the Golden Empire.

Geography
The Uyiq-Mest was dominated by mountain ranges, rocky highlands, and crags. Plants grew throughout these regions, ranging from sparse vegetation in arid regions to fertile valleys nestled between mountains. The deeper lowlands between mountains, however, were shrouded in a perpetual fog. The lowlands themselves were marshy and dank, and little plant life grew there in the absence of sunlight. However, the deep clefts were home to a wealth of bacteria, algae, and fungi which could live without light; these were eaten by a wealth of creatures, which were in turn preyed upon by carnivores adapted to hunt in the darkness.

Uyiq-Mest's native sentient species, the Vorsyts, evolved as climbing creatures, leaping nimbly across the rugged terrain.

Surface water was very limited on Uyiq-Mest, and then almost exclusively beneath the fog line. The Vorsyts were evolved to be able to store water for long periods. In their mountain homes, water was most commonly available in springs and geysers, although rain supplemented these sources periodically.

Society and culture
The Vorsyts occupied cities built on catwalks and skyways built between mountain, firmly anchored to the rock faces and constructed from. After Uyiq-Mest joined the Golden Empire, most of these were supplemented with emergency repulsorlifts to protect the cities (or at least enable evacuation) in case of earthquake or volcanic eruption.

The Vorsyts themselves were highly independent, with the nuclear family the basis of society. Most Vorsyt city-states were strict or representative democracies, depending on their size, and the Vorsyts were renowned throughout the Golden Empire for having only those laws absolutely necessary to the smooth maintenance of society.

Though the Vorsyts were somewhat xenophobic, they eventually developed a tourism economy for hunters who wished to try their skills against the larger herbivores or the mysterious predators lurking in the lowlands.

History
Uyiq-Mest was geologically unstable for millions of years, which led to its innumerable mountain ranges and volcanic regions. Though all life was postulated to have begun in the lowlands, scientists theorized that the ancestors of the Vorsyts had been living exclusively above the fog line for millennia.

Civilization was slow to develop on Uyiq-Mest. The Vorsyts were initially reluctant to cut down trees to build permanent settlements, as doing so would remove vegetation and thus compromise food sources. The first societies to do so were those based in or around tracts of arable land in high mountain valleys, in which they could grow more trees. The famed Vorsyt suspended cities did not come about quickly; most cities developed built increasingly up into the mountains, with any fertile land used only for growing.

Eventually, however, technological progress enabled the Vorsyts to firmly anchor rope (and later wood and iron) bridges between settlements on neighboring mountains. Contact between cities was arduous and rarely worth the effort, and warfare among the Vorsyts usually consisted of surprise attacks which would either be repulsed or would result in the capture of the target territory. The terrain both prohibited the construction of extensive fortifications and made the maintenance of supply lines burdensome at best, so long sieges were almost nonexistent.

The invention of primitive flying devices enabled the first substantive contact between societies, which in turn led to the free exchange of ideas and a technological leap forward. Vorsyt society continued to evolve, with the rope-and-iron cities across the canyons turning to plastics and lightweight steel. Eventually, Vorsyt engineers invented furnaces powerful enough to shape the planet's deposits of. Though at first the great weight of the metal made using it in the suspended cities impractical, once techniques were developed for anchoring the duranium against mountainsides, Vorsyt cities became substantially safer.

In 104 ABY, emissaries from the Golden Empire arrived on Uyiq-Mest and convinced the Vorsyts to join the Empire. The Empire was able to provide the Vorsyts with a trade in foodstuffs from offworld, as well as technology, replacing the various hovercraft technologies the Vorsyts themselves had created. In return, Uyiq-Mest became a top producer of duranium and several other exotic minerals for the Empire.

The Ministry of Science and Technology built the Royal Observatory of the Golden Empire on a mountain peak on Uyiq-Mest, and the surrounding city experienced a booming trade as a result.