A watery world third from its star, Gaskar III consists of the crescent-shaped continent Lavnovya and an irregular ring of islands, all surrounded by the massive, storm-wracked Yulalov Ocean. Anciently, a collision with a planetoid reversed the world's rotation and knocked off ejecta that formed one of its moons. Later, a millennia-long ice age depressed much of Lavnovya's crust; as the climate warmed, the continent began slowly rising from the sea. The planet's warm climate, slow rotation, and vast ocean create enormous cloud systems and violent cyclones that batter the eastern mountains, while the western lowlands are marginally calmer and host most surface settlements. Native life is storm-hardened and abundant—kelp, ferns, arthropods, fish, amphibians, and reptiles, including giant peschkery cave centipedes and leaping ryugars. The first major humanoid settlers were vesk renunciants, self-exiles from the Veskarium who followed the teachings of the prophet Gaskar Yulalov and his visions from Weydan, god of equality. After Yulalov's execution, his followers endured generations of suppression before escaping aboard the colony ship Gaskari once Drift travel became possible. They settled this uninhabited system and built a society centered on freedom, mutual duty, and exile-forged communal survival. Though Veskarium authorities generally ignore the colony, they occasionally send contractors to retrieve fugitives, and Gaskari tolerates these incursions to preserve uneasy peace.