Vesk Prime is a hot, dry world with an abundance of land and rich natural resources. The closest planet to Ghavaniska, it is the vesk homeworld and the imperial capital of the Veskarium. Densely populated with large modern cities surrounded by huge tracts of cultivated lands, the planet also contains vast protected nature reserves where sporting vesk hunt dangerous beasts. The Veskarium began here long before the Gap, when the vesk defeated their rivals and brought the entire planet under vesk rule. Vesk Prime earned its designation when the Veskarium first expanded off-world and conquered the neighboring planet, renaming it Vesk-2. Before that, the homeworld had only one name: Vesk, the same name the vesk call themselves. The planet is a large terrestrial world with a single supercontinent broken by two connected saltwater oceans and smaller seas, tectonically active with volcanic belts along its faults, and small ice caps at both poles. Its landmass divides into four broad regions: the Central Veld, the Eastern Wastes, the Southern Coast, and the Northern Reach. Vesk civilization first arose on the arid equatorial plains of the Central Veld between the Otorozan and Nakahili Deserts, where the capital city of Command Prime still stands. Today, large numbers of non-vesk species live on Vesk Prime, with skittermanders filling bureaucratic positions and pahtras serving in the military. Since the end of the Swarm War, more Pact Worlds natives — especially humans, lashuntas, and ysoki — have settled on the planet. Ruled by High Despot Vindaskayo Swarmripper, the planet is divided into 99 administrative districts corresponding to ancient feudal landholdings. A dozen great Prime Houses still rule their ancestral lands, forming the closest thing the Veskarium has to a hereditary aristocracy. As the capital, Vesk Prime also hosts the Council of Despots, comprising the high despots of each of the Veskarium's worlds.