Formos
Formos is a forbidding world with few inhabitants. The climate is arid and much of the world is forbidding rocky desert shrouded by dusty, dark clouds. Were it not for its position at the junction of two busy hyperspace routes, it is unlikely that anyone would choose to live there. While it is a terrestrial planet with a breathable atmosphere and standard gravity, life does not flourish upon the world's dry surface. The only settlement of note is a hardscrabble spaceport with a reputation for shady deals and rough customers.
Most species begin to feel thirsty shortly after landing on Formos and those used to life on humid worlds soon feel dehydrated and uncomfortable. As such the more aquatic species, such as Aqual, Mon Calamari, and Herglic, are notably absent but Formos still boasts a fairly comopolitian place with many of the major spacefaring species making a home here. Still the most dominant species is human.
Despite its grim reputation, the Formos Spaceport is famed among the smuggling community. It lies at the far end of the Kessel Run, a narrow corridor of navigable space that snakes between the asteroid fields and black hole clusters that separate Formos from the prison planet Kessel. After the Kessel Run terminates in an asteroid-filled nebula known as the Pit, most pilots proceed to Formos to link up with more defined hyperspace lanes to reach the wider galaxy. The mines of Kessel produce one of the most lucrative spices in the galaxy. This is glitterstim, a narcotic reported to induce a telepathic high in those who use it.
The Kessel Run is a risky route that must be made partially in hyperspace and partially in real space, and those who undertake it must evade constant Imperial patrols and dangerous black hole clusters. The smugglers who make the run, while they may be ruthless criminals in actual fact, have gained a reputation for defiant heroism in those quarters of the galaxy opposed to the rule of the Empire.
Ultimately, there are two sides to life in the Formos Spaceport. On the one hand, it is a violent and lawless place, and on the other it is an icon to freedom fighters. In such a place idealistic rebels, alien refugees, and manumitted droids rub shoulders with fugitive psychopaths and gangsters.
The Empire (or its remnants) has little presence on Formos and basically exerts no control.
The spaceport, which is considered a Limited Service Port, consists of a large area of duracrete upon which all but the heaviest of freighters can effect a safe landing. There is a small control tower and a number of sheds for docking, storage, and maintenance. The spaceport charges relatively small fees for landing and storing small or medium sized spacecraft, though it being what it is often various other deals and discounts and be negotiated by those with the nack for that sort of thing.
The spaceport is surrounded by a ramshackle settlement of individual dwellings and warehouses. These are ugly and utilitarian buildings, blocky and gray like the crags of rock that dot the surface of Formos. A few traders have set up businesses in the spaceport selling foodstuffs, water, weapons, and the sort of equipment required by fringers, smugglers, and spacers. The sprawling streets are dotted with piles of crates, portable trash compactors, and vaporators.
There are a few large and well-appointed buildings within the spaceport that are not part of the docks or warehousing. One of these is a fairly recently built fortified Empire building housing a group of Imperial Troopers and the other is the Rii Jenks Cantina.
While the forbidding planet and ramshackle spaceport might draw a poor report from visitors, the Rii Jenks Cantina is seen as something of a saving grace for Formos. After all, even the most vicious of smuggling gangs like a place to kick back and relax after making the Kessel Run. Like most cantinas on the rim, Rii Jenks’ establishment draws a cosmopolitan crowd. He even welcomes droid customers offering oil baths for those that can afford his rather exorbitant prices. Over the years, the cantina has served as the venue for some of the best up-and-coming musical acts of the Outer Rim. Currently denoted to be in residence are Fia Mund, a Sullustan Kloo Horn player who is generating rave reviews, and a Xexto group playing raucous traditional Troiken percussion music, which is great if one has the taste for that sort of thing.
