Rayamal is a fairly typical gas giant that orbits the system’s star, Julevia, at a distance of approximately one hundred fifty million kilometres. As such, the planet is reasonably warm, with average temperatures of between twenty and thirty standard degrees, and not subject to massive temperature fluctuations. The planet boasts an average solar day of thirty-four standard hours and completes an orbit around its star in four hundred twelve solar days. The planet's atmosphere comprises approximately seventy percent hydrogen, with the rest comprising helium, carbon dioxide, sulphur, and oxygen. There are some traces of rarer elements, such as tibbanagas and several hydrocarbons that are extracted for use in local industries.

Apart from the tibbanagas extraction and processing industry, which is common to almost all gas giants in the galaxy, the planet is also well known as a hub for the production of machine tools and heavy equipment for factories, which are used both locally and on other planets in the system, as well as exotic materials derived from the carcasses of space-going creatures such as purrgil, streaked velker, space slugs, and such, for which there is a thriving hunting and whaling fleet based on the planet.

Life for the millions of factory workers in the floating cities is somewhat constrained, as the local government favours the interests of business owners, somewhat to the detriment of workers. While some worker benefits are mandated by local laws, their enforcement can vary widely from city to city, leaving some workers at the mercy of their employers. Feeding the teeming billions on the planet is no small matter and is accomplished by a combination of intensive hydroponics, utilising species of plants that can grow on a substrate of air and mixed gases from the planet and artificial ones produced in factories for just this purpose, and hunting the giant space-dwelling creatures that frequent the system using specialised whaling vessels and processing the carcasses to extract every edible morsel.