Yelsain is a pristine, forested world of giant trees, rugged, snowcapped mountains and stunning glaciers of sky blue ice. Such is its natural beauty, that it has remained undeveloped for millennia, save for those developments deemed necessary to facilitate the ecotourism industry and even then in strictly regulated numbers. This combination of lush natural beauty and careful conservation, together with the lack of a native sentient species to exploit the planet’s natural resources, means that Yelsain is one of the premier worlds in the entire galaxy for nature-oriented holidays, holography and the odd holo-vid entertainment shoot.

Yelsain’s circumglobal forests are the planet’s key feature, forming a complete, almost unbroken forest from the equator to about forty-five degrees latitude, at which point, the lowland forests give way to pines and other coniferous trees as the landscape climbs toward the northern and southern polar mountain ranges and the permanent polar ice caps. Yelsain’s trees are rightly famed, with the largest specimens growing over four hundred meters in height with trunks twenty meters across. The forest floor is carpeted in luxurious growths of shrubs and flowering plants, as the differing heights of the great trees permit sunlight to penetrate to the ground. At certain times of the year, the ground will be covered with the fallen blossoms of the great trees, making carpets of reds, yellows and whites. Numerous herbivorous creatures wander the forests partaking of the bounty, ranging in size from small grazing insects to giant mammals the size of rontos.

Indeed, the verdant plant life has given rise to an atmosphere rich in oxygen – approximately thirty-two percent, in fact, which is near the limit of what humans and near humans can tolerate without negative effects. Visitors to the planet might require a period of acclimatization, but in general, this has no lasting effects. However, there is a planet-wide moratorium on open fires, for obvious reasons, as even a small fire could swiftly rage out of control and consume even wet vegetation, rendering large swaths of forest into ash. The high oxygen concentration has enabled Yelsain’s wildlife to develop into giants. While the herbivores may be relatively harmless, visitors are briefed on the more dangerous carnivores, especially species such as semi-sentient reptilian troglith and mammalian garaths, adults specimens of which are twice the height of an average Human, and much stronger – able to literally tear a person limb-from-limb if given the chance. For this reason, many residential facilities are built on treetop platforms out of reach of these predators. The marine life in Yelsain’s one landlocked ocean is equally impressive, with huge fish over eighteen meters long and predatory whales that have been estimated to reach twice that, and capable of breaching completely out of the water to seize low flying birds and flying reptiles. The planet is a true nature lover’s paradise.