Orbiting closest of its sister planets to the system's red dwarf star, Artesia II is a frozen, airless ball of rock and ice, that nonetheless boasts some of the most unique endemic life forms in this sector of space. With average daily temperatures of minus eighty standard degrees, thermal regulation clothing is mandatory outside the giant transparisteel and ray-shielded domes that house the world's population centres. While her closest neighbour, Artesia III is racked by gale-force winds, Artesia II's atmosphere is thin to the point of non-existence and what little air there is is composed mostly of helium, hydrogen and xenon, with small quantities of rarer elements. The length of a day on-world is just shy of fourteen standard hours and a year comprises one hundred seventy three local days.

While the environmental conditions on Artesia II are completely inimical to most forms of life as most people understand it, the world is home to some amazing, silica-based life forms that are widely studied by naturalists from all over this region of space. Chief among these life forms are the great variety of silica-based grasses and "trees" that make up the Great Lissan Plain in the planet's southern hemisphere. Centuries ago, there was only bare rock, but now, vast swathes of crystaline grass sway gently in the air. These grasses range from a pale creamy yellow, through soft jade green and light pink and are translucent, creating lovely patterns as far as the eye can see. Tiny mites and arthropods live among the swaying stalks, drawing their nutrition from the weak sunlight and the chemical breakdown of silica. It is conceivable that most of the world's surface, bar the eastern and western poles, will be covered in this grass within the next five millennia, barring intervention from the planet's inhabitants.

Artesia II's population is greater than one might think, given the adverse conditions. Indeed, much of the planet's surface is covered in domed and shielded cities. The planet is an economic powerhouse, relative to its size, with great numbers of manufacturing centres, power generation facilities, organic farms and other forms of food growing operations. Indeed, the world is almost self sufficient in terms of food, able to grow almost ninety percent of the food required by the planet's population, mostly in the form of a wide variety of edible fungi and mosses. More complex protein sources are brought in via weekly-shipments from Artesia, mostly frozen meats, as animal husbandry is almost unknown on Artesia II and would be prohibitively expensive in any case.