A world of ice and fire - six simple words that summarize Gale, the eighth planet from the sun in the Hoth's Brand system. Located far enough from the sun that only weak sunlight reaches it, Gale is a world locked in the grip of a perpetual ice age. Its saving grace is in the seismic activity that continuously brings fresh magma to the surface, warming the surrounding land and making it habitable, if only just, for the small number of hardy colonists who call this planet home.

What drew the original colonist to this cold, twilight world originally, was the discovery of the properties of the ban'flaa moss, which grows in vast moss forests in areas where the magma runs underground, but close enough to warm the surface. Since mosses do not draw nutrients from the soil, the mosses fix nutrients from the air and are ideally suited for nutrient-poor soil. In the case of the ban'flaa, its particular biology, mixed with the chemical compounds in the air results in a plant that can have mild hallucinogenic and euphoria-inducing properties, without being addictive or harmful to the sentient consuming it. This effect can be heightened with proper drying and treatment and a large part of Gale's economy is driven by this unique plant. A number of medical companies have established research stations on the planet to analyze the unique mosses there.

An interesting footnote is that the planet is named for a Jedi Knight, Lord Gale, who fought in the Ruusan Campaign in the New Sith War approximately one thousand years BCGT. The planet was named for him due to his sacrifice, and that of the many Jedi who lost their lives in the detonation of the thought bomb that effectively ended the campaign. The current inhabitants of the planet are a cheerful and industrious lot, at least when outside of the numerous moss smoking dens that can be found in all the cities on Gale. Fortunately, due to the non-addictive properties of the moss, this is actually most of the time.