Haven is a small planet located on the edges of the galaxy. A lone planet that orbits its sun, astrogeologists have theorized that the system had a paucity of material upon creation with the majority of the stellar gas being used to form the star. Unusually, Haven occupies an elliptical orbit around its sun rather than a more circular one. It's long been suspected that in the distant past a rogue planet traveled through the system and grazed Haven, skewing its orbit. This would also explain the planet-wide gash where the mantle seeps to the surface, creating huge volcanic pits.
Due to this erratic orbit, and the heavy volcanic activity, Haven has some peculiar traits. It has a short summer period when the planet is close to the sun, but its winter is twice as long, leaving much of the planet locked in ice. There is a rather small ocean that remains liquid all year round, maintained by the presence of the volcanic areas nearby that warm the water to just above freezing. Plant-life consists mainly of ground cover and shrubs, with very few reaching taller than a meter in height. The plants themselves look red to orange, all the better to absorb the green light from the local sun. Animal-life varies with several larger carnivores that roam the rocky wastes and prey on smaller herbivores that feed on the flora. Typical creatures have six limbs, which help to navigate the broken ground and icy ravines that dot the planet, and two tails with sense organs at their tips are also fairly common, allowing them to find food over a larger area.
Settled many years ago by a rag-tag band of sentients including some Jawas, Sluissi, and the usual mix of humans, the colony remained isolated for generations. Over the years they developed protective facilities which could withstand the extreme temperatures of the planet, including special structures designed to ensure their crops continued to grow year-round. In recent years, government efforts have brought the population of Haven into their fold, and have developed the planet significantly.