FOXTON is sometimes called a world where only the strong survive.  To be more precise, it is a world where the weakest inevitably perish.  Its primary export is a foul-smelling fungus used on worlds like Ban-Tun to repel and punish those engaged in civil unrest.  The Foxtonians believe that the fungus is created by the ghost of the person on whom it grows.  Hence, they regularly sacrifice one of their own to provide a host for the valuable product.  To choose the victim, the ruling council select an adult citizen who must fight to the death against the council member of that citizen's choosing.  For their own safety, the council usually selects a particularly weak challenger.  A victorious challenger takes the loser's place on the council, so ironically the body is usually composed of the very weakest that Foxton has to offer.  Longevity in office depends upon selecting an even weaker opponent and/or convincing said opponent that a different council colleague is easier pickings.

BAN-TUN is a formerly successful colony world that has suffered badly from overproduction and callous mistreatment of its environment.  As gainful employment has fallen, the number of violent gangs has risen.  The immensely wealthy barons who rule Ban-Tun could easily emigrate elsewhere, but no other nearby planet has such a desperate population willing to do almost anything for money.  So they stay and import off-world luxuries, while hiring the gangs to fight each other for their amusement.  Gambling is common on Ban-Tun, but the odds on its long-term survival are very long indeed.

CHILD ROCKS is the collective name for the numerous small islands on a watery planet in the Deinste system.  They were founded by Deinster misfits and outcasts who wanted a solitary environment very different from that of their desert forebears.  Each island suffices to house a single individual, who gathers local aquatic life for food.  Their traditional craft involves carving miniature artwork onto the tiny bones of those marine creatures.  The children who are actually born on the Child Rocks are the result of occasional visits between neighboring islands.  Raised by only one parent, each child is then sent off to their own uninhabited Rock when they are old enough to fend for themselves.  Limited genetic diversity and the attendant dangers of recessive diseases threaten the precarious balance of the population.

ALBA was the second Earth-like planet in the Lullingstone sector to be colonized.  There are few hazards to be found, and ample nutritious food grows year-round.  To protect this gem of a world, its founders insisted upon fundamental patterns of kindness.  Everyone is treated as brothers and sisters, and all must treat their brothers and sisters decently.  If anyone feels that their safety is being threatened, they may report the offender to an appointed Monitor of Magnaminity.  Usually the mere suggestion of making such a report is sufficient to dissuade anyone from doing wrong, or to elicit a panicked apology if the wrongdoing has already happened.

LESTOCK is a savage world in the Ventura sector.  Its three continents are filled with numerous untamed carnivorous lifeforms, the most dangerous of which are the Kellrosses.  Twenty paces long and able to leap that far from a standstill, they are an instantly fatal threat to an unprotected human.  Even the most powerful weaponry may not count as sufficient protection, because a slain Kellross falling on a person is also quite deadly.  The few settlers brave enough to make Lestock their home must generally rely on "superpowers" to protect them.  Paraíbite is rare on Ventura and even more rarely exported, but it is the most reliable source of such superpowers for ordinary humans.  When one can turn a Kellross inside-out with a thought, or teleport it into the nearest volcano, life on Lestock is not so bad.  The meager government that exists is led by those who are most proficient with their psionic abilities, as no one has any reason to challenge their authority.

ORLA is a gas giant in the Terris system.  The hypnotic patterns of its swirling color bands have always attracted the attention of stargazers there, and those with the means to do so have found themselves drawn to personally visit Orla.  Once there, those most susceptible to Orla's influence actually take up permanent residence, orbiting endlessly and writing poetry about it.  These people are uniformly assessed as being incurably insane, but their poetry is so hauntingly beautiful that the people of Terris lovingly support them.  Supply ships crewed by staid and sober-minded individuals bring the poets food and other necessities, and return to Terris with more books of Orlan verse.

DEINSTE is a desert planet with an ecology that is driven by highly-localized random precipitation.  Every day, a different few acres of land receives a generous rainfall, which collects in depressions of the rocky soil to form a temporary oasis.  The fast-growing plant life native to Deinste immediately takes advantage of this moisture to germinate from dormant seeds, flower, and propagate.  All animal life must then chase after these oases in order to survive.  They are aided in this by avian creatures that are usually the first to spot the next downpour and fly towards it with shrieking cries.  The humans who live on Deinste live in mobile fortresses called "stades".  Bowl-shaped and the size of a small village, they move forward on motorized tracks.  If they are able to arrive at their destination before the rain stops, it will fill the bottom of the stade, so habitation begins at a higher level.  Deinsters are a throroughly caste-oriented society.  If your father was a front-track-maintenance-technician, that is your job as well.  Careful management of population growth is therefore essential, with discreet adoptions taking place when absolutely necessary.

LULLINGSTONE is a beautiful and temperate planet, a literal garden.  Some of its places are even more wondrous than the generally prevailing splendor -- towering waterfalls, fathomless crystal caves, and rainbow-hued canyons.  These have been walled off as the personal preserves of the planet's elite, whose sense of superiority is visibly expressed in their ridiculously large hairstyles.  One is not considered truly powerful unless one is practically incapacitated by an enormous pile of hair that one can scarcely lift.  The remainder of the population is content, though, to enjoy the rest of the planet, and let the 1% enjoy their superiority in their beautiful castles.

VENTURA is wracked by storms, which are thankfully (and curiously) confined to particular corridors that criss-cross the planet's surface.  Hence the storms effectively divide Ventura into regions that can never safely interact with one another.  The one thing that inhabitants of all the regions want is a very rare substance, Paraíbite, that unfortunately (and curiously) can only be found in the most stormy areas.  Paraíbite unlocks powerful mental abilities, which have naturally been weaponized by the Venturans in their never-ending wars between neighboring regions.  The rarity of actually seeing a foreign Venturan does not stop them from hating each other.

SUNDERLAND is a fully-urbanized planet that is dominated by competing corporations.  Through some fluke of societal development, what they mostly compete at is the invention of increasingly vulgar devices.  Life on Sunderland revolves around its frequent holidays and their "pranking ceremonies".  Status is earned by personally humiliating one's neighbors, using novel equipment that supersedes any previously seen.  The corporations cleverly target their advertisements so that everyone somehow manages to purchase such pranking kits.