Location: Epsilon Ceti system, Beta Quadrant

Moon(s): 3

Dominant Species: Risian, various Federates

Population: 2.81 billion Risans, and up to 1.3 billion tourists at any one time

Capital: Nuvia

Gravity: 1.0 G

 

Risa relies on mostly automated systems to make the stay of their guests as simple and as pleasurable as possible. If those automated systems fail, Risa would be in jeopardy. Before the introduction of automated technology, Risa, in its natural state, was a paradise. Risa, having become dependent on technology, then became an illusion of the paradise it once was. There were those who wanted to return Risa to its natural state, however, Risa had been unstable for centuries. Technology stabilized Risa's atmospheric and meteorological state with tectonic equipment to keep it from sliding over the edge.

Tourism
Risa is famous throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants as a place of tourism and recreation, and is referred to as a "pleasure planet." It got that reputation because of its constant, stable climate, its attractive landscapes, and most of all, its very friendly staff. Its native species, notorious for their open sexual mores, number approximately three billion, and the planet hosts about one billion tourists at any given time.

Many resorts on Risa also house gambling casinos, one of which is the Midas Casino.

History
Risa was first visited by Humans and Starfleet in 2152 when the Enterprise (NX-01) arrived at the planet and several crew members took shore leave. Those crew members included Captain Jonathan Archer, Ensigns Hoshi Sato and Travis Mayweather, Commander Charles Tucker and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed.

At this early date, although Risa was a warm and pleasant Class M world it still was not the lush tropical paradise that it would later become. The planet was often subject to frequent storms and its three moons created tectonic strains which made it geologically unstable. The Risian themselves were often found in small, isolated groups with limited technology and oral histories which cited how their ancestral settlements had often been destroyed by the gods.

Risa was admitted into the Federation in 2249.

In April 2260, the art gallery of the Midas Casino was burgled. The crime was unsolved as of August 2267.

There was little interest in Risa until the turn of the 24th century, when a man named Arlo Leyven came to Risa. In life, his past and means of arrival were a mystery; rumors persisted that he was affiliated with the Orion Syndicate and that he had crashed on the planet while trying to escape the law. Later investigation after his death confirmed them as all true.

Leyven had a vision for the planet, as the premiere vacation destination for the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. To this end he obtained hefty loans from the Orion Syndicate and invested them into technology that would stabilize the climate and seismic activity to within habitable bounds and transforming it into a paradise in less than a decade. In 2313, Leyven officially opened Croesus' Palace, which became the planet's principle resort for decades, and popular through the Federation. Leyvan grew wealthy off tourism and Risian real estate, but not wealthy enough to pay his debts. Finally, in 2317 when his Syndicate partners suspected him of taking a slice of their share of the profits, they had him assassinated in his penthouse suite.

Regardless, in the decades following, more reputable individuals and corporations took over Risa's tourism trade and it lost its Orion-dominated image. However, rumors continued that the Orions maintained involvement through under-the-table business partnerships and controlling the workers' unions.

Over the next few decades, Risa would become a location for several dubious and noteworthy events in the Federation's history. In 2366, two Vorgans from the 27th century arrived on Risa and were searching for a device known as the Tox Uthat which was suppose to be able to stop the fusion process occurring within a star. The Vorgans approached Captain Jean-Luc Picard who was vacationing on the planet at the time and claimed that history recorded him as discovering the device on Risa. In 2368, a Ktarian agent on Risa offered Commander William T. Riker a game, which although seemingly harmless, was intended to gain control of Starfleet.

In 2376, Risa was listed as the host location of a current or past marathon.

Geography
Years of tectonic activity resulted in the planet's surface being fragmented into ten small continents, all about the same size, and all located around the equator. As for the climate, Risa has warm temperatures and tropical humidity tempered by mild breezes and light rains. The planet has two very small ice caps which gave it a hint of natural coldness.

Bodies of water
Northern Ocean
Southern Ocean
Sea of Partheous
Leyven Sea

Settlements
Nuvia - the capital city
Hanotis Harbor
Suraya Bay
Temtibi Lagoon
New Atlantis
Sunset Acres

Points of interest
El Dorado Hotel and Vacation Resort
Tolari Tower
Malone Towers
Catona Bluff
Crystal Ranch
Croesus' Palace
Grasha's Resort
Straight of Andre
Montasmery Cove
Central Weather Control
Monagas Peninsula, one of the more popular regions on the planet. The largest resort in the Monagas Peninsula is the Sheltered Arms resort.