The tan/gray world of Xalandra is a large resource when it comes to electronics and computer components, as it is a large supplier of silica and silicon-based products. There is a single large industrial city, Zaebard, on the planet's surface. The rest of the planet is desolate, and marred by steep hills and canyons. During Xalandra's storm season, wicked winds blow silt and sand across the landscape at speeds of up to eighty miles per hour. Surface temperatures are normally comfortable, though the temperature drops dramatically when Xalandra IX is caught in the shadow of its gas giant, a time that colonists refer to as "the Gloom."
The Xalandra Kaeron are undoubtedly the best slicers in the sector, and their reach stretches as far away as some of the core worlds. Even amongst their brothers and sisters in the syndicate, they are pariahs, relating better to computers and droids than they do to people of flesh and blood. It is this kinship with computers that has made them one of the wealthiest Kaeron families in the sector. The syndicate routinely calls upon the Xalandra Kaeron to do their special kind of magic, and the information that flows from their terminals and data spikes is as precious a commodity as ore, narcotics, or contraband weapons.
The Xalandran wastes, as inhospitable as they are, are home to a wide variety of life forms, including the much-maligned Zurds. Zurds are an intelligent species of warm-blooded, avian reptiles who haunt the wastelands. The fractious Zurd tribes are constantly locked in low-intensity warfare that, by some accounts, has lasted for centuries. They keep to themselves most of the time, though a few tribes have made overtures of peace to the human colonists, ostensibly to gain the upper hand in their own tribal conflicts. While they have been given a terrible reputation as bloodthirsty savages, there have only been a handful of human deaths documented wherein Zurds were directly involved.
One interesting thing about Xalandra IX is that intense storms occasionally uncover ruins quite similar to those found on Yavin IV. Unfortunately, the storms bury the ruins just as quickly as they uncover them, and research into these discoveries has been difficult to perform. Several teams of Imperial archaeologists have recently landed on Xalandra IX in an effort to excavate several possible sites. Using satellite imaging and advanced techniques, it is only a matter of time before these teams make progress in their mission.