Foepae was one of the first planets visited and settled by explorers. Fairly centrally located in the system, Foepae was used as a transport hub, where travelers could change their route or find transport to new destinations. As the transport facilities grew, so did businesses and temporary housing to cater to the travelers. Eventually, this gave rise to cities and mineral extraction. However, being rather small in size, and discovered so early on in The Sovereignty's history, most of the mineable goods are now gone. 

Humans are unable to live well on the surface. It is too cold, with ice and snow covering the planet. However, civilization found a foothold by digging deep below the surface.  Not only were minerals available to mine, but the temperature was warmer. In current times, Foepae is filled with settlements built deep underground in the old mining tunnels and caves. 

The same factors that made Foepae a good transport origination point also increased its attractiveness to traders. Before the trade stations were built, many trading companies would utilize Foepae as a warehouse of sorts for their goods, as this limited the longest trade routes into more manageable segments. Although a few trade stations are in a logistically superior position in The Sovereignty, traders who desire to avoid the corruption of the trade stations still frequent Foepae. Because of this, most trade associations have some presence on the planet. 

There are a collection of cities built under the surface of Foepae and each of them were run independently for a long time. Eventually, when they needed to build more infrastructure and interconnected transport systems, the cities decided to form a federation and elect planet-wide leadership. Each city has local leaders, who are elected by the citizens of the city, then the local leaders choose who will serve as the Prime-Minister of Foepae. The largest cities in Foepae are Turgne, Glastiel, and Rokadoe. These major cities are estimated to each have more than 2.5 million people living in them, leaving the rest of the population spread out in very small settlements. There is nothing on the surface of Foepae, except for landing platforms and elevators that transport ships to and from the surface.