Torfa was a planet located in a system on the outskirts of the territory of the Spartax Empire.[1] It housed a deposit of Vibranium, which used to be mined by the planet's former inhabitants, the Torfans. Roughly two hundred years into the past, their archaic mining methods contaminated the groundwater, resulting in the Torfans' near-extinction. Little became known of the Torfans except for their fate, and since the only survivors were those who fled, Torfa became known as a "poison planet."[2]
Following the Builder War and on behalf of the Galactic Council, King J'Son of Spartax volunteered Torfa to relocate relocate refugees whose planets had been destroyed by the Builders,[2][1] Refugees from at least five alien races, including the Argen, the Nowlanians and the Sentimault, travelled to Torfa to build a new home for themselves as the Federated Settlers of Torfa.[3]
When King J'Son learned that there was Vibranium on Torfa, he planned to use it to rebuild his decimated battlefleet. Unwilling to pay the settlers for it, J'Son instead coerced some of the Sentimault refugees into secretly mining the Vibranium and hired the Haffensye to smuggle the extracted ore away from Torfa. However, since J'Son insisted on receiving the Vibranium as quickly as possible, the Sentimault were forced to use the unsafe old technique which poisoned the settlers.[3] The settlers realized that the illness was caused by a poison,[4] but the addition of radiation altered the symptoms enough to prevent them from identifying it as Vibranium sickness.[3]
Unaware of the true cause of this new plague, the Galactic Council intended to displace the settlers again but they didn't have enough ships to move them all and the settlers refused to leave their sick behind.[2] For his part, J'Son wanted to get the settlers off the planet before his illegal mining operation could be discovered so he issued an ultimatum to the elected leader of the settlers, Madame Eleanides, giving them three days to choose one thousand of the youngest and healthiest to be evacuated and resettled elsewhere. The rest would be left to die, killed by Spartax forces that he was sending to the planet.[1]
Before the forced evacuation could take place, Captain Marvel and her allies found out about the Vibranium extraction and that it was the cause of the plague.[3] Using this information, Madame Eleanides managed to trick J'Son into admitting his actions during a private conversation, and broadcast it to the Haffensye ships across the galaxy. With his activities exposed and the Vibranium mine having been destroyed by Captain Marvel, J'Son was forced to recall the Spartax forces.[5]
Settler City