The jungle planet Kitomer (or Qi'tomer, as its Klingon controllers have named it) stands apart from other M-class worlds in two regards. The first distinguishing factor is its plant life. It is rare for a class-M planet to have as much vegetation as Kitomer. Despite some notable climatic extremes, photosynthetic life is everywhere. It covers the highest and lowest altitudes, it is present in the polar regions, and it even covers a large percent of the oceans (though it isn't visible from orbit).

The second distinguishing factor is wholly political. With the destruction of the Klingon industrial moon Praxis, the Klingon empire faced extinction. It could not support its military campaigns against the United Federation of Planets without the support of the Praxis installations. Ironically, this disaster paved the way to greatness for the Empire. Kitomer was to be the planet where the Klingon Empire would hold diplomatic meetings (the Kitomer accords) and reach an uneasy peace with the United Federation of Planets.