✾ Aura, a Lady.

(See some fiction set in the spiral at nanoswarm.space.)

Edit: Added Cerigo Station as well.

Culture	Pitch	Fun Facts	Location
The First Civilization (“the Civis”)	The Civis is the ultrafascist cadre that has conquered most habitable space in the spiral. It fashions itself the true descendant of the ancients who first broke into this universe, and believes that by bathing into condensed nanoswarm its best and brightest can destroy their ego and commune with the hidden plan — or ‘will’ — of the ancients themselves. Actually just an excuse to allow their most unhinged behavior to come to the fore.	·•· Aesthetic: Latin, but they don’t know what anything means. White and gold everywhere. ·•· Obsessed with altering, coopting and destroying history for their ends. ·•· Three-part name indicates clientelage and the possibility to raise to military officer or hierarch status: “Xaveria Savvii Legata”, “Marium Tertium Martenerum”. Military careers are, though, kept separate from hierarchic ascension. ·•· There is no real system of government — some hierarchs run a council, but the nanoaugmented Technarchs’ word is the only true law. ·•· Has forced all its citizens into ancient-inspired arcologies with various excuses to keep them separated from the ambient nano. ·•· Enormous Stations float through the spiral, essentially palaces for the Technarchs at the top of the food chain.	Maintains a stranglehold on the Center, First and Second conjunctions — three fifths of the spiral — and only recently was pushed back out of having conquered most of the Third by a coalition hijacked by the Bloc.
The Alliance of the Outer Spires (“the Bloc”)	Ultracapitalist military pact led by the Hydran Republic, built by rich proto-Civic escapees who ran away a couple centuries prior to present day. Had a key role in pushing the Civis out of the Third, but has expanded its influence into policing and strong-arming the Third (esp. the Silean plate) into becoming a cheap source of labor and resources.	·•· Aesthetic: Ultracorpo cyberpunk in all its terrible glory. ·•· Inherent mistrust of ancient technology, favored by the Civis, pushes a bustling military research sector. ·•· Policy is set with an iron fist by the “Shadow Bloc” — a network of ultraconsolidates, paramilitary outfits and for-profit government licensees. ·•· In peacetime, Hydran military and PMCs police the Third, whether the societies of the Third want it or not.	True center of government is on Hydran Isola (between the Third and the Fourth), but the habitable isolas of the Fourth are nominally in the alliance and, as coopted states, provide a class of citizens that, while still exploited, believes itself better than Third foreigners.
The FIS (“Federation of Independent States” or “Federation of Independent Societies”)	Large-tent leftist coalition of societies all the way across from the hard left to the centre-left. Its mostly-volunteer army, the Red Flight, is incredibly effective for its small size, and it now surveils the only good access to the Third, making it a key early-warning system against attacks from the superpowers across the Conjunction. In exchange for the Flight and coordinated resource sharing, painstaking negotiation at the inter-societies Council guarantees its members free movement, shelter and sustenance regardless of provenance or occupation status, welfare and universal health care, and much more.	·•· Aesthetic: as varied and incredible as the variety we enjoy here on Earth. People in Council roles love to appear dressed in their ’Sunday best’ — elegantly, but in line with the fashion of their originating culture. ·•· Many pre-ancient societies with long traditions persevere in the FIS umbrella. ·•· Provides an enviable standard of living unmatched by most other societies in the Third. ·•· The coalition is never taken for granted — hard pushes — both from capitalist social-democracies that bristle at the central redistribution of resources and from anarchist representatives unhappy at how statelike the FIS can be — require tense, continuous negotiations whose outcome is always in doubt.	Mostly located on the “Pathward belly” of the Third — the cylinder around the Path at the center of the spiral. The seat of government at the Council is on neutral ground, an otherwise mostly uninhabited spot of land renamed Union Isola.
The Coast of Stars	The inward edge of the Silean plate has ‘broken’ nanoswarm gravitation — there are almost no gravity edge effects, allowing vessels to ‘dock’ without being pushed away and people to just walk from and to ships without landing them. The unique conformation and the simple in-and-out allowed piracy to flourish, and pirate, pearling and commercial communities were barely turning into a loose nation when the Silean plate became the frontline of the worst Civic-Bloc battles of the war. After liberation, the Bloc facilitiated the entire coast becoming a single State friendly to local Bloc forward bases, but many of the inhabitants still retain the independent streak of their pirate forebears.	·•· Aesthetic: quiet, warm and Mediterranean, inhabited by people of either few words, or too many — with few suspicions, or too many. ·•· There is no sea past the Coast — only stars — but it sure looks like the pearlers dive when they suit up and descend under the plate to find the characteristic local strain of armour cores. ·•· Coast dwellers speak Coastal, an unholy mashup of French, Corsican, Sardinian and Esperanto. ·•· The main inward port of La Chez hosts the Houses of Aid, mutual-aid companies that are the support network that the national government of northern L’Ancienne does not provide. Coastals say "A'un littu pe tous à La Chez", or: at La Chez, there's a bed for everyone. ·•· The city of Voleurs in the south is divided into hospitali or wards, each headed by the descendants by blood or adoption of a specific historical pirate crew.	The inward coast of the Silean plate, sandwiched between the gravitation anomaly at one edge and the Mount Gyre Range at the other.
The Ascent Nation	Hundreds of years ago, tradition says, Coastal settlers were pushed inward by continued pirate raids into the toxic soil and harsh low-temperature environments of the Mount Gyre Range. The early Ascenters began the climb, sharing lines, paths, knowledge and resources — and eventually building a secular but reverential respect for all these aspects of their long exodus. Once they reached the top of Mount Gyre, just outside the atmosphere, they founded the Skytouch habitat, which soon turned into the most respected university of the spiral and the first real Ascenter city-like settlement.	·•· Aesthetic: it is only at Skytouch that the warm and heavy climbing gear, and the respirators that filter the toxic dust from the mountain soil, are taken off for simpler clothes. ·•· Ascenters have two surnames — a climbline followed by a family name (e.g.: Eleanor Thornthorpe-Swan, Sophie Bell-Orozco). Climblines represent knowledge shared, and are inherited from master to apprentice, from professor to student. ·•· After reaching the summit, Ascenters have launched research ships, never really stopping their climb. “Every generation”, says the proverb, “we rise higher”. ·•· On the mountainside, Ascenter communities are very small, and sometimes have to rely on courageous couriers passing messages, resources and news up and down the climb. These enclaves are often small enough to make direct democracy viable. ·•· Sharing is an unspoken requirement of Ascenter life. Hoarding is punishable by exile, and the climb to other communities can often be hard enough to dissuade the greedy. ·•· Ascenters are not a unified State by any means. Skytouch faculty — especially the polsci department — often ends up being the ones to field calls that other governments would route to their foreign policy ministries.	Ascenters have instituted myriad small communities all over the Mount Gyre Range, especially on Mount Gyre, the tallest mountain on the spiral — tall enough to clear the nanoswarm-produced atomsphere. The highest-concentrated group of Ascenters is in the Skytouch University habitat at the summit.
The Sacred Nation of the Flag Profound	The most recent nation on the Silean plate was a handful of communities on the outward side of the plate who jealously guarded the unusual abundance of rare minerals and exotic nanoswarm-soil congeals in their own soil, practicing an activity that is rare across the spiral: mining. The conveniently dug soil turned out to be just perfect for building the catacombs of an outplate cult built around a synchretism of multiple religions of pre-ancient descent. Once moving en masse in the region, the cult soon made enough converts to obtain and maintain religious and temporal power in the entire region. They tell a simple story: just like the First Saints they venerate, everyone should strive to be, in this life or the next, someone worthy of being recognized as a Living Saint, finding perfection in the place the cosmos has given them in life: and, conveniently, the cosmos's place for the local miners always seems, for some reason, to always lie lower than that of the established clergy.	·•· Aesthetic: harsh living conditions make for simple clothes, easy to repair, simple gowns and trousers and overalls. Few have the simple but more refined livery of a pastor, or the stiff but warmer uniform of a Sacred Guard. ·•· The symbol of the cult is a wooden cross held diagonally, angled as it was “when it was put by the cosmos upon the shoulders of the First Saint”. It is usually worn on a string that holds one of the extremities of the shorter beam. ·•· Cultic control has organized and expanded the mining operations in the region, turning what was an environment full of life into a wasteland pockmarked by strip-mining. ·•· The Flag takes its name from a sacred shroud, touched by someone they describe as “the Saint among the First Saints”. They have a vow to keep it safe under the earth as much and as long as possible. ·•· Miner discontent occurs more often than anyone would admit, but a complex system of calculated ostracism pushes people to avoid rocking the boat when they stray farther from cultic tenet. ·•· The city of Vate Sancta, de-facto capital, is often referred to as ‘The Golden City’ because of the lavish decoration of cult buildings.	While the local government claims control all over the outward portion of the Silean plate, comprising all the land past the end of the Mount Gyre Range, the communities outside the larger cities are spotty and many areas are entirely depopulated.
Zenithers	The unique conformation of the Third sees isolas float much farther off the notional edge of the spiral than in other Conjunctions. Far from the protective stratum of ambient nano, navigation becomes hard and the land is exposed to the exotic effects of the universe beyond the spiral; whether it’s the chance for miners, gatherers or pearlers collecting exotic matter and newly budded armour cores, or the safety of being out of reach of all but the most determined vessels, or the privacy afforded by the faraway space to those who find themselves in need to disappear, there is enough space at the spiral zenith for anyone who knows how to withstand the harsh conditions and keep their hardened suit and oxygen reserve working at all times.	·•· Aesthetic: Most people in the spiral own a suit, a skintight garment that they use when there is a possibility they could be exposed to turbulent conditions and edge effects off the border of an isola, nanoreinforced and able to survive short stints into the nano-laced quasivacuum. But it is only at the zenith that the suits come to have full oxygen reserve and shielding, having to work with no ambient nano supoport, making them closer to what we’d recognize as spacesuits. ·•· The midway portions of the zenith, far from the harsher areas fully out on the zenither edge, is an ideal area for port of calls for more secluded communities: agrarian enclaves trading with the farther outposts, Outer Cult waystations for the faithful who cannot yet afford a trip through to the Fourth, or mercenary outfits that need easily defensible ports with enough space for their vessels and armours. ·•· The true glue of the zenith are the traveler communities, whose heirloom hand-built vessels are built to withstand passage even across the most dense portions of the Isola Field; their caravan is often happy to move cargo or occasional passengers. ·•· Just as important the repeaters, operated by those few who thrive in the extended isolation of the void, acting as data relays and batch transmitters keeping the news going through to the farthest corners of the Third Conjunction.	The spiral revolves around the quasi-superluminary Path at its notional center, swelling from it at the start and retracting to it at the end of each Conjunction. The zenith is the farthest point where the spiral of isolas reaches, far away from the Path, at the true outer layer of the spiral; in the Third, not only the density is unusual and extending past the prescribed path — almost every corner of this abundance is absolutely littered with zenither enclaves.
Cerigo Station	The most recent power in the spiral came directly from Civic space: it wasn’t long after the war was over that a single station passed into the Third from Aerean Isola and the Second. Every single force in the Conjunction was on high alert, thinking it the dangerous ouverture of a ruthless Technarch and preparing for new hostilities… but the station had weapons down, with the personal legion of the Technarch inside having seemingly rebelled and left of their own accord. Twenty years later, Cerigo Station has found a stable location in the spiral just a little ways above Skytouch, looming high above the Silean plate; its inhabitants still wary and secluded, playing all sides in a bid to maintain their independence and offering their services as sellswords with the formidable training of the Civic military. No one knows what happened to the Technarch they were supposed to serve, and none of the reclusive inhabitants of the station is eager to share.	·•· Aesthetic: Black bands, stripes and panels break the white and replace the gold of their old Civic paraphernalia, a combination that has become a signal to other outfits to run away fast. ·•· No outsider is welcome on Cerigo. All negotiations and trades with outsiders occur on separate vessels; only a handful are ever adopted into the legion, whether lovers of the station inhabitants, or champions who have demonstrated they have the prowess to match the legion’s trained officers… or, most often, both. ·•· The station is much emptier than it should be, with little in the way of civilian staff. Whispers abound that the Cerigo elders ordered a purge of any Civic loyalists in their midst just before leaing the Fourth. ·•· The three women that run the station, the “elders” — highest-grade amongst all Cerigo officers — are in a tumultuous and incandescent hate-love relationship, where duels to first blood aren’t uncommon, and no less cherished than other intimacy.	The station itself stopped somewhat close to the Silean plate, with Skytouch being the closest port. Ascenters and Cerigoans enjoy a tense but cordial relationship.