Welcome to the Spiral

We were born here, but we're not from here. It's been a millenium since the ancients crossed over into this universe with the nanoswarm in tow, faced the struggles of the Irradiated Zone, and fragmented over that failure. Today, the spiral is full of human life, splintered into cultures embroiled into a long hot-and-cold war — but most of all, it's what the ancients didn't live to see: it's vast, full of habitable space.

This is the spiral. This is where we live.

A schematic map of the spiral. Follow the link to expand, or read below for the full description. — Detailed image description:

The schematic shows a sinusoid spiral, seen from the side; it starts from a hollow dot from the left side, grows, and shrinks back on the axis on a dot labeled '৷'. It does so three more times, at dots labeled 'Ⅱ', 'Ⅲ' and 'Ⅳ'. After dot 'Ⅳ', it grows and then starts shrinking again before interrupting.

The growing and shrinking divides the schematic in five parts, between each pair of dots, including the bit after the last dot to the interruption. Each part has different labeled features, and they are, from left to right:

In the leftmost part, the starting hollow dot is marked ❶ (this is the Center, below). Smaller dots cluster randomly around it; these are the Ancient Graveyard, labelled ❷. A large spherical area centered upon the hollow dot covers most of the area in this first part; this is the Irradiated Zone, labeled ❸. Just outside it, a faint glow starts at the symmetry axis of the spiral; this is the Path, labeled ❹. (The glow continues forward in other parts, interrupting only around dots.) Finally, the dot that delimits this part to the right is labeled: "The First Conjunction: Ignis Isola."

In the first part between two dots, there are no features except for the dot that delimits it to the right. The dot is labeled: "The Second Conjunction: Terra Isola."

In the second part, there is a gray glow interrupting the part diagonally; the Path ends at one side of it and starts again at another, and the notional trajectories of the spiral are hidden by it. This is the Wall, labeled ❺. Two small dots very close to the end are labeled ❻; these are the Inner Plates. Finally, the dot delimiting this part to the right is labeled: "The Third Conjunction: Aerean Isola".

In the third part, the regular trajectory line of the spiral is enveloped by another set of lines, larger than it. These are the Greater Isola Fields, labeled ❼. A single lone dot is in the map three quarters of the way to the end; this is the Silean plate, labeled ❽. The final dot is labeled: "The Fourth Conjunction: Hydra Isola and its moon, Paracelsus."

In the fourth and last part, the phenomenon where the trajectory is enveloped repeats, though the enveloping is much less thick. These are the Lesser Isola Fields. This section has two small dots, the Outer Plates labeled ❾, and a smattering of dots at the end where it interrupts that look to be the source that is drawing the spiral and leaving trajectories in their wake. These are the Pilgrims, at number ❿.

Under the schematic, areas are marked with different colors to indicate different areas of influence:

From the end of the Irradiated Zone to the point labeled with Ⅲ, a light blue strip is labeled “Occupied Territories of the First Civilization”.

From just after Aerean Isola all the way to just before Hydra Isola, a red strip is labeled “The Thousandfold Cultures of Third Conjunction Space”.

From Hydra Isola to halfway through the last portion of the spiral, a peach strip labeled “Alliance of the Outer Spires, or ‘The Bloc’”.

From there to the end, a yellow strip labeled “Domains of the Outer Cults”.

Direction icons are at the bottom. The direction pointing to the Center is labeled “inward”; the opposite direction, “outward”.

❶ The Center. A hole in the world. Our ancestors, the ancients, came to this universe through it. Nanoswarm oozes to this day through the opening. One-way: the few accounts of those who tried say it's impossible to go back, and it's too far and too perilous for most anyone to try, nowadays.
❷ The Ancients’ Graveyard. Vessels and stations, terraformed fragments, failed experiments; ancient technology beyond anything we have today. Torn apart, imploded; dead. No one knows why or how, and no one who’s curious as to why can reach.
❸ The Irradiated Zone. Harmful to attempt to live in; interferes heavily with the nanoswarm's life support, vessel propulsion and terraforming abilities. No isola built here keeps its place: they drift, fall apart. Life here is only possible in arcologies of ancient reckoning, built on any scrap of land that would stay any amount of still.
❹ The Path. A strip of high-energy, hyperexcited nano across the axis of the spiral. Highly trained swarm-singers can negotiate with the nano to enable appeciable-fraction-of-c travel, if they’re careful; their vessel torn apart if they’re not. Gives birth to nanoswarm stars — clusters of excited nano that provide isolas with day-night cycles. Interrupts at every Conjunction: you'll have to fly around, perhaps through whatever defense the locals have deployed.

❺ The Wall. Whatever happened here, it happened recently; it scattered isolas, killed the nano in a vast strip. The Civis won't tell what occurred: it is not for unenlightened foreigners to know, they say. Only voidships — built out of ancient tech that can run without nanoswarm aid — can cross through. All others lose propulsion and control, and are easy prey to Civic defense forces. Yet another interruption in the Path.
❻ The Inner Plates. Isolas as large as continents, anomalies through the spiral. The Inners are solidly in Civic hands, and any information on what happens on them is as scarce to come across as it is that from any other corner of First Civilization space. Briefly threatened by Bloc forces in the last bout of the war before the armistice, when Aerean Isola was taken.

❼ The Greater Isola Fields. No one’s sure why the Pilgrims strayed, but the zenith of the Third extends much farther than the ambient nanoswarm that suffuses the spiral can reach. The extra area is full of small isolas, horrifying to navigate; they make the Path the only reliable way through the Third. Inhabited by tough zenithers despite the hard conditions.
❽ The Silean Plate. The continent-sized isola of Silea is famously divided into three proud, influential countries — the unique Coast of Stars, the survivalist Ascent Nation and the rich, strip-mined state of the Flag Profound — and hosts Mount Gyre, the tallest peak in the spiral.

❾ The Outer Plates. Much smaller than the Inner Plates or Silea, host to the core states of the Bloc beyond the republic on Hydra Isola — much impoverished, as the pancorporations of the Hydran Republic are really the ones to call the shots of Bloc politics.
➓ The Pilgrims. At the edge of the Habitable Zone, the Pilgrims — made of congealed nanoswarm — digest the dead matter of this universe, turn it into isolas in their wake. The spiral pattern is the path they walked, and continue to walk; the Conjunctions the points they meet, to then bloom again. On their way to a Fifth Conjunction.