The zones

The map is 53 zones in four kinds. A zone is a volume with a wall around it; what is inside is decided by its kind, and the kind is on the chart before you go.

Kind	Holds	Never holds
Home	a shipyard, a trade port, an arms wing; where its Compact’s pilots spawn	rock, a patrol
Belt	a rock field with a Mining post at its edge	a patrol
Sector	a Fallow patrol, four hulls per point of threat; PvP	rock
Port	a station and a door - no rock, no patrol, no fight	-

A sector’s threat band is also its level gate: (threat − 1) × 10. Threat 1 asks nothing; threat 10 asks level 90. Belts, homes and ports ask nothing. How the chart shows a lock.

The middle

The Cinder Belt sits at depth zero: everyone’s claim, nobody’s ground, the biggest field in the game, and never a battlefield. Around it, walls touching, a ring of three.

Zone	Kind	Threat	Min level	For
Cinder Belt	Belt	-	-	the shared field; Kepler Yard (trade) and Meridian Post (mining)
The Tailings	Belt	-	-	the hauler’s field: fewer, bigger rocks, no drums
The Scrape	Sector	3	20	the first neutral fight
The Assay	Port	-	-	a wreck field with Halden Depot (arms) standing in it

A Compact’s spine

Each Compact’s territory is one line from the middle inward, seven depths. Depth one is the frontier - the hardest thing a Compact owns and the first thing an invader meets; depth seven is home. Depth is the protection: a beginner’s Shallows stands behind six rungs of its own empire. Two zones can share a depth; there is no way around one.

Read from home outward, the ladder every Compact climbs is: Home → Shallows → Shallows Drift / Foundry Yard (1) → Quiet Verge (2) / Tin Hollow (3) → Belt / Overcut (4) → Broken Span (4) / Ash Run (5) → Iron Shoal / Long Watch (6) → the Cinder Belt. The three spines carry the same rungs under their own names; what differs is the voice on arrival.

Concord - the Registry

Zone	Kind	Threat	Min level	For
Concord Home	Home	-	-	seat of the Registry; three counters, gun logs still blank
Concord Shallows	Belt	-	-	the nursery field, every rock assayed; Alder Weighbridge
Concord Shallows Drift	Sector	1	-	training lane, slow traffic has right of way
Concord Foundry Yard	Sector	1	-	smelters on schedule; everything inventoried, including you
Concord Quiet Verge	Sector	2	10	patrolled hourly; incidents this quarter: none
Concord Tin Hollow	Sector	3	20	worked ground; thin seams, thorough paperwork
Concord Belt	Belt	-	-	claim field 2, mining by permit; Verity Assay
Concord Overcut	Sector	4	30	the permits ran ahead of the survey
Concord Broken Span	Sector	4	30	a collapsed pre-Cinder gate ring, registered as a hazard
Concord Ash Run	Sector	5	40	convoy lane; loitering is noted
Concord Iron Shoal	Sector	6	50	frontier; escort service suspended pending review
Concord Long Watch	Sector	6	50	frontier; garrison writ ends here

Sepulchre - the Kindred

Zone	Kind	Threat	Min level	For
Sepulchre Home	Home	-	-	the carved house; every hull that came home is part of it
Sepulchre Shallows	Belt	-	-	the teaching field; the first cut with an inherited torch; Edda’s Bench
Sepulchre Shallows Drift	Sector	1	-	first flights, watched by everyone who ever flew
Sepulchre Foundry Yard	Sector	1	-	where hulls are made ready to carry their crews
Sepulchre Quiet Verge	Sector	2	10	kept quiet for the young
Sepulchre Tin Hollow	Sector	3	20	worked by four generations; their cuts are still true
Sepulchre Belt	Belt	-	-	our field; the rock remembers who cut it; Tekla’s Post
Sepulchre Overcut	Sector	4	30	cut too deep and left open
Sepulchre Broken Span	Sector	4	30	a gate the old world built; let it rest
Sepulchre Ash Run	Sector	5	40	the mourning road; say a name at the first marker
Sepulchre Iron Shoal	Sector	6	50	frontier; iron the ancestors never reached
Sepulchre Long Watch	Sector	6	50	frontier; the outer vigil

Ashaari - the Concern

Zone	Kind	Threat	Min level	For
Ashaari Home	Home	-	-	a thousand cells, all open for business
Ashaari Shallows	Belt	-	-	practice claims, first month’s fees waived; First Stake
Ashaari Shallows Drift	Sector	1	-	starter berths at introductory rates
Ashaari Foundry Yard	Sector	1	-	refinery row: ore in, credit out
Ashaari Quiet Verge	Sector	2	10	a quiet holding, priced for it
Ashaari Tin Hollow	Sector	3	20	low-margin seams; the deed is cheap
Ashaari Belt	Belt	-	-	leased rock, working assets; Margin Post
Ashaari Overcut	Sector	4	30	overcut, off the books
Ashaari Broken Span	Sector	4	30	a dead gate ring, not worth the tow
Ashaari Ash Run	Sector	5	40	toll-free transit lane; the tolls are further in
Ashaari Iron Shoal	Sector	6	50	frontier; high-yield lots, buyer assumes all risk
Ashaari Long Watch	Sector	6	50	frontier; perimeter security, contracted out

The common ladder

Nobody’s ground, running out of the middle between two empires. It carries the top of the difficulty curve, threat 5 to 10, and then three rungs that are not harder than Last Ledger but further from any counter. Each depth is a pair: the Deep stands one band above its Face, and the door is always on the Face.

Zone	Kind	Threat	Min level	For
Cutwater	Sector	5	40	the ladder’s first rung
The Hangfire	Sector	6	50	its Deep: a charge that never went off
Rusthook Drift	Sector	7	60	The Hook (arms)
Carrion Shoal	Sector	8	70	where wrecks drift ashore
The Lathe	Sector	8	70	The Bed (mining post)
Gallows Reach	Sector	9	80	named for what hangs here
Ashfall	Sector	9	80	The Weighbridge (trade)
Ninefold	Sector	10	90	nine survey runs, nine charts
Salt Wake	Sector	10	90	The Last Yard (shipyard)
Last Ledger	Sector	10	90	the deepest page anyone has written on
The Windrow	Sector	10	90	the last patrol on the ladder, in a ridge of pushed spoil
The Dross	Port	-	-	The Sump: last door on the map
The Overburden	Belt	-	-	the deep field: the biggest rocks in the game, and no counter

Rock by field

A field’s rocks are scaled against the table: the Shallows at ×1.00, a Compact’s own Belt ×1.10, the Cinder Belt ×1.20, the Overburden ×1.45 - fewer, bigger, further. Depth buys size, never count. Mining, what patrols the sectors.