Wiki / The world
The zones
Fifty-three places on fourteen stars - a middle nobody owns, three Compact spines running inward from it, and a common ladder running out past the last page.
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. Every zone is also a site around one body of one of fourteen stars, and two zones that share a body and a depth are one flight apart, across a seam - the stars.
| Kind | Holds | Never holds |
|---|---|---|
| Home | the Compact’s Citadel, a Trade port and an Arms post; 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; in a Compact’s sector, its Sentinel | 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) × 5. Threat 1 asks nothing; threat 10 asks level 45. Belts, homes and ports ask nothing. How the chart shows a lock, ranks.
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. All four are sites of one ring around Cinder, a white dwarf, so you fly between them.
| Zone | Kind | Threat | Min level | For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cinder Belt | Belt | - | - | the shared field; the Freeports Middlemark (trade) and Meridian Post (mining) |
| The Tailings | Belt | - | - | the hauler’s field: fewer, bigger rocks, no drums |
| The Scrape | Sector | 3 | 10 | the first neutral fight |
| The Assay | Port | - | - | a wreck field with the Freeport 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.
Every spine crosses three stars. The nearest the Cinder holds depths 1–2, the middle one depths 3–4, and the home star holds Home and Shallows on the home world and Foundry Yard and Shallows Drift on a giant further out. Tin Hollow holds the Compact’s own Shipyard as well as its Sentinel. Every sector a Compact owns has a Sentinel; only that Compact’s pilots berth there.
Concord - the Registry
Stars: Curfew (depths 1–2), Vesper (3–4), Noon (home). Citadel Hall of Record, Trade port Cauldwell Exchange, Arms post Vance Armoury; Shipyard Brandt Slipways in Tin Hollow.
| Zone | Kind | Threat | Min level | Sentinel | For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concord Home | Home | - | - | - | seat of the Registry; gun logs still blank |
| Concord Shallows | Belt | - | - | - | the nursery field, every rock assayed; Alder Weighbridge |
| Concord Shallows Drift | Sector | 1 | - | Folio 12 | training lane, slow traffic has right of way |
| Concord Foundry Yard | Sector | 1 | - | Folio 11 | smelters on schedule; everything inventoried, including you |
| Concord Quiet Verge | Sector | 2 | 5 | Folio 22 | patrolled hourly; incidents this quarter: none |
| Concord Tin Hollow | Sector | 3 | 10 | Folio 21 | worked ground; thin seams, thorough paperwork; Brandt Slipways |
| Concord Belt | Belt | - | - | - | claim field 2, mining by permit; Verity Assay |
| Concord Overcut | Sector | 4 | 15 | Folio 32 | the permits ran ahead of the survey |
| Concord Broken Span | Sector | 4 | 15 | Folio 42 | a collapsed pre-Cinder gate ring, registered as a hazard |
| Concord Ash Run | Sector | 5 | 20 | Folio 41 | convoy lane; loitering is noted |
| Concord Iron Shoal | Sector | 6 | 25 | Folio 52 | frontier; escort service suspended pending review |
| Concord Long Watch | Sector | 6 | 25 | Folio 51 | frontier; garrison writ ends here |
Sepulchre - the Kindred
Stars: Farewell (depths 1–2), Kerf (3–4), Elder (home). Citadel The Carved House, Trade port The Laying Ground, Arms post Vigil House; Shipyard Maren’s Ring in Tin Hollow.
| Zone | Kind | Threat | Min level | Sentinel | 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 | - | Olin’s Cairn | first flights, watched by everyone who ever flew |
| Sepulchre Foundry Yard | Sector | 1 | - | Gerd’s Cairn | where hulls are made ready to carry their crews |
| Sepulchre Quiet Verge | Sector | 2 | 5 | Isak’s Cairn | kept quiet for the young |
| Sepulchre Tin Hollow | Sector | 3 | 10 | Rikke’s Cairn | worked by four generations; their cuts are still true; Maren’s Ring |
| Sepulchre Belt | Belt | - | - | - | our field; the rock remembers who cut it; Tekla’s Post |
| Sepulchre Overcut | Sector | 4 | 15 | Senna’s Cairn | cut too deep and left open |
| Sepulchre Broken Span | Sector | 4 | 15 | Tove’s Cairn | a gate the old world built; let it rest |
| Sepulchre Ash Run | Sector | 5 | 20 | Oddny’s Cairn | the mourning road; say a name at the first marker |
| Sepulchre Iron Shoal | Sector | 6 | 25 | Brenn’s Cairn | frontier; iron the ancestors never reached |
| Sepulchre Long Watch | Sector | 6 | 25 | Ulla’s Cairn | frontier; the outer vigil |
Ashaari - the Concern
Stars: Hedge (depths 1–2), Accrual (3–4), Prospectus (home). Citadel The Trust, Trade port The Concourse, Arms post Underwriters’ Bond; Shipyard Aster Holdings in Tin Hollow.
| Zone | Kind | Threat | Min level | Sentinel | 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 | - | Surety PR-2 | starter berths at introductory rates |
| Ashaari Foundry Yard | Sector | 1 | - | Surety PR-1 | refinery row: ore in, credit out |
| Ashaari Quiet Verge | Sector | 2 | 5 | Surety AC-2 | a quiet holding, priced for it |
| Ashaari Tin Hollow | Sector | 3 | 10 | Surety AC-1 | low-margin seams; the deed is cheap; Aster Holdings |
| Ashaari Belt | Belt | - | - | - | leased rock, working assets; Margin Post |
| Ashaari Overcut | Sector | 4 | 15 | Surety AC-3 | overcut, off the books |
| Ashaari Broken Span | Sector | 4 | 15 | Surety HG-4 | a dead gate ring, not worth the tow |
| Ashaari Ash Run | Sector | 5 | 20 | Surety HG-3 | toll-free transit lane; the tolls are further in |
| Ashaari Iron Shoal | Sector | 6 | 25 | Surety HG-2 | frontier; high-yield lots, buyer assumes all risk |
| Ashaari Long Watch | Sector | 6 | 25 | Surety HG-1 | 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 - a Freeport - is always on the Face. Four stars carry it: Headframe, Rust, Plumb (a black hole) and Trommel (a pulsar).
| Zone | Kind | Threat | Min level | Star | For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cutwater | Sector | 5 | 20 | Headframe | the ladder’s first rung |
| The Hangfire | Sector | 6 | 25 | Headframe | its Deep: a charge that never went off |
| Rusthook Drift | Sector | 7 | 30 | Rust | The Hook (arms) |
| Carrion Shoal | Sector | 8 | 35 | Rust | where wrecks drift ashore |
| The Lathe | Sector | 8 | 35 | Rust | The Bed (mining) |
| Gallows Reach | Sector | 9 | 40 | Rust | named for what hangs here |
| Ashfall | Sector | 9 | 40 | Plumb | The Weighbridge (trade) |
| Ninefold | Sector | 10 | 45 | Plumb | nine survey runs, nine charts |
| Salt Wake | Sector | 10 | 45 | Plumb | The Last Yard (shipyard) |
| Last Ledger | Sector | 10 | 45 | Plumb | the deepest page anyone has written on |
| The Windrow | Sector | 10 | 45 | Trommel | the last patrol on the ladder, in a ridge of pushed spoil |
| The Dross | Port | - | - | Trommel | The Sump (arms): last door on the map |
| The Overburden | Belt | - | - | Trommel | 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.