Wanisin is a land of staggering beauty and contrast: at its most sophisticated, the planet is home to towering skyscrapers of glass and steel, peopled by shrewd aristocrats of immense wealth and wisdom who trade in cultural artifacts and innovations envied throughout the Expanse. But turn the spyglass only slightly, and the observer is certain to notice that this nobility is a paranoid one, dressed in heavy, plated armor and never without a poison-tipped blade, ready at any moment to plunge into the back of a rival.

In the streets below, lined with simple stone houses that rise out of the dense, jungle-like wetlands, people know nothing of these strange struggles in the glass towers. They live day to day in the duties of their castes, bearing professions that at best would suggest a medieval society—many little more than peasants. Few have seen nobles, and are more likely instead to be familiar with the words of important mystics, who may range in credibility from the most serious, factual scholars to the worst, fortune-telling charlatans.

Indeed, if it were not for the presence of shuttlecraft overhead and laser-wielding soldiers guarding important buildings, one might be very inclined to mistake Wanisin for an entirely far less developed world.