The Pacific Gyre Driftland

Population

Provisional permanent population of about 1.2 to 1.8 million, plus seasonal and transient populations. This is an in-universe rough estimate, not a census. Distribution (all rough estimates): Core Gyre about 45%, Inner Drift about 25%, agricultural platforms about 15%, Outer Drift about 10%, mobile and seasonal communities about 5%.

North

• Plastic Crown

  • Stable

  The oldest and densest artificial land in the Core Gyre, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas. Built on compacted plastic, bound fishing nets, timber, metal, containers and structural material. It is the part that most resembles ordinary land and its surface is relatively stable. At the perimeter it grades from solid platform to interconnected floating structures, individual platforms, then debris.

  Status: One of the oldest continuously inhabited artificial-land regions, with extremely dense accumulated infrastructure.

  Population: not stated.

• The Crown

  • Stable

  Located within Plastic Crown, not a separate distant place. The oldest continuously inhabited artificial landmass, visibly older than what surrounds it. Built over generations, with older material buried under newer layers and old vessels, containers and foundations showing through. A physical place and an archaeological layer.

  Status: Oldest continuously inhabited artificial landmass; historically important and permanently occupied.

  Population: not stated.

• Little Crown

  • Stable

  A small family settlement associated with Plastic Crown. It sits on the outer, younger edge of the Crown's developed area, where dense artificial land starts to break into smaller floating platforms. Much smaller and more domestic than Gyre Haven.

  Status: Small family settlement associated with the older Plastic Crown region.

  Population: not stated.

Central

• Gyre Haven(also written Gyrehaven)

  • Thriving
  • Approximately 210,000 (rough in-universe figure)

  The largest settlement and principal urban centre, at the central urban position of the Core Gyre. It grew from salvage platforms into one huge interconnected floating city. No conventional coastline: the perimeter is a mix of docks, residential and industrial platforms, moorings, shipyards, walkways, warehouses, smaller platforms and channels. The edge is porous and merges into the Driftland around it.

  Status: Largest settlement and principal commercial, industrial and political centre.

  Held, used or claimed by: Blue Council (shared); Water Authority (controlled infrastructure)

Gyre Haven districts

• Old Hull

  The oldest maritime and structural portion, dense with converted vessels, old platforms and accumulated construction.

• Market Deck

  The commercial heart, positioned where several transport and pedestrian routes converge.

• Lower Works

  The industrial quarter, toward the industrial side of the city and so naturally connected toward Reclaim.

  Held, used or claimed by: Reclaimers (shared)

• Water Quarter

  Located around the city's major freshwater infrastructure. The Water Towers belong here.

  Held, used or claimed by: Water Authority (fully controlled)

• Green District

  Toward the agricultural side of Gyre Haven. It forms the transition between urban development and the Green Fields.

  Held, used or claimed by: Green Network (shared)

• Shipyards

  Located on an outer edge with enough water access for vessels to manoeuvre.

• Solar Heights

  Located toward the Solar Sea and its energy infrastructure.

• Salvage Exchange

  Located within the central commercial and industrial network so recovered materials can enter the wider economy.

• Residential Rings

  Surround the central districts and connect them. Not perfect circles: irregular accumulated residential platform networks.

• Outer Moorings

  Located around the city's outer maritime edge, giving vessels space before they enter the denser city.

West

• Reclaim

  • Thriving
  • Approximately 48,000 (rough in-universe figure)

  The industrial city built almost entirely from recovered materials, on the industrial side of Gyre Haven. It sits between the Scrap Belt and the Core's manufacturing and urban economy: Gyre Haven industrial platforms, then Reclaim, then Reclaim Yards, then the Scrap Belt. It looks more industrial toward its salvage-facing edge.

  Status: Major industrial settlement and centre of recovered-material processing and manufacturing.

  Held, used or claimed by: Reclaimers (fully held)

• Reclaim Yards

  On the side of Reclaim facing the Scrap Belt, where recovered material is processed: sorting areas, machinery, cranes, storage, metal and plastics processing, machinery recovery and structural fabrication.

  Held, used or claimed by: Reclaimers (fully held)

• Scrap Belt

  • Dangerous

  The working salvage region beyond Reclaim. Not a separate island: a broad, irregular field of floating recoverable material, fairly organised near Reclaim and more chaotic further out. Metals, electronics, batteries, cables, tools, plastics, construction material, ship components, machinery, containers and derelict structures. Salvage vessels work throughout. Politically it is contested.

  Status: Economically vital but physically hazardous because of unstable debris, sharp metal, cables, entanglement and unpredictable navigation.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Reclaimers (disputed); Blue Council (operating / contested); Free Sailors (operating / shared)

• Tinwater

  • Strained

  A salvage community associated directly with the Scrap Belt.

  Status: Salvage community operating within a hazardous and unpredictable salvage environment.

  Population: not stated.

• Wreckwater

  • Dangerous

  The major concentration of abandoned and partly submerged vessels. It sits where it can connect to the Scrap Belt's salvage economy but is a more hazardous environment, and far less stable than the Core. Ship hulls, wrecks, masts, containers, cables, submerged vessels and partly collapsed structures.

  Status: Extremely valuable salvage region containing unstable wrecks, submerged vessels, cables and navigation hazards.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Reclaimers (operating / contested); Blue Council (operating); Free Sailors (operating / shared); Deepers (operating)

South

• Green Fields

  • Thriving

  The agricultural side of the Core and Inner Drift, directly adjoining the Green District and extending out from it. Interconnected agricultural platforms, densely developed close in and more dispersed further out. Vegetables, grains where practical, algae, seaweed, aquaculture, hydroponics, greenhouses and water-efficient farming. Ordered, productive and carefully maintained, the opposite of the Scrap Belt.

  Status: Principal agricultural region and one of the most strategically important areas because of food production.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Green Network (fully held); Water Authority (shared)

• Verdant

  • Thriving
  • Approximately 35,000 (rough in-universe figure)

  The largest agricultural community, inside the Green Fields and surrounded by production. Hydroponic systems, aquaculture, algae, seed production, food processing and water infrastructure. Effectively the agricultural heart of the Pacific Gyre.

  Status: Largest agricultural community and major centre of food production.

  Held, used or claimed by: Green Network (fully held)

• Deepwell

  • Thriving

  A desalination and water-processing settlement in the water-management network between the Core and the agricultural infrastructure. Desalination equipment, tanks, pipes, treatment systems, storage and recycling infrastructure.

  Status: Critical desalination and water-processing settlement.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Green Network (shared); Water Authority (fully controlled)

East

• Solar Sea

  • Thriving

  The energy-production side of the Core, directly connected to Solar Heights. Huge numbers of floating photovoltaic platforms, deliberately organised into fields with navigable gaps. From above it is a geometric pattern on the ocean.

  Status: Major electricity-producing region containing extensive photovoltaic infrastructure.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Green Network (shared / dependent)

• Sunward

  • Stable

  A small solar maintenance community embedded within the Solar Sea: worker accommodation, maintenance facilities, electrical infrastructure, repair workshops and access platforms.

  Status: Specialist solar-maintenance community supporting the Solar Sea.

  Population: not stated.

• The Great Array

  One of the largest solar installations, occupying the most extensive organised section of the Solar Sea. Geometric, repetitive, engineered and carefully maintained, as far from the Scrap Belt as the spec can put it.

• Nettleport

  • Thriving
  • Approximately 62,000 (rough in-universe figure)

  A major fishing and maritime settlement on the maritime and fishing side of the Core. Connected to fishing grounds, boat construction, fish markets, marine processing, aquaculture and maritime routes. The surrounding water holds fishing platforms and working vessels.

  Status: Major fishing and maritime settlement with strong fishing, processing and boat-building activity.

  Held, used or claimed by: Blue Council (fully held)

• Bluehook

  • Stable

  A smaller fishing community in the fishing environment around Nettleport, placed in the maritime network rather than beside industry. More local and family-oriented.

  Status: Fishing community operating within the wider maritime/fishing network.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Blue Council (fully held)

• Fishing Grounds

  The fishing grounds connected to Nettleport: fishing platforms and working vessels in the maritime network on the east side of the Core.

  Held, used or claimed by: Blue Council (fully held / regulated)

Beyond

• Anchor Nine

  • Stable

  A repair community associated with maritime traffic and maintenance. It belongs with the outer communities, which should read as natural extensions of the Core.

  Status: Repair-oriented small community supporting maritime traffic.

  Population: not stated.

• Gull's Rest

  • Stable

  A seabird research and conservation community on the ecological side of the Driftland, away from the most destructive industrial activity. Surrounded by seabird habitats, artificial reefs, marine life and quieter platforms.

  Status: Research and conservation settlement associated with seabirds and marine ecology.

  Population: not stated.

• The Chains

  • Stable

  A linked family-platform community in the more dispersed Outer Drift. Individual platforms stay separated by water but are joined by floating walkways, bridges, cables and small vessels. Not a city: a community whose geography stays modular.

  Status: Dispersed family-platform community operating in the Outer Drift.

  Population: not stated.

• Outer Drift

  • Strained

  Surrounds the developed civilisation and is the transition between it and the open Pacific. Salvage fields, fishing platforms, isolated homes, temporary camps, navigation markers, abandoned vessels and small settlements. It is not a hard ring: it emerges from increasingly scattered structures.

  Status: Communities here face isolation, storms, limited rescue capacity and more fragile infrastructure.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Reclaimers (operating); Blue Council (shared); Free Sailors (shared); Water Authority (shared / supplied)

• Peripheral Ocean

  • Stable

  The outermost environment. Floating debris is scattered, permanent population is very low, and there are individual platforms, isolated vessels, navigation markers and occasional temporary camps. The ocean dominates.

  Status: Mostly open ocean with scattered debris, isolated platforms and occasional temporary or seasonal activity.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Free Sailors (shared)

Below

• Deep Gyre

  • Dangerous

  The submerged and dangerous geography beneath the developed Driftland: partly submerged material, abandoned and unstable structures, contaminated areas, wrecks, submerged infrastructure and inaccessible or sealed areas. A second geography below the surface, not just a colour change in the water. The deeper layers get progressively less organised.

  Status: Deep salvage environment containing submerged and partially submerged structures and extremely difficult operating conditions.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Deepers (operating / effectively controlled in places)

• Black Water

  • Unknown

  Part of the dangerous deep environment and poorly understood: submerged structures, chemical contamination, unstable debris, wrecks and navigation hazards. Its boundaries are provisional. Warning markers and exclusion areas, not dense settlement. Unknown and dangerous.

  Status: Poorly understood region containing contamination, unstable structures, submerged material and unpredictable hazards.

  Population: not stated.

  Held, used or claimed by: Deepers (disputed / restricted)

• The Deep Bell

  • Unknown

  A submerged structure whose origin, purpose and history are disputed or unknown. It lies beneath the Deep Gyre / Black Water environment.

  Status: Origin unknown, purpose disputed.

  Held, used or claimed by: Deepers (restricted / secret)