Colonized in the 16th century, Helios is a highly developed world and the corporate headquarters of Heirotus. Industrial output peaked well before Heirotus came along, though heavy investment and development by Heirotus snapped the planetary economy out of a long period of torpor. Unfortunately, industrial output has been sharply curtailed by a recent period of geologic instability.

Major planet-side industries and resources include electronics, aquaculture, and hydrocarbons. While a good amount of Heirotus hardware is still manufactured on the surface, the company shipyards and BTS production lines are scattered throughout the cluster.

Bethlehem Medical Centre (BMC) is a hospital and detention facility located in the first parallel universe attached to Earth (aka "Earth 2.0"). Were it in this universe, the building would be a short drive from Elmira, New York.

During the events of Dead City Radio and The Dualist, BMC is the headquarters of Thule Garrison. The facility is equipped with silicon and carbon mainframes, biomagnetic concentrators, a BMRI, advanced Cycom mental visualization hardware, an internal video telephone system, and a satellite uplink. The main building sits on top of a "fallout block," with at least three large sub-levels underneath.

Ceremony is a Pittsburgh Gothic/Industrial/New Wave club night hosted by the DJs of The Night Shift. In the summer of 1997, Ceremony takes place Wednesday nights at Club Laga in the Pittsburgh district of Oakland.

Most of Dead City Radio takes place in and around Pittsburgh, the so-called "Paris of Appalachia." Thad is still living there at the beginning of The Dualist, though most of his friends from art school have moved on.

Well outside of ICG-charted space, the composition of the gas giant orbiting KLH-149723 enables the Aeon to conduct a highly-amplified HRV sweep of star systems on the other side of the Goldfish Nebula. The combination of Aeon sensor technology and the nebula eliminates the sensor shadow of the gas giant - though orbital mechanics somewhat limits scanning capability.

AKA the KLH Stellar Nursery. Noteworthy from the vantage point of KLH-149723, as the vast majority of known Human-occupied space is behind it.

A gas giant near the very edge of validated ICG charts, and the observation point from which the initial surveys of GSV, GSW, and GSX were made.

In 1997, the Heirotus-leased ICG survey ship Hemera used the initial ICG charts to conduct a deep-range Holt-Rischmann scan of sector GSV, disappearing shortly after arrival. In 2002 the Sabrosa used the ICG observation point to begin a search for the Hemera.

Not listed on the "official" Templar charts acquired by Heirotus intelligence, the orbital plot of GSV-368.3.1 is known only to authorized Templar personnel. The charting omission is a deliberate defensive precaution - the idea being that a large 0.17g mass tends to play havoc with inbound vehicles that haven't corrected for it. The theory proves valid in the opening scenes of The Dualist, when the gravitational influence of GSV-368.3.1 pulls the Heirotus starship Sabrosa out of Am well short of its intended destination, resulting in a Jump Flare easily detected by the Cheops.

Not listed in the official ICG star charts, GSV-368.3 appears only in highly classified Templar navigational databases. GSV-368.3 is the only human-rated planet in the GSV-GSW 0.15 AEI "sinkhole." The local Templar garrison refers to the planet as "Terra," and most of the local human population calls the place "Earth."