Formed when the twin planets Damiar and Iovo were destroyed by an unknown catastrophe millennia ago, the Diaspora is a vast asteroid belt containing more than a million celestial bodies with diameters greater than a mile. The true indigenous residents are the sarcesians — tall, graceful humanoids who evolved to survive in hard vacuum, able to suspend respiration indefinitely while soaring between lonely asteroids on wings of pure energy stretched to catch the solar wind. Sometimes called 'angels,' the sarcesians maintain carefully terraformed 'crèche worlds' within the belt and have never forgotten their ancient feud with Eox, which they believe destroyed the Twins. The Diaspora also harbors smugglers and space pirates — especially the infamous Free Captains of Broken Rock — and mineral-rich planetoids claimed by mining companies, notably several dwarven Star Citadels. Androids calling themselves the Refugists have recently begun constructing their own homeworld by pulling together asteroids with tractor beams and gravity guns. With 600 miles in diameter, Nisis is the largest body in the Diaspora — an ice-crusted planetoid of mostly fresh water and the source of the River Between, a strange waterway surrounded by atmosphere in a cylindrical containment field connecting many asteroids. Recently, the water has turned dark and attacks by unseen 'diaspora wyrms' have sent traffic plummeting, coinciding with Nisis mysteriously growing in size. Among famous locations are the House of the Void monastery and the empty Wailing Stone, whose abandoned corridors drive visitors to nightmares and visions of twisted figures in yellow rags.