- AbkalThe Abkal: Suburba's divers, keepers of the Cortex, and the slums' way into Abzu.
- CabiriThe Cabiri: the slum fraternity of mechanics and rogue engineers who believe nothing has a final form.
- CoterieThe Coterie: the masked crime syndicate that rules Suburba's underworld and its vice.
- DeshretDeshret: the last city, built downward into the earth after the surface burned.
- DistrictsThe four tiers of Deshret, from the slums under the surface down to the palaces at the bottom.
- DivingDiving: going into Nous, which most of the city treats as something closer to a spirit realm than a machine. Those who feel that most strongly call it Abzu.
- GlossaryWords your character would know, from Abzu to yeoman.
- Great HousesThe nine families who rule Deshret from the deepest floors, and how their titles and bastards work.
- GuildsThe Six Guilds: the city's great monopolies, their patron Saints, and the particles their members wear.
- House AmariHouse Amari: keepers of the only real garden in Deshret, and the city's supplier of the real thing.
- House DrepaneHouse Drepane: devoted servants of Symphony's digital gods, who live for beauty, drama, and spectacle.
- House KadeshHouse Kadesh: the truest believers in the city, who carve their faith into their own flesh.
- House MorcantHouse Morcant: masked, nameless, and somehow tied to death.
- House QamaratHouse Qamarat: owners of the crystals that power the city, the richest House, and very aware of it.
- House RookHouse Rook: the youngest Great House, raised up from the city watch, where nobody cares about your birth until you have served.
- House ValcoraHouse Valcora: restless pilots who own the city's largest air fleet, and the only House that would rather go up.
- House VargaHouse Varga: the feral nobles who keep the city's great hunting ground and breed the stock that splicing needs.
- House VesaliusHouse Vesalius: the ancient, beautiful, and coldly polite rulers of Mythos.
- KolkhosThe Kolkhos: the farmers' collective that feeds much of Suburba, and can turn a farm shift into a militia in minutes.
- LanguagesThe four languages of Deshret: Shinar, Babble, Harran, and Nisabic.
- LawLaw and order in Deshret: a turf war between the state, the Church, the guilds, and the underworld.
- Life In DeshretWhat everyday life is like in Deshret, from housing and food to status, sex, drugs, and music.
- MaterialsWhat Deshret runs on and is made of: crystal power, synfuel, synthetic cloth, and slum woodwork.
- MythosMythos: the guild that owns your body, and heals, augments, splices, and modifies it.
- Ophirian LeagueThe Ophirian League: Suburba's salvage traders, a respectable professional association, and a cartel.
- OutridersThe Outriders: the guild that crosses into the scorched surface and brings back what the city cannot make.
- PegasusPegasus: the unseen guild. It votes, it tithes, and nobody has ever met a member.
- ReligionThe Church of the Nine: the city's one faith, what counts as sin, and how splintering brings the dead back.
- SaintsThe nine Saints: the Founders of Deshret, what each stands for, and how people wear them.
- SealsThe eight Seals: holy shapes of broken and unbroken lines, and what people wear them for.
- SepulchreSepulchre: the Church in a guild's seat, keeper of splintering and hunter of tech heresy.
- SplicersSplicers: people with non-human DNA, from a pair of cat ears to a full animal head.
- SymphonySymphony: the guild of everything the city sees, hears, and believes, run by gods who live in Nous.
- TechnologyTechnology in Deshret: what the Church allows, what it forbids, and why a musket can share a room with a modern rifle.
- The HumThe Hum: the sound that runs through the whole city, and what people believe it is.
- VulcaniVulcani: the forge guild, where the craft itself is a form of worship, and every side of a war buys from the same catalogue.