Straylight
Straylight is the common name of a global network of sancts, or seasteads - floating cities on the sea. These cities are united by little other than their physical nature and the fact that they are commonly inhabited by people believing in ideologies too extreme for the nations they originally hail from. There is no unified Straylightian government, certainly no Straylightian people or ethnicity, and not even a Straylightian ideology. However, the common perception of Straylight as a place for socially and economically libertarian, technically-minded people is not wrong: A large majority of all sancts identify as having little formal government. Furthermore, there is a common identity: Seasteads can identify as a Straylightian sanct or not, depending on the wishes of their citizens or government. Those that identify as Straylightian are united by a common name, a common flag, and a belief that communities of people with different ideologies should have a chance to try that ideology out in practice.
Sancts are located across the planet, and Straylight is not a name tied to any one particular nation. However, there are three major agglomerations of sancts that can be considered the core areas of Straylight:
- Shirithian Straylight
- The very first sancts were built in the bays of Yardistan by the isle's wealthy libertarians wishing to escape some of the limitations of Imperial law. Over time the Halberd Strait between Shireroth's land holdings on Apollonia, Benacia and Yardistan became the Duchy of Straylight.
- Antican Straylight
- Borne from continuing discontent with Imperial control - which was always considered necessary for the sake of self-defense - Antican Straylight came to exist from a major migration of sancts from Shireroth into Antican territorial waters around the time of Elwynn's secession.
- Arctic Straylight
- The area most recently risen into economic prominence, the sancts of Arctic Straylight are dotted widely across the oceans near Micras's northern ice caps. In particular, the seas around Lesser Automatica are a popular place for sanct-building.
