Look, someone's gotta make all this ice, and someone else has to make all the mecha, and someone else has to make all these...
In Wheelbreaker cultures are generally not species-exclusive, most cultures are blends of the cultures of the folks who live there. Humans can live in basically any climate, but the other species have stricter requirements in that area so you will usually find humans living on every planet even if they are not the majority population on most planets. Nimbus cities and guild void ships are always cosmopolitan and have members from several species living on them at the same time. This diversity is all held together by a common language, Hedgerow which is a constructed language created by humans, orks, and kobolds to serve as a common tongue between all species. It is composed of sounds that are both possible and easy for all species to vocalize regardless of speech mechanisms as well as a sign language for sounds that may be hard, for folks who cannot speak, and for possible future species for whom the vocal part of hedgerow is not possible to use. Hedgerow is not an official language of any government and does not have a universally accepted 'correct' version. It is at best a creole but is usually a pidgin language with an uncountable number of dialects. It isn't meant to replace any species' or culture's language but rather serve as a reliable, if sometimes difficult, fallback for communicating with anyone in any place.
There are also groups in Wheelbreaker that are not formed along cultural lines but do have significant influence on the setting: companies, guilds, nations, colleges, cults, and social clubs all exist and have varied memberships and domains.
A birdseye view of some of the cultures and groups is as follows:
| The Azi or Azi'ani They wear living bug-armor and travel around in ships made of ice. | Court of The Queen in Marble While only humans can be citizens of her court, anyone can be a civilian. Don't go to the Court. |
| The Confederated Pentagon Stars A nimbus city ringing 5 stars, the Confederated Pentagon Stars are a gladiatorial polity that do not have a single planet to their name, rather their massive nimbus city, the Citadel of Bronze, houses all their citizens. | Ferryman's Guild Construct and operate the laser stations that power the bifrost. |
| Red Star Ice Machine Co. One of only two companies that survived through the end ethnostate wars and into the narrative present. They make and operate all industrial freezer machines and they handle the distribution of ice to stock ice boxes on every world with refrigeration. | Bass Knights A theocratic order of knightly houses all dedicated to the idea that music, and especially bass, is a universal force for good. |
| Navigator's Guild Handles both FTL and sublight void travel. The guild is made up of many guild houses and each house is concerned with FTL or sublight void travel but not both. The sublight houses operate all transit along the bifrost while the FTL houses construct and operate all FTL gates. | PrisCom One of only two companies that survived through the end ethnostate wars and into the narrative present. They operate all rapid communication between worlds and regulate all mail. If you want to talk to someone who doesn't live on your planet you can either travel to that person yourself or you can send your message through PrisCom. |
| Order of The Hound Time cops. Space cops also. Just don't fuck with time. | Scholars of REUN Don't worry about it. >:3c |