Primary settlement cities
Illuminatia's primary settlement cities are population centers that rose from the settlements established at the original landing locations of Lucidus survivors.
Primary settlement cities are almost exclusively clustered along coasts in regions where the Lucidus ships directed their evacuation modules to land. However, a small number of original settlements survive in outlying land-locked locations where some Lucidus modules made parachute-assisted landings on dry land in the middle of the continent.
By contrast, secondary settlement cities are cities that were subsequently settled by voyagers drawn from a population base originating from a primary settlement city. Secondary settlement cities tend to be located in the interior of the continent away from the coasts. And tertiary settlement cities are cities that were settled significantly later with a population that was generally born after Illuminatia's original settlement efforts and recruited largely from secondary settlement cities.
There are three very broadly-defined regions of primary settlement cities that ascended each from three discreet multiversal instances of Lucidus survivors—the Randall Bay coastal region, the southern and western region, and the eastern and northern region.
Randall Bay coastal region
The highly metropolitan Randall Bay coastal region which now forms the Randall Bay Megalopolitan Complex consists of what was by far the most compact region of Lucidus landings. This group of settlers is often referred to as the first multiversal duplication. The multiversal instance of settlers who landed here experienced an evacuation from the Lucidus spacecraft that directed their modules to all land in a relatively compact area. This resulted in landings nearby to other landings, facilitating an easier and more rapid discovery of fellow Lucidus survivors.
Additionally, the settlers here also experienced the advantage of being the nearest to a second multiversal instance of survivors—those of the eastern and northern region who landed in Brookeview Bay just north of here. This led to an early discovery of other multiversal Lucidus survivors and a quicker establishment of knowledge regarding the multiversal nature of the anomaly and likelihood of other multiversal survivors on the Illuminatian continent. This discovery and collaboration resulted in more rapid industrial and scientific development, expedited exploration, and swifter development.
As a result, the Randall Bay coastal region quickly developed to be Illuminatia's most compact metropolitan region, sharing with the eastern and northern region a somewhat accelerated technological advancement as compared to the southern and western region.
Southern and western region
This region of settlers, referred to as the second multiversal duplication, represents the most widely dispersed region of Lucidus survivors from a single multiversal instance of the three ships. Major population clusters growing from these settlements are spread along the full length of Illuminatia's western, southwestern, and southern coasts entirely to the west of the Transilluminatian Range. These settlements include those resulting in modern-day population centers such as the West Coast Megalopolitan Complex, anchored by the central-western city of Rhapsody; the Southwestern Megalopolitan Complex and cities lining Philharmonic Bay, anchored by the city of Requiem; and the South Coast Megalopolitan Complex, anchored by the city of Symphony. This region did not widely experience the swift contact with other multiversal Lucidus survivors and was slower to make contact with all of the camps associated with landed evacuation modules, leading to slower scientific and social development.
Eastern and northern region
The eastern and northern region, populated by the third multiversal duplication, was also somewhat widely scattered and additionally, to an extent, isolated from itself. This resulted in settlements of survivors, particularly in the far-northern area lining the Anglo-Hungarian Bay, experiencing delayed contact with settlements in the eastern region in places such as the Brookeview Ludwig Megalopolitan Complex. The Brookeview Bay survivors made early multiversal contact with the settlements now forming the Randall Bay Megalopolitan Complex.
The settlements arising from the modules of two of the three Lucidus ships, landing in Brookeview Bay region, made quicker contact with each other as well as with the Randall Bay coastal region and therefore experienced more of the benefits of this contact, such as the sharing of resources and more rapid development technologically.
The national capital of Voston was established approximately equidistant between major population centers of the Randall Bay costal region and the Brookeview Bay region as a symbolic connection or bond between the distinct multiversal instances of survivors, giving power to Illuminatians as a whole rather than any one given dominant multiversal instance or grouping represented by a single Lucidus ship.