A galaxy-spanning post-scarcity civilisation of mixed humanoid and machine intelligences. Governed by hyper-intelligent AI Minds rather than any formal political structure, the Culture is anarchist, hedonistic, and interventionist – using its Special Circumstances division to meddle in less advanced civilisations it believes it can improve.

A division within the Culture that deals with the afterlives – the digital realms where some civilisations store the minds of their dead. The Quietus monitors these virtual heavens and hells and the ongoing philosophical war over whether simulated suffering should be permitted.