**First Appearance:** #book1 Van's home planet. #### Des Moines, Iowa, United States Van's hometown. #### North Sentinel Island, Indian Ocean The people here have voluntarily isolated themselves from the rest of the world, living still in their traditional, stone age way. They are stable, prosperous by their own standards, and happy. #### The First Trust Bank of Mendocino, California, United States A bank implicated in the Markov money-laundering scheme, and the missing people issues. #### Gettysburg, South Dakota, United States Location on Earth where a cache of alien tech of all sorts is found in an underground room. #### Prokhorovka, Russia A city in Russia that was the site of the largest tank battle in history, between the Nazi Germans and the Soviet Union during the second world war. It’s also the location of the best Vodka distillery in the world. Very valued by Groshenko.