The Directorate had effected the creation of four great arcologies to act as central depots, population housing, archives, primary industrial and scientific installations and act as the regional capitals of the South Polar Confederation five provinces to which all the other medium and lesser sized arcologies, indepedent research and resource processing and watch posts would report to within their respective territorial spheres. Portal in the South Orkneys, was the first established in 1844-45, followed by the founding of Bellingshausen in the Antarctican Penisula in 1856. Ross, followed in West Antartica in 1860, while Lazarev was established in 1865 in East Antarctica.
The final and greatest of the Antarctican arcologies, dubbed Vault, the capital of the whole Antarctican continent itself, was slowly built within the Transantarctican Mountain range in the late-1850s onwards. Though, the Directorate didn't formally remove itself from the South Orkneys to relocate to the new capital until 1888. The arcologies follow a rough ranking of size and importance, of mega-, great-, middle-, lesser- arcologies. Vault is very much the first mega-arcology, that the Antarcticans have or perhaps ever will construct, while Portal, Bellingshausen, Ross and Lazarev, all rank as great-arcologies.
I) Vault, the capital sprawls throughout the whole length and breath of the main Transantarctican mountain range and it's satellite mountain ranges, via a massive series of interconnected arcologies. Vault has sub-glacial access under the Ross Ice Shelf to the Ross Sea and possesses the second most extensive shipbuilding and harbour faculities located in several interconnected caverns and sub-glacial vaults and channels. The mountains provide the Confederation with it's largest supply of ore and other minerals and processed rock for building construction and fueling the various industries within the mountains and other manufacturing arcologies across Antarctica. The Directorate has it's main offices and archives located within their own sub-arcology inside the Vault complex.
The Council of the Founders and Elders is found here, the final directing authority of the Confederation, although none but the highest members of the Directorate have access to them. It is said in the outside world that only handful of the original founders and organizers of the South Polar scientific expedition are still alive after nearly seventy-seven years. This is a delibrate falsehood put out by the Directorate, the truth is rather more mysterious and perhaps omnious, all the founders are still alive within Vault's innermost bastions, they are encased within special technological sarcophagi or body suits that have sustained them in an strange form of half-life for nearly a century, others who's bodies are too far gone to sustain by any other means have their brains placed within special devices that keep them alive and they can still make their thoughts and ideas known to their fellows by a form of gestalt consciousness, which the call the Nth Degree Engine, a vast Babbage Engine computer system that occupies several levels within Vault.
II) Portal, the transport hub of Antarctica, everything that goes in or out of the South Polar Confederation comes here. The islands of the South Orkneys are dominated by the Antarcticans most extensive and visible shipyards, harbours and storage and housing faculities, built into the icy and rocky coasts and mountains. Considerable care is however exercised to ensure that native wildlife and flora in each island is left as undisturbed as possible for both long term studies and potential use. The South Polar/Antarctican Line is headquartered here and it is consider all Antarctican nautical, sky and air ships port of registry. The Directorate's Foreign Affairs and Consular Services are also located here for ease of communication with the outside world and efforts are underway to get a new submerged telegraphic cable is laid between the South Orkneys and the Falklands to ensure better service. The bulk of the South Polar Confederations fisheries are located in Portal as well.
III) Bellingshausen, the capital of the Antarctican Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands, is locked beneath the glaciers and mountains of the Antarctican Peninsula with marine access to both the Bellingshausen and Weddell Seas via underground and sub-glacier channels. The arcology serves as the Solar Polar Navy's primary installation, housing it's main hidden dockyards and slipways, naval stores, barracks and various training or instructional institutions. Like Ross, the great-arcology has a distinct and military feel to it, more so then perhaps any other arcology, like Lazarev or Portal which are dominated by civil projects and concerns.
IV) Ross, the capital of West Antarctica, is often called the Ice Bastion Citadel, as it houses the most important and productive of the South Polar arsenals and weapons and munitions manufacturies that service both the Antarctician militia which acts in both a defensive and a gendarm capacity within the five provinces and their arcologies. Further, most but by no means all of the weapons that are fitted to Antarctican civil and military ships are processed and depoted here within the heavily fortified, multi leveled, great arcology. The great arcology also houses, many of the Confederation's scientific station and research labratories devoted to military studies and their military academy and it's associated specialists training or instructional colleges.
V) Lazarev, capital of East Antarctica, is surrounded by a series of frozen fresh and salt water lakes, Lazarev is sometimes referred to as as the Venice of the South Pole by it's inhabitants. It provides the Antarctican population with both it's largest qualities of distilled freshwater and much of it's vital stock of processed or mined salt. Many of East Antarctica's arcologies are devoted to staple agricultural production typically edible mosses, lichens and fungi as well as other crops via massive under- and above- ground greenhouses and animal husbandry faculities, especially within the Dry Valleys of East Antarctica. Imported Muskoxen, North American Bison, sheep and goats are grazed within the harsh, snowless valleys to provide the inhabitants and industries of the South Polar Confederation, with meat, milk and leather and associated animal products.
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