A condition, not a faction
Remnant is an archive term for communities continuing after the loss of the larger systems that once connected them. It does not imply one government, belief, culture, or chain of command.
Some settlements may know one another through trade or short-range radio. Others may exist beyond every dependable route in the archive.
Ordinary life still creates a signal
Recovery is made visible through ordinary work: repair counters, night markets, greenhouse collectives, parcel routes, local announcements, and the people who keep power and water moving.
These details matter to the Mainframe because culture is not limited to major events. A commercial jingle, a weather warning, or a familiar voice can preserve how a community understood itself.
Most transmitters are local
Compatible equipment can carry announcements, music, advertisements, and emergency information across a settlement or nearby route. The Static usually prevents that signal from traveling much farther without help.
The Mainframe sometimes detects these weaker broadcasts, stabilizes what it can, and relays selected material through Storm Horizon Radio.
Being heard is not the same as making contact
Some communities can recognize the Storm Horizon carrier. Fewer can answer it, and verified two-way contact remains rare.
The archive does not assume a silent community is empty. A failed transmitter, power loss, local interference, or a change in the Static can erase a voice without erasing the people behind it.