Poly lives in a hyperreal society - the Endless Empire stretches for an unknown (or perhaps merely incomprehensible) distance in every direction.  What is real in her world and what is fiction is a a blur, as the two are very fuzzy terms - frequently dreams become reality and reality become dreams, directed by unseen AIs whose plans are often unknowable, but whose overall directive is to keep the Empire stable in light of a population whose greatest problem is the use of their free time.  

With a population that doesn't age, the only way to obtain breeding permits is to claim new territory, to push  the  Endless Empire's borders.  Being a child in the inner worlds means having parents who have done great deeds.  In addition, youth is one of the most prized commodities as one of the few regulated ones.

The core of the Endless Empire is homogeneous, but even in the middle of its space, planets can very, from agrarian worlds to massive planet-spanning supercities to carefully maintained and curated apocalyptic wastelands, with people being cycled between them all in service of the great game, in seeking the next thing to occupy their time. 

Military:
	The Stellar Navy of the Endless Empire can best be defined by Axioms of the Fleet:
	The Universe is Infinite
	We exist, therefore there is a non-zero chance of intelligent races existing in the universe
	From the previous two Axioms, there are an infinite number of other alien races in the universe
	Of this infinite number, some number are hostile.  Therefore, there are an infinite number of hostile alien races in the universe
	Of this infinite number, some number are building bigger fleets with bigger weapons.  Therefore, there are an infinite number of hostile alien races that are building bigger fleets with bigger weapons.
	Over a long enough timescale, the probably of us encountering one of these races is 1
	Therefore, we must build bigger ships with bigger weapons.
	
	With these Axioms in mind, the Stellar Navy has its fleet counts described best in scientific notation than regular numbers, and frigates the size of planets.   Although the ships generally have crews numbering in the hundreds of millions at least, heavy automation is used to the point the ships can be run almost autonomously.  The crew of the ship is really more  another place to put them, another adventure for them to have.  In the case of of an actual war, planets are typically evacuated to ships (as planets are large, stationary targets).  The ships of the Stellar Navy would offically be operated by their crews, but in practice, would likely be controlled entirely by their command AIs.
	
	The extreme automation of the fleet, combined with the lack of any tangible threat in living memory, has reduced large parts of the Stellar Navy to little more than a daycare where the career officers and some AIs attempt to teach recruits some degree of discipline.  This can vary from ship to ship, with some still maintaining proper formality, and others... less so.
	
	Despite the Axioms of the Fleet, no encounters have been made with any alien species yet.
	
	
Social:
	Everything in the Endless Empire has the understanding that it is transient - for a species with immortal lifespans, there is a definite view that all things will pass, and no action can permanently mar you.
	Even death is a transient condition - the core memories that make up a citizen of the Empire are backed up constantly and can be used to 'respawn' them in the event of death.  Frequently (on a relative timescale), non-core memories are pruned, stored for later retrieval.  This prevents any mind from being overloaded, but also increases plasticity of personality.
	
	With that in mind, however, death is still something to be avoided at all costs.  This is enforced by social manipulation by the Capital Intelligences - the AIs responsible for maintaining social order.  By per-person control over the media that is shown to them and to those around them, fine-grained control over the social fabric can be enforced. This is used to instil the rules of the Great Game into the citizens of the Endless Empire.  Violation of the rules is not a crime, but often leads to social ostracism.  
	
	At birth each Citizen of the Endless Empire is entered into a contract with the Empire -  in exchange for following the social contract, they receive a portion of of the reactor output of the Empire.  This stipend is typically enough for a comfortable existence - those that wish to forsake the laws of the Empire can be exiled.  This is extremely rare, however, as a child is often guided from birth to follow the rules of the Empire.
	
	In the Endless Empire, there are the two S's.  Sex and science.  Both are considered core parts of the empire.  When a mating (typically two or more individuals who are happy to be together... for at least a couple of hundred years) decide to breed, typically they have to travel to the outskirts of the Empire, where a planet is not yet at its permanent resident capacity.  
	
Corporeal Freedom (Freedom of Form):
	It is commonly accepted that a person's form is ultimately an extension of their mind, and such, many wanderfoots shift between male and female forms (and inbetween) but also other, more exotic forms.  Depending on the place in the Endless you are, you may find considerable gender disparities.  An individual is supposed to take the form that both makes them most comfortable and is most representative of them - sometimes this is a female form, for others, a femboy (and the contrapositive, of course!)  But But there's no expectation that because you can switch you must - in fact, there's some degree of pressure not to, in order to maintain diversity for stories.  
	
	
The Great Game:
	The purpose of the great game is to keep the citizens of the Endless Empire from having too much idle time - a difficult proposition in an empire with an immortal population and with all industries handed over to automated, maintenance-free artificial intelligences.  There are two components - one are 'quests' often issued to wanderfoots - Go somewhere, do something.  These quests are often tailored to the citizen in question, and are meant to be 'exciting' (although some would also define them as 'terrifying', 'traumatizing', 'awesome in the original sense of the word').  The other part, what is more typically referred to as the Great Game, is your fellow citizens.  Although you are able to 'opt-out', doing so typically leads to severe social ostracism.  A high-context part of the society, there are many unwritten rules that are woven into social interaction - known to all, but unspoken by all as well.  Trickery, manipulation, theft, rape... in many places, all are part of an average day.  The fun part is pretending it doesn't happen.  Bringing it out into the open, or being caught, is a faux pas.  
	
	A quest can take a wanderfoot to any number of locations, from a planet spanning city to be a spy, to a nuclear wasteland where currency is bottlecaps.  In many of these worlds, significant numbers of the residents are actually constructs, meant to facilitate stories on them.  To guide someone on their quest to the next objective.. or perhaps towards a trap set by another player who wants a slave for a month.  Permanent captivity is frowned upon, but taking someone for a month or two is perfectly acceptable - anything they had outstanding (such as food in the fridge, or friends they were meant to meet) would be taken care of by one of the AIs meant to facilitate storytelling.  
	
	Being part of stories isn't forced - there are places that are boring,  for those who want them.  An idealistic village on a agrarian world, a city with no threats in the shadows.. they do exist, but only by the silent will of the population to enforce such unwritten rules.  They do someone go against the 'will' of the Capital Intelligences, though... so they're less common than the same idealistic village that occasionally has 'threats' spawn on it, if other citizens don't take the perogative.
	
Wanderfoots:
	Moving from place to place in the core worlds can be difficult, as planets often have population limits that are enforced. The middle ring of worlds and the outer ones are typically more relaxed, and children of the Endless Empire often spend hundreds of years exploring from planet to planet, forming core memories.  A child's body and mind ages very slowly, and often only at the pleasure of a Capital Intelligence.  Children often only 'grow up' after settling down for the first time.  A wanderfoot is one who is not currently holding a permanent slot on a planet - once their visa expires, they need to move somewhere else.