Culture (pre-war)

Community estimates range from Type II to borderline Type III. The Culture draws most of its energy from the hyperspace Energy Grid rather than from stellar output, making conventional Kardashev classification difficult. With at least six Dyson spheres (each capturing approximately 3.8 x 10^26 W), the floor is firmly Type II. Grid taps provide effectively unlimited additional energy. The wide min/max range reflects the fundamental disagreement over how to classify a civilization whose primary energy source is extradimensional.

Three Spheres (Dyson spheres) were destroyed during the Idiran-Culture War according to the Consider Phlebas appendix. The pre-war total is unknown but was at least three. Spheres are rare in the Culture universe compared to Orbitals.

Contact units (primarily GCUs) serving as the Culture's de facto military before purpose-built warships were developed during the Idiran War. The "million or so" GCU figure comes from The State of the Art, set approximately 650 years after the war. The pre-war count is estimated at a similar order of magnitude. Before 1289 CE, the Culture had no dedicated warships at all.

One Ring (star-encircling Niven-type ringworld) was destroyed during the Idiran-Culture War. At least one Ring survived, administered by the Dra'Azon after the war. The pre-war total was at least two, estimated at three. Rings are far rarer than Orbitals in the Culture universe.

14,334 Orbitals were destroyed during the Idiran-Culture War (Consider Phlebas appendix, total all sides). Approximately half are estimated as Culture Orbitals (~7,000). Assuming a 50% destruction rate, the pre-war Culture total is approximately 14,000. Each Orbital is a ring-shaped megastructure approximately 3 million km in diameter with a habitable surface area 20 times that of Earth.

Banks states the Culture has approximately thirty trillion citizens in his essay "A Few Notes on the Culture." The figure includes both biological and artificial citizens scattered across the Milky Way.

Techlevel 13 (Spacetime Mastery). The Culture's most advanced technologies include gridfire (forcing the Energy Grid to intersect with realspace), void-like reactionless propulsion, effector-based metric manipulation, and hyperspace computation by Minds. These place it in the spacetime mastery tier, beyond wormhole engineering but short of pocket universe creation.

Banks explicitly states the Culture exists "solely in this one galaxy." The Culture holds no contiguous territory but is dispersed across the Milky Way in a thin web of Orbitals, ships, and habitats.

Class 17 (Spacetime Engineering). The Culture manipulates spacetime through gridfire (dimensional rift weapons), effectors (interstellar-range matter manipulation), displacement (hyperspace teleportation), and reactionless drives. Minds compute partly in hyperspace dimensions. The Culture lacks pocket universe creation (Class 18) but commands spacetime engineering well beyond wormhole technology.

The Culture was founded approximately 7600 BCE by a loose federation of seven or eight spacefaring humanoid species. At the 1326 CE snapshot, it has existed for roughly 8,900 to 9,000 years.