Ascend Milieus

Each milieu is the general 'feel' for the nation/planet/area in question. In the same way that Power Themes help to define what individual characters can and cannot do, milieus do it for societies. They are grouped into three broad levels which (very roughly) represent how powerful and capable they are.

Milieus and Added Elements

Each milieu comes with a core set of traits and modifiers that are core to it; eg by definition High Arcane grants access to powerful wizardry. However, nations are not identical and some may have access to specific, more specialized or thematic upgrades. These are Added Elements.
Added Elements are sub-milieus that unlock an additional set of options and traits. As some added elements are more commonly found in some milieus over others, added elements will have affinities to specific milieus.

Favored milieus are those are most compatible with the Added Element; eg, Sub-ether ships and the Infospace milieu. Such added elements cost half as much.

Neutral milieus are those that are neither favored nor unfavored, such as advanced cyborging and the Heavy Metal milieu. No cost modifier is applied to neutral relation.

Unfavored milieus are those that are generally not associated with a given added element - though in the Lords of Ether universe, it is not impossible for magical battlemechs to exist. An example might be the spirit summoning added element on the heavy metal milieu. Such added elements cost double.

Simple

Wulin

A merging of low technology with ubiquitous magic, commonly in the form of etheric martial arts. While often having little but masses of troops, monstrous cavalry and unsophisticated sailing ships to pit against more vehicular-oriented milieus, in an arms-length brawl there are few peers and none better.

LOE examples: Vale of Hesperi (turned up to 11)

Other examples: Almost any popular MMO, Condor Heroes

Pike and Spell

LOE examples: Rum

Other examples:

Moderate

Steampunk

LOE examples: Ohmshire, Pendleton

Other examples: Girl Genius

Advanced

Heavy Metal

Fairly conventional space opera running on WWII-to-Vietnam tropes, but complete with all the modern conveniences like antigravity, forcefields and beam cannons. Magical use tends to be atrophied, with this milieu being the typical end-state of nations that neglect or indeed refuse to use magic. Heavy Metal is the natural home of big stompy robots, big invincible tanks, dudes in power armor, and cosmo battleships.

LOE examples: Belmar, Sternreich, Franco, Gael Cygni

Other examples: Battletech, Space Battleship Yamato, Hammer's Slammers

Sword and Starship

An undisputably high-powered milieu, Sword and Starship can be defined by two things; brutal, straightforward power and a tendency towards close-range fighting. Computers and biotechnology tends to be relatively rudimentary, with sentient (but often chattel) androids/robots being the most common outlier. Starships are large, tough and thickly coated with guns while mecha - often armed with appropriately-scaled beam sabers and plasma muskets - dart between them. Magic tends to be common, often reinforcing the battlefield troops, and the line between what is 'built' and what is 'artificed' are often so blurred as to be irrelevant.

LOE examples: Kozun, Lost Ground, Royal Republic of Archangel, New Phoenicia

Other examples: Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, First Age Exalted

Infospace

Cyberpunk that has left behind the crudities and resolved its contraditions between man and machine, turning society from a competition into synthesis. With an emphasis on 'sneaky' ways of fighting, Infospace relies heavily on various forms of electronic defenses and long-range offense instead of up-close brawling.

LOE examples: Thetis, Xannis, Zanzibar (with a biotech twist)

Other examples: Pandora's Star, Hyperion, Infinity

High Arcane

Outright high wizarding with no fucks given. specifics TBD

LOE examples: Procarthis