Most were based on pre-existing urban centers, such as the Majrit Arcology being centred on the old Vinetan state capital of 'Madrid.' Any who knew such cities before-hand, however, would struggle to notice any similarity.

Functioning as continental safe harbours for Imperial personnel on Vineta, they ensured that Empire loyalists would be able to transit across the planet and still have a 'safe' location within relatively close proximity to retreat to.

Unable (or, more terrifyingly, unwilling) to engage in the mass-mental manipulation of the Vinetan population, the Empress instead deigned to create self-sustaining megacities through the control of select individuals, in select positions of power. With total political and economy unity behind her, these constructs were made in short-order and to her exact standards... but that is about all that's truly known.

Given two centuries of time and the catastrophic Fall of Vineta, much of the records of exactly how the Arcologies came to be have been lost. Most of them have been rendered totally submerged beneath Vineta's oceans, the rest destroyed or damaged to the point they no longer function as an arcology at all.

While they function as key production and population centers on Vineta, there is one thing that makes them of complete and total importance; the Space Elevators.

A crucial logistical lifeline that the Nation goes to extreme expense to keep active, for if all were to be destroyed then it's inevitable that the military's many offensives would collapse, and the planetarily self-sufficient armies of the Vinetan Nationals would push both sides back in to orbit in what would likely be the greatest act of warfare in humanity's history.

Almost every remaining arcology, of which there are less than dozen, rests in Nation hands; the only except being Las Selva in what remains of North America, and even that is likely to fall by the end of the next decade, if not earlier.

All have suffered great damage, but for the Nation? That, if anything, is a boon. Reconstruction employs many, the factories employ more, and the food producers? Always in too-short supply despite the millions dedicated to the task.

A small core of Nation-born workers, then multiple generations of Vinetans who have grown up within the Nation, forming an idiosyncratic monoculture unique to each specific arcology. As cultural bleed-through from the surrounding area trickles, and simply is simply impossible to stamp out, this ensures a small measure of cultural revitalisation.

From there, immigrants both permanent and temporary from the surrounding area provide a circulating and shifting economy both above-board and below, occasionally adding to the workforce as temporary employees or simply consumers of goods produced.

Indeed, your average Rotfronter or Heimaten would be shocked at the comparative freedoms allowed those within arcologies, simply for the fact that the Nation cannot afford to increase the amount of instability already on-planet. Far too many are unhappy as-is, and while providing even multiple meals a day does much to tide people over, Vinetan Nationals only need a single leak to detonate an irreparable component or kill an important individual.

At the very least, surviving arcologies benefit from the extensive and well-planned infrastructure of the Imperial-era. The most intact of them, the Kunming Arcology, has the highest quality of life for the average resident outside of particular cities on Heimat and Buyan in the Solar System, and ensures the Nation's survival in Cathay even during Kitezh's transit.