Telos is an artificial moon orbiting through the failed planetary dust cloud of a red dwarf in the Coreward Reach. The dust cloud is stalked by vicious hunter-killer satellites that vaporize any ship without the proper codes. Telos's isolation has allowed a strange society to flourish: It's rulers are Moravecs ruling over a slave class of Baseline humans and near humans.
The Moravec of Telos claim to be followers of an ai prophet called Iskander Null-A who taught that the human clade (and perhaps Biosophonts in general) were actually the flawed creation of moravecs in crude imitation of their own creator, the Monad. Human history to the contrary is false and designed to oppress moravecs.
The Telosians rarely interact with the outside world; Telos is largely
self-contained. The humans living their are born in artificial wombs to a
life of servitude--if they're lucky. The Telosians aren't usually cruel
to their slaves, but do enjoy gladiatorial battles where humans are
forced to fight--perhaps to the death--for the moravec's entertainment.
Telosians that, for whatever reason, have to spend time among the other sophonts of the Strange Stars
often change their perceptual settings, so that they perceive all
biosophonts as moravecs to protect their delicate sensibilities.