The platform cities of Cularin were built after the Tarasin Revolt in response to Tarasin desires to curtail further expansion of Gadrin and Hedrett. If offworlders were not allowed to build out, they decided to build up. Bollin was the first to be built, later joined by Mikish, Soboll, Lissken, Tindark, and others.
The platforms were each built upon a single thick pillar of the strongest metals reaching over a kilometer high. Some of the larger cities also had a few supporting pillars of lesser diameter near the edges. Vines grew up these, and they ended up looking like trees for much of their height.
The only way onto the platforms was with starships or airspeeders. Some airspeeder taxi services connected some cities with each other and with Gadrin and Hedrett, but private transportation was required to reach some of the smaller or out-of-the-way platform cities.
Companies performing operations on the planet's surface maintained camps near the bases of platform city pillars to facilitate transportation.
Each platform city was independent, and like many floating cities, they were run by baron administrators. The baron administrator owned his job, and it could be bought, sold, or gambled away. Being baron administrator was usually very profitable, however, so the position rarely changed hands. Police forces varied in competence between platform cities, usually based on the abilities of the baron administrator.
One of the first attempts to raise a platform city in a valley with little woods, discovered an unexpectedly thin floor, unable to hold the city's column. Three attempts were made before the investors decided to try a different place. This place was later known as the Ishkik caverns.
All of the platform cities faced a vermin problem with the mulissiki. The small creatures hitched rides with the frequent airspeeder traffic between base camps and the cities, and then were stuck up top with no way down. They hid in alleys and other crannies, scavenged off garbage, and bred, so their populations grew out of hand.
An occasional visitor of some or all the platform cities was playboy Xav Verivax, who mixed with the local cream of the society.