Ariel is located above former Western Europe, spreading along the Iberia Peninsula and up through former France, and Great Britain. The city of Ariel is roughly the size of Honshu Island in former Japan. When building the city, cultural preservation enclaves (CPE) were built, which would house communities of major minority cultures of Earth, the enclaves are semi-autonomous, however some have dimly devolved into ethnic ghettos or Disney-esque representations of once great cultures.