Settlements and communities have existed since the start of Galen civilization, though initially these were small family groups, and there structures were primitive, there was at the beginning a certain desire to have a fixed place of residence. Modern Galen settlements are little different from the first true village settlements to arise all those millennia ago, of course technology and science have helped shape them over the centuries redesigning them to provide better health and sanitation, as well as providing more services to their residents, but they are fundamentally the same. In modern times however, with the easy access to commodities, and a new surge of colonisation on new planets, Galen civilization is beginning to return to the smaller sized communities, of perhaps only a few thousand residents.

            The structure of these settlements is almost template, though certain modifications are made according to the local environment, there is always a maintained structure. Even in modern times the settlement itself is often completely enclosed by a surrounding wall, though there have been military periods in Galen history, the predominant reason for these walls is to protect the internal structures against the weather, animals, or any number of other phenomena (though Gadarren is a fairly benign world, there are still frequent earthquakes, flash floods, tsunamis, and bushfires, the walls offer additional protection against these events also). The walls are often made from local stone, and are often built with a slight slant in their construction, with a flat rampart on the top. These walls do hinder expansion of settlements but what often happens is that new walls loop out from the existing shell, and this newly enclosed area built in, archways are then built into the old wall, and so large settlements may be crisscrossed with old outer walls. These walls are maintained usually to serve new functions, sometimes the partitioning is purely maintained as a bulwark against fire spreading, or allow quarantine of sections of the city, more often the walls are converted to aqueducts, or are hollowed out to form storage silos, or additional housing. The outer wall varies with certain regional influences, in most settlements the walls are about 6 to 10 metres high, and about 4 metres broad at the base (and about 3 at the top), bigger settlements will often have taller walls, it is also noted that these walls probably constitute the greatest part of the work in new settlements, compared to the benefit they give, but there is now a certain mental necessity to these structures as far as the Galen are concerned.

            In the internal closed space there is a further delineation of space, there is almost always a central core of service buildings, and an outer ring of housing and accommodation, additionally around the major gates in the wall there may be goods handling areas and workshops.

            The central core contains most of the services of the settlement, it has large water cisterns, granaries and warehouses, healthcare and education facilities, and pretty much everything else. This central section is often built in the most efficient manner, with designs frequently already thought through before construction, there is also a certain elegance and grace to the construction, as although these areas have rather strict functional roles, the central section is also a place where the residents meet and work. Most of the buildings have flat roofs, and the central core is practically built as a huge single building, nearly always of stone, but punctuated by courtyards and planted cloisters, there are also gardens on the roofs of many buildings. To the human observer the effect is as a cathedral, but rather than quiet with prayer, it is busy, as if some holy place had been commandeered to serve not just the spiritual needs of the people but every other need too.

            Surrounding this essential functioning core of the settlement there is the religious and cultural buildings, as well as meeting places, and open gardens. These buildings may be separate in function, but as with the whole settlement there is a sort of enclosed feeling, buildings do not often stand alone surrounded by space but are often linked together by arching walkways, or lines of colonnades, apart from the more open places, the whole settlement seems like some enormous building, and it is quite possible to walk about the settlement even in the worst storm, and not get wet by making use of the covered spaces.

            Surrounding these buildings and filling out the gap between wall and core is housing. Most families will have their own block of housing, caring for all in one building, from the young to the elderly of the same family. The style of building is quite traditional, most having housing around a central courtyard space, which can either be open to the sky or closed over (often in cooler, or very hot climates). The apartments are tiered around this central space, and are often built to four or five floors. The lower levels of the building are generally for cooking and storage, where as the higher levels are accommodation and social areas.

            Though the above describes a typical housing unit, there are of course many different styles and forms according to the many different Galen cultures, in some communities there are blocks of housing interspersed by gardens and communal areas, where family groups are less well defined, in others the family housing blocks may be completely separated from the surrounding ones.

            These settlements are of course the central part of Galen culture, but these are not the only places of residence, there are also villas outside of the main walls, (which often belong publicly or to particular families), these used to be purely to aid the management of surrounding land, but now have serve more often to provide spacious out of settlement accommodation. Though to humans these places sound the ideal, most Galen would prefer to live within the community, and use these external villas for social events or to retreat to spend time with their children.

            Immediately surrounding the outer walls, is often a belt of landscaped gardens, which is then surrounded by a wider band of agricultural land, the gardens serve two function first as a place for the citizens to enjoy, secondarily to grow rarer plants and goods, such as wall trained fruit, or medicinal plants. There are also a number of small buildings often holding places for goods, or vehicle storage and servicing.

            Though these settlements sound unbelievably complex, it must be noted that these structures have evolved, to create the vast amount of masonry at once is near impossible, rather the settlement grows, and the material reused rather than discarded. It is also interesting to note that many Galen designed space craft and larger space facilities have copied this structure, whether it is first an efficient system, or whether it is a happy ideal for the Galen, is not strictly known, but as these templates have existed for so long, and adapted for modern times, there must at least be a number of good reasons to this pattern.