The Concretists are the inhabitants of the Shale Belt, who have unique medical needs which have led them to create innovative cybernetics. They tend to be "secular and technologically-minded".[1]
The Concretists are descended from the Concretetown Particulars, a group of NEH colonists on Moonlock in the Twilight Mirage who, after an industrial accident, needed to constantly breathe in the particles from their original settlement's construction materials. They came to live on Palisade at some point, and chose not leave with the Divine Principality when it left the Mirage. By the time of PALISADE, they created composites of Q-Concrete and have been able to incorporate it into parts of their bodies, making many of them into "stone cyborgs".[2] They have also integrated it into their own buildings, and worked with other local communities to work it into nearby infrastructure.