This asteroid belt, mostly consisting of frozen chunks of nitrogen (which, due to the magical properties explained later, never melt or sublimate) and small metal-rich asteroids, is a barren and almost lifeless place. The only signs of habitation that have ever been seen there are the various pieces of damaged or wrecked ships, which have been tooled roughly to form enclosed objects of sizes varying from approximately 25 cubic meters to upwards of 1000 cubic meters. No creatures have ever been seen there, and all searches performed in the area turn up negative (when searching for any life-forms whatsoever).
However, the real reason that no life has been detected here is because of the high metallic content in the asteroids. Cleverly placed near the larger asteroids, the makeshift structures actually house a small band of humans that have been hiding from civilization. These people (they have no real name - in their language, they simply refer to each other as "brother" or "sister") have run away from society, and have lived in secret for over 300 years. The original band of people that came here were religious refugees that had been swayed to some of the illithid beliefs by a prophet, simply known as Jacob, who once found the wreckage of an illithid ship, along with many volumes of religious and political texts and a translating machine that the illithids had used to translate foreign literature they might find. The reason that the ship Jacob found had all this was because it was a private ship, owned by one of the countless many illithid priests that (in addition to spelljamming) acted as priests for illithid ambassadors / slave traders. The particular priest that owned that ship was a rariety: he liked to read and gain knowledge, whenever possible. The translator, along with the majority of the books that Jacob translated, had come from a particularly prosperous deal with a neogi slave trader. However, the neogi turned upon him, and blew him to space dust. Having no need for the ship or the books, the neogi sent it off, careening into wildspace. By some coincidence, Jacob found that particular ship, while on a long-range scouting mission for a rich local who wished to see if anyone happened to own any of the land he was about to claim.
After translating some of the books, Jacob had recruited approximately 400 brave souls, who embraced the beliefs of the illithids. Upon reaching this place, via a random spelljamming trip (Jacob wished them to go somewhere where they could never be found), Jacob established a small colony, using the ships his people came on to build some temporary structures. However, upon Jacob's death, the colony didn't know what to do. Basically, they blundered along, using the "temporary" structures as permanent homes. Over a period of about 200 years, they slowly lost most of their language skills. Now, the few spoken words that are used are of a totally different form, and are not of any language currently known. Thus, living in small, cramped, ramshackle homes, the people of the colony had to turn to the books.
The current status of the colony is about like it was 100 years ago: the people teach their young to read the books, live in complete isolation, and worship the idols of the illithids (as well as those of a variety of others mentioned in the books Jacob recovered). If any PCs find these people, the reactions of each group will probably be shock, wonder, and confusion (neither has ever known of anyone like the other). The idea of a brief, mystical meeting is not very likely, because there is almost nothing that would appear to warrant an exploration of this freezing asteroid belt.
I know all this may not sound likely, but it really is the magical properties of the asteroid belt which allow for this small colony to survive:
To understand why these magical properties exist, we must first look at the history of the asteroid belt:
Approximately 450 years prior to Jacob's exodus to this asteroid belt, a wizard by the name of Lunan arrived here. He traveled in a ship which is similar to one of the Hammerships which now exist, except it had a more powerful helm (one of immense power that he himself designed). He immediately searched the metallic asteroids for life, and then for any form of metal that would prove useful (mithril, adamantite, etc.). However, his search proved hopeless. In an act of frustration over traveling so far for absolutely nothing, he opened up a portal to the elemental planes of air and water, then horribly twisted them with his magic. The result was a blast of cold that froze and altered the area, as well as throwing Lunan through the elemental portal to the plane of water. The remaining magic left over from the surge permanently bound the enchantment to the asteroid belt. However, it also changed the way further magic affected the area. Thus, this belt was established as it is today.
