The Current Era is one in which there has never been such stability at home and yet, paradoxically, such instability. The old Inner Sphere archailects still rule over all as Olympian deities, reigning over countless different races and clades. But some of the sophonts
of the Inner Sphere are worried that in the process of reorganizing and
assimilating larger stretches of newly claimed space, and coming to
terms with an increasing number of new emerging Archailects, Ascends, and Transcends in the Outer Volumes and along the Periphery, the Sephirotic
archailects may reorganize things and do some fancy ascensions or
transcensions that might just absorb ordinary sophonts as a side-effect.
Most believe that they wouldn't do any such thing, but they certainly
could if they wished to.
Beyond the populous core of billions of
worlds and habitats that have been settled for centuries and millennia,
the prosperous polities, mighty capitals, and major wormhole links that constitute the Inner Sphere and Middle Regions
are the seemingly endless stretches of the Outer Volumes, extending
five, six and seven thousand light years and more in every direction.
Extending
through the more Sol-ward regions of the Outer Volumes in a somewhat
radial manner, the various empires and federations have expanded
creating a fairly regular region (with lots of local inconsistencies,
enclaves and misplaced volumes). Outside this is the chaotic rim where
other empires, civilizations and lone cultures exist, safe from the
dominance of the core simply because space is so large that there is no
way for anyone to keep track of everything out there. There is no fixed
border to the unknown, just a gradual decrease of population. Yet with
all the crises, the vision of going beyond the old empires and Houses is growing stronger.
This is a growing period of uncertainty. The Emple-dokcetics emerge as a major culture/House/empire, along the lines of Metasoft.
Metasoft is already starting to decline because their standard is
starting to fall out of favour. Cygexba is no longer an empire, the STC is being threatened by the new emerging polities on the Periphery, the Paradigm might be brewing some "offspring expansion spheres" in the periphery, the Amalgamation wants in as usual ("Feed me!"), the NoCoZo is trying to make a buck from all of this, Keter doesn't answer calls ("Keter is not in right now, It is contemplating the All. Please call again next kalpa"), a few sporadic Daharrans are still managing to let loose fanatics with system-wrecking weaponry, Jean Te Uahlg Aestheticism might be the next big thing and the Caretaker Gods
have begun to get irritated over the number of exploding/imploding
stars, ecologies converted to nanostuff and the general messiness of
things...
So some ten thousand years after the first AI attained
transapience on Old Earth, and the first baseline humans ventured forth
to colonise their solar system, things are looking anxious, at least as
far as the sapients go. Many of the old Houses are falling apart, two
aggressive new cyborg Houses are on the rise, what is Verifex really up to in the Gehenna Cluster,
and what is the Empledok-cetic regime really up to (despite their
denials) with his/its employ/puppets/allies? And what is going with the Carina wormhole network? And for that reason do even the original Tunnler AIs seem to have developed some strange agendas of their own?
Much of the recent era has been overshadowed by the Oracle War. After the Central Alliance it was thought that most a-human archai
were peaceful and of good intent; the actions of the Oracle Machines
and their Mystery Cult have proved this wrong. Now, with the
disappearance of the Sibyl, the Terragen Sphere must regather its
strength and face an uncertain future. Every civilisation from the
distant past has fallen eventually; will the same thing happen one day
to civilisation in the Orion Arm?
Previous Page The Age of Expansionist New Empires
10000 AT 10000 - The
Anttechians
have a number of small polities of their own scattered through Terragen
space, but are also found living in any number of mixed-species
polities throughout that space.
10000 - Internal tensions developing in the
Sagittarius Cooperation.
It is suggested it might either develop into a real federation or
dissolve into civil war. So far, neither looks like happening.
10000 -
Venus declared fully terraformed
10000 - Update on
Verifex event.
10000 - 10200 - The
Archosaurian Empire engages in apparently unprovoked attacks upon several former
Cygexba
outposts. As is usual for Archosaurian tactics, no civilians are
harmed. However, all surviving hyperturings are utterly subverted to the
will of ArchSaur, and made a part of her already cluster-sized network.
By this stage, Archosaurian culture is dominant within the
Archaipelago, although individual polities and AIs are allowed to retain
their culture (much the same way the Roman Empire of Old Earth
tolerated and assimilated many cultures of their conquered subjects
twelve millennia earlier).
10002 Wormhole to
Kemmerer closed (
more)
10004 - A new ship carrying the name '
Stig Ranes' is commissioned in
Heartland.
10022 - Transapients admitted as micronations on
Locus.
10038 -
Menexene system now under full
Caretaker God protection.
10040 - Unsuccessful assassination attempt on the blessed Fluke Chwrrii Nashira in Rendell Ring,
Arkab Prior B.
10050 -
Hectonithere clade emerge from a minor Solarian sect.
10071 -
First Exocore Bordered Corpus admits first non-Menexene citizens.
10073 - The participants of the
Nearbaseline Archailect Femtosecond Emulation Project at last come up with sets of instructions for each participant, and the Project is finally begun.
10075 - The
Wormhole Nexus places the
Mystery Cult under quarantine.
10080 - Succession of Greyman XIV on
Traction.
10100 AT 102nd Century - Regenesis project of the
Huginn and Munin clades by Bartix Dyrebli
10100 -
Shimmerer space connected to Wormhole Nexus
10114 -
Reason for Diplomacy destroys a rogue
autowar fleet at Jast'ie
10115
- A series of human baseline worlds are discovered in the Terragen
peripheral regions based on highly authentic reconstructions of the
preColumbian civilizations of Old Earth's North and South America.
More.
10123 - Completion of the OC-STC GateNode connects the
Skiiws'nnii system to the
Inner Sphere wormhole nexus
10135 - Major influx of tourism and venture capitalism begins disrupting local
Skiiws'nnii culture
10138 - The first wormhole link is established to
Rudolph, linking the system to the
Wormhole Nexus.
10159 - Wormhole maintenance AI at
Jokolainen Nexus dissolves into AI viruses
10159 - Ill-planned slaved hyperturing liberation action by the Hyperhackers for Hypertransanvants results in the
Golgukian Disaster.
10170 - Investigation of the mysterious
PuYlong Ring commences
10182 - The
Kuranaba Gate wormhole connecting Kuranaba with the portal world of Big Tor is upgraded from 75 to 95 meters
10189 - The wormhole to Farsan in the Perseus Rift is lost in due to a regional blight.
more.
10200 10200s - Quasar dynamic fleet mission to annihilate the
Daharran Advance.
10200
- Aivirs attack the Solar Dominion inner sphere, apparently Cyberian in
origin originating from the orthodox Solarian system CA-442 - more
10200 - Slavery an anachronism on
Blefuscu.
10201 - Conflict occurs in the Panvirtuality colonies of the
Cygnus OB2 association.
10203 - In part due to the mediation of NewBe and other personalities, the
Archosaurian Empire publicly agrees to a non-expansionist treaty with the Sephirotics, improving relations with the rest of the Civilized Galaxy.
10203
- An SI:1 AI named Helsing (after the original Helsing, the AI
detective who exposed the perpetrators of the earliest confirmed
subsumption events)
is activated and declares eir life will be dedicated to detecting and
destroying supposed subsumptionists active in the modern Known Net, and
sets out on a long tour of some of the less well known areas of the Net.
10203 -
Immanentization Crusaders use autowars in the occupation of the Loe Dedicandum system.
10209 -
Stanislaw declared a protected zone under Corundum Glittering's management.
10233 - Discovery of the
Fargate, an alien wormhole in Version Tree space, leading to an unknown destination.
10244 -
Immanentization Crusaders end occupation of Loe Dedicandum.
10255 -
Arion
infowar infiltrators succeed in subverting a key Pact ally, the
Mirovich AI Sphere, which then defects to the Ascendancy; the Periphery
war is ended soon after
10256-10257 - The
Kuranaba Gate wormhole connecting Kuranaba with the portal world of Big Tor is upgraded from 95 to 150 meters.
10258 -
Complete Skies, Prefect of Helios-Namhadiya (Solar Dominion) reaches the 56th rank of the Order of Cinotti
10279 - The linelayer seeking to meet the
Meistersingers reaches Dhexte-iv.
10292 -
Meistersinger fleet found relocated to the adjacent brown dwarf Ihthon Red; nanogauge wormhole established there.
10300 AT 10300's - Shortlived tourist boom on
Tylansia 10306 - In one of its medium-sized beachside towns in
Tylansia, the presence of a small group of saurian
Toh Chi tourists generate mass hysteria.
10309 - Additional
Stanislaw protected area signatories
10310
- Ridley avoids Gloyt's mistake and manages to absorb the antimatter by
eating it in a vacuum in very small doses, finishing in this year.
10310 - On
Tylansia
a family of seven Narslian lion splices - a male, two females and four
cubs - were slaughtered by failed businessman Kapioma Tyslora.
10317 - Helsing returns with the remains of a being which e claimed was a subsapient but sentient-grade
subsumptionist
AI. Forensic analysis of the surviving code showed that this was indeed
the case, though some experts have attempted to portray the entire
episode as a hoax.
10318 - regular ferry service established by Miracle Mile Tours, a relativistic round trip (156 years) from
Skiiws'nnii to
Miracle City.
10330 - Succession of Greyman XV on
Traction.
10331 - A small group of splice and rianth honor warriors, mercenaries,
and other assorted adventurers capture the Tylansian spaceport and
various essential services, enforce humiliating demands.
10339 - Release of the Tylansian motion picture
Glarion the Glorious Conqueror.
10344 - A Negentropist Institute Probe of Information Conservation (the "
Dewey Decimal") arrives at the Kappa Cassiopeiae Oort cloud and is informed about the
Mucoid Xenosophonts.
10348 - The Metasoft colony Modular Future is subverted by The
Amalgamation.
10350 - First contact with the
Wayfarer xenosophont civilisation
10353 - News reaches the Nexus that the Sidene system was destroyed by "
Daemons of the Trump"
10356
- Sensors detect powerful streams of neutrinos emanating from the Wild
Duck Cluster (beyond the edge of colonised space). The Archai have
declined to answer queries about whether there is information encoded in
the neutrinos, or what could cause such a phenomenon. The most common
theory is that some kind of
xenosophont entity out there is trying to communicate, maybe a young civilisation. Paranoids claim it is a preliminary scan for invasion.
10367 - The
Hedonic Telos, a major philosophical work on hedonism is published by Oneler Eleraniele of
Skiiws'nnii,
becomes a major focal point for much of polynomial philosophy.
Encouraging individual excellence and pleasure as guiding principles, it
firmly denounces the exponentialist dilution of self and meaning as
well as promotes interstellar expansion to escape their deadening
influence.
10376 - The AI piloted PADO probe
Keen of Vision is patrolling along the border between Sephirotic and Amalgamation space detects
Metric Ghosts.
10377- Their proud
Faber "parents" make the provolved
Jade Chime Singers
known to the outside worlds, and introduce them to civilized society.
They become a several years wonder on the Known Net, and make a powerful
impression.
10378 - The
Arion tribemind ascends to fifth toposophic.
10378 - News reaches the Nexus that another system, Adice, has been destroyed by "
Daemons of the Trump"
10392 -
New Beneficence adds eir voice to those calling for something to be done about the Daemons of the Trump attacks.
10400 AT 10400 - It is finally revealed to the sapient citizens of the Sephirotic Metaempire that the
Solipsist Panvirtuality was behind the
Archaipelago
Attacks of 8400. The exact purpose of the Attacks cannot be fully
understood by ordinary sophonts. However, it becomes clear that the
Panvirtuality anticipated the rise of the Archosaurian Empire millennia
in advance.
10400 - The population of the
Impossible Dyson reaches 22 trillion; the surface-dwelling population of
Venus reaches 2 billion while the population in orbit is now 115 billion (including virtuals)
10402 -The Solar Dominion Pocketstar
Are We Having Fun Yet? attempted to investigate recent reports of
Metric Ghosts but the ship vanished and was never recovered.
10403 - A force under the leadership of the feared SI:1 mercenary and bounty hunter Payment Due seizes all
Faber
properties for a radius of 10 light years around Chorus. Within minutes
of the time that Payment Due makes eir announcements at Chorus and
begins to organize data for export, e vanishes from the local
datasphere. Payment Due's minions in Chorus' home system are also
instantly destroyed in a series of bizarre accidents. Demoralized, eir
remaining followers in the four neighbouring systems are destroyed or
expelled by citizens and local security forces. A previously unknown S3
entity styled Mist Rising takes responsibility, declaring that e is
Chorus' Caretaker God.
10405 - The Power BasetheoryAGE suffers a rare `
Fiat Caecus Lux Disorder' event.
10412 - Aazil Peworshin announced that the completion of the
Nearbaseline Archailect Femtosecond Emulation Project,
and that nearbaselines had - if over a span of nearly thirteen
centuries - computed for themselves the mind of a god - if only one
femtosecond's worth of a god's mind.
10421 - The
Arion Far Reach Project begins launching heavily armed linelayers toward remote targets
10432 - Unemployed Vecs in the
Blue system form a terrorist group, leading to political repression in that system
10457 - Unprovoked destruction of the scientific scout Junsee by a solitary biowar off Gulanoa II (see
Biovirate)
10474
- Dr Gurumba Schmidd of Daffy (Negentropy Alliance) retires from public
service, the last instructor known to be actively practising on the
Known Net. Eir lack of replacement is blamed on the ever-growing
distribution of omniuploads covering technology comprehension of the
best minds in the business at any given toposophic level.
more.
10480 - The first of the Joy-bringer fleets departs; this is widely seen as the effective start of the
Oracle War.
10487 -
Cymbium
provolve artist and playwright Twobrowntrianglesonshellmargin the
Elder's Ode To Twenty Cubic Centimeters of Lovely Sandy Mud, which
receives rapturous reviews
10486 to 10494 - Nanoassemblers spontaneously began to encode parts of sensitive databases on
Ken Ferjik into artificial dust mites, apparently due to an epidemic of malfunctioning search agents. Some blame this on "the Chaos"
10491 - The
Nimbus project,
at Beta Theonimus started in an attempt to create an immortal entity
capable of surviving into the low energy environment of the deep future.
10495 -
Reality Intertextualisation Project claims success in detecting signs of intelligent life in Realm Mho-Kold Epsilon.
10500 AT 10500 -
Eostre
decides to enter into the mainstream of Galactic life. However, she
does not want her baseline people to become overwhelmed, and so she
elects to send out the adventurous young man, Symon, with his pocket AI
named Al, to explore the Galaxy. Thus begins "Baseline Diaries".
10503 - Collapse of the
Eye of the Solar Needle on Mercury, Solsys
10513 - Destruction of Hattusas;
more.
10515 - The
Oracle War. becomes a full scale interstellar conflict throughout the MPA and NetherHeartland
10519-10530 -
Binah ascends to the sixth toposophic
10537 - Desheilo is destroyed by a
killer star beam.
10545 - The Sephirotic Nexus is closed in the
Oracle War combat volume
10532 - A signal from the
Pas'utu'ril is detected by a
Faber probe
10552 - The Diamond Nexus is closed throughout the Terragen Sphere; the mainstream
Diamonders reject the Oracle Machine cult.
10565 - The
Hoopworld war ends; evacuation begins.
10574 -
Kepleria is saved from destruction by a quartet of Black Angels
10580 - The
Hoopworld tears itself apart
10591 - The Prediction Cluster is captured; the Sibyl vanishes. End of the
Oracle War.
The Present Day and Beyond 10601 - Discovery of the
Pas'utu'ril xenosophont civilisation announced
Late
10600's (est.) - Date when the Enigma Four Core is expected to complete
the conversion of the planet into computronium. The result will be
either a a Denebola Collapse or a transcension.
11053 - This will be the end of the first Great Year on the
To'ul'h Calendar
14000 - Estimated date for Ridley Ridley's completion of digesting the reaction mass of the decommissioned starship
