>[!warning] ***Internal note: this has been hidden from the public database.*** ## Revisions >[!danger] >(updated 2024-06-19) - Some of the info here has been overridden by the [[Timeline]]. I need to rewrite the timeline and drop certain concepts. - The [[First Galactic War]] is going to be the *only* galactic war. We can continue to the use the term [[Ceaseless Fray]] instead. The [[Second Galactic War]] is going away in its entirety, there was no war, just a centuries long decay out of the [[Second Golden Age]] into [[The Collapse]]. - I want the period in between to be longer and probably more vague. Instead of humans reaching space again in less than 200 years, I think it should take at least double that. - The ships that landed on [[Ares]] and the other planets were essentially converted cargo haulers with enough life support to get people to the [[Core Worlds]]. This leaves room for more deviation on the various planets before the Aresian powers took them over (especially the human hive people). - After the landings, the ships were mostly cannibalized for shelter and repurposed materials. Humans were much more concerned about survival and growing enough food to get by. This set us back *much further* than "pre-industrial." We went back to an agrarian society. - The [[Methuselan|Methuselans]] did what they could in those early times, but even their knowledge was mismatched, as even the oldest were born during times of high-technology. So they were not always useful when it came to growing crops. - We had a lot of hangups because of "partially correct information." This could be applied in our modern world as well. Something like Dark Matter may or may not exist. We assume it must, because that's what our math tells us. Our math is right about so many other things that throwing it out and starting over would destabilize science as a whole. So we continue to try and append the math, but we keep falling short. Humans in Imperium are likely struggling with the same problems. We had to relearn a lot of things through trial and error. Rediscovering [[Aloract|Aloracian]] technology only made things worse, as we couldn't begin to understand such things. - So, lets say that with Methuselan help, we did re-advance fairly quickly once we got survival under control. Maybe around 500 years after our arrival on Ares, we got things rolling again to 20th century levels. We had a general understanding of physics. We restarted the space program (since we always knew space travel was a thing before). The Methuselans were particularly helpful here, as they knew how to hook up and operate the [[Ahkaydies]]/[[Hub Drive|Hub Drives]]. Which we put on board our ships once they were "safe" enough to embark on such extra-stellar expeditions. That in and of itself probably took another 50 years or so. - Right now, we've got our first huge technology mismatch. We've got early 21st century space ships, with magical interstellar drives on board. Given the past 50 years of development, this is just sort of an accepted thing. Even the Methuselans had no idea how the devices worked, but did know how the interfaces did. - This led to the reconnection of the Core Worlds to each other. I should probably go into more detail about the issues with bringing humanity back together. - While all of this was going on, the corporations (mercantile empires) were flexing their muscles. They helped fund the expeditions in exchange for their own interstellar commercial vessels. Particularly the Haneda of the [[Saigatani Federation|Saigatani]] peoples and the [[Traghil|Traghili]] of the [[United Republic Of Mercaulis|URM]]. [[Aracosa Island]] itself was doing quite well as a trade hub of the [[Aresian Oceans|Indermizhen Sea]] and the [[Aresian Oceans|Tiraskaar Ocean]], always locked in competition from [[San Reales]]. - Technology advanced slowly around this time, hitting many of the walls of the early 21st century earlier. Computer technology lagged behind as the development of the transistor happened much later. The early space craft were powered by fission thermoelectric reactors, had limited computational power, CRT displays were still the norm, etc. It wasn't until we began to venture further out beyond the Core Worlds and began to discover old colonies. - The old colonies were mostly long dead. Over specialization and dependency on interstellar trade, left most of these dwindling populations with little chance to survive. A few still had surviving populations, but they had also suffered greatly in their isolation. Many human colonies were never intended to exist on their own. Either by design or as a result of their ecosystems not being entirely suitable for habitation. The long lost remnants of humanity were in the same boat as the Core Worlds, with survival taking priority over all else. Their technology was largely intact however. - Rediscovering old tech (and alien tech). Between the old colonial worlds and the discoveries at [[Torgu Valjad]], mankind had suddenly found themselves immersed in advanced technology they didn't fully understand. The [[Gnaltic Empire]] rose out of [[Farport]], with their access to [[Kyserian]] tech. They rounded up people from the [[Valcaeus]] mainland and put them to work digging up the ancient [[Planet Ship]]. - *Note: The Gnaltic Empire didn't take over the planet, but was a major power in [[Ganamied Island|Ganamied]], southern Valcaeus and the southern Tiraskaar Ocean (and its islands).* - Methuselans were invaluable during this time. Finally we had access to the technology they were more familiar with. The Gnaltic Empire gathered them up where ever they could and forced them to help understand the technology. The Empire itself saw the technology as something to be revered and utilized, but not modified. This left them at a distinct disadvantage as the corporations and other city-states were beginning to understand the colonial tech much better. - Two things happened around this time. The colonial tech was useable, but almost impossible to reverse engineer. However, factories were found and repaired. These mostly automated factories could build much of the ancient technology from before the collapse. The other disruptive tech was computers. Existing operating systems were extremely complex and coded in a machine language that was indecipherable. So creating new programs and software was impossible at the time, but everything that still existed (and not lost to data decay) was useable. - So now we have advanced computers and manufacturing capability, but no one actually knows how they work. We should be up around the 700-800 CE time by now. The Gnaltic Empire is already starting to crumble under the pressure of the other city-states and merchant guilds/corporations. - Around this time, [[Aracosa Island]] and [[Volotorsk]] were beginning to form the [[Severnite Alliance|Severnite Alliance]]. - The Methuselans were a tremendous resource to understanding the [[Aloract|Aloracts]], but they were users of said technology for the most part. The actual design and processes behind the tech was often not contained in their archives. So we were left with essentially having user manuals until we understood it better. - We continued to operate on partially correct information about much of the old tech. Progress was slow to find ways to innovate with any of the factories or computers. The T/KMR programming (negotiation) language precursors began development. All of the computers were based on machine learning hardware. It had been a *very* long time since anyone had written any real code for these CPUs. As such, it was discovered that in order to get them to do what was desired, you actually had to have a sort of conversation with them. Telling the computers what you wanted them to do, then seeing what the result was. The future "programming language" isn't actual code, as much as rapid fire prompting based on known results. This became its own "language" of sorts, which allowed humans to quickly and concisely negotiate with the computers and get results that they wanted. - Materials Science was so far behind what the factories could assemble, that it seemed like magic. These molecular looms could weave together super-materials that the current humans could barely fathom with their understanding of chemistry and physics. [[Miltain]], [[Ceraphene Nanofiber|Ceranofiber]], and [[Kerymer]] are still something of a mystery in the 2300s CE, but we can churn it out using factories built by the original colonial factories (they built the modular components, which were assembled by people on other worlds). - *Note: Holy shit, this is getting a hell of a lot more interesting (and deep?).* - So yes, our understanding of technology is a lot like people putting together IKEA furniture. It's actually relatively simple, and was originally designed to be that way in the Ceaseless Fray and Second Golden Age, but we don't entirely understand how the components are made. Which puts us on potentially very shaky ground. Unless someone like the [[Ptalar]] happened to swing by and give us lessons. - So now we get to the Severnite Alliance aggression. Under the leadership of [[Giles Montgomery]], posing as their current leader, they began to attempt to gain control over many of the colonies and set up trade blockades around the Core Worlds. This of course pissed everyone else off. The other city-states and their surrounding countries reacted by creating defensive compacts and eventually becoming massive nations to resist the efforts of the NA. - Between the Corporations and the new superpowers, the NA was beaten back. Monty slipped away and convinced [[EBRIS]] to break away from the alliance before it all fell apart. After the conventional war, the NA used nuclear weapons and orbital bombardments to fuck shit up, leading to the [[Dark Centuries]] *(this is the new name)*. Which might need a new name... just "The Dark Age" could work. - Everything after that is probably more or less the same. But I want to have history be a little more vague about the pre-dark age. **Speaking of the timeline...** - No. We don't know shit about the pre-collapse state of things. It was pretty much a hard reset. The Methuselans know about the Ceaseless Fray and maybe some inkling about the first contact with the [[Falinjorin]] and the [[Lacir]]. At this point, we probably don't know (in any real detail) what the first 1400 years was like after the collapse. - Due to the absolute shit treatment of the Methuselans and the [[Amerdus]], neither group has been terribly forthcoming about pre-Dark Age history. - The Lacir likely told us very little about our past as well. They realize that we are dangerous, but continue to protect/help us because of their deal with the Falinjorin. I don't think I ever talked about that part either. In a nutshell, the FJs helped out the Lacir(yn) after their rebellion. They assisted with the understanding of technology and led them away from their warrior culture ways (to an extent). They do know the FJs are long gone, but humans are their descendants, more or less. - Ah yes, timeline. So from 1400-1800 PC, things were pretty shit. - We nearly wiped ourselves out, after spending 1400 years trying to avoid such a thing. - The church rose in power as humanity rebuilt after the war. That's how they became the force they are today. - Between 1800 and the 2200s PC, humanity rebuilt much of what they had lost (plus a lot more) and ventured back out into the stars. This time around, we weren’t entirely on our heels. I need to decide what exactly was going on during the dark age. ~~All of the superpowers survived *somehow*.~~ (See: my other thought below) My guess is that the leadership were out of the cities and after the bombs, they organized all of the rebuilding. Which helped solidify their positions of power. I would imagine that they also had the only real military and police forces to keep order during the dark age. I’m going to say that the first few decades were dedicated to keeping the remaining population alive. Once the radiation was negligible, they would move back in to rebuild the cities (despite the war, much of the cities were still intact). This would have led to clearing out a lot of squatters and scavengers that ventured back in earlier. Perhaps each superpower was dealing with a lot of infighting. Multipolar civil wars. Corporate conflicts. Church expansion and perhaps clashing with the militarized inquisition. **Ok, here’s another thought**… The superpowers didn’t arise until after/during the dark age. This would make a lot more sense. I had hoped to avoid a bunch of retcons and changing dates, but the closer I can push everything towards the current date, the better. Oh, well. It’s also likely that the budding superpowers were the ones with access to Aloract tech. While everyone else was relying on what they had available or [[Nyrtech]]. ## Less Info Dumping I realized that I need to be a lot more vague. Maybe not here, but in the actual narrative of the novels/stories and maybe even in the [[Imperium - Schattenkrieg TTRPG]]. Speculation, limited information, mysteries, and drip fed plots drive engagement. I know that I don't plan on writing more than the two books and the anthology of shorter stories. As such, I want to put *EVERYTHING* into those books, but should I? Info dumping is bad, I don't want to write a book that reads like this database... but I also don't want people to have to dig through all of this to learn everything, and maybe I don't want them to learn everything. I dunno. This is all a lot of talk for something that very few people will ever read. ::*sigh*:: --- ## Timeline Retcon (Little Dark Age) *Note: I changed it to the [[Dark Centuries]].* So. I want to talk about what is actually known by humans in the current setting. As of right now, there's a lot of vague knowledge about the [[First Galactic War]] and the [[First Era]]. Given the nature of the collapse, it's unlikely that anyone would have any clue about anything before that. If even that far back. Humanity is such a mess of historical relics. I think the culture, views, beliefs and technology makes sense that it's so weird and mixed up. But it feels like I may have given humanity too much time to recover. *OR* I need to make the [[Severnite Alliance|Severnite Alliance]] war *much* worse than it was. That may be a better solution... I already have the [[Dark Centuries]], but maybe instead of it being a minor inconvenience, it could be a mostly complete reset. That would explain why the other nations were so worried about them and banded together. That gives us around 300-500 years to completely rebuild society on ares and across the various worlds. This would also make sense as to why the consolidation wars were so important for expanding territory. In addition, this would explain why the [[Orbital Strike Treaty]] is still honored. Because the war with the Severnite Alliance was just *that bad*. It basically scared humanity back into a sort of limited warfare agreement of the early days after the collapse. --- ## Technology So here's a big one I've been rolling around in my head. I want humanity to have a really weird relationship with technology. There should be a lot of things we never quite rediscovered, while others we did. Some tech might even be [[Aloract|Aloracian]] in nature, as in, the original tech from before the collapse and we're still using it. The very nature of [[Artikybahl Device|Artikybahl Devices]] shouldn't be the only mysterious technology. After all, we regained most of what we knew by salvaging [[Second Golden Age]] colony ships and the [[Kyserian]] [[Planet Ship]] in [[Torgu Valjad]]. The [[Gnaltic Empire]] worshiped the old tech and refused to innovate. After the empire collapsed, the [[Severnite Alliance|Severnite Alliance]] and the other city-states picked up where they left off, still having a strange reverence for things they didn't fully understand. I do want a lot of things to be understood, and some are required to be understood (like being able to refuel [[Spacecraft|spacecraft]]). Perhaps there is some amount of similarities to the [[Lacir]]. In that, we know how to repair or even build new things, but we don't fully understand how they work. That does seem like a pretty big stretch, though. A certain amount of understanding needs to exist in order to replicate a thing. But maybe not? The Russians copied American aircraft and even included the patches from old bullet holes in their new builds. I don't know if that would actually translate to higher tech levels though. Can you really build the machine that builds microchips, without knowing how microchips are actually made? If it is possible, that would be fun to play with. It would also explain certain technological stopping points. Because we're making something more advanced than we understand, there's an innovation gap between what we know and what we can do/build. Could there be a 40k-like explanation as well? In that, we can build things exactly as they were built pre-collapse, but we don't know how or why they work exactly, just that they do. Any amount of innovation could actually be detrimental or even impossible, since the base knowledge is missing. This could also be fun, as some tech would be unreliable. Since we don't understand it, we don't know how to QC it correctly or know why some copies don't work as well as others. e.g. Binned microchips. *This is turning into a ramble. I should pick one or more of these ideas and canonize it. I'll do that late though, since I still want to think about it.* --- ## Sehrlitech So this is interesting. I'm going to layer on more info about [[Deitech]] and their devices. Basically, someone (maybe with [[Samalek]]'s help) figured out how to build [[Inter-Realm Construct|Inter-Realm Constructs]] and infuse tech with [[Essence]]. This would make for a fun detour in the technology department and explain why Deitech was so dangerous to the economy (resulting in the embargoes and eventual destruction - making them the victims, actually). Since technology was so confusing and randomly stagnant (due to our lack of understanding), the new Sehrlitech actually innovated, in its own way. These innovations threatened to upend thousands of years of technological (mis)understanding. That right there would send the [[Cartel]] into fits for sure. Sehrlitechnicians are part wizard and part engineer. Not all of them know much about [[Magic|magic]] or how it works, but they understand, on some level, how to meld current tech and magic. To them, it's not really mystical at all, it's just a new form of technology. Which is ironically, not that strange, when much of the technology in use is already mystical in certain ways. *This is fun. I like this odd direction, hopefully it's not too much like Destiny, as that is inspiring some of this.* --- ## The Future I have some ideas about the future. 2408 is going to be a sort of stopping point for now, but that doesn't rule out a roadmap of sorts for future stories, plots, or even TTRPG sourcebooks. - The Methuselans will either be in the [[Fallen City]] or die off under Rowan's decree. - Rowan told Eriti that the [[Ptalar]] are the future of mankind, but they were already approaching their zenith and would likely begin to stagnate or run into problems. I'm not 100% sure what those problems will be. But once their Archeeons start dying off, they will have a crisis of leadership, which may lead to a fragmenting of the "species." - The [[Kyserian|Kyserians]] and the [[Lacir]] broke against each other in the [[Holoscaral Outbreak]] breakout conflict. The Lacir were already on the decline and the Kyserians were too vulnerable without their defenders. Some of their factions will have to work together with humanity to survive. - Speaking of the Lacir and other humans... I mentioned it elsewhere, but the [[Almetocian Legion]] will end up working with both Lacir and [[Morocaschic]] remnants. Rising to become a new power in [[Human Space]]. - The Kyserians may need to halt their plans to wipe out or enslave the [[Border Worlds Alliance|BWA]] in order to prevent their own extinction. Either or, they will have infested portions of [[Ares]] and other worlds in the future. They will likely take two paths. One group will focus on inter-species relations and focus on their science (which will benefit everyone). Another group will likely become feral, acting as the jungle predators they once were in their beginnings. Honestly, I really like the 2408 and later settings. There's a part of me that wants to move the whole setting forward a few decades. Rowan is the new Isys'ir, magic is more common, the frontier is dangerous, space is dark and spooky, etc. I hate trying to build two, let alone three or more "current" and canon eras. But I'll see what happens. --- *Personal note: I should really write some more short stories and just see where my ideas take me. They don't need to be good, just dumping grounds for ideas. Then if I want, I can go back and adapt them into actual short stories or just keep them for myself as reference material (and put those ideas in this database).*