Timeline

THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY A WORK IN PROGRESS AND UNDERGOING MAJOR REVISIONS

While Human history is long and diverse, with multiple perspectives and a myriad of details that vary between accounts, here is a more succint summary of the more recent events in the history of mankind.

The Second Space Age
2045: Developed/Developing world stabilizes in population. Many third world/failing states collapse, some of their more viable remnants being scooped up by larger emerging power blocs such as the North American Federation, European Alliance, Indian Confederation, Pan-Asia Cooperative, Russian Federation, Middle Eastern Alliance and South African Commonwealth.

2075: Research into viable space travel yields results. Slightly faster than conventional space travel through the use of practical nuclear engines. Earth pop: 9.5 billion.

2085: Human settlements on Luna and Mars established, low populations. Earth pop: 9.55 billion.

2100: Stream of Earth-based resources begin to trickle. Governments begin to subsidize off-world colonization efforts. Large-scale colonization/mining operations on Luna, Mars, other near Earth bodies.

2125: Earth’s resources begin to be stretched to the breaking point. Luna and Mars populations reach the millions, steady stream of resources back to Earth keep the nations there afloat. Resource shortages cause the worst economic crisis on Earth since the Great Depression. Earth pop: 10 billion.

2130: Scientists discover Warp Technology, marking the start of the Interstellar Era. Spurned by fears of resource collapse and anarchy on Earth probes are sent out to perform in-depth charting nearest systems. Luna and Mars see large population increases. Earth pop: 10.01 billion.

2140: Hundreds of probes are sent to survey nearby star systems and potential candidates for colonization. The Sol Alliance, individual nations and private interests quickly organize colonization missions to these worlds. United Nations convene and form the Sol Alliance, a supranational body “to oversee the colonization and development of Solar and Extrasolar bodies”. There was moderate opposition to the measure, mainly stemming from general anti-United Nations sentiment.

2155: Garden worlds closest to Earth see massive population increases as colony ships make round trips between the settlements and Sol. Einstein Engines becomes the first Transstellar corporation, specializing in producing Warp engines and supplying colonists with cheap colonization modules. Several earth governments enforce rationing, while tensions rise over resource use. Several disputes escalate into border skirmishes. The Sol Alliance, lacking any authority over Earth itself, is unable to intervene.

2185: Earth begins to stabilize as birth rates are kept in check and people continue to leave for garden worlds. Earth relies on Mars, Luna, and the most developed garden worlds for resources. Earth enters a period of political stability Due to Earth’s dependence upon imported extrasolar resources, the nations of Earth sign the Treaty of Mumbai, giving the Sol Alliance the authority a degree of authority over the extrasolar affairs of individual nations. Sol Alliance is afforded more power over Earth affairs, as a result of its direct control of the Colonies Earth depends on for resources. Earth pop: 10.2 billion. Total pop: 12 billion.

2200: The Martian Terraforming Project begins, leading to a boom in martian immigration. The largest extrasolar garden world attain populations in the hundreds of millions.The Sol Alliance forms the Central Administrative Zone (CAZ), giving it formal authority over Earth itself. The CAZ represents an attempt to end the anarchic system of international relations and act as a moderator between the nations of Earth. In conjunction with the formation of the CAZ, the Sol Alliance issues the Sol Credit, the official currency of humanity. Although initially intended for use on the various extrasolar colonies, it would eventually start to displace the national currencies as Earth becomes more economically homogeneous. Earth pop: 10.75 billion. Total pop: 14 billion.

2215: Second wave of scouting operations map systems further out from the existing extra-solar colonies. Second wave of colonization efforts.The first-wave colony worlds begin to reach economic maturity, with many achieving a standard of living rivaling or exceeding that of Earth. The Martian terraforming project fails, and millions die in rapid environmental degradation. Massive waves of immigrants leave Earth and Mars for the inner colonies. In many systems, corporations have established extensive asteroid mining operations. In the face of increased piracy and lawlessness in the outer colonies, the Alliance Command forms for the purpose of maintaining order in Alliance (at this point, all of human) space. Proper Sol Alliance fleets begin policing Sol and inner-colonies. First interstellar fleets form. Earth pop: 9.5 billion. Total pop: 13.5 billion.

2250: New garden worlds discovered, Earth still dependent on resources from other planets. Depopulation of Earth leads to massive abandoned sections of cities. Colony worlds continue to grow exponentially, spurned on by cheap cost of colonization (Colonization efforts had essentially become comodesized). Earth Pop: 13 billion. Total Pop: 16.9 billion.

The First Interstellar War
2260: Sol Alliance levy taxes on Earth for disproportionate use of resources (import a bunch, export little luxury resources). Earth-based ‘planetism’ increases. Sol Alliance stresses unity. Fringe elements in outer-most colonies begin to openly revolt against Sol Alliance administration, seen as the ‘Shackle of Earth-based oppression’.

2270: Earth based pop: 13.9 billion, Total human pop: 18 billion. Developing colonies better able to census planets populations: discovered that in total billions of more colonist exist spread across roughly 100 colonized worlds (besides Earth). Steadily improving habitation, agriculture and infrastructure technologies pave way for quick, efficient colonization. Earth begins to look on with envy and disgust, Sol Alliance attempts to represent the ‘unifying’ force in human space.

2275: Open hostilities break out in fringe systems, spurned on by extremist elements and anti-Alliance sentiments. Sol Alliance is slow to respond, paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty. As a result, other Colonies on the fringe begin to break away, seeing the Alliance as ineffective at supporting them.

2278: First Interstellar War breaks out. Most radical fringe worlds declare war on Alliance, attacking Alliance military garrisons and ships. Hit and run tactics are used, with the occasional suicide attack. Alliance forces are overwhelmed and in disarray. Political gridlock as Earth urges Alliance to completely annihilate rebels as more moderate inner colonies stress restraint. Earth resents ‘It’s colonies’ for disagreeing with it.

2285: Earth pop: 14 billion. total pop: 19.5 billion. More ‘outer’ but not ‘fringe’ colonies break away as Alliance proves ineffective in dealing with rebel threat. Rebels begin attacking each other, more extremist factions fighting more moderate ones. Fringe becomes very dangerous place. Several large coalitions in the ‘outer colonies’ officially declare independence (they were already practically independent), and begin fighting rebels elements who venture into their space. Sol, Inner Colonies: Sol Alliance. Outer colonies: mostly independent. Fringe colonies: Extremists, rebels, warring.

2286: Many Megacorporations profit off of the war, selling arms to one or both sides, trading in dangerous systems and staking claims in otherwise dangerous locations. Earth convinces Sol Alliance to begin wiping out extremist factions in the frontier to ‘eradicate the anarchists that threaten our peace’. Varied reactions: Sol is happy. Colonies horrified. Sol Alliance dominated by ‘Hawkish’ politicians issue proclamation that extremist and rebellious colonists will not be tolerated. ‘Independent’ outer colonies wind down militaries and aggression out of fear.

The Resource Wars
2290: Earth pop: 14.1 billion. Human pop: 20 billion. Colonies continue to see pop increases. Earth begins to suffer resource, labor shortages as a result of continued emigration. Earth feels effects of almost three centuries of continued colonization efforts, with the colonies starting to be unable to support it. Radical elements come to power in Earth-governments. Age old Earth national rivalries are revived. Sol Alliance begins to shift it’s power-base off Earth.

2300: Earth pop: 14.2 billion. total human pop: 23 billion. Sol Alliance moves to Earth-based orbital as capital, essentially evicted by Earth-based governments.

2310: Earth-nations becomes increasingly radical. Begin demanding exorbitant number of resources and taxes from inner colonies to keep itself afloat. Inner Colonies petition for more independence, as they are forced to ship a majority of their goods to Earth that, while buoyed by taxes Earth pays for these goods, are beginning to turn a loss for inner Colonies. It is more profitable for them to trade with each other or the outer colonies.

The Fall of Earth
2314: Solar Rebellion. Sol Alliance fleets crewed by Earth-based individuals break away and surround Earth. Earth-based ‘United Nations Interstellar Alliance’ issues ultimatum to inner colonies to give in to it’s demands for more resources and a lifting of Earth-taxes (for the amount of resources they suck up) or be attacked. Remaining loyal Sol Alliance forces (Non-Earth) supported by Inner Colonies quickly move in and attack ‘United Nations Interstellar Alliance’ Fleets. The ensuing Battle of Terra leaves both fleets decimated. Sol Alliance orbital HQ is destroyed in the crossfire. A mysterious virus suddenly emerges cross Earth and in UNIU forces in orbit around Earth. Millions die in the following days. UNIU thrown into disarray.

2315: Facing a defiant Earth, Sol Alliance forces overwhelm UNIU forces in orbit and stage an embargo/quarantine of the planet. United Nations Interstellar Alliance, stripped of a fleet, refuses to surrender. Alliance refuses to completely bombard planet.

2316: Earth-governments quickly lose faith is United Nations Interstellar Alliance. Age old national rivalries finally come to a head. Earth skirmishes over resources (Earth is effectively embargoed by Sol Alliance). virus continues to kill billions on Earth, scientists unable to find cure. Allegations that virus is a bioweapon deployed against UNIU denied by Sol Alliance. Civil War ends. Sol Alliance fleets crippled. Earth population: 11.5 billion. Total human pop: 20.1 billion.

2317: Sol Alliance reorganized with emergency government. Inner colonies bicker. Outer colonies assert their independence as a result of the chaos. Outer colony governments increase in territory (encompassing some former ‘fringe’ worlds). Remaining Earth-based governments either disintegrate or shrink in territory. cure for virus synthesised but is not shared with Earth, which is kept under quarantine since it’s population is deemed too large to effectively treat. Alliance embargo/quarantine fleet inoculate refugees wishing to escape. Mass migrations of former ‘Earth die-hards’ into space. Most extremists flee into radical fringe systems. More moderate people flee to Mars, Luna or inner colonies (the few that would take them). Slums spring up on Luna and Mars.

2320: Outer systems begin building up militaries. Sol Alliance reforms a stable government, rebuilding HQ in orbit over Earth. Inner colonies begin to freely trade previous Earth-destined goods among each other. New Trans-stellar corporations emerge to rival Einstein Engine’s previous dominance. These corporation make their start establishing new trade routes between colonies.

2330: Total human pop: 21.5 billion; Earth pop: 9.7 billion. Earth continues to die due to a combination of emigration, famine, warfare, and nuclear fallout. Earth has a ‘badlands’ reputation. Inner colonies refuse large-scale recovery operations on Earth out of spite. Luna and Mars have large ‘Earth-slums’ filled with refugees. Sol Alliance becomes inner-colony centric, with the innermost developed colonies having the most say.

Formation of Nanotrasen
2340: Trans-stellars begin operating more aggressively in outer and fringe system, helping start up colonies (loans, resources, ‘favors systems’) even outright claiming some smaller systems. Trans-stellars gain support of inner-colonies since many are based there and most of their profits flow back to the inner-colonies.

2346: Formation of Nanotrasen by Xavier Trasen. Based around advanced gene therapy. Became a scientific frontier company, rivaling Einstein Engines.

The Warp Gate Project
2355: Warp Gate project begins with the goal of connecting the most populated/wealthy inner colonies with permanent orbital gates, allowing for instantaneous transportation between them. Largely funded by Sol Alliance with support of Trans-stellars. Trans-stellars help rebuild Sol Alliance fleets. Military ‘indebted’ to Trans-stellars. Sol Alliance establishes formal relations with outer colonies.

2365: Pop: 24 billion. Earth population: 5 billion. Earth is still dying. Sol Alliance, in a gesture of compassion, funds colonization efforts to evacuate people from Earth. Earth population shrinks as people emigrate at a quicker pace or die off.

2370: Warp Gate project financially drains Sol Alliance. Support for project decreases, some inner-colonies (mostly those not receiving a warp gate in their system) riot.

2376: Second Sol Alliance Civil War. Handful of Inner-colonies declare independence in protest of Warp Gate project’s exorbitant cost. Hastily constructed fleets engage Sol Alliance ships in contested systems. Minimal loss of life on surface of planets: Fleets and orbital installations targeted mostly.

2379: Outer colonies, driven by increasingly nationalistic governments and the Sol Alliance Civil War begin to war amongst themselves for planets and resources. Border and fringe worlds shift between empires’ control. A few large-scale atrocities occur, with whole cities and even planets being bombarded from orbit.

2384: Warp Gate project completed; Sol Alliance Second Civil War ends with casualties in the 10’s of millions. Lingering anti-Alliance sentiment remains in some areas. Outer colonies continue to war with each other, but the extent of the conflict is scaled back. Trans-stellars use pretext of galactic turmoil to arm themselves, even providing large-scale mercenary services to empires (often in secret).

2390: Warp Gates bring an influx of wealth to the inner-colonies closest to them, but disenfranchises those farthest away. Sol Alliance, bankrupt (although recovering) from the Warp Gate project, allows some of it’s outermost worlds to secede. These worlds quickly join various outer colony nations. These new holdings of the outer colony empires greatly boost their economies (these worlds were built up by the Sol Alliance before seceding, and have on average larger populations and more developed infrastructure then their outer colony cousins). Human pop: 26 billion.

Advancement of Trans-stellars
2400: total human pop: 28 billion. Some of the most ‘inner’ colony worlds of the Alliance reach population in the several billions. War in the outer colonies die down. Anti-Alliance sentiment prevails in some Alliance systems. Trans-stellars capitalize on immense profits from the past decades, diversifying to a great degree. Some begin swearing allegiances to these corporations, sick of the outer colonies’ wars and/or the Sol Alliance’s slow decay.

2403: One such trans-stellar, NanoTransen, acquires the mining rights to the Romanovich Cloud in the Tau Ceti system (an Inner-inner colony system).

2410: Trans-stellars begin more heavy duty Sol Alliance lobbying efforts. In the outer Colonies, Trans-stellar begin to bully some smaller empires, threatening to cut off military, resource, supply and/or financial support unless they give in to demands. All Trans-stellars are of roughly equal power, having established a sort of ‘stability’ between themselves, specializing in certain fields.

Sol Alliance begins to stagnate; Intra-Alliance trade tapers off as more systems become self-sufficient. Potentially more profitable trade routes from inner to developing outer colonies (which are proving more profitable than intra-Alliance trade) are expensive and fuel intensive. Energy crises develop on several worlds as supplies of energy resources along with centuries old power generating techniques (fusion, traditional combustion) prove insufficient to deal with rising energy demand.

Human pop: 29.6 billion

The First Contact
2413: First contact with Skrell people. Sends shockwaves throughout human space. Skrellians have an established ‘alliance of systems’ spread out over dozens of star systems. Sol Alliance and Skrellian Alliance quickly draft a cooperation treaty. Skrell and Alliance begin conducting joint research projects and colonization efforts. Human, Skrell populations intermingle. Skrell share the secrets of Bluespace and Bluespace drives with humanity, allowing for much more energy-efficient travel then warp drives. However, a large amount of traditional fuel sources are required to power bluespace drivers.

Discovery of Plasma
2417: In Romanovich Cloud of Tau Ceti, NT discovers the resource ‘plasma’. It’s extremely energy efficient properties alleviate the growing energy crises on several worlds. Plasma quickly becomes the prefered fuel and energy generating commodity. NT becomes filthy rich; Trans-stellar ‘stability’ shattered as NT quickly patents and monopolizes ‘plasma refining’ technique. Other transtellars petition Sol Alliance for sanctions, but are ignored. Foundation for the Syndicate forms in furious trans-stellars and the Alliance Senators that support them. Bluespace drives and the extremely profitable Inner-colony to outer colony trade routes made viable by plasma. Inner-colonies provide outer-colonies with luxury goods for massive profits.

2420: Pop: 32 billion. Earth a depopulated, environmentally collapsed shit hole that no one wants to waste anymore time on. Populations increase as outer planets become more developed. Some systems use 'vat-grown' babies to create cheap labor force; many colonies in the midst of baby boom.

The Tajara
2432: First contact with Tajaran people. NT scouts discover the Tajaran homeworld and people just beginning to explore their solar system. NT greets them as ‘representatives of humanity’. Over the course of the next few decades, NT ‘uplifts’ the Tajaran people by building a series of factories on their homeworld, employing numerous Tajarans and helping propel them into space. Tajarans become reliant on NT and subservient to them. Seen as 2nd class citizens somewhat by a portion of humanity.

The Uneth
2433: First contact with Unathi people. An exploration mission to an uncharted desert planet uncovers the Unathi race, a highly aggressive race that apparently survived a self-destructive nuclear war. With their homeworld rules by various small tribes, many Unathi are ‘picked up’ from their homeworld by various governments and corporations and ‘employed’. Some are granted citizenship. They enjoy a higher degree of respect then the Tajara, but are still looked upon with suspicion and distrust.

The Syndicate
2440: NT leverages it’s plasma monopoly to effectively take-over several systems in the outer colonies. NT begins increasing the size of its navy to rival that of some empires. Sol Alliance supports NT despite growing public outrage. Talk of NT buying Senators. Resentment of NT grows in some systems across human space. Extremist elements in fringe systems recruited by burgeoning Syndicate.

2445: Human pop: 40 billion. Medical and cloning technological advances cause population boom. Syndicate begins staging small scale assaults using sleeper cells against NT across space; targeting anything NT from plasma refinement centers to orbital corporate habitation complexes. NT uses this as pretext to continue to expand its military. NT begins to heavily lobby the local governments of Tau Ceti, their chief plasma mining system.

2450: Tau Ceti local government ‘extremely’ pro-NT. Allegations of bribery largely ignored or swept under the rug. Syndicate operations steadily increase in intensity. Earth still a shit hole.

2452: Pop: 43 billion. Fringe systems flare up as ‘terrorists’ (e.g. Syndicate) attacks NT corporate interests there. Outer and Inner Systems also see an increase in syndicate operations, but on a more covert scale. NT and Tau Ceti Local Government ‘Republic of Biesel’ petition Sol Alliance for establishment of ‘Tau Ceti Free Trade Zone’, jointly administered by the two. Sol Alliance reluctantly establishes the Free Trade Zone, giving NT a foothold in the center of Alliance Space. Riots break out amidst accusations of NT essentially ‘buying the Republic of Beisel’. NT puts down the riots quickly and effectively. Syndicate begins active recruitment of Tau Ceti Citizens discontent with NT. NT institutes Loyalty Implanting requirements for all executives, a ‘voluntarily and painless’ process. Implants are also used to quell the most radical opposition to NT rule, all kept hush-hush, though.

2454: NT establishes a series of orbital mixed-used stations in Tau Ceti to act as R&D, Medical, Population and command and Control hubs. Among these are the research/mining station NSS Aurora in the Romanovich Cloud and the new Command Hub of NT: the Odin, aka ‘CentComm’ or ‘Central Command’.

Present Day
2456: Current Date. NT is an economic powerhouse which the Sol Alliance relies on for plasma to keep it’s trade routes to the outer colonies alive and satisfy the energy needs of it’s largest colonies. Anti-NT sentiment grows in Tau Ceti, but many others continue to support the megacorporation keeping the gears of the (human) galactic economy going.

However, the Syndicate continues to position itself to strike back against the NT on a larger scale; and many more exotic, fantastical elements of the universe such as the Vox, undiscovered alien life, extremists, even ancient powers beyond comprehension may be moving to strike at arguably the most powerful organization in human space.

Human population: 44.5 billion