General History of SDNW4 Universe

The following passage was taken from the book History of the Interstellar Community:
:"History is a bewildering cauldron of incidents and events that we consider worth remembering, for whatever reason human minds cook up. These moments may or may not be what we consider to be true, be it interpreted by a human or an alien, by an Anglian or a Centralite, by a Bragulan or an Apexai, etc. One thing is clear, however: history studies what has happened, and it is the duty of the historian to present it as truthful and unbiased as possible. It is our hope that every one who reads this understands what we mean." - p. 7
==Proto-Interstellar Period==
All dates use Earth Time.
*40,000 BC - The Lost arrive in the Expanse.
*15,000 BC - Apexai discover Heim Drive.
*13,600 BC - Locrian Collective becomes dormant. Their eons of slumber continue indefinitely; a falsified claim that they have awakened later qualifies as the largest-scale college prank in the history of known space."
*11,600 BC - Unification of Krypton.
*1820 AD - The first nuclear device is initiated on Bragule. Bragulans rejoice at the dawn of a new era, the Atomic Age, that will last them for more than a thousand years.
*1854 AD - A global thermonuclear war devastates Bragule, rendering it into an irradiated wasteland. The survivors of the nuclear holocaust rebuild their societies, but within decades Bragule sees several more atomic wars.
*1912 AD - In a feat of rage, the nuclear paddle steamship the Great Thug rams a titanic iceberg, which was actually a beargeoisie ice palace, causing the floating glacier to sink. It is said that Byzon's father captained the vessel in this noble endeavor during Bragule's coldest nuclear winter.
*1939 AD - The legendary Zigonian quetzal (king) Pharomachus departs Zigon-5 aboard the first-ever Zigonian Heim-ship, never to return. In the years and centuries thereafter many songs and myths are spun about Pharomachus. His ultimate fate remains unknown, though there are some curious passages in ancient Iduran and Elysian writings about great fiery comets carrying a titanic lizard and suchlike that can (and sometimes are) taken to imply a visit by the spaceborne king. Indeed, some argue that it was Pharomachus who wrestled with the Bragulan Imperator Byzon in his feat of epic precambrian dinosaur wrestling, and that the imperator later embellished the outcome. Zigonians generally like to believe that Pharomachus continues to travel the stars far beyond Known Space, visiting interesting worlds and preaching to exotic alien peoples that most ancient of Zigonian creeds: "Be excellent toward each other."
*1950-1980 AD
**As the whole surface of Bragule is well on its way to becoming a nuclear wasteland, Bragulan scientists attempt to colonize nearby worlds unmarred by thermonuclear war. The first colonies on Bragule's moon and nearest neighbor worlds are successful.
**The Shu'ulathoi launch their campaign of genocide against the Chimaeran/Locust precursor race; while they succeed in wiping out 99.9% of the precursors on Gorasnaya, they ultimately fail to destroy the precursor colony on Tyrus. The Tyrus colonists' own efforts to retake Gorasnaya likewise fail.
*1991 AD - In anger, Bragule launches nuclear missiles at the off-world colonies, so that they will also be nuclear wastelands just like the motherland!
==Early Interstellar Period==
All dates use the standardized Common Era from Earth calendars.
===2118-2148 - Contact===
*2118 - Humans of Earth pick up first radio signals from another planet which calls itself Nova Terra.
===2148-2168 - Earth and Nova Terra Meet===
*2148 - Arrival of the Straylight.
*2168 - First Heim Drive made on Earth.
===2168-2188 - A New Space Age===
*2168 - Pathfinder arrives on Nova Terra.
===2188-2250 - The Great Upheaval===
*2200 - Hyperdrive discovered.
===2250-2500 - The Age of Colonization===
Numerous Heim and hyper-capable colony expeditions spread from Earth and Nova Terra, mostly due to the Great Upheaval and its aftermath. For the first few centuries, most of these colonies were miniscule compared to the population and resources of the twin homeworlds, but over time would grow closer to parity as they expanded into interstellar powers in their own right.
*2208 - Founding of Terra in the New Constantinople System. Isildur Komnenos takes the throne as the first Emperor of the Eastern Roman Star Empire.
*2210 - Dovan Aybeem founds the Centralist Party.
*2220 - The Centrality is created.
*2235 - The Sultanate of Klavostan is re-founded on Muzaffer.
*2256 - Nova Atlantis is colonized by shipping firm Atlas International. Infrastructure is developed rapidly, and the population grows quickly. Establishment of the Republic of Nova Atlantis.
*2281 - Dovan Aybeem starts his last Great Purge in the Centrality.
*2284 - Revolt against Centralist rule is crushed by Dovan Aybeem.
*2289 - A political faction of techno-meritocrats, mostly from Earth with a roughly 20% admixture of Nova Terrans, departs the homeworlds along the Grand Coreward Trunk. They settle on the natural-terran world of Reisenburg, founding the Technocracy of Umeria.
*2290 - Dovan Aybeem dies under mysterious circumstances. He is succeded by Fratz Venron.
*2355 - Atlas International files for bankruptcy, leaving Nova Atlantis independant. The Nova Atlantean Republic attains complete independance inherents and expands a network of trade connections with other powers in RAR! space.
*2375 - Earth's Third French Empire and Nova Terra's Sovereign Duchy of Baerne launch a joint colonization fleet towards the Galactic East.
*2453 - The WAAAGH! of Durksha Roidsmasha attacks the Sultanate of Klavostan, the first WAAAGH! of many to inevitably follow in the years to come.
*2480s - Reign of Hoertel Figner, the notorious "Dr. Insanus," in the Centrality. Figner's irrational and nonsensical behavior ultimately leads to his assasination by a cabal of disgruntled Centralist Watchmen.
==Early Hyperspace Age==
*2513 - Umerian scientists perfect the atomic disintegrator cell. Use of this high-density, long-life DC power source acts as a spur to further technological and economic development, and is a popular starting point for the beginning of the Umerian Chrome Golden Age.
*2535 - Several Party officials in the Centrality, frustrated by a recent decision to cut funding to foreign Centralist parties, join with prominent Centralists abroad to found CENINTERN.
*2549 - Warlord Joel Forester seizes control of New Colombia using a force of pirates, mercenaries, and other renegades and turns its economy towards massive arms development programs while engaging in mass conscription of its population. This event is typically recognized by most historians as the rise of The Barbarians.
*2567-2585 - The Barbarian Wars: Pirate warlord Joel Forester launches a series of invasions against surrounding systems; multiple planets fall and find themselves subject to the same fate as New Colombia, with their industries turned towards massive arms buildups while their populations are press-ganged into service. A military alliance is created, centered around Nova Atlantis for defensive purposes, resulting in political unification. Gradual rollback of Barbarian forces begins in 2580. The planet Hephaestus is sterilized by Barbarians in a scorched earth campaign in 2582, killing two billion people in the process. In the end, the surviving Barbarian forces collapse, with most fleeing RAR! Space altogether. While central organization broke down, the presence of large numbers of Barbarians with sizable and heavily armed warships, large numbers of fighters, and access to advanced ground equipment such as tanks and suits of power armor would lead to a rise in pirate activity around the galaxy (particularly in and around RAR! Space) for the next 60 years after the end of the Barbarian Wars. Some attempt to replicate Forester's plan elsewhere, but never with anything near the same degree of success. This activity is used as a casus belli for several Centrality invasions of neighboring star systems; one such invasion leads to the infamous Zorn Massacre, where Centralist troops perform a mass execution of 1,000 captured pirates.
*2587 - The Treaty of Nova Altantis is signed, creating the Nova Atlantean Commonwealth of Worlds. Immediate goals of the newly-established Commonwealth include the reconstruction of the areas ravaged by Barbarian action, a process which would remain ongoing for the next thirty years.
*2590 - The Battle on the Ice Planet. Bragulanity's first contact with humanity occurs when armed colony ships from Earth and Nova Terra land on the minor moon Peypius and claim it for mankind. The native Bragulans there take exception to this, but the human colonists prove too well armed and shoot down their paleobragnukes with ease. However, the hero Prince Arglyksndir Bragsky detonates the nukes on the ice, breaking it and sending the humans and their landed ships plunging into the frigid water, where they are drowned to a man by the polar Bragulans. This first victory of freedom over human imperialism marks the beginning of Bragule's anti-humanism.
*2610-2618 - The Neo-Britannian War. The fledgling Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya finds its outer colonies assailed by the competing Holy Empire of Neo-Britannia. After several hard-fought battles to repulse the Neo-Britannian aggressors, the Haruhiists retaliate by bringing the war to Neo-Britannia, ultimately conquering the entire Albion Sector. The majority of Neo-Britannian subjects are subsequently exiled to Altacar and New Anglia.
*2636 - After being turned away by both Altacar and New Anglia, exiles from Neo-Britannia establish what would eventually be known as the Directorate in Sectors P-22 and Q-22.
*2661 - The Centrality secretly tests a device capable of rending time and space in an attempt to prove the existence of alternate universes. The experiment fails spectacularly, leading to the deaths of all responsible with the project.
*2706-2712 - The Jaggan War begins when the Tyrant of Jagga invades Umerian space on a whirlwind campaign of looting and pillaging in early 2706. His boyz raid nearly every major Umerian world, causing great hardship, before the remnants of the Stellar Patrol succeed in checking his forces at New Princeton. After a five year hiatus in which both sides struggle to rebuild their forces, the Tyrant's asteroid flagship is destroyed by SpaceSec forces using what are to become the prototypes for future Umerian spinal particle-beam dreadnoughts. The Umerians go on to bombard Jagga intensely enough to render it incapable of sustaining even orkish life for a period of a few centuries, but the expense of the punitive expedition further hamstrings their economy, and prewar GDP and population do not recover until the late 28th century.
*2727 - The five Bragulan nations declare war on each other, and the Great Civil War begins. The war would last for a hundred years and result in the formation of the Bragulan Star Empire and the rise of Byzon.
*2763 - The Chimaerans stage a massive uprising against Shu'ulathoi rule.
*2770-2795 - The Zeon-Zodiac War. Two minor powers, the Zeonic Federation and the Zodiac Alliance Treaty Organization (ZATO), go to war with each other over territorial and ideological disputes, with the single-system Sanc Confederacy caught in the crossfire. The Holy Empire is eventually forced to intervene in late 2779 when Zeonic and ZATO forces begin taking their war to its territories. The war ultimately ends with the Zeonic Federation, ZATO, and the Sanc Confederacy all crushed and absorbed into the Holy Empire.
*2796-2804 - Exiles from the Zeonic Federation, ZATO, and the Sanc Confederacy colonize Sector P-24. The world of Halkeginia remains independent, while the other four habitable worlds of the sector form the core of the Principality of Belka. Other exiles choose to seek refuge in Sectors P-22 and Q-22, where they ingratiate themselves with the local governments and lay the framework for the formation of the Directorate.
*2823-2833 - The Halkeginian Civil War. The people of Halkeginia dissolve their planetary government and fragment into several smaller polities, the largest of which eventually develops into the Gallian Empire.
*2829 - With the annihilation of the last Old Bragulan empire, the High Bear Nation, the March of Liberation ends with Byzon having righteously stomped on the faces of all his adversaries - forever. He assumes the title of Imperator of the Bragulan Star Empire, and a new age of tyranny begins.
*2845
**The Principality of Belka is officially reorganized into the Belkan Empire.
**The Directorate is officially declared.
*2863 - The Ephesus Insurrection erupts. The Imperium sends Imperial Guardsmen and PDF brigades to crush the rebellion. The Imperium holds the Tau Empire responsible, and the Imperium-Tau War begins, regarded by many historians as being the bloodiest war in galactic history, dwarfing even the various Bragulan wars.
*2870 - The second phase of the Imperium-Tau War commences, culminating in the Fall of Antioch in 2878. The Tau declare that the humans of the Imperium are "not worthy of the Greater Good" and thus anathema, with the burning of Antioch the peak of this policy. Tens of billions of Imperial citizens are killed due to relentless orbital bombardment by the Tau. The Tau later attempt to either sterilize surviving populations or otherwise construct factories to "process" the populace into subservient gue'la helpers and gue'vesa auxiliaries against their own will.
*2879 - The Emperor Heraclius XX Komnenos ascends to the throne of Byzantium. He declares "T'au Delenda Est" and begins planning the campaign of retaliation against the Tau.
*2880 - Heraclius and his sons reclaim Antioch from the occupying Tau forces. During the fighting, the Byzantines release a bio-weapon developed to target the Tau, killing billions, or at least 10% of the Tau population.
*Late 2880s-early 2900s - The Directorate War. The Directorate, with encouragement from the Tau Empire, declares war on the Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya in order to retake what it claims to be its rightful territories (in essence, the former territories of the Holy Empire of Neo-Britannia, the Zeonic Federation, and ZATO). After annexing the Directorate, the Holy Empire ultimately joins the Great Crusade after evidence of Tau involvement is found.
*2900s
**The Great Crusade begins. The Imperium and the Tau begin a final decades-long war.
**The Amplitur attempt a war of extermination against humanity, beginning with the Grand Dominion and Shepistani Republic. The Dominion suffers massive military and economic losses, while damage to Shepistan is merely severe. The war ends with the use of a nova bomb to sterilize the Amplitur homeworld, and both nations begin an extended period of recovery marked by intense anti-psyker paranoia.
*2930s - The Byzantine Imperium and the Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya defeat the Tau Empire. During the long war, both sides show each other utterly no mercy, committing countless atrocities; in response to Tau atrocities such as the razing of Antioch, the Imperium subjects Tau worlds to Exterminatus, ruthlessly obliterating hundreds of millions of Tau lives in the process. Millions of refugees flee to the Nova Atlantean Commonwealth and the Interstellar Union of Worlds. Relations between the Imperium and the Nova Atlantean Commonwealth deterioriate, and to this day, the Imperium regards the Nova Atlantean Commonwealth as persona non grata. Some Tau flee in the direction of the Bragulans, only to be captured and enslaved.
*2940s - The Byzantine Imperium continues its war of extermination, successfully hunting down almost all of the surviving member species of the Tau Empire to extinction. The Imperium subsequently begins the long process of recovery from the war. In the end, causalties from the Imperium-Tau War and Great Crusade are immense, with the Imperium losing nearly 20% of its pre-war population.
*2930s-2950s - The Belkan Empire embarks on an ultimately ill-fated attempt to colonize the Risea Sector. The Belkans are eventually forced to withdraw after running afoul of the local wildlife; it will be another two centuries before humans will attempt to colonize that region of space again.
*2950-2964 - The First Dilgrud War. New Anglian victory over the Dilgrud, symbolized by the Hyperspace Treaty.
*2993-2996 - The Second Dilgrud War. Dilgrud power seriously reduced by the Anglians.
*3013-3016 - The Third Dilgrud War. Anglian suzerainty over the Dilgrud established.
==Late Hyperspace Age==
*3011 - The Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya subjects the planet of Nippon-Bukkake to Exterminatus in retaliation for the kidnapping of the governess of the then-autonomous Mahou Shoujo region by the native Overfiends. The Mahou Shoujo region joins the Holy Empire as part of the Eridanus Sector shortly afterwards.
*3029 - For their unbearable arrogance and obnoxiousness, Byzon outlaws the Apexai nation, and the Bragulan invasion of their space promptly begins within five minutes of the declaration. This marks the beginning of the Apexai War.
*3033 - The nomad fleet of genetic pirates calling itself the SinTEK corporation arrives in orbit over Kerenkov and is extended diplomatic protection in exchange for access to its militarized cloning technology.
*3042
**Chamarran Juggernaut fleet arrives from unknown location, conquers Makay, worries everyone rimward of Nova Terra, and then splinters. The Chamarran Hierarchy is founded by the most cohesive remnant of the fleet.
**Brief conflict between the Centrality and the Eoghans over the planet of Shimor, generally regarded as the start of the C-C-C Combo Wars.
*3050 - A moon is dropped on the Apexai homeworld, which the victorious Bragulans rename Bolshaya Chernovyi. With billons dead, their nation destroyed and the Running of the Apexai, the Apexai War ends.
*3055 - A small group of genetic scientists under Peregrine Tyrell splinters from SinTEK and founds the Tyrell Corporation. A decade-long conflict between the two rival biotech megacorps ensues, commonly referred to as the "clone wars" as both corporations carry out their vendetta through cloned assassins, hit-squads, and eventually entire regiments of android soldiers before planetary governments of the K-Zone jointly put a stop to it.
*3079 - Centralite invasion of the Eoghan United Commons.
*3080 - Nova Atlantean Commonwealth of Worlds intervenes on the side of the Eoghans, forcing the Centrality on the defensive.
*3081 - Anti-War Coup in the Centrality. End of hostilites between Centralite, Eoghan, and Nova Atlantean forces.
*3085 - Bragulans invade Eta Bootis. Although no formal declaration of war is made, this event is considered the start of the First Bragulan War.
*3087 - Disabled Army Centurion Motoko Cooper becomes the first Nova Atlantean Posthuman.
*3089 - Beginning of the Imperium-Karlack Wars. The war lasts for more than ten years and ultimately ends in a stalemate when the Karlacks ally themselves with the Bragulan Star Empire. The God-Emperor and the Karlack aspect Seth agree on a truce, though the details of the truce remain unknown except to a chosen few.
*3100 - Founding of the United Solarian Sovereignty.
*3102
**Rimland Revolt in the Centrality begins. Last large-scale rebellion against Centralist Party rule.
**Loss of the Byzantine Imperial experimental ship, Sisyphus.
*3103 - Last Rimlander rebels are stamped out by Centralite forces.
*3112 - The last Bragulan hold-outs on Kimanjano are bombed to rubble by USMC heavy artillery. This is generally seen as the end of the First Bragulan War, though no peace or even cease-fire was ever signed.
*3117 - The Black Book Prison Hustle. Sidney Hank arranges an off-the-book exchange of POWs with Imperator Byzon: survivors from the surrendered Bragulan garrisons of Eta Bootis, Savoie and Formalhaut are swapped for human hostages and resistance fighters renditioned to the Star Empire's gulags, at a going rate of five humans for every bear. Tens of thousands of primarily Solarian citizens thus escape the misery of Bragulan prison camps. This is the only semi-official deal the Sovereignty has ever made with the Star Empire, and it very nearly ends in bloody murder as Byzon attempts to have Hank assassinated before he can leave mighty Bragule.
*3120 - The Time of Treason. Although this century of sedition, perfidity, mutiny and general civil unrest within the recently-formed Sovereignty in many ways started before its founding, it only truly heats up during the presidential elections of 3120. Between 3120 and 3204, the politics of the Sovereignty are dominated by a Machiavellian struggle between militants and democrats. The democrats ultimately win, and shape Solarian society into what it is today.
*3151-3157 - Pacification of the Risea Sector. The Shu'ulathoi and their vassals are driven to the Veil by the SOS Imperial Armed Forces, while other hostile species native to the sector are either forced into submission or rendered extinct by successive extermination campaigns.
*3197 - The French Empire collapses into civil war. The spinward sectors, which were jointly colonized by French and Baernish settlers, break away and form the Federated Ascendancy. The defense fleets of the various sectors are more powerful than the divided Imperial Navy, and the ongoing civil war provides the Ascendancy with several years in which to fortify the antispinward sectors against the inevitable French invasion.
*3223 - Bragulan space is attacked by the forces of the mysterious Scron. Imperial forces are initially taken by surprise by the alien invasion forces, but within months the Scron advance is bogged down in a grueling war of attrition across the vast territories of the BSE, giving Bragulan forces enough time to recuperate and launch a massive counter-offensive that swiftly repulses the alien menace.
*3224 - Bragule brings the war to the Scron worlds, no quarter is spared and no mercy is had. By year's end, the Imperator Byzon proudly announces the complete extermination of the Scron species to the Bragulan people. There is much happiness at Bragulan civilization's greatest achievement of destruction.
*3270-3370 - The Lost Century in Centralite history. The strain of maintaining a military capable of matching the EUC-NAC alliance proves too much for the Centrality, leading to the Great Crash of 3270 and a century of economic malaise. A large part of the bloated Centralite military is gradually demobilized as financial austerity begins to bite, and the desperate Central State seeks rapprochement with its Eoghan and Nova Atlantean rivals in an attempt to safely put its own house into order. Both nations, after some time, prove receptive, and the resulting negotiations lead to the signing of the Triple C Non-Aggression Pact in 3360. The Centralite economy returns to pre-Great Crash levels by 3370.
*3300 - Elysion Insurrection. Informal civil war in the ICR between 3300 and 3304.
*3304 - Interstellar Cooperative Republic Civil War formally begins.
*3320 - ICR Civil War ends with the triumph of the Progressive coalition.
*3346-3354 - The Gallian Civil War. The Gallian Empire splits into the Gallian Imperial Alliance (East Gallia) and the Principality of Gallia (West Gallia).
*3350 - Battle of the Tannhauser Gate. A Bragulan battlefleet misjumps and comes out of hyper on top of one of the USSF's largest fleet bases. What ensues is the largest stellar battle fought by either power since the end of the First Bragulan War, with dozens of capital ships destroyed and tens of thousands of lives lost on both sides.
*3355-3375 - The Gallian Unification War. A failed bid by East Gallia to re-annex West Gallia results instead in a massive stalemate and the formation of a massive demilitarized zone on Halkeginia.
*3391 - Roughly a dozen of the Umerian Fringe worlds in sectors X-6, X-7, and X-8, frustrated by hamhanded and undemocratic government policy, attempt to secede from the Technocracy, and announcing the Independent Spinward Republic. The Independents seize control of a large number of military depots located on the spinward frontier (intended for use in a war against Shepistan), making it a challenging exercise for the Space Security Force to secure lasting naval supremacy in the contested sectors, without taking undue casualties. The war runs for approximately a year, with the "Browncoats" gradually being pushed into isolated defensive stance over each of their worlds, until a relatively lenient peace is brokered between the Independent leadership and the Technocracy by newly selected First Technarch Michael O'Connell.
*3392 - The Taiidan reemerge as a galactic power, forming the Neo-Taiidani Empire.
Category:History