Timeline

====2208 BCE: Asteroid Impact====
*A large asteroid (later dubbed 2208-A-X) impacts the Pacific Ocean, speculated to have caused widespread aridation.
====1980s: Detroit has robotics break-through====
*Energen is discovered and encorporated as a portable, high-energy power source. This fuels a rush in robotics development.
*Basic drones and powered exoskeletons (power armors) appear.
====1992: Light and Wily make Robot Masters====
====1993: Wily makes RM army and declares war on the world====
*Stealing industrial robot masters, Wily forms an army, bolstered by his own creations such as Bass, and begins a war against the rest of the world.
====Wily nearly conquers the world====
*The standing armies of the world can't match Wily's RMs.
====1994: Robopol and UN RM Army Formed====
*In parallel, Robopol is formed by Cossack with WRA support as the world's first robot police force.
*The robotic world army grinds the war into a stalemate, gaining a numerical superiority over Wily's army but unable to gain ground because of the Wily Numbers' superior technology.
====1995: Stardroid Calamity====
*For full details, see Observer's transcript here: http://antiverse.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=127
*A giant white robot arrives on Earth claiming to seek out evil and begins laying waste to Wily's army.
*The robot is eventually stopped with help from Rock, but its defeat releases seven robots which were sealed inside of it.
*Calling themselves "stardroids" the robots begin an attack on all of Earth and easily overpower the remaining Wilybots and the Lightbots.
*A monsterous entity, "Dark Moon", is summoned by the stardroids above Earth and heralded as the source of Earth's destruction.
*Terra, the stardroid's leader, single-handedly destroys most of the WRA military in one large battle.
*Using strange energy crystals found in connection with the stardroids, Light, Wily, and Cossack upgrade their remaining robots in the hopes of beating the stardroids. Bass grabs several and runs off to fight the stardroids on his own.
*A climactic battle occurs in space with the stardroids. Terra falls to Rock as the last stardroid but as he's destroyed he awakens Dark Moon. The menacing moon transforms into a giant, blindingly bright robot, a true "stardroid", and sets its sights on Earth.
*The final battle of the calamity sparks natural disasters across Earth as Dark Moon's attacks upset the planet's climate and magnetosphere. Floods, hurricanes, and power outages are rampant.
*In the end, Rock overcomes the last stardroid and Dark Moon is destroyed. Earth collectively breathes a sigh of relief and turns its mind to rebuilding.
====1996-1997: Stardroid aftermath====
*Earth begins to rebuild, suffering from the loss of much of its RM labor, global loss of life, and damages from the final battle with Dark Moon. Despite this, the world at large is at first optimistic.
*Pockets of the world reerupt as skirmishes and revolts are sparked by last year's destruction with old enemies trying to exploit a new unbalance of power and others fighting over remaining resources.
*Wily redeclares war as if nothing happened.
*To many, Rock's lesson is quickly becoming a memory.
====1997: Neo Arcadia Forms====
*The United States revives an old Cold War research base in the Chihuahuan Desert as part of a secret project codenamed INNERPEACE. The base, referred to as Neo Arcadia, is rather like Area 51 in that nobody knows what goes on there, and nobody ever enters or leaves. Occasional fantastic stories told in hushed tones by drunken old men hint at inhumane experiments, but no evidence of such exists.
====2000: Wily unleashes a second wave of robots====
*Zero, Pandora, Prometheus (Prom and Pand are RMs), and 16 Pseudoroids
*Note: Pseudoroids are "uplifted" drones; inhuman/non-RM bodies with reploid cores
*Bass /hates/ Wily for building these new robots and seeks to prove he's still the best.
*Wily's three newest robots fight Rock, Blues, and Bass. Great destruction is caused.
#Blues limps away to parts unknown after damaging himself with an overcharged shot.
#Bass is gravely damaged (Prometheus throws him in a scrap heap?).
#Rock is damaged and ?
#Prometheus and Pandora are largely intact and return to Wily.
#Zero suffers core damaged from a double buster and Blues' overcharge shot. In the aftermath, he goes berserk and hides in a factory (where ever he was in the MHX1 cutscene), killing anyone who gets near.
*Wily's second wave forces Robopol to fight a defensive war, using scorched earth tactics and sacrificing regions in calculated moves to prolong the war.
====Late 2000: X is activated====
====2001: Repliforce is formed, Former UN Army disbanded====
*X aids Dr. Cain's research effort despite Light's protest (unease?).
*With X and WRA funding, Cain creates the first reploid, Vava, and the base design for future reploids.
*Cain's new robots are formed into Repliforce under the WRA, replenishing their badly drained military.
*The existing human/RM military of the UN is replaced wholesale by reploids as they prove to be humanity's equal as commanders and superior combatants to robot masters. Some veterans relocate to Neo Arcadia.
*Vava (Vile) is Repliforce's first member.
====2001-2003: Reploid technology quickly disseminates worldwide====
*Reploids quickly enter mass production to help rebuild and defend the world. Fresh waves of humans, civilians and military alike, immigrate to Neo Arcadia seeking promises of work and safety.
====2004: Repliforce beats Wily back====
====2004: Megacities emerge====
*Most of the world's devastated lands have now been rebuilt as towering megacities, beacons of man and robotkind's ability to build a brighter future together. The message remains lost on some.
====2006: Maverick Virus is released, Half of Repliforce becomes mavericks====
*Over half of Repliforce eventually defects.
*The Maverick blitz seizes portions of India and surrounding regions, establishing their own nation.
*In Neo Arcadia, the maverick rebellion prompts strong isolationist policies and the young country quickly militarizing into a fortress state. Communication with the country's interior (beyond state-approved broadcasts) effectively stops.
====2006: Original UN military is recommissioned and rebranded as the Maverick Hunters====
*Now fighting a two front war with Wily and the Mavericks and lacking much of its military strength from the rebellion, the UN restarts human and RM military programs. An elite task force is formed along the slowly recovering Repliforce. Intended to be "Maverick proof" and address the new reploid threat, this group is dubbed the Maverick Hunters.
*Zero is found and defeated, joining the Maverick Hunters after further damage and subsequent repairs to his system leave him amnesiac of his loyalty to Wily.
====2006-2008: Sigma's Rebellion and Able City====
*Able City is decimated as Sigma, the first archon class reploid, declares himself maverick by hijacking the city's missile base and targetting the megacity with its own defenses.
*Dr. Cain dies in the attack.
*Able City sets about rebuilding itself yet again.
====2009: "HoloLight" is Created====
*Dr. Light bows to persistent requests from Maverick Hunters and creates an AI and hologram system in his likeness to act as a counselor and guide while simultaneously announcing his retirement.
====2012: Ford Happens====
*Ford Benett enters the Guiness Book of World Records as the most sought-after human under 30 for all the wrong reasons.