Historical Eras, and Those That Came Before

> The History of the Reaches is a complicated affair, full of holes and uncertainties. Historians from all nations, cultures and species have spent centuries uncovering and unraveling this knot, with little overall success; there is still so much we do not know. The greatest source of disagreement and ambiguity comes from the contentious matter of the origin of the universe and the theorized precursors. However, enough information has been uncovered for scholars to piece together a general timeline divided into eras.
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For standard timekeeping, refer to Standard Units, specifically Bachmann Time.

Noteworthy: for faction specific history, refer to faction pages.

## Unrecorded History

*A large portion of the South’s history is unrecorded, due to how long ago these events took place. With many nation’s histories going back only as far as the Interlude Period, the only evidence historians have are archeological finds, conflicting stories and speculative history. This has led this large chunk of history to be vague, inconsistent and highly contested.*

### Universal Birth: *13.6 Billion Pulsar Years Ago*

Arguably the most contended part of speculated history, the date for this entirely depends on one’s view of this Universe's Origins. Nevertheless, all requires a beginning, and this point in time - wherever it may lie, represents the beginning of this Universe as we know it. 13.6 Billion years lines up with the

### Silent Age: *13.6 BYA to -30,000 (est.)*

The Silent Age is considered to be a time period between the origin of the universe and arrival of The First, where life propagated in the southern reaches according to models and estimates on habitability levels, and yet simultaneously scant hard evidence of such life has been identified.

### Arrival of the First: -30,000 (est.)

Estimate of the time period in which The First arrived in the Southern Reaches, evidenced in a massive uptick of artifacts and evidence of advanced civilization dating to this era. It is not believed that the First actually originated from the Southern Reaches, but rather colonized this stretch of space for commercial or imperialistic intent.

### Era of the First: -30,000 to -25,100 (est.)

The Era of the First is a stretch of time where the First were the hegemons of the southern reaches, and thrived in the environment. Large commercial, industrial infrastructure, evidence of terraforming. Information on the First's culture and politics however, seems to be difficult to find or beyond the reaches of present day technology to probe - however the physical footprint of the First would greatly influence the coming eras.

### Diaspora of the First: -25,100 to -25,000 (est.)

The Diaspora of The First is the unexplained departure of the Precursors from the Reaches. An accelerating cessation of industrial and colonial activity, culminating in a total exodus of the Reaches. Many reasons have been suggested over the years, from rather tame reasons such as simple shifts in the economic or political structure of the First, to a more dramatic cause, such as some form of Ascension or being driven out by an unknown force.

The Diaspora became increasingly disorganized towards the end, leaving the Reaches perfused by ships, dockyards, and outposts - most of which fell into ruin. In their wake, however, the First also left behind the Swarm, a collection of self replicating machines. When left without guidance, they could consume celestial bodies in ravenous replication cycles... and would pose an existential threat for eras to come.

## Written History

*Long after the exodus of the First, many modern species and nations emerged into the galactic community and began to record their histories. These many histories soon became compiled together into what is collectively named “written history”. Unlike speculated history, relatively little of written history is ambiguous, and lays the foundations for the current geopolitics of the reaches.*

### Prelude: -25,000 (est.)  to –1976

The Prelude is an epoch when many of the new wave of civilization came to be, developing tools such as fire, agriculture, the concept of a nationstate. Although less dramatic then former periods, it is the beginning of sound and reliable documentation of social and political history in the Reaches.

### Interlude:  -1976 to -283

The Interlude was the era in which capable sublight drives were independently developed by the nations of the reaches. The nearly 1500 year stretch is explained by the lack of communication between different civilizations, as each nation has to create these drives on their own, which created large time discrepancies.

This time period represented the re-emergence of inter-system colonization, with limited ventures outside a home system.

### First Age of Travel: -283 to 0

The First Age of Travel is the time period denoted by the discovery of ancient Slipstream Drives, enabling many civilizations to travel and communicate with one another at faster than light speeds. Nations once confined to the cradle of their home system now had the means of mass stellar colonization, supported by logistics accommodated for by slipstream-driven cargo haulers.

### Collapse: 0 - 22

The Collapse was the great unraveling of the First Age of Travel, where many civilizations were broken down into isolated, disconnected states, effectively reversing nearly three centuries of colonial progress.

* Slipstream drives became increasingly scarce, and as a consequence, conflicts emerged as sites of artifact extractions became contentious assets, fought over for by the nations of the Reaches. These wars would deplete the number of drives even further,
* Precursor self replicating swarms were activated due to excessive Slipstream signals, spelling doom for systems in their wake. Restrictive measures were put in place, leading to the decommission and eventual destruction of many remaining drives - ships which remained were forced into following extremely restrictive safety measures which limited their use.

### Southern Dark Age: 22 - 547

The Southern Dark Age was characterized by the hardships which came as a consequence of the Collapse. For some this meant a greatly reduced regional presence, with the abandonment of many colonies in the process, birthing the Free Worlds. For other nations, in addition to this the battle against the Swarm would continue well into the Dark Ages, worlds and civilizations would be consumed and lost in this era.

For those that remained, the various factions would rebuild and cautiously venture back onto the regional stage with the discovery of Hyperlumina, a bulbous, stationary organism which when processed would permit not only FTL communication (birthing KRAKEN), but FTL travel.

### Second Age of Travel: 547 - 600 (Present)

Widespread Hyperlumina use would mark the end of the dark ages, and open up the Reaches to the Second Age of Travel, as the various factions became more accepting of the use of FTL for commercial and military purposes oncemore.

The Second Age of Travel is a vibrant period, echoing much of the hopeful and optimistic sentiments the First Age of Travel was rife with. This is the era in which we find ourselves today. There are nations, free worlds, megacorporations, as well as strange entities living between the stars… and inside of the internet. The southern reaches currently exist in a great crossroads… where the future is uncertain, and every action undertaken can change the status quo.