History

The history of Galag begins in the 2000s. The main events of the setting encompass roughly 15,000 years of history. The future of humanity is split into multiple sections or 'ages' as described below. Each age is defined with its own characters, discoveries, advancements and threats.

## **Precursor Centuries (2000 - 2195 AD)**

The Precursor Centuries were the short prelude to the glorious future of humanity. This age covers the first 200 years when human technology expands at an accelerating rate and humanity first turns its eye to other worlds as candidates for permeant colonization. The very first colonies started as scientific outposts on Earth's moon and on the plains of Mars. As humans progressed further through the precursor age these outposts expanded even further to the skies of Venus, the moons of Jupiter, and the asteroid belt. Before this time the human history of Earth is vague and unreliable.

The first new species, the Keytars, originate from the Precursor Centuries as rapid advances in AI technology caused the singularity to manifest in 2035.

As the population of Earth increased and humans consumed more and more resources, life on Earth became increasingly difficult. Climate disasters, failed crops, crumbling infrastructure and global conflicts tested the resilience of humanity. These wars and disasters escalate to the point where hundreds of millions die from them in increasing volume from each passing year. This existential threat was so great that it became clear to the leaders of Earth that something dramatic needed to be done, lest the fate of humanity become tiny bands of sickly humans warring against one another for the last resources of Earth.

An enormous structure known as the "Heaven's Bridge" is constructed in the 2100s. This is the very first space elevator, or a structure that can carry material from Earth's surface to the edge of space via an extremely long tether. This investment dramatically reduces the cost and effort to bring crafts and raw materials into space. The Heaven's bridge begins a century long initiative to create a series of "Arks", or city sized structures in space that can make permeant colonies on other worlds, and leave the Earth entirely. Each Ark was sponsored by a series of Earthen countries who pooled all of their remaining resources to create them. Citizens worked tirelessly to create the Arks, knowing that the vast majority of them would not get to leave Earth on them, and that they carried the uneasy future of humanity with them. Each Ark contained a population of humans between 35k and 500k, mostly held in cryostasis. The first Ark was the Derliom, launched in 2109 to Mars and the last was the Feniks, launched in 2195 to Saturn. The departure of the last Ark, Feniks, marks the end of the Precursor Centuries.

**Ark Normandy:**

* **Host:** North American States
* **Destination:** Jupiter

**Ark Derliom:**

* **Host:** North and South American States
* **Destination:** Mars

**Ark Kokaisha:**

* **Host:** East Asian states
* **Destination:** Mars

**Ark Sancari:**

* **Host:** South Asian states
* **Destination**: Mars

**Ark Exodus:**

* **Host:** African states
* **Destination:** Venus

**Ark Trident: (FAILED MISSION, ASTEROID IMPACT KILLED ALL PASSENGERS AS ARC TRIDENT PASSED THROUGH THE BELT)**

* **Host:** Oceania, European states
* **Destination:** Jupiter

**Ark Sternefahrer:**

* **Host:** Asian, European states
* **Destination:** Asteroid Belt

**Ark Feniks**

* **Host:** Central Asian states
* **Destination:** Saturn

## **First Age (2196 - 2700 AD)**

The First Age is a relatively short age ushered in by the permeant colonization and expansion of the Ark vessels on their respective worlds. The First age is considered to be a "low tech" age of humanity as these colonists are more focused on survival than rapid advancement. Cybernetics, AI, starship design, exotic forms of weaponry and colony design continue to make advances. During the first half of the First Age independent colonies had little contact with one another as they struggled to adapt and learn how to sustain themselves in the void, or on the surface of another world. Each colony would form its own culture and customs as the decades passed. To aid them in this expansion, many novel techniques are used to terraform other worlds to make them more habitable for humans, including the first development of Mutagen used on Mercury, and then many other worlds.

The First Age separated the solar system into three distinct units: the inner system, the belt, and the outer system. The inner system is largely defined by scarcity, totalitarian regimes and tyrannical governments primarily stemming from the governments of Mars controlling and oppressing the less powerful states of the inner system. The inner system includes Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The belt is a neutral buffer zone between the inner and outer system and it the economic hub of the entire system. The belt includes all colonies of the asteroid belt and the dwarf planet Ceres. The outer system is defined by relative prosperity and freedom and includes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the many moons and dwarf planets that populate the system beyond the belt. This general pattern of organization would continue until the time of The End.

### The Governments of the First Age

These colonies would distance themselves from their counterparts on Earth ad they advanced and eventually break all ties. These are the powers of the First Age that declared independence, formed independent governments and claimed the territory of other worlds.

* The Second Legion, declaring independence from Earth after the Day Zero War in 2536
* The Jovian Federation around Jupiter, founded by the Ark Normandy in 2301.
* Agrarius Corporation, settling around the asteroid belt, founded by Ark SterneFahrer in 2256.
* The Red Crown, founded around Saturn by Ark Feniks in 2348.
* The Sisterhood of Venus founded by Ark Exodus in 2323.
* The Tribes of Mercury settled by Ark Exodus in 2589.
* The Planetary Government of Earth.

### The Belt

The Belt is a neutral economic zone of space controlled by the Agrarius Megacorp, later referred to as Agra Co. This is the dominant Megacorp for the history of the Sol Age, grandfathered into permeant relevance by its founder, Tycho Agrarius. Tycho Agrarius was a figure from the Precursor Centuries, the first to successfully exploit the mineral and water wealth of the asteroid belt. Tycho sold metallic elements in unprecedented quantities to the highest bidder, allowing human expansion in space to progress at an accelerating rate. Tycho became the first hundred trillionaire in Sol history by employing ruthless economic strategy and cemented his influence by making corporation owned colonies in the asteroid belt. Long after his death in the late Precursor Centuries, his descendants formed a ruling class that stays in power of the Agrarius Megacorp.

The Megacorp expanded to such a size by the First Age that it had practically become its own empire, claiming the territory of nearly all of the asteroid belt. Mineral wealth brought the Megacorp to prominence, but control over the belt allowed it to tax passing vessels from the inner and outer systems, bloating its influence even further. Families lived and died within the territory of the Agrarius Corp, becoming employees of the Megacorp at birth and not ending their contracts until death. Morale was never high among the citizen-employees of the Corp, as their entire lives were consigned to soul crushing and often dangerous corporate work. Being a for profit company and a government simultaneously, human rights and quality of living were always secondary concerns for the Agrarius Corp.

Agrarius Corp founded the Kubit in the First Age, their form of currency. Deemed as the perfect form of money, the Kubit is an untraceable digital currency that saw widespread adoption through the Sol System, somehow even surviving to the Third Age. By adopting the Kubit, local governments could maintain stable economies by anchoring themselves to the most successful market in Sol history. Kubits appear first as just a digital currency, but are later combined with Sparktek to make them into a form of exotic matter known as Kubit Blue that has many advantages. This form of Kubit takes the form of a translucent, normally blue hologram in the shape of a cube that has a tangible aspect but also exists digitally. The cube can be collapsed into nothing, making it impossible to truly be stolen. It can be traded to another person by physically handing it to them, instantly adding it to their digital accounts. Multiple Kubits can be combined to form one hologram of a higher value, increasing the efficiency and ease of trade.

Megacorps of the Sol System

### The Day Zero Event

Aboard the Ark Derliom, nuclear weapons were used to melt the ice caps of Mars, hopefully releasing enough gasses to thicken and warm the planet's atmosphere. This attempt at terraforming accidentally destroyed a colony belonging to an Earth country not aligned to the Derliom. This misunderstanding sparked nuclear war across the dying remnants of Earth, doing even more damage to the broken world. This is known as the Day Zero Event. It not only brought Earth to its knees, but sparked a 200 year long war with preestablished colonies of Mars belonging to East Asian states of Earth allied to the Arks Kokaisha and Sancari fighting North American outposts on the world allied to the Ark Derliom. This war is known as the Day Zero War. Rapid innovation and advancement followed on the red world as both sides fought each other. This war rapidly developed the devastating railgun technology that future governments of Mars would be known for, as the metal rich planet was high in the magnetic materials to produce ammunition and weapons for railguns. After roughly 200 years, the Day Zero War would conclude and both sides would consolidate power to form a planetary government known as the Second Legion.

### First Infernals and the Anomaly War

The first Extradimensional Entities or EDEs were contacted in the First Age. The very first were the Infernals, who contacted humanity in 2539 via a microscopic rift in spacetime around Mercury, known as the Mercury Spacetime Anomaly. This structure sent encoded messages to humanity, reaching out to form a partnership and unite against greater existential threats. The governments of humanity disagreed on how to approach the alien species, as this was their first contact with another species of intelligent life and their first discovery of other Dimensions. The inner system aligned against the arrival of the Infernals, fearing the oppression or destruction of humanity at the hands of the EDEs. The powers of the belt and the outer system decided to align with the Infernals and thought that their intentions for a partnership were true and would benefit them.

The Infernals, adepts of opening portals between dimensions, finally met with the Jovian Federation in person in 2540 and began to cooperate with one another by sharing their technology and culture. Seeing this, the Inner system, led by the Second Legion waged war against the outer system. After quickly overwhelming the unprepared Jovian Federation and its allies, the Second Legion sieged and captured the Jovian capital, Lo and destroyed many of the Jovian's assets. The Infernals decided to remain neutral during the conflict until the Jovian capital was claimed, at which point the Infernal N'haah (Infernal for Emperor or leader), Dreckh N'haah, intervened and swiftly turned the tides of battle to save the dying Jovian Federation with their vastly superior Infernal technology and Arcana.

### Discovery of Arcana and the Goddess Baeya

As the Normandy colonized Jupiter and its moons they drew massive gas taps into the clouds of Jupiter to extract resources such as fuel and air for breathing. Psychoactive compounds previously unknown to humanity, Acetic Divineride and Poly-Acetic Divinerine (also known as Glittergas and Ambergris), existed in the depths of Jupiter and were processed with the other components to become the breathing air for the colonies. The effects of these gasses influenced the colonists of the Normandy, who began to observe opalescent whale-like creatures riding the gaseous clouds of Jupiter and reporting a loving, benevolent presence from them while they breathed these gasses. At first, these experiences were written off as hallucinations. However as more experimentation with Poly-Acetic Divinerine would commence under the supervision of Ethet, the first Ministress of Radiance, the substance acted as a medium through which a being known as Baeya could be contacted. Baeya, the Goddess of love, dreams and benevolence is the first God or Goddess to be discovered by humanity and is thought to be a shard of Figura. Baeya taught the Jovian Federation how to manipulate the forces of Arcana and taught the first human Starspeakers. Jovian culture was revolutionized by the use of Ambergris into a peacemaking culture that valued harmony, prosperity, artistic expression and wellness.

## **The Solar Height (2700-4100 AD)**

The Solar Height is an age with no definite beginning, but marks the peak of interplanetary human civilization within the solar system. During this time spanning more than a thousand years the system enjoyed relative peace and prosperity. Fearing the increasing power of the Infernals and Arcana, the Inner system would not try to expand beyond the belt again.

The Solar Height saw an explosion of population and innovation for the system. The population of the Sol System exploded from 5-6 billion at the height of the First Age to more than 100 billion by the end of the Solar Height. This is thanks to an abundance of infrastructure laid in the Solar Height. Great agricultural platforms, the space cities of the outer system and expansion and development of the worlds of the inner system allowed for unprecedented human expansion. As the powers of the Sol system established their colonies and infrastructure they gained the resources to invest in laboratories and industrial sectors that improved the quality of living for virtually all sectors. At this point these settlements stop identifying as colonies and fledgling government, but empires that have territorial control over entire planetary systems. These are some of the innovations of the late First Age and the early Solar Height that would become staple technologies for the rest of human history:

* The Fusion Engine for use in starcraft of all sizes, deuterium and tritium fueled engines that drastically increased efficiency and reduced time spent traveling between worlds. These are much safer than the nuclear or liquid fuel engines of the First Age.
* Widespread application of Mutagen as an agent to terraform worlds for human habitability. Mercury, Venus, Mars and the moons of Saturn benefitted the most from its use, gaining breathable atmospheres, temperature regulation and stable ecosystems.
* Gravtek. Artificial gravity generation to maintain Earth-like levels of gravity on small moons and space ships. Gravtek would later have applications for experimental high velocity engine designs and some forms of weaponry.
* The first single person commercially sold starcrafts capable of interplanetary voyages.
* The first Sparktek, or machines that artificially manipulate or produce arcana for a wide variety of military, industrial and commercial uses.
* The application of portals to send messages, people and small cargo between distant places instantly, mostly controlled by Infernal agents.

### The First Arcane Temples

Arcana was launched as a form of study in the Solar Height. This began with the Dreaming Temples of Jupiter. These temples could be found on the moons of Jupiter and around the planet itself on orbiting platforms, worshipping the whale Goddess Baeya and unlocking the secrets of Radiant Arcana. This study of the arcane unlocked the first generations of Starspeakers which would slowly increase in relevance as time passed. The Dreaming Temples even allowed the average citizen to unlock their arcane potential, if there was any there. The Dreaming Temples were focused on using arcana as a tool for benevolence, in reverence of their peaceful Goddess, and never using arcana for war. These acolytes would learn invocations to heal wounds, soothe traumas and increase the wellbeing of the sick, the hurt and the dying.

The second great temple of the Solar Height, the Temple of Fire, operated differently. This temple ran out of the outer system by the Infernals cultured a monastic worrior class of Infernals and Humans that worshipped the source of Infernal power in their dimension: The Great Pit or the Great Pit of Fire. As is common for Infernal culture, they taught arcana as a tool for logistic purposes and also for war. Shielding walls of flame used by the Acolytes of the Temple of Fire could deflect Solar Age Weaponry, and scorching beams of magmatic energy could match them in destructive capability. The Temple of Fire was much more restrictive in its knowledge than the Dreaming Temples, and only the strongest mentally and physically were allowed to become Infernal Arcanists.

### Wanderer Culture

The Wanderer is a symbol of the roguish and free life that many choose to embody in space, which rose to prominence in the Solar Height. Many people cannot be Wanderers due to lack of money or willpower, and those who do would say that there are far more risks than a normal job. However, the life of a wanderer is romanticized in Sol culture extending even to the contemporary Third Age. Wanderers are cunning individuals, typically operating solo out of a single person starship of their choice. The Wanderer lifestyle is nomadic, taking the most dangerous, high paying jobs wherever they may be and making connections with the countless people and cultures of the system. Wanderers will often bunch together in crews and operate larger craft to do bigger jobs, utilizing each of their skills to benefit the crew for a specific task. Wanderers operate off of their contacts who will help them to find work and their own skills and wit to get by in the system. Not tied to any one Megacorp, world, or organization, these people are the free spirits of the system taking contract work that some speculate secretly keeps the system going. Wanderers may form gangs and rivalries, but many are friendly and help eachother, bonded by the hardships faced by taking on the void alone. The major powers and Corps of the system often despise the Wanderer class, as they often exploit and break laws to do their contract work.

* Most other races discovered and integrated into specific places in the system (Itarah, Klagoobi)

## **The Second Age (4100-4900 AD)**

More extradimensionals, first Scabbards, destabilization of solar governments., scattered war. Setting of most “Galaktika” games.

* Full development of major factions like the Republic of Duna, Federation of Flying Whales, Triumvirate, Tribes of Mercury, Sisterhood of Venus, AgraCo, Umber Hulk, Red Crown, with the Federation being the most powerful and secure.
* Another large advance in weapons technology, specifically the application of antimatter, arcana and gravity weaponry in war.
* Celestials arrive, seeking humanity’s hyper-advanced non-magical weaponry to fight the Scabbard and prevent their extinction, end up bringing Scabbard into the system.
* Foundation of the Sentinels by Celestials.
* Polymaths develop into their current form.

## **The End (4900 - 5000 AD)**

Scabbards evolution and takeover of the Sol system. Most extra-dimensionals leave. Ends with the extinction of humans.

* Desperate wars against Scabbard and for land untainted by Scabbards
* Human dark arcana cults advance the scabbards into an unstoppable tide that devours civilization.

## **The Silence (0 - 7050 PE)**

No living humans. Keytars, Polymaths and other AI only remain. Scabbards starve due to lack of humans, die and are hunted.

## **The Machine War (7050 - 7750 PE)**

The World Mind declares its intentions, killing all Polymath that deny it and recruiting allied Polymath. Confector Automata created. Hypothesized first humans in more than 5000 years return to the terrestrial plane, originating from ancient genome vaults the World Mind cultivates.

## **The Sowing: (7750 - 9100 PE)**

The World Mind sends the second age of colony ships to other planetary systems within roughly 40 lightyears with technology reminiscent of the Solar Height. These colonies thrive, include Centauri Nocttarchs, Trappists, Gardeners, Luytids, Glycads, Ceticians, Captains.

## **The Third Age: (9100-12000 PE)**

Sol system - impregnable fortress. Type 2 civilization. Worldmind. Old history.