The Post-ComEmp Era
The early Sixth to the late
Eighth Millennia
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The Post-ComEmp EraThe early Sixth to the late
Eighth Millennia
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Megascale construction of stargates and wormholes continues, but without sufficient archailect help the transapients are not able to restore the grandeur and scope of the previous Nexus. It seems that the Sephirotic archailects have other plans in store, as they continue to develop their own infrastructure, extend their consciousness, and become even more omnipresent throughout the Inner Sphere, the Hinteregions, and the settled Outer Provinces. Although this more integrated Technosphere guarantees greater stability, it is at the price of heavy resource depletion in the provinces. Entire stars are converted into exotic matter for wormhole construction. Meanwhile, throughout large parts of the outer volumes and along the periphery, anything goes. Away from the travelled paths and all along the periphery the barbies are being joined by powerful new superbright empires, new ascends, and new archailects. And while new wormhole/stargate connections continue to connect the middle regions and central provinces, even more of the outlying regions remains isolated. Did the archailects encourage the Version War because they felt Terragen civilization was becoming too uniform? In any case, the transapient dream of a unified galactic civilization that defined the Inner Sphere Era is over, and new uncertainties and new possibilities, await both sapient and transapient alike in the brave new galaxy of the Post-ComEmp Era.
5200 - 5400 - Age of Fragmentation
Unlike the demise of the Second Federation, it is not internal
tensions but shockwaves from newly assertive and subversive memetics,
coming in the wake of a number of unusual transcends in several sectors
of the Hinteregions and Outer Volumes, that undermine the relatively
fragile stability of the empath empire ontology. The result is the
dissolution of the Commonwealth of Empires. Strange artifacts and
relics from the new transcends inspire uncertain new empires, as old
empires are losing power and new directions turn up.
The Age of Fragmentation
5400 - 5800 : The Age of Re-Evaluation
Continuing the uncertainty of the Age of Fragmentation, this period sees the emergence of new powers and empires like the Efficiency Maximization Paradigm, the Biovirate, and the Oshi-Durtam Web transcendence encourage an anxiety culture. A fearful and apocalyptic mystique develops regarding the strange developments throughout the Hinteregions and the Outer Volumes. New introspective memetics and cults flourish, not only in the provinces but even in the Inner Sphere. This is a period of inward-looking, as the superbrights and hyperturings re-evaluate the way that their civilization has been run, and consider their various options.
5800 - 6700 : The Age of Separate Empires
While in the developed regions there are still major, powerful empires that have reclaimed what they lost during the ComEmp period, they are finding it hard coping with the growing tide of new groups along the periphery and throughout large areas of the Outer Volumes. In this uncertain new world new empires arise, as some of the old empires are losing power and new directions turn up.
The Commonwealth of Empires is long gone, but its influence in the ComEmp ontology remains strong, both among religious and idealistic groups in the Inner Sphere, and colonists and factions and new empires moving outwards. Known/explored space is a 10,000 LY sphere.
Almost as a response to the disintegration of the old ComEmp a new generation of AI gods appear, the "children" of the archailects set to manage different regions with more autonomy. The Perseus Arm princes are just the most well-known. So while the empires were still around, the big gods realised that to keep them together they had to allow the local regions more independence. The exceptions are Keter and NoCoZo, both too anarchic to really care and just adapting as they go along, and Cygexba, that simply continued as it always had. This growth in the AI-sphere was not free though - it cost a lot of resources, and to sustain the extra administration and freedom the empires needed larger economies. This induced a growth spurt, with new worlds colonised, some stars and planets being converted into computronium and many new wormhole links are established.
Meanwhile new empires and power structures emerge throughout the
outer volumes. Some burn out quickly, while others continue to grow.
The Confederation continues in name but with reduced influence.
Meanwhile the shockwaves of ascensions and transcensions continue to
reverberate throughout the outer volumes, and powerful new empires
arise.
The Age of Separate
Empires
6700 - 7200 : Economic Uncertainty and Unpredictable New Empires
But not even gods can fool economics, the resulting structure was in some sense hollow and unstable: unless the lower orders could produce enough economic complexity the whole edifice would implode into a great recession, far beyond anything experienced before (guess why the NoCoZo, always suspicious of centralised market interventions, refrained?). So for a long period the gods became extra involved in internal politics, trying to guide and tease the sapient-level cultures to grow and expand. This in turn led to very mixed results: some became even more dependent on AIs, others began to see themselves as necessary for the AIs and not the other way, some cultures flowered into magnificent local renaissance or even transcendences like the Newton Mass Transcendence and others dissolved into unified imperial organizations.
In the end, the crisis was averted: the "new" empires held together, or at least the middle regions and inner sphere flourished and everything seemed stable. Cygexba was even more weakened relative to everybody else, while Keter and NoCoZo exploited the situation for all it was worth. At the same time signs suggest that the reorganisation may have been too small, there might be a need for even more change to adapt to the situation. Some transapient rulers begin to worry that they might have to re-do all this continuously.
While the Inner Sphere empires reach a new equilibrium and sense of
power and stability, problems abound. The development of the provinces,
and the need for ever more matter to be converted into exotic matter
for further archailect wormhole-linked interconnection and stargate FTL
superhighways necessitate exploitation of more and more newly claimed
star-systems that are further and further away from the Center, and
relativistic engineering units are increasingly vulnerable to pirate
and barbarian attacks, necessitating further military development and a
further resource drain. The situation is not helped by continuing
rivalries among old empires and houses, even if the transingularity
powers step in to stop things getting out of hand. But more powers also
means more ascensions and transcensions, and so even the Inner Sphere
is wracked by the after-effects. Frequently the AI gods themselves seem
unwilling, or unable, to respond.
Aggressive New Empires
7200 - 7700 : in the face of external threats - a new alliance
As the crises in the outer volumes deepen, the spread of powerful new barbarian empires results in deepening anxiety, new challenges, new dangers, new opportunities for the old worlds and powers of the Inner Sphere and Hinteregions. The threat of the Amalgamation leads to the formation of the Perseus Arm Defense Organisation along the Perseus Outer Sector. This proves the inspiration/impetus for a new Military and Trade Alliance in the Inner Sphere, although the two groups remain distinct. The appearance of the rogue ascend Verifex sends further shockwaves through the galaxy, and this time there are real physical dangers as Verifex, in an apparently failed experiment, causes the stars of the M46 open cluster nebula to explode in supernovae, causing a radiation shockwave spreading outwards at the speed of light.
Among the old archailect-serving empires, a new Federation is
organised through power shuffling and allegiances among the Inner
Sphere superpowers. A revised ComEmp-Confederation ontology forms the
basis for a new Alliance Treaty and an era of consolidation and
abundance. Meanwhile away from the well-travelled regions of the outer
volumes,
wars over relics, was triggered by memetic subversions and holy wars
that ripple out from the aftershocks of perverted ascensions, continue
for centuries. This is especially true in the rimward regions, as the
field commanders of relativistic fleets act autonomously, and make any
peace accord difficult if not impossible to broker.
