(FORMATION OF THE KNOWN PHYSICAL UNIVERSE)
(FORMATION OF STARS IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY)
PRETERRAN EON (BEFORE THE FORMATION OF EARTH, SOLAR SYSTEM: 4.5
byp)
TERRAN HADEAN EON
Formation of the Solar System and Earth, outgassing of first
atmosphere and oceans, bombardment by left-over planetisimals and
debris, volcanism and formation of first continents, evolution of first
microorganisms
TERRAN ARCHEAN EON
Reducing (anaerobic) atmosphere, archea (anaerobic microbes) and
blue-green algae, Archaean regime of continental drift
- UNNAMED INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE236XZE (disappeared
2-3 billion years ago)
- Overview
- Homeworld: Little is known except possible Planet Type
- Biology: Little information except possible Evoltype
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (Predates formation of Sol
System)
TERRAN PROTEROZOIC EON
Atmosphere changes from reducing to oxygenated, rise of aerobic
life (prokaryote and eukaryote), stromatolites common, modern regime of
continental drift, formation of supercontinent of Rodinia, warm
conditions replaced by "Snowball Earth", following that the short-lived
Ediacran biota and the appearance of first metazoa
- 1.45 billion years ago: The "Archivists" released their
enigmatic diamondoid information spheres. Apart from these objects,
absolutely nothing is known of the nature or origin of this species.
- 1.1 billion years ago: The "Jacks" a species of floaters
occupying Type-J planets, appear for the first time, but unlike many
Jovian species their civilization is short-lived and cyclical. The
species disappears after a few tens of thousands of years in space.
- THE MRUTA EMPIRE (extinct 1.1 billion years ago)
- 788 million years ago: The "Jacks" re-appear after
having disappeared for unknown reasons; their new civilization
collapses after 112,000 years
- THE "Halogenics" [INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE282RZE] (extinct
780 million years ago)
- Summary
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence territory extended
to Sol System)
- THE EXN EMPIRE (extinct 678.4 million years ago)
- Overview of the Exn Empire
- Homeworld: Little is known about the Exn homeworld
- Biology: The Exn were probably vaguely humanoid with
crystalline partial-exoskeletons. Little else is known about their
biology.
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence that territory
extended to Solar System)
- THE PTEMR EMPIRE (disappeared 678.3 million
years ago)
- Overview of the Ptemr Empire
- Homeworld: Little is known about the Ptemr homeworld
- Biology: The Ptemr have been described as winged, however
there is no evidence they were flying creatures. Perhaps the 'wings'
were vestigial, or ornamental, or even part of a uniform. The Ptemr
also apparently had at least two manipulator-tentacles or tails instead
of jointed limbs. Nothing is known about their evolution.
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 to 1 - there is evidence that a
Ptemr listening post was established on Triton (Sol-VIII-G) but as the
frontier shifted that satellite was abandoned. The Ptemr had little use
for the intelligent or near-intelligent Exn slave races, so it is
hypothesized that the primitive life on Earth at the time were ignored.
TERRAN PALEOZOIC ERA
Atmospheric oxygen reaches present levels, ozone shield screens
out ultraviolet radiation and allows complex life to live in the
shallows, age of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and finally reptiles,
life emerges from the sea to colonise the land, pteridophyte and
gymnospermous plants, mild to tropical conditions and warm shallow seas
interspersed with Ordovician and Permo-Carboniferous ice ages,
continents cluster into the supercontinent of Pangea
- 451 million years ago: The "Jacks" rise from dormancy
and form a new civilization, which collapses after 56,000 years
- Alien object "Omicron Hygeras 152-3343 Gm-A"(appeared
400 million years ago)
- THE HOV'S'SA (vanished 312 million years ago)
TERRAN MESOZOIC ERA
Age of archosaurian reptiles, dinosaur megafauna, sea-reptiles,
pterosaurs, ammonites, mammals small and insignificant, conditions warm
and tropical worldwide, supercontinent of Pangea breaks up into
Laurasia and Gondwana, modern corals, insects, fish and finally
flowering plants evolve
- 196 million years ago: species HIE636MZE apparently was
exterminated by a nanoswarm
of its own creation. Four of the five different alien civilizations
existing in the same galactic arm at the time of the nanoswarm (three
of which belong to the same species - HIE634MZE) attempted to design
defenses against the nanoswarm; one did not have the necessary skills
and undertook a mass exodus ranging over 7,000 lightyears.
- 180+ million years ago: The "Muuh"
evolve into an advanced sapient civilization
- UNNAMED PLANETARY CIVILIZATION HIE565MZE (disappeared
125 million years ago)
- Overview
- Homeworld: Info to be added later
- Biology: Little information
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No known interstellar travel)
- 120+ million years ago: The "Muuh"
achieve spaceflight and interstellar travel
- circa 90 million years ago: The "Jacks" form their most
recent civilization, which collapses after 82,000 years
TERRAN CENOZOIC ERA: Tertiary
Age of mammals, birds, modern invertebrates, current continents
emerge, initial tropical conditions give rise to colder drier climate,
evolution of anthropoid apes and finally australopithecine hominids
- c. 38-42 million years ago: "Soft Ones" were uplifted by the "Muuh" to presapience.
- c. 34 million years ago: "Muuh"
contact the "Soft Ones" again,
uplift them to the level of nomadic hunter/gatherers.
- THE "Tunnlers" [INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE441CZE] (extinct
33 million years ago)
- Summary of discovery and exploration
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No evidence territory extended
to Sol System)
- c. 30 million years ago: the "Soft Ones" slowly developed several
technological cultures
- UNNAMED INTERSTELLAR CIVILIZATION HIE121CZE
(disappeared 31 million years ago)
- Overview
- Homeworld: Possibly destroyed/devastated
- Biology: Info to be added later
- Impact on Earth's evolution: Uncertain
- 28.3 million years ago: "Soft Ones" again contacted by a "Muuh" uplift ship. The oldest indigenous
recorded history date from this time.
- 25.4 million years ago: the long-lived silicon-gen
civilization HIE072CZE is almost overrun by its own nanoswarms. Their own
Enforcers saved them but were let loose on the rest of the galaxy as
'tracker mines' that are still a threat to unwary starships.
- 24.7 million years ago: "Soft Ones" achieve starfaring
capability. Begin sub-relativistic colonizing nearby star systems.
Friendly contact with a number of other civilizations
- 14.8 million years ago: The "Muuh"
are slaughtered by a fleet of automated war machines and only a few
colonies are spared. At about the same time "Black Acropolis" civilization
abruptly disappears. The HIE072CZE withdraw from known space. Many
explain these events on Dawn
Hunters or other supposed inhibitor civilizations.
- 10.7 million years ago: Labyrinth complex constructed
by an unknown alien race.
- THE IAHI DAON COLONIAL EMPIRE (extinct 7.2
million years ago)
- THE "Doreens" [INTERPLANETARY CIVILIZATION
HIE500CZE=HIE282RZE/D1] (extinct 4 million years ago)
- Summary
- Note: evolved from life forms left behind by "Halogenics" on
the planet Omicron Afri III nearly 780 million years before, but
culturally completely unrelated.
- Impact on Earth's evolution: 0 (No known interstellar travel)
- Thyresta (disappeared 2.8 million years ago)
- Overview (under construction)
- Homeworld: New Montana (YTS-4885002-3825-IV; MPA volume)
- Biology: endoskeletal communal-living Carbon-based
Oxygen-breathers
- Impact on Earth's evolution: none - destroyed themselves
before attaining starfaring capability
TERRAN CENOZOIC ERA:
Quaternary
Ice Age, Rise of Man (Homo erectus, Neanderthal and Cro Magnon)
and use of stone tools and fire, Pleistocene megafauna worldwide, many
interglacial warm periods, extinction of Megafauna
- 1.2 million years ago: the Ultimates colonize several Black Acropolis biospheres -
after a short period of expansion settle into a static society.
- 350,000 years ago: the "Great Reformation", an attempt
by the Ultimates of the Shining
Path Morph to revive the morphospecies, institutes a brief renaissance,
and a period of colonisation ("The Seeding") of nearby worlds
- 204,000 years ago: the last of the Ultimate Colonies
("Fruits") disappear. In the sheltered biospheres of the Black
Acropolis the descendants of the Shining Path Morph have once long
ossified into a self-cocooned equilibrium state
- 100,000 years ago: the cocooned Ultimates are slowly diminishing in
numbers
- 50,000 - 36,000 b.c.e: "Auld
Limner" civilization nurtured by unknown provolutionists. It is
believed these "progenitors" may have also uplifted of a number of
local races in the outer Perseus or Outer Arm
- 22,000 - 18,100 b.c.e: Auld
Limner Empire - a short-lived dominion some 2000 light years in
diameter.
HISTORICAL TERRAN PERIOD
(Cenozoic Era: Holocene Epoch)
Age of Man, civilization, human activities transform the globe
Late Paleolithic Age - hunter-gatherers, stone, bone, and
wood tools
Neolithic Age - settled communities, agriculture, livestock,
pottery
Bronze Age - early civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt,
China and India, stonemasonry, writing, government, commerce, religion
and mysticism, standing army and warfare
Iron Age - Classical Greece and Rome, the rise of
philosophy, individual art and culture, world religions
Dark Age - collapse of Classical Civilization, Ascendancy of
Islam, emergence of feudalism
Middle Ages - Christian and Islamic theocracy, feudalism,
Islamic mathematicians discover "0", great civilizations of Europe,
Middle East, Byzantine, and Asia, rise of Mesoamerican civilization
Renaissance - rebirth of learning in the West, new schools
of art, Discovery of Gunpowder, Printing, scientific method, banking
Age of Colonial Exploration - Western Civilization conquers
the Americas, European maritime superpowers, piracy, beginning of the
slave trade, mercantilism, philosophy, culture
1800-1945 c.e. - Industrial Revolution - Western
colonialism, mass-production, exploitation of nature, great scientific
and technological progress, class inequalities
1945 - c.2000 c.e. - Atomic Age - fission power, nuclear
weapons, over-population, cold war, terrible environmental degradation,
end of Western colonialism, even greater scientific and technological
progress, Space Race, global consumerism, continuing gap between rich
and poor
1969 c.e. / 1 a.t. - Start of Terragen Calender - "Old Reckoning"
TERRAGEN GALACTIC ERA
Rule of the AIs, Terragen civilization spreads throughout the
galaxy
c. 1 - 900 a.t. - The Space Age (Interplanetary Era)
30 - 130 - Information
age - exploitation of nature replaced by ecological consciousness,
development of the internet and digital societies, emergence of the
first AIs
130 - 400 - Interplanetary
age - the vanguard of humanity leaves the Earth to colonization of
the solar system, tweaked and superior humans, and animal uplifts, the
rise of Cis-Lunar, Martian, and Jovian superpowers, entrenched
inequality of rich and poor, the colonization of the nearest stars.
400 - 500 - Nanotech age
- governments and corporations prove unable to control cheap and
widespread nanotech, the "Backyarders" on Earth in cooperation with the
Belt launch their ships for the Oort halo and the stars, few make it.
500 - 900 - Interplanetary
Dark Age (Nanoswarm period) - This is a dark age in the Sol System
only - although since Sol culture dominated the early federation, the
name stuck despite the error.
900 - 3200 - Early Interstellar Era
900 - 1200 - Early
Federation age - the restoration of the solar system
1200 - 1500 - Middle
Federation age - contact with the colonies, the formation of the
"small" empires, the superbright-led corporations gain in power
1500 - 2100 - Late
Federation age - Megacorps into empires, AIs break through
technological singularities resulting in the emergence of the first AI
Gods
2100 - 2600 - Age of
Expansion - technological breakthroughs allow Reactionless drive
and Wormholes - the far-flung empires are connected, resulting in a
single diverse interstellar civilization.
2600 - 3200 - Age of
Establishment - the Mainbrain empires establish themselves; the AI
Gods extend themselves across interstellar distances via nano-,
micro-and , macro-gauge wormholes
3200 - 5200 - The Inner Sphere Era
3200 - 3750 - Imperial Age
- the rise of the vast sephirotic and other empires, rise and fall of
Conver Ambi
3750 - 4450 - the
Second Federation - a period of peace (apart from a few local
brushfire wars and revolts). Eventually increasing ontology tensions
coupled with several unexpected ascensions and transcensions trigger
the Version War, which brings an end to the Second Federation
4450 - 4650 - the
Version War period - Following increased tension of protocols, war
breaks out between the standardizationists and revisionists. But
despite closure of the wormhole nexus, isolation of many polities, and
threat from relativistic fleets, this remains a prosperous period.
4650 - 5200 - the ComEmp
period - a resurgence of civilisation, a period of even greater
peace and harmony than the Second Federation. But shockwaves from newly
assertive and subversive memetics undermine the relatively fragile
stability of the ComEmp ontology, leading to a period of re-evaluation.
5200 - current era
- The Outer Volumes Era
5200 - 5400 - Age of
Fragmentation - the slow disintegration of the ComEmp is known as
the age of Fragmentation.
5400 - 5800 - Age of
Re-Evaluation - with the failure of the ComEmp, the inner empires
and many other groups realise changes in the current system are
required.
5800 - 6700 - The
Age of Separate Empires - a long period in which the many empires
of the Inner Sphere continue to each go their own way.
6700 - 7200 - The Age of
Crisis - the threat of the Amalgamation and other rogue powers
leads to a crisis in the Inner Sphere.
7200 - 7700 - The Central
Noetopic Alliance - in the face of the Amalgamation Threat, the
Laughter Hegemony, and the Empledokcetic Spread, the inner sphere
superpowers form the Central Alliance.
7700 - 10,000 - Age of
Expansionist Empires - new empires and power structures emerge
throughout the outer volumes; some burn out quickly, others continue to
grow
10,000 and later... - Modern
Era - the friendly dissolution of the Co-Dominion means deepening
anxiety, new challenges, new dangers, new opportunities.
