The chronology is an important aspect of the lore that helps the writing team both get inspiration for writing missions, and maintain an overarching consistency in the universe we develop.
3.5 million years ago
TLDR:
- Humans lived under the protection of an Alien race
- Humans betrayed Aliens and stole a secret knowledge and tech
- Humans turned this knowledge into a massive weapon and destryoed a planet
- Some of the humans survived and fled
- We have lost the knowledge of what happened then and of how humanity developed after.
Humans came to Phaeton from Earth. The fifth planet was inhabited by an intelligent pacifist species who had achieved high technological development. For several thousands of years, they lived a peaceful life. These aliens had a tool they used for travelling, they shared only part of this tool’s secrets with what resembled a human race who had recently discovered their planet and it allowed them to travel faster as well as use long distance instantaneous communication. However, they refused to share the technology allowing instantaneous travel, fearing they would misuse it. Years passed, and the humans grew jealous of the aliens’ knowledge. They started resenting the fact they held knowledge from them so they stole their secret.
They needed a Navigator. Navigators are people born prescient enough to access another dimension and guide the ships to the right location. To upgrade the structure of their port and be able to teleport objects, the humans needed Navigators but it seemed only aliens had this skill. They kidnapped alien children, studied them until they managed to create a serum that allowed them to modify human children so that they would adopt alien characteristics. The aliens eventually realized humanity’s betrayal and grieved their generosity along with a consequence they can foresee but not stop.
As they had anticipated, humans built a canon allowing them to teleport void and create super massive implosions. They destroyed the fifth planet and murdered the race that had been their host for the last millennia.
Today, no one knows if some aliens managed to escape, we only know humans did, leaving their slaves and prisoners behind in the midst of the chaos they created. Planets’ orbits changed, moons fell, meteorites crisscrossed the sky for thousands of years. After their tragic mistake, humans struggled to flee the solar system. The abandoned ones, the low caste that stayed behind flew to Earth. Many died in their ships crushed on the unpredictable trajectory of various stellar objects. Those who reached Earth dug underground cities and lived there waiting for the sky to stop falling.
800 years ago
TLDR:
- 3 terraformed planets: Earth, Mars and Luna
- All scrambling for resources and stations are overpopulated
- Political tensions are brewing
Population has reached its maximum on all 3 terraformed planets. Mercury settlement is still not complete and more people than it can host are waiting on orbiting stations. Only Mars has regulated its population and its resource consumption drastically, but Earth which used to be the most hospitable planet now requires oxygen from Europa to be pumped into its atmosphere. Earth has overshot its population growth target and its resources consumption target alienating Mars against them as Martians are forced to take on more and more refugees.
Luna terraformation is underway but in Mars’ opinion it’s costing the system more than the benefits it will offer. A magnetic line, the lift, is drawn from Luna to Earth in order to guide shuttles for sending colonies outer space. Governments agree that the outer solar system is the future and it needs to be conquered to solve this issue. Mars is taking the lead and outer exploration is voted a priority against Venus terraformation, energy corporations are securing government funds to be able to send ships to Jupiter’s moon within 50 years. More and more people are accumulated on generation ships while waiting for a hospitable planet, there is a new generation of people that has never set foot on a planet in their entire life.
700 years ago
TLDR:
- Technological advance allows to explore beyond the belt
- Resources of the outer world appease a little bit the political tensions between the planets’ governments
Human race achieves faster propulsion making possible the exploration of planets beyond the asteroid belt. We start by sending penal colonies leaving from Mars to Europa and Callisto providing the initial workforce for the Outer Mining Stations OMS. Europa’s goal is to sustain the water needs of the inner planets. Earth is on the verge of collapsing and has stopped supplying Mars which terraformation has taken 200 years longer than expected and which weather is still not regulated to support the water needs of its colonies. The last resources are used to send generation ships beyond the asteroid belt and the first long range ice haulers. The success of the Europa probe ship eased the tensions between Earth and Mars and successful negotiations lead to the first settlement a year after with regular shuttle supplying both planets in water. The resources in the outer world were more than the governments had expected, more probe ships were sent and returned with promising results.
[…]
25 years ago
The outer government has evolved into an oligarchy. A totalitarian regime takes over the inner planets and decides to start mining the Belt for resources they can’t obtain otherwise. An Earther preservation project that scientists have long been working on launches the Arch, the first massive space animal station where 7 animals of every remaining species on Earth embark.
8 years ago
Our player was fighting for the Inner Alliance to protect Deimos and its neighboring stations when it is blown away and his fleet is sacrificed by missiles sent from Mars. The player refuses to die for a government that betrayed him and he flees to the Belt saving the civilians he can bring onboard. One of them is Norma Vacen, an engineer from Khors and her team. The player finds a new home in Pallas, fixes and repaints his ship. Branded a traitor, his crew becomes his family and they can never go home. He finds work in the Belt more easily than he would have thought, legal or almost legal contracts, escorts, deliveries, protection missions. Life is not bad. One organisation has tried to recruit him, Ceres Republik, their propaganda is intensifying, they have started building stronger defenses to protect the Belt, mostly from abusive mining from the Inners They’re always looking for good soldiers and good pilots. But even if they are an anarchic organisation, they’re just another organisation. The player takes contracts from them but he is not pledging allegiance to their group. What did he learn? Live for yourself and for your people, never trust a government to make the right decision, the people are just gun holders to them.
Present time: year 3479
Kaden Doran is taking various contracts to transport resources around the Belt and safely escort civilians. He has no affiliation beyond money.
Amélie Beaudroit 