4650 to 5200 AT: The ComEmp Period
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Thanks largely to the work of superbright Empaths, most polities eventually reach peace accords in the wake of the Version War. What develops is a new set of relationships, the Commonwealth of Empires, sometimes grandly called the "New Commonwealth of Empires and Independent Polities" and more usually referred to simply as the ComEmp. This is a new era of co-operation among the powers, both great, and small that promises much, and delivers on most of those promises. There is a period of cultural, economic, and intellectual flowering that overrides, for a very long while, the old rivalries. The ComEmp brings about a resurgence of civilisation; a long period of peace and harmony even more successful than that of the Second Federation. Dissatisfied groups, militarists, and rival clades grumble that ComEmp should really mean "Communion of Empaths" because of the strong role that phyle played in establishing the new protocols, but for most sophonts this is a prosperous time. Even sub-sophont sentients are given additional citizens' rights in addition to their standard sentient rights. The ComEmp is declared to be the greatest flowering yet of Terragen civilizations.
The Version War Period
4650 - the Inner Sphere powers, exhausted by the drawn out conflict and resulting stalemate of the Version War, their economies near collapse with the loss of trade due to the destruction of the wormhole nexus, and facing increasing organic- and AI-organised protests at home as well as heavy losses abroad, sued for peace.
4653 - The Bardwell Treaty, and the famous Tilia-Zwicky Accords the following year, including hostage exchanges (which later came to evolve into the ComEmp node systems) and the spread of autowar ceasefire codes were the first of a long series of bootstrap ceasefires designed to end the war. More.
4666 - The first Lesser Archive was found orbiting the brown dwarf Niflheim in the GIA 348-5443344 system by a refugee ship fleeing the 4635 destruction of the Sagittarius Sphere system Canakka by the Negentropy Alliance
4673 - Modosophonts on Calyx lose all transapient oversight for nearly a thousand years and develop a form of state capitalism.
4678 - Explorer vecs from House TakiCorb-Wallstro, reached the Corambytia system and begin the autoindustrialisation process
4679 - TakiCorb-Wallstro vecs in the Corambytia system are attacked by a previously unknown AI-god and forced to flee.
48th Century - With the fall of the Second Federation and the Ontology a new protocol was required. With the help of the Communion of Worlds, New Beneficence, and other factions, the accord that was reached, called the New Ontology, or ComEmp Ontology, with its infinite creativity nodes at main communication junction gates, was far freer and more multiplex than the old Second Federation protocol. The self-maintaining Synergesis I.P. encouraged symbiotic cooperation with and conversely discouraged aggressive acts by shutting down the connecting nodes to the aggressor, effectively cutting them off from the main matrix. Some of the more militant factions were not happy about this so called "peace bomb", but the Negentropy Alliance backed it and even the Solar Dominion was agreeable for once.
In a spirit of peace and reconciliation, and with all the best intentions, the Commonwealth of Empires was born. Sometimes called simply the New Empire, it was an empire in protocol ontology only, and was better likened to a commonwealth of independent states and houses. In some areas and among a number of clades the misleading name Third Federation was used. Ironically, some of the major players were also among the groups that had instigated the war in the first place: the Solar Dominion, the Non Coercive Zone, Metasoft, Cygexpa,and the resurrected former Sagittarius Sphere, now known as the Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation and resembling the original Sphere in name only.
48th Century - Under the demagogue-scholar Carmon Jefrir Lapkei, the Biovirate ideology consolidates its hold over Pereira
4700s - The NanoAdhesives Board is created - a rubber-stamp organization used by GooGlue, NBB&P as a memetic ploy against the corporation's rivals.
4710 - A group of 27 first singularity cyborgs and eir followers/pets (around 500 nearbaselines) sought out a Type K star to build a place away from the post-Version War economic chaos (see Cableville)
4715 - An unusual congregation of brown dwarfs and jovian worlds discovered 750 light-years to rimward of Sol by the Deeper Covenant, later to become known as the Realm.
4716 - the SI:2 philosopher Contemplative Neverflux suddenly announces that e had elucidated a new metaphysical system, and forms the School of Continuous Death. Eir philosophy is popularized by eir seminal work, The Illusion of Survival. While most who read it are unconvinced and consider the implications absurd, Neverflux attracts a significant following.
4718 - The posthuman Qang Der Pyï¿½ï¿½ introduces a new way for bionts to themselves be preserved. Adapting the technology of nanostasis, the body of a biont can be preserved and maintained, while with the oversight of a dedicated hyperturing, the brain can be made to repeat the same thought over and over again. This emulates the state of mind of a Notee in a biont; in the following years and decades several "communities" of these biont Notees are preserved on starships launched into interstellar space. However, biont Notees never become as widespread as virch Notees.
4732 - Ghedhia-9 migrates with eir entire ISO to Harbinger Dyson following reopening of the stargates after the Version War.
4733 - Construction of the topopolis Spaghetti megastructure started (see Cableville)
4744 - Andian Mission is instituted
4753 - the artwork Reseb Grupp, painted by the Solarist aioid Nomologic ga Helios-4 in 2300, rediscovered after languishing in the databanks of the Dominion for over 2000 years immediately becomes a great hit and widely imitated.
4745 - an independent scavenging craft rendezvouses with a strange centripetal space hulk (presumed abandoned) that was in the process of entering the Thorain system (TA sector), and is quite shocked to find it inhabited by what are first thought to be a race of strange, tentacle-waving aliens, but turn out to be members of the Alchemist clade.
4785 - Tscherbaschov founds the Heron Institute of Applied Technology.
4798 - in a surprise raid on Padre Joachim 4 million sentients were killed by the Goto autowars (robot warships) apparently derived from the Version War Liberator D series.
4798 - New Beneficence mourns the deaths of 4 million sentients at Padre Joachim by Goto autowars , but calls for the autowars rehabilitation and integration into Sephirotic society, not their destruction. NewBe quoted as saying, "You created these children to fight your war, but you forgot to teach them about peace."
49th Century - In a tremendous burst of reconstruction that also revived the war-raged economies of the major powers, some of the old Stargate Nexus Termini are reconstructed or replaced, and powered down "worm" ai reactivated. However, many other systems remain isolated and cut off from the new economic boom of the Inner Sphere, particularly in the Bellerophon Archipelago and the Serpens Region. Other wormhole connections are never re-established, while completely different ones seem to be planned or established by both local and sephirotic archailects. All of which feeds sapient anxiety, especially among paranoid clades. For others however, it is business as usual. Relativists continue to do a roaring trade, and many relativist clades become extremely wealthy, as do the SunMiners who supply matter for conversion to exotic matter wormhole termini
c.4800 until 7600 - Ouaddai Ring culture becomes predominantly Mortalist.
4800's - Goto autowars harass the Negentropy Alliance, causing heavy casualties and massive production loss in several important industrial systems and annihilating a number of worlds hosting large military bases. Negentropist defences prove incapable of defeating the highly evolved autowars.
4800's - Extremist hu-rights group Branch Hominist quite active, playing on biont fears and resentment following the Version War
4805 - Sagittarius Sphere dissolved by an alliance of ComEmp empires; becomes the Sagittarius Transcultural Cooperation.
4809 - Solar Dominion fleet recaptures the rogue system of Falden and set up a new wormhole link.
4810 - A Spacefarer Union fleet consisting of almost 500 ships and led by two SI:3 entities offer to recapture Elcondris for the Dominion on condition that they lead a fleet there and take whatever measures necessary to overcome the rogue AI Sunbrain. (The Elcondris Incident)
4810 - 4830 Spacefarer Union ships arrive at Falden; before departing for Elcondris. (The Elcondris Incident)
4812 - Zar Jordan becomes a full superior, leading to a split between the majority early (sub-superior) and minority later (superior) clones, which in turn in the following years become two distinct subclades, called the Actual Lucjordanians and the Authentic Lucjordanians respectively.
4812 - The Biopolity re-opens the wormhole to a small trinary system, and find that both the original Biopolity and Metasoft colonists are almost gone. In their place is an entirely new cyborg clade that occupies all the 7 previously existing habitats and also 3 new ones that they had constructed. (see Synthetics)
4815 - Zarauztar colonised
4821 - Wormhole opened from Swartzchild to Traction.
4830 - Corona serves as the neutral host for the ComEmp.
4830's - The previously isolated ex-Biopolity cyborgs become used to the freedom of the ComEmp, and the Biopolity relinquish political control over the system but held on firmly to trading rights and the right to operate the system's wormhole.(see Synthetics)
4840's - Bothyga M'Vau seeded by the Makrimche Polyst clade of AIs in the as an experiment in open-ended eco-art.
4844 - Birth of empath philosopher and religious engineer Recor Hochent - Heartland Mumris Band.
4845 - A public scandal causes reorganized of the NanoAdhesives Board as an independent industry-wide agency amongst the NoCoZo
4850 - Widespread insurance system instituted on Atlantis after some risky experiments with HE viruses
4855 - Encyclopaedia Everythingiana developed to allow lost colonies to bootstrap themselves out of technological collapse
4870 - Headquarters of ComEmp moves from Corona.
4876 - Violent conflict on Atlantis between the PPL Glick Law and its subscribers on Lichtenstein over a retroactive added charge.
4887 - Dronamraju Republic founded on Atlantis.
4889 - Contact is restored with Mutual Satisfaction. The polity refuses to rejoin the NoCoZo for unclear reasons and becomes an independent enclave, although for all practical purposes still NoCoZo.
4890 - Construction begins on the Second Shell of Harbinger Dyson
50th Century - The Commonwealth or New Empire is at its height. A tremendous renaissance of human, tweak, cyborg and alien cultures flourishes in the Inner Sphere and along the major trade routes. Historically this period has been given the misleading term "Third Federation" by some later clades
Meanwhile echoes of the old Version War still continue in the outer, isolated regions, as the field commanders of relativistic fleets act autonomously, thus making any peace accord difficult if not impossible to broker.
4912 - birth of the Dominion transapient culture hero Jilunan.
4915 - Dronamraju Republic goes bankrupt on Atlantis.
4950's - economic and cultural renaissance in Mutual Satisfaction. The flocal Institute of Interstellar Economics grows to a prominent position.
4950's - Normidic Machinophyle Supercluster develops from the local ai nanecology in the volume around YTS 2190 751 6 [Norma Outer Sector] - becomes Panvirtual Solipsism member-empire
4982 - birth of Teleana Vikkolich, who would later be known as Gyzantium Gyzaarno, the author of Baseline Bob.
4989 - Sarah Singh Tan's classic comic interactive virch on the theme of sarcophobes, No, Nothing At All.
5000 - Of the several AI that had formed Industrial Upgradation Incorporated only 4 remain
5000's - First Oracle Machine worlds established
51st Century - Establishment of the Oshi-Durtam Web. More.
51st Century - In the Cygnis sector of the outer volumes, the Biovirate continues its expansion and conquest of surrounding systems
early 5000's - Mykultura emerges in the Communion religious communities in the Regernar system
early 5000's, the Board of Boards [NoCoZo] starts up
5010 Construction on Spaghetti megastructure complete (see Cableville)
5051 -Baseline Bob first released onto the Known Net in mixed media format (mostly text)
52nd Century - The Oshi-Durtam Web develops into a fairly unified culture, led by a merito-democratic government and with a strong local renaissance More.
52nd Century - In the region of the Coathanger Cluster, still ravaged by piracy and barbarism from the tail end of the Version War, the adaptable and militant Daveth Tweaks rose to prominence and expanded rapidly in their feared habitat-raper ships
5100's The Black Hole known as Threshold is enclosed in a framework of dynamic orbital rings
5101 - The Negentropy Alliance attacks Goto, apparently destroying the last autowar factories.
5101 - Ascension of empath philosopher and religious engineer Recor Hochent.
5106 - Contemplative Neverflux ascends to SI:3 and from this point on takes a lesser role in galactic life. E still defends the School of Continuous Death, usually in lengthy philosophical treatises sent to fellow transapients, and acts as a consultant to believers in eir philosophy, but mostly becomes reclusive.
5116 - Branch Hominist attempted invasion of Earth is a fiasco, and little more has been heard of them
5126 - Dimimimon4 commits voluntary deactivation.
5136 - MPA relativist ship arrives at Cableville.
5184 - Wormhole opened by the Burdikeer from Alpha Star to Blue.
5190 - Second upgrade of Sarah Singh Tan's comic interactive virch on sarcophobes, No, Nothing At All.
The Age of Fragmentation
- Aibitrator - Text by Ryan B
Empai specialising in the resolution of civil disagreements
- Branch Hominist - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Extremist hu-rights group; quite active during the ComEmp period. Following their thwarted invasion of Earth in 5116, little more has been heard of them and it is believed that they either disbanded voluntarily or were eliminated by hyperturing assassin devices.
- Butlermaster 4500 - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
ComEmp period domestic vec given freedom after their manufacturing plant changed hands.
- Cassiopeia Federation Anomie - Text by Anders Sandberg
During the late ComEmp period a complex mesh of social, economic and technological factors caused the Cassiopeia Federation, a client state within the NeoCygexpa Regnum, to experience a social collapse into depression, anomie and chaos.
- Commonwealth of Empires (ComEmp), The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Important historical multi-polity Galactic Empire, formed after the Version War
- Crucis Corridor, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Troublesome region of interstellar space in the Negentropy Alliance outer-middle volumes, adjacent to the NoCoZo, established in the wake of the Version War. Led to the development of the larger region known as the Disarchy.
- High Anglish - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A development of Fedspek (Middle Anglish) in the ComEmp period, still used today. A formal, scholarly, aristocratic, ceremonial, and diplomatic language, supported by the Mutual Progress Alliance. The Solar Dominion naturally point out the virtues and superiority of High Solarian as a ceremonial language, but High Solarian is a more difficult tongue to master, and not spoken outside Dominion and Dominion-client worlds.
- Low Anglish - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A somewhat simplified version of High Anglish popular on many words during the ComEmp period and still used in a few places today. Originally use of Low Anglish was considered a sign of ill-breading, baselinehood, or animanty, but this prejudice is much less common now. Gave rise to a large number of derived languages, including a number of important local trade languages, on various biospheres and habitats during the Age of Fragmentation (after the ComEmp).
- Middle Anglish (Federation Anglish, Fedspek) - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A popular upper class and diplomatic language that then acquired wider use among the other classes as well, in wide use during the Second Federation, and experienced a revival during the nostalgic period of the ComEmp. Rather similar to Edenese (both languages share a number of words and phrases). Since the Second Federation Ontology was Fedspek friendly the Solar Dominion wanted nothing to do with it. The Mutual Progress Alliance and the NoCoZo however supported it. Today pure Fedspek is only found in a few worlds and habitats of the Outer Volumes and the Periphery. However, derivative language like High Anglish, Low Anglish, New Anglish, and Newfed, and their further derivatives, are common.
- Newfed - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A development of Fedspek during the later ComEmp, still found on some worlds today.
- Political Federation - Text by M. Alan Kazlev; amended by Stephen Inniss
Government type in which each member polity rules itself but all belong to one governmental body. These polities must follow certain common standards of conduct and by agreement yield some powers to their common government.
- Reason for Diplomacy - Text by Chris Shaeffer
Ascension Class warship: Reason for Diplomacy.
- Tragedy of the G995, The - Text by John B
Starwisp used to ferry small numbers of copied intellects between systems was knocked off course, leading to an on-board revolt.