History of the Future

The End of the World

2006

• Present day, exactly as it is now.

2011

• The general collapse of civilization. Unrest escalates on a much broader stage than the Middle East.
• A worldwide energy crisis cripples industry and the global economy.
• Africa is decimated by a new pandemic.
• China initiates an Asian military campaign to secure farmland and resources. Quickly dominating southeast Asia, they threaten Japan, India and Russia.
• The United States closes its borders against the African Plague and to suppress a surge of daily terrorist attacks in major cities.
• Europe erupts in widespread racially motivated rioting.

2012   :   December 21

• A polar shift places Cairo at the South Pole. The Rending Wind and coinciding tidal waves annihilate every costal city in the world.

2013   :   January 6

• In the chaotic aftermath of the polar shift, a Russian submarine in the Baltic launches twelve ICBMs at Beijing, China. It is unknown if this was a decision from Moscow or a private action of the crew. Beijing responds by unloading its arsenal at Russia, Japan and India. North Korean submarines use the opportunity to unleash an anonymous nuclear assault on the United States. The U.S. government responds by firing missiles at dozens of targets. A panicked French government attacks Turkey, Germany and the Middle East. The nuclear holocaust begins and ends World War III in the span of seven hours.

2013  —  2020

• The planet is in ruins with 98% of humanity wiped out from the Rending Wind, the African Plague, WWIII and nuclear winter; leaving 200 million survivors in scattered pockets inland and underground—yet a few national conflicts continue.

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The Second Dark Age

2020   :   June 14

• Guerilla nuclear assaults against the hidden U.S. and Canadian governments stamp out the last strongholds of western civilization near Denver and Calgary. The Second Dark Age begins.

2021   —   2683

• Records are scarce but this is an age of folk-heroes and the realignment of humanity's goals.
• Scientific progress moves backwards as people spend centuries picking at the carcasses of their ancestors' technological might.
• Cities and governments reform but are often snuffed out by rival city-states and nomadic marauding armies. The former west coast of the Americas (now an equatorial north coast) is the first region on Earth to recover and prosper.

2683   :   March 11

• Juneau Spaceport is home to humanity's first return to space in over 600 years. The Dark Age ends and a new age of science is born.

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The Age of Colonization

2683   —   2750

• The first visit to The Moon in 700 years.
• Orbital stations are built with worldwide cooperation.
• Lunar colonies begin construction.
• Frequent manned travel zips between Earth, Mars and the Asteroid Belt. The Anatali family gains a reputation as pioneers, bolstered by their willingness to embrace untested technology.

2751   —   2800

• Lunar colonies are inhabited. The moon becomes the staging point for the colonization of Mars and missions to Venus and Jupiter's Moons.
• A mobile colony orbits Mars; construction of Martian ground colonies begin.

2801   —   2900

• The Asteroid Belt is heavily mined by work colonies.
• The first Martian ground colony, Gratis, is completed and settled by working colonists.
• Mobile colonies reach Venus and Jupiter's moons. Colonization of Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io becomes immediately popular with non-American nations who weren't as quick to emerge from The Second Dark Age.
• Mercury is lightly harvested for iron, though is more or less ignored. Solar observatories are built and inhabited.

2901   —   3000

• The terraforming of Venus and Mars begins. Outer-terrestrial populations steadily rise.
• Non-carbon-based microscopic life is discovered in Jupiter's atmosphere. Besides the historical impact, the find becomes a watershed in nano technology's development.
• Artificial Intelligence framework becomes increasingly sophisticated.

3001   —   3100

• Funded by new-world mining, corporations gain political power. CEO's demand equal seats next to presidents and monarchs in Earth and Mars' loose federations.
• Even as gravity reactors gain prevalence over nuclear fusion, DETH research begins. A scientific leapfrog battle is waged between research fields.
• Larger stations and colonies are possible. Full generations of people who never set foot on ground live and die.
• A pair of manned missions to Alpha Centauri end in failure.

3031

• The Anatali family opens their first Anatali Private School on Mars, followed by another in Alaska.

3101   —   3200

• Corporations, kingdoms and nations are evenly poised in political and financial power.
• The inter-planetary land race inevitably causes unrest between organizations and colonies. Heavy militarization commences.
• Most scientific pursuits take a back seat to military science.
• With teraforming complete, outdoor cities are settled on Venus and Mars.

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Apocalypse Eternal

3201   :   October 8

• Aboard Jensen-Almay, a Venusian orbital colony, an experimental DETH drive goes critical. The station is swallowed in a dimensional rift, engulfing thirteen million lives. The last transmissions from the station suggest sabotage. The experiment's live technical data escapes to several ground-based laboratories.

  :   October 10

• Dozens of corporations, nations, kingdoms and terrorist organizations scramble to claim the politically and scientifically priceless Jensen-Almay data. Jensen-Almay's allies assign blame and mobilize. Long brewing tension over mining rights, technological supremacy, territorial disputes and centuries old grudges explode with Venus as the battleground. Apocalypse Eternal begins.

3201   —   3275

• The war drags on, eventually ruining Venus. All Jensen-Almay data and objectives of the conflict are forgotten. The planet-wide battle compresses to Anatali's Venusian boarders.

3275   :   May 30

• In what was called a Temporal Echo or Dark Energy Anomaly, Jensen-Almay reappears in orbit and ends the war with a massive energy pulse before shimmering back into the void. There are no survivors on Venus.

  :   June 1

• A Sol System-wide armistice is called for and accepted.

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The Age of Limitation

3275   —   3300

• A new federation of surviving nations and corporations is born, the Sol-Union. 70% of land colonies and 60% of orbital colonies join the Sol-Union and submit to their laws.
• Many defeated organizations exile themselves to the outer solar system, claiming unchallenged moons and defying the new government.
• DETH is considered too dangerous to be useful and is outlawed by the Sol-Union.

3301   —   3400

• Research on constructive science and medicine finally resumes.
• The technology of Gravity reactors and drives reach a plateau.
• Earth's resources are tapped out and the planet is saved as a sanctuary. Its population slowly declines.

3401   —   3500

• The need to move beyond the system is finally considered necessary. A new Alpha Centauri trip is successful. Extra-Sol colonization plans are made.
• A new religion, Dethism, forms on Saturn's moon, Hyperion.
• The first limits of AI advancement are reached.
• The first artificial lifeforms are born.
• The human lifespan extends dramatically.

3501   —   3600

• Pluto and Charon are intentionally diverted and trapped in Neptune's orbit by an independent corporation.
• The map of the cosmos is completed. Intelligent extraterrestrial life has still not been discovered.
• Phantoms, gravity fluxes and space-time anomalies are reported in Venus' orbit.

3601   —   3700

• A mobile colony reaches Alpha Centauri at sub-light speeds.
• Sedna is permanently settled as a Sol-Union Outpost.
• Charon shatters in Neptune's orbit, creating a humanitarian disaster on Triton, Proteus and Pluto.
• Advanced cybernetics grow in popularity until it's discovered that multiple implants cause dementia.

3701   —   3800

• The Sol-Union uses the Charon disaster to impose its will on the outer moons and orbital colonies. The political climate becomes tense.
• Medical progress sputters with breakthroughs coming few and far between.
• Venus is resettled by miners and the poor. Steady reports of unexplainable events are kept under the table. Lingering dark energy radiation causes survivable mutations, but kills one in ten. Sterility becomes an issue. The mass-production of artificial lifeforms becomes popular before rebellion and restrictive legislation stems the practice.

3801   —   3900

• DETH experiments restart in secret Anatali Corporation facilities. Through espionage, Io follows suit.
• A thousand deceased humans are resurrected and monitored as a test group. The procedure is banned due to the violent behavior of 100% of the revived.
• The 300,000 Artificial Lifeforms granted emancipation from Venus are given Saturn's moon, Iapetus, as a refuge. They quickly prosper though make no effort to communicate with their new neighbors.
• Slow galactic colonization begins, easing, but not erasing Sol System tensions.

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The Age of Dark Energy

3901   —   4000

• DETH reactors prove successful and application of the technology begins. The Sol-Union lifts their ban on the technology. Anatali Corp and Io have almost a two century jump on their competition.
• History's first light-speed travel (unmanned).
• History's first manned light-speed travel (results in the crew's death).
• Terraforming begins on Earth-like planets in nearby star systems. Navarin and Valeria are the most promising of these sites.
• Gloria Heavy Industries uses PGT to initiate the birth of their own planet, Gloria.

4001   —   4100

• A report on mortality shock goes public. Research begins on finding the cause and a cure.
• Intent on distancing itself from the flagging Sol-Union, Anatali collapses its political and commercial boarders. Their construction of the Exodus-class Star Station Anatali is a clear message that succession is imminent. It is the first station of its size and design.
• DETH drives are installed on three orbital colonies and begin dotting ground-based cities.

4123   :   March 18

• Io's increasing hostility, matched by Europa's pacifism, creates a firestorm of political upheaval in Ganymede. Its millennium-old dictatorship self-destructs. A violent family inside the Manali clan now directs the Sol System's second most powerful military. The Sol-Union allows the new government to retain its seat in congress. Independent moons around Saturn and Uranus become nervous. Io continues to rattle its sword.

4124   :   November 28

• The Nome Incident ends fifty thousand lives in Alaska. There are few, if any survivors. Anatali publicly calls it a terrorist attack, but the truth about the incident is published in a top secret report.

4125   :   February 2

• Anatali Station is officially completed. Boarding begins.

4126   :   January 20

• Anatali Station leaves Earth's orbit. Its first destination is the Paradise Lost colony orbiting Proxima Centauri. It's scheduled to arrive late 4129.

  :   March 12

• Anatali Academy's commencement address and first day of classes.

4128   :   January 27

• The events of Anatali: Eternal begin.

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