Campaign:SBRD/Library/History Human
This page will present two parallel timelines: the first a listing of major events in the history of the Human species, the second column more narrowly focused on the history of Riftrim/Reavers' Deep Sector and Daibei Sector, as the primary area for adventure in the SBRD campaign setting.
Time scale will be in Terran BC/AD dating and occasionally in Vilani BV/VI dating, as those are the primary dating systems in use in this campaign setting. The Terran scale is based on years of 365 days of 24 hours each, with occasional adjustments by addition of Leap Days; the Vilani scale is based on years of 486 days of 24 hours each. (Note: to convert to Imperial dating that will someday be used in the Third Imperium, simply take the Terran year and subtract 4518, as both scales use the same years and days, and the Imperial Year Zero was 4518 AD.)
Human History[edit] |
Riftrim/Reavers' Deep and Daibei Sector History |
The Ancients[edit] |
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Approx 300,000 BC: The civilization now known as the Ancients are active throughout what is now called Human Space. For reasons unknown, the Ancients visit Terra (TR 1827) and take extensive sample populations of the progenitors of Humans and Wolves. The Humans (some with genetic alterations) they scatter in colonies on many worlds throughout this region, which is one reason why Humans are so common. The Wolves they experiment on with extensive genetic alterations, uplifting them to create a new sentient species, the Vargr. |
Approx 300,000 BC: The Ancients plant colonies of Humans on at least 20 worlds within Riftrim Deep and Daibei Sector, resulting in multiple variant Human species; prominent examples are the Akakad, Happirhva, Ilthara, Islaiat, Tring, Utrenka. |
The Ziru Sirka[edit] |
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4700 BC: Vilani civilization on Vland (Vland 1717) achieves interstellar travel and begins to spread outward from its home system. Encountering other sapient species, it conquers and incorporates them into its own culture. From 900 BC to 1000 AD, the Ziru Sirka (also known as the Vilani Empire, the First Imperium, or The Grand Empire of Stars) expands by conquest and colonization to dominate an area of more than 20 sectors. After 1000 AD, the Ziru Sirka stops expanding and focuses on centralizing and controlling the existing empire. |
500 AD to 1000 AD: The Vilani Ziru Sirka expands into Daibei Sector, extending main routes to each of the prime colonies (those most like the Vilani homeworld, Vland) and branch routes to nearby worlds with valuable resources or native sapient species with whom to trade. |
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2087 AD: The Terran civilization on Terra (TR 1827) achieves interstellar travel, and soon encounters the Ziru Sirka not far to coreward. Terran culture is shocked to discover that the stars which they had hoped to explore and colonize for themselves are already mostly claimed by an existing government. After a brief period of trade and diplomacy, a minor incident triggers the first of the Interstellar Wars. |
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The Interstellar Wars[edit] |
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2110 AD to 2299 AD: Interstellar Wars between Terran Confederation and Vilani Ziru Sirka. The Interstellar Wars begin with the Terran Confederation hugely outnumbered and lagging in technology, but the Wars are hardly even noticed by the Ziru Sirka as a whole, and are fought only with the small forces available to the provincial governor. Eventually the Terrans catch up and surpass the Vilani in technology, and the Wars come to the notice of the highest levels of Imperial Government. By that time, however the initiative has shifted to the Terrans, and in a series of decisive battles and campaigns the Imperial fleets are destroyed and vast swaths of Imperial territory captured. The last Vilani Emperor finally surrenders in 2299 AD. |
During the Interstellar Wars, many colonial expeditions from Terra and its colonies are launched into the Riftrim and Daibei Sectors: dissidents wanting to leave the Terran Confederation and the Wars behind; refugees who have experienced the Wars firsthand and want to escape them; and Terran military expeditions seeking strategic bases to flank the main Vilani defenses. |
The Rule of Man[edit] |
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2314 to 2742 AD: The Rule of Man. When the Terran Confederation government back on Terra asserts its right to rule all of the Ziru Sirka as captured territory, Terran Grand Admiral Hiroshi Estigarribia declares the foundation of the Rule of Man as a Second Imperium over the combined territories of the Ziru Sirka and the Terran Confederation, and declares himself Regent and Protector. Upon the death of Estigarribia, his successor abandons the title of Regent Protector and declares himself Emperor of the Rule of Man. The new government attempts to bring peace and order to all of its war-torn territories, with some success. Interstellar commerce reaches an all-time high, and new colonization programs begin. |
2340-2390 AD: Celestial colonization |
Twilight[edit] |
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2742 to 2994 AD: Twilight: As worlds and groups of worlds declare their independence from the Rule of Man, other groups of worlds remain loyal. Still other groups of worlds dispute who is the true Emperor and what group is the true remnant of the Rule of Man. Still other groups of worlds form new interstellar governments, and where worlds refuse to join willingly, resort to conquest. The widespread warfare of the Twilight period not only interferes with interstellar commerce, but destroys the means of production and transport. For high-population worlds that rely on imported food supplies, the result is famine; for low-population worlds that lack the industry to produce their own finished goods, the result is a loss of technology and standard of living. All over Human Space, people suffer and die, and their worlds regress in a tangle of warfare and destruction. |
Twilight Wars: Daibei[edit]2743 AD: Warinir declares its secession from the Rule of Man as the independent Grand Republic of Warinir. Some other old Vilani worlds in Edge Subsector and adjacent Alun Subsector join in the Grand Republic, but others prefer to remain loyal to the Rule of Man or to go their own way in independence. |
The Long Night[edit] |
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2994 AD: The Long Night Falls as the last remnants of central authority claiming legitimacy under the Rule of Man collapse. The wars of the Twilight period had done terrible damage to the technological base of interstellar civilization in Human Space, and now even those worlds that want to maintain interstellar trade are limited by the reduced numbers of available ships, and the destruction of many of the shipyards that could otherwise replace those ships. What new ship construction there is, is mostly military, not commercial. |
3189 to 3198 AD: Reconciliation War ends almost 450 years of active warfare and "cold war" in Daibei Sector as the Imperial Realm of Daibei and its allies overwhelm the Grand Republic of Warinir, forcing its total surrender and dissolution of its empire. The Imperial Realm is too weakened, however, to enforce its dream of reuniting the whole sector under one government, and in fact there are now more independent worlds than ever before.
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| This article is specific to the SBRD Reavers' Deep Campaign, which is set during the Long Night, beginning in year 3731 AD (-787 Imperial). This information may not be correct for the typical Traveller campaign set during the time of the Third Imperium. |