Twilight

(-1776 to -1526): The failure of the Rule of Man triggered the collapse of most of interstellar civilization. While interstellar travel and commerce continued, it was at a greatly reduced rate, and the many worlds of the Imperium turned in on themselves. The period of collapse is termed Twilight and lasted for two and a half centuries.

Modern historians consider Twilight to have begun in -1776 when the treasury on Hub/Ershur refused to acknowledge a monetary issue of the branch treasury at Antares, triggering a financial collapse and the destruction of large-scale trade within the Imperium.

The end of Twilight is commonly accepted as the year -1526, when the last governmental body claiming to be the Rule of Man ceased to exist. Thus began the Long Night.

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• Supplement 11 Library Data (N-Z)

Non-Canon

It can be argued that Twilight began with the death of Empress Elize in -1997, causing factions of the Council of Noble Officers to elect rival Emperors ruling from Hub/Ershur and Antares, in effect creating two different Imperial governments, the Hub/Ershur Imperium and the Antares Imperium. However, from -1997 to -1776, the two de facto governments retained a common currency and money system and maintained the fiction that they were still part of the same Imoerium for several centuries.