BriefHistory

What's next? I'm going to go ahead and add every hex that popped up as having a system on it to the list. More specifically, I'll make a second list below that one that has all of those. I will use this just for reference; I don't actually intend on going on a massive data sheet creation bender. In fact, I don't have any plans for the moment to even do a single additional data sheet, although I'm sure that I will eventually do so. Mostly, it's just to "claim" the hexes, show the political affiliation, and if I've come up with a name for the system (I did add a fair number of names already) I'll note that too. Then, as I'm working on AD ASTRA stuff in the future and need more detail, I can just pull from this well and whip up a new system. I've got names for many of the other colony areas, as well as Outremer, and it is my intention to eventually get around to that. All of the Altairan Ascendancy, both North and South, is named, although I haven't done squat-all with it other than name the systems (apologies to Tarkin.) I even named half of the Reaver worlds. This will be helpful if I just need to refer to another world obliquely to create the illusion of depth, without having any details about it yet.

I've actually done the same thing with history. I refer to a few things, without explaining them. I actually don't have any intention of explaining them. If you recall, in the first Star Wars film, Ben Kenobi refers to the Clone Wars, but doesn't explain anything about them other than that he was a general and Jedi knight, as was Luke's (at this point, unnamed) father. When I was a kid, what my imagination filled in based on that reference was probably cooler than the reality of the Clone Wars as they were later detailed. Or, at the very least, the possibilities were, which remained undetermined.

I've got a few things like this, which I want to catalog just so I can keep them straight and not forget that I mentioned them, but I don't really want to do any detailing about them other than that. Filling in detail about the past is usually counter-productive in fantasy, and this is absolutely space fantasy more than it is sci-fi as the smug, Asimovian types would call it. Besides, it's equally true in sci-fi anyway.

So, without further ado, here's a very brief history of the past.

• Nobody even knows how long ago: Grays were all over the place, leaving ruins across the galaxy. They're sometimes credited (or blamed) with the spread of humanity to various worlds in the galaxy long before any of them were capable of traveling there on their own.
• A long, long time ago: Humanity spread from Earth, and lost track of where earth was. They discovered xenohumans; biologically human, but of clearly different ethnicity than any earth group, and arguable what the original home system was.
• A slightly less long time ago: The Old Kingdoms. Compared to our society today, this would be equivalent to the Babylonians or ancient Egyptians, except that they aren't a totally alien ethnic group.
• Still rather a long time ago: The Marian Empire, which united the Kingdoms of Earth-descent humans, Altairan xenohumans, and a number of alien races as clients.
• Several centuries ago: The Slave Wars. The Janissaries won their freedom and became a separate ethnic group, allied with the Cilindarean Varangians.
• After the Slave Wars: The Wars of the Last Emperors; which eventually brought the Marian Empire down into dissolution. The rump states are the Republic and the Monarchy, plus numerous smaller independent polities.
• In the last century or so: The major political groups—The Revanchist Republic, the Bern Monarchy, and the Seraean Empire, stretch out into the New Alderamin sector to rediscover and reclaim worlds that belonged to the Marian or Old Kingdoms sphere of influence, but which were beyond their reach following the dissolution of the Marian Empire. They find that several significant and powerful nations have grown up in the area, including the Reavers, the Altairan Ascendancy, and most especially the Cilindarean and Janissary States, and the Dhangetan cartel. Plus, as these three superpowers interact with these other kingdoms, and each other, they bring political tensions to the fore, and risk vast conflicts spreading to all of Known Space.