With the creation of the Biowarp drives, the planets in the galaxy began to discover each other. The times here use Watcher Standard year units, which are set as BC, which counts backwards from the start of AD, or AD, which continues forward from the end of BC. Watchers claim that this is the most standard unit of time measurement, and it is used on all Altearths(I’ll get to telling you what an Altearth is shortly). While specific dates are pretty hard to measure, here’s the basic timeline of the galaxy:
~BC380 [Age of Mythics]: Humans first meet with Mythics and form the Golden Alliance. Thus begins a golden age of friendship and technology lasting many centuries. During this time, over 30% of the galaxy is mapped, and nearly one thousand habitable planets are recorded, with 450 of them supporting sentient life, most of it humanoid.
~BC165 [Age of Elementals]: Elementals all begin to assume humanoid forms. Reason then unknown, but Elementals warn the Golden Alliance of a coming storm. The Elementals are unable to leave their home planets, so they make pacts with each planet to stay there and defend it from outside forces to the death.
~AD50 [Age of Legion]: The army of Legion, an infectious group of plant-women created in a terraforming mishap, begins its sweep throughout the galaxy, converting dozens of inhabited planets in its iron grip. The combined might of the Golden Alliance and the Elementals is still not enough to combat the threat, so the Humans conscript races from any planets they see fit. In AD240, Legion’s army suddenly stops moving. Legion issues a full surrender and apology. The reason for this is still not known. Their territory is taken back and they are reduced to a small percentage of their former empire.
~AD265 [Age of Redeemed]: With the heads of the Golden Alliance in ruins after the war with Legion, splinter factions of Elves, Humans, and Elementals quarrel for rulership of the galaxy. The battles take their heaviest tolls on the races abducted from their home planets and forced into service, and these races rebel and take control of a set of solar systems as their new homes. Over the next four decades, a multitude of "lesser" races intermixes into one superpower of culture and beauty. In AD306, the new civilization proclaims itself redeemed from the horrors of the war.
~AD483 [Age of Devilings]: Exploration to the scattered star systems of the galaxy's spiral arms begins. The scout ships are attacked in the middle of space by an unknown force, and entire fleets go missing. Decades later, the ships return to the center of the galaxy with new crews. They attempt to instigate a new war before their identity is discovered, but soon give up and simply unload their otherworldly colony vessels, which were able to instantaneously transport to the location of their stolen fleet, onto some of the most peaceful planets. These planets eventually plunge into anarchy, until a few centuries later, when the Golden Alliance is restored and, with it, galactic order.
~AD695[Age of Mecha]: With few grunt troops left after the Redeemed rebellion, the Golden Alliance builds a new Mecha army and police force to deal with the menace of the Devilings. Things seem to be working out until a group of Deviling hackers begin to re-program the Mecha, giving them sentience. The awakened robots quit their police duties and begin to join up with other factions, leaving the galaxy once again vulnerable to the Devilings.
~AD990[Age of Humans]: Reeling from the blow of the Mecha abandoning their posts, Humans invent a new type of scout ship that cannot use the Devilings’ teleportation magic, and therefore cannot be hijacked. With these ships they make recon missions to the unexplored core of the galaxy, hoping to find anything that can help the Golden Alliance defeat the Devilings. Spin-offs from this technology cause a boom in entertainment industries, which gives the citizens of the Alliance a chance to relax during the conflict. In addition, Golden Alliance privateers are sold scaled down versions of a device known as the Entropic Phase Disruptor, a device that prevents Devilings from teleporting away. The GA populace looks to these bounty hunters as heroes.
~AD1125 [Age of Divine]: The human explorers return triumphantly from the core of the galaxy, and have brought with them reinforcements. Divine battleships tear through Deviling blockades, and hordes of angelic troops push the Devilings back to their original homes, aside from those that have made alliances with the Redeemed. The Golden Alliance is restored to its original power, and the Angelic Protectorate is given rights as the galaxy’s police force.
~AD1338 [Age of Shape-Shifters]: Upon the changing of the year, a sudden shift occurs, and many Humans, Mythics, and other organic races suddenly transform into strange hybrid creatures. They leave their home planets to find ones inhabited only by Elementals, as if pulled there by a magical force. The Elementals on these planets teach the afflicted beings how to revert and control their transformations, and while many return to their home planet, some decide to stay with the rooted Elementals. These planets form the Elemental League.
~AD1552 [Age of Watchers]: After the Watchers had stymied the last part of galactic exploration—a thousand year journey into the forbidden zone, the Golden Alliance demands a personal meeting with the Watchers. The Watchers decline, and the Golden Alliance spends the next thousand years searching for the Watchers’ home planet. Around this time, young Watchers, disobeying their sacred order, begin to proliferate through the galaxy. Nothing is resolved, and the Golden Alliance eventually calls off the search. The Watchers continue to issue cryptic warnings through untraceable channels.
~AD1780 [Age of Demi-Humans]: Human and Mythic science determines the compatibility of Human DNA with that of an ancient race discovered in an archaeological dig. Through genetic splicing, hundreds of new races are created, and these "Demi-Humans" are put into application as personal pets, slave labor, and soldiers. The Castaways Treaty Systems formed from the Redeemed and Mecha take in rebelling Demi-Humans and press the Golden Alliance into stopping their enslavement of other races, eventually convincing the Angelic Protectorate to assist with the liberation of enslaved beings. The Golden Alliance fully complies and orders all enslaved beings freed.
~AD2000 [Age of Spirits]: Dead persons from planets everywhere begin to rise as spirits. Though this is initially seen as a threat, most of the spirits simply want to resume their lives where they were ended. This proves too difficult for many spirits, and they begin new lives as part of the Elemental League. The galaxy settles into its current state of affairs.