This chart outlines the histories of two of the three known human sectors. In different places and at different times, different calendar systems have been used. In this chart, year lengths are Confederation Standard years, but numbered from the emperor's decision to launch the Great Annihilation.
The historys of the different human sectors are sketched in separate columns in the chart.
Year 0—In the Kron Empire of 53 worlds, which would later be termed "the Home Sector," the Congress of Constitutional Government meets to protest the Imperium's prolonged disregard of the constitution. They issue a position paper that includes a virtual ultimatum to the Imperium: Align your policies with the constitution or face rebellion.
The emperor orders construction of the HIMS Retributor.
Year 3—Plans approved for the Retributor, a gigantic, highly automated warship reputedly with the power to destroy planets. Actual construction begins.
Year 4—Coordinated rebellions break out on 17 worlds.
Year 6—Rebellions have spread to most worlds. Imperial fleet forced to concentrate on a limited number of worlds at one time. Two squadrons of the Imperial fleet mutiny, join the rebels.
Year 7—The Retributor is launched with the mad emperor as her master and with a psychoconditioned crew of fanatics. It reduces two rebellious worlds to orbiting rubble.
Further units of the Imperial Fleet declare for the rebels.
Year 8—Some worlds have fought themselves into collapse. The Retributor continues to "punish" (destroy) worlds for their rebelliousness.
Year 9—The surviving planets of the empire are devastated and in utter chaos. The emperor continues to destroy planets.
Year 10—Civilization has collapsed within the empire. More planets destroyed.
Year 12—The emperor suicides by destroying his ship. Of the 53 worlds previously inhabited, only 11 remain intact. The human species is nearly extinct.
Years 12 to roughly 100—On 8 of the 11 planets, the remaining humans, if any, succumb to severe conditions. On the remaining 3, one or more groups survive in extreme primitivism.
Years 100 to roughly 10,000—Hampered by the inaccessibility of fossil fuels and certain minerals, sulfur for example, and tin, the human advance out of primitivism is very slow.
Year 12,000—The sailboat has appeared on the seas of the planet Varatos.
Year 16,114—The calculus is invented on Varatos.
Year 18,349—First space flight to the moon of Varatos.
Year 18,517—Interstellar exploration ship from Varatos discovers the nearest other inhabited planet, Klestron. Exploration accelerates.
Year 18,619—The last of the 11 surviving habitable worlds is discovered. Within a century, further exploration ends with no further habitable worlds found.
The sciences begin a decline that will be broken only occasionally and briefly.
Year 20,008—The Varatosu Empire becomes a religious empire, the "Karghanik Empire," with 10 semi-autonomous planets, sultanates, under the rule of Varatos and its Kalif.
Year 21,491—The Sultan of Klestron sends a flotilla to seek habitable worlds at whatever distance. The objective is eventual colonization.
Year 21,492—The Klestronu flotilla encounters a Garthid patrol ship, engages it, then escapes into hyperspace.
In a later encounter with a Garthid patrol, the exploration flotilla loses a ship to enemy fire.
Year 21,493—The flotilla successfully emerges from Garthid space and begins to reconnoiter systems adjacent to the Confederation sector.
Year 21,494—Chodrisei Biilathkamoro becomes Kalif of the Karghanik Empire.
The Klestronu exploration flotilla lands marines on the Confederation trade world Terfreya (Karnovir 02) and captures Lonyer City, its capital. They are soon engaged in jungle warfare.
The marines are driven from Terfreya. The Klestronu flotilla leaves the Karnovir system for home without victory but with much information.
Year 21,498—The Klestronu flotilla arrives back in the Karghanik Empire and reports on the habitable world it found, part of a sector with many habitable worlds. The evidence is that the Confederation fleet is smaller and technologically inferior to that of the empire.
Year 21,500—A Karghanik invasion of the Confederation of Worlds sets out, with conquest in mind. [See The Three-Cornered War.]
Year 21,502—A powerful Garthid invasion of the Confederation is launched, its intention the destruction of human civilization. [See The Three-Cornered War.]
Year 4—Fleeing the impending megawar, a convoy of eight large merchant vessels refitted as refugee ships quietly departs the planet Renyala. Its ruling committee intends to look for a new home well outside known space.
Year 5—The refugee convoy from Renyala enters the previously unknown Garthid Sector and encounters a Garthid patrol ship. It is allowed to proceed through the sector but warned not to stop again within it.
Year 6—Psychiatrists with the refugee convoy develop "the Sacrament," a psychoconditioning procedure designed to prevent megawars in the new civilization they hope to found. The basic premises used in developing the Sacrament are (1) that men will fight each other; and (2) that research and highly advanced science are necessary for the development of megawar technology. Thus the Sacrament suppresses the type of mind which might otherwise pursue scientific enquiry. An additional effect is a tendency not to question authority.
Five subcultures (septs) among the refugees refuse the Sacrament and are segregated from the rest and from each other. The rest of the refugees are psychoconditioned, and the Sacrament will be delivered to all their children as they come along.
The refugee convoy leaves the Garthid Sector and finds a marginally habitable world deemed unsuitable to the unassisted development of technological civilization. Three of the five septs which had refused the Sacrament are offloaded onto it.
Year 7—The refugee convoy finds several further habitable worlds. It offloads the remaining recalcitrant septs on one of the most marginal.
Year 8—The refugee convoy lands on a highly suitable world, names it Iryala, and begins the work of making it home.
Year 117—One of the refugee ships leaves Iryala to explore the sector.
Year 798—The Ruling Council on Iryala, concerned over what they regard as dangerously innovative technology, passes the Standard Technology Act, which severely restricts the right to employ technological elements in new configurations. This virtually freezes technology in its existing form.
Year 892—The first new emigrant ship is sent out from Iryala to colonize another planet. This begins nearly fifteen thousand years of sporadic colonization.
Years 900 to 14,824—Thirty-six planets are colonized.
Year 14,916—Amberus is crowned emperor of what had been the Confederation of Human Worlds. A shrewd megalomaniac of remarkable charisma, Amberus regards history as a personal insult, and prohibits teaching it. He has the calendar years numbered from his coronation. After careful, covert planning, he has all historical libraries, collections, and archives destroyed, public and private, and all historical matter erased from computer banks except for administrative data directly necessary to government. Historians, professional and amateur, are hunted down and killed. This continues throughout the 27 years of Amberus's reign, ending with his assassination.
Currently, history prior to Amberus is known very largely from later reconstructions by seers on the trade world Tyss.
Years 14,944 to 15,690—Period of additional exploration and colonization. The planets Orlantha and Tyss, colonized long since by the off-loaded recalcitrants, are rediscovered. The manner of their settlement is not known.
Year 15,697—A decree prohibits further colonization, on the grounds that a larger empire will be impossible to administer. The empire continues in more or less efficient stagnation under the force of the Sacrament and Standard Technology, reasonably safe as long as no major perturbation occurs.
Year 20,750—After a brief revolt overthrows a later, so-called Thomsid Empire, the Iryalan general staff crowns Pertunis of Ordunak King of Iryala and Emperor of the Worlds. Pertunis promptly declares the empire dissolved, formalizing the actual state of affairs. He then proceeds to build a loose economic and administrative network of worlds with Iryala (as always) the central world.
Year 20,787—The Confederation of Worlds is ratified by 27 planets, with Pertunis as Administrator General. He then delegates most of his administrative duties and spends much of his remaining life developing a theory and structure of Management intended to rationalize and stabilize government, business, and personal life. At his death, this compilation of principles and policies is proclaimed "Standard Management." It provides a new level of understanding and efficiency, but also further calcifies human thought and action in the Confederation, leaving little room for innovation of any sort.
The love and respect accorded Pertunis results in the calendar years being numbered from his coronation.
Year 20,832—Harden Ostrak, Lord Heriston, becomes the first Iryalan to investigate the T'sel, the philosophy of Tyss, one of the two marginally habitable worlds on which the recalcitrant septs were offloaded. The Sacrament is not given on Tyss.
Year 20,834—Merlan Ostrak, age seven, becomes the first Iryalan child to live and train on Tyss under T'sel masters. He is joined within three years by two more Iryalan children. Being reared in the T'sel overrides the Sacrament.
Year 20,851—First covert T'sel academy founded on Iryala, on the Ostrak country estate. It appears to be an ordinary private academy.
Year 20,878—The so-called "Movement" is established by alumni of the Ostrak academy. A second academy is opened, the beginning of an expansion.
Year 20,913—Prince Jerym enrolls at the Green Plains Academy.
Year 20,949—Prince Jerym is crowned King of Iryala and Administrator General of the Confederation of Worlds, as Consar II. From that point, all Iryalan princes are covertly trained in the T'sel.
Year 21,439—Covert disarming of the Sacrament is begun on Iryala to break the Confederation free from the long technological stagnation.
Year 21,460—The Kettle War starts. [See The Regiment.]
Year 21,462—The Kettle War ends. The role played by nonstandard T'swa metallurgists and mercenary regiments is used by The Movement to crack Standard Technology. [See The Regiment.]
Year 21,487—Training of selected Iryalan children as warriors begins with the "cadets."
Year 21,493—An experimental regiment of adolescent Iryalans, "intentive warriors," begins training under T'swa veterans.
Year 21,494—A teleport is successfully tested with human subjects. The personal attributes for survival of teleportation are defined.
The Karghanik exploration flotilla lands marines on the Confederation Trade World Terfreya (Karnovir 02), and captures Lonyer City, its capital. The marines are soon engaged in jungle warfare by the twelve-year-old cadets in training there.
Their black T'swa cadre dub the Iryalan regiment-in-training "the White T'swa," following its highly successful graduation maneuvers.
The white regiment is teleported to Terfreya, and in company with the preadolescent cadets, drives the Klestronu marines off of Terfreya.
Year 21,498—The Klestronu flotilla arrives back in the Karghanik Empire and reports on the habitable world it found, part of a sector with many habitable worlds. The evidence is that the Confederation fleet is smaller and technologically inferior to that of the empire.