2470

Del Azarchel departs from Earth, and takes up residence amid the ruins of the Mare Ingenii Lunar Pit (or Lava Tube) Base from the Second Space Age, which he restores to habitability.

2476

During this period, the Advocacy cooperates with Exarchel.

2481

Frankenstein Panic. World computer systems wrecked by mobs or dismantled by police.

2481–2486

The Darkness. A complete computer blackout worldwide. Transatlantic cables cut, communications satellites downed.

First evidence of shipping destroyed by Cetaceans.

2485

At about this time, Rania and the scientists aboard the Hermetic begin the macroscale engineering project to turn the V886 Centauri star system and its magnetosphere into a near-lightspeed ramscoop. The gas giant Thrymheim is destroyed and fed into the antimatter star.

2490s

All seaborne shipping halted by Cetacean piracy. Eastern and western hemispheres maintain only tenuous contact by air travel.

2501

Collapse of the Cryonarchy. Montrose dispossesses the Montrose Clan, and turns to the Knights Hospitalier for aid and sanctuary. Release of the Prometheus Formula.

Ecclesiarch Period (Age of the Giants)

2501–3060

The Uniate Orthodox-Catholic Church is given the orbital elements of the remaining centaurs of contraterrene by Montrose, as well as control of the Hibernation Syndicate. Under Thucydides Montrose, S.J., later Pope Sixtus VI, the Church uses her energy monopoly and control of slumbering populations to achieve world hegemony. Papal scientists enact an ambitious program of creating and raising biological posthumans, called Giants.

2510–2525

Emulation widespread. Rise of the Ghosts.

The last unsuccessful augmentation experiment is at about this time. All Hermeticists dead but six: Del Azarchel, De Ulloa, D’Aragó, Sarmento, Pastor, and Coronimas. (This elongated mass suicide pact lasted from A.D. 2410 to A.D. 2510, 109 years.)

2519

Scipio hibernates.

2525

Day of the Aurum Vitae. Ecpyrosis. De-civilization. Overthrow of Ghosts by space heat bombardment. Ctesibius hibernates. Beginning of the Sylphs.

2533

Del Azarchel paints the near side of the moon with the gauntlet of his challenge, and initiates the formation of the Simon Families through the false identity of Dr. Og Simon of Northumberland, a Giant he has captured and absorbed.

Posthuman Era ( The Hermetic Millennia )

2535

Energy signals from V886 Centauri reaching Earth indicate that Rania has blown the Diamond Star out of orbit, abandoning plans to establish regular traffic in favor of a star voyage to M3, to plead with the Authority there for the vindication of man.

Montrose thawed, corrects Divarication flaws in Sylph serpentines.

2537

Trey Soaring Azurine hibernates.

2540

In his base at Mare Ingenii (Sea of Cunning), Del Azarchel establishes Cryocliometry and assumes control of the Hermetic Order, but is shortly after forced into hibernation.

2550s

Simon Families and other long-range foundations (“the Orders”) established by the Giants (at Del Azarchel’s direction).

At about this time, Exulloa is augmented to posthumanity. De Ulloa becomes the Master of the Age.

2580

De Ulloa begins to teach certain Scholars, including Rada Lwa, Cliometry.

2700–3000

Medusae use Sylph technology to hunt down Sylphs and decimate them. Medusae establish industrial civilizations at the poles out of orbital mirror flyover range. They are predominant until 3000, when the Giants, via Cliometry, arrange for their polar civilization to destroy itself by economic collapse.

3032

Day of the Giants. Encouraged by their victory over the Medusae, Thucydideans from Salt Lake City attempt a direct assault on the stronghold of the Judge of Ages beneath Cheyenne Mountain. The orbital space laser Surtur renders the surface area uninhabitable.

Montrose thawed. His bio age is 42.

3033

The Giants calculate a new Cliometric consensus, and foretell their own extinction. Bashan hibernates.

3050–3150

Cloud Century. Cetaceans raise a worldwide cloud cover, rendering the giant Orbital Mirrors useless.

3060s

Effective end of the Thucydidean Consensus as a world power. The Simon Family Orders, including the Longevity Order, maintain civic cohesion.

Simon Family Period

3090

Death of Melchor de Ulloa in a duel atop Mount Ypsilon. Cetaceans pull down Surtur by atmospheric dragging (heating the atmosphere till it expands, thus thickening the particle count around the orbiter, causing reentry). End of the Second Space Age. Rada Lwa hibernates.

Montrose spent one year tracking down De Ulloa. His bio age is 43.

3100–3200

Longevity Order, now called the Delphic Acroamatic Order, maintains an increasingly low-tech world. Church driven underground. Abolition of the nuclear family and of nuclear energy. Scientific research that reaches politically inconvenient conclusions outlawed by Thought Decontamination Laws.

3150

End of the Cloud causes global cooling, disrupts crop growth patterns, places mortal strain on the centralized command economy of the Delphics.

3222

The Delphic Acroamatic World Order schisms: Eastern Witches break into the Chthonic Order and Celestial Order, which in turn breaks into Orthodox Celestial and Reformed Celestial. Western Order breaks into seven: English; Continental; Mauritanian; Neo-Anglican; Amazonian (comprising Brazil); Archipelagic (comprising California, Baja, and Pacific Islands); and Aztectlan (comprising Mexico and New Mexico).

3250–3300

The Collapse. Downfall of industrial-scientific civilization. The Delphic Order now called Witches. Witches in massive numbers hibernate.

Newly thawed Simon Family members from an earlier period attempt to force open Tomb sites throughout the Mediterranean. The assault is repelled by thawed Knights Templar. Fatin hibernates.

Age of Witches

3300–4000

Witches enjoy world dominion, convulsed with a permanent state of civil war and turmoil, for seven hundred years. High-status Witches, despite their private dependence on emulation for cellular regeneration, publicly continue to hunt down and destroy all known copies of Exarchel.

3600

Despite heroic efforts by the Witches, the Cetaceans (lacking sufficient support from Exarchel) go extinct. Last known Great Whale perishes when beached in 3666.

3950–3951

Montrose is awake for a year during this era, and sends out teachers and scholar in the area around Lake Superior. His bio age is 44.