A Novel Blog

There is a lot of stuff that goes into writing any book. Among speculative fiction types, the work behind the scenes is called “world building“. It’s how the build locations, cultures and languages. The most that readers will see are glimpses of the lattice the writer used to erect their epic world/universe because they want to read a story, not an encyclopedia. Still, consistency depends on doing the research and taking the time to iron out the details before you put the proverbial pen to paper.

A common technique that helps the writer (and by extension the reader) keep everything in order is a timeline. Knowing what (and when) something happened in the past relevant to the current action helps give the narrative some depth as well as consistency.

Below I reconstructed (because I lost the original when my laptop went puff!) the RoE timeline as an example:

2034- End of Second Global Insurgency. Fusion power perfected.

2045- New Planetary Government invests in off-world colonies. Large scale terraforming of Mars begins.

2048- First Sol System Confederation. While off world colonies have autonomy, all major decisions are made on Earth.

2050- Second wave off colonization. Earth government unloads “undesirables” on off world colonies. Social tensions, crime and taxation increases across the colonies.

2055- Martian “Civil War” erupts after several city-states declare war on their neighbors citing terrorist attacks on their territory.

2058- Martian Civil War ends in stalemate/truce negotiated by Earth government. Massive contingent of Earth peacekeepers arrive on Mars.  Low grade fighting continues. Earth forces casualties mount.

2066- First Interplanetary War/Colonial rebellion. Begins after Earth defenses fire on a refugee ship from Mars transporting people displaced by the continued upheaval on Mars.

2067- End of First Interplanetary War/Colonial Rebellion with massive bombardment of Mars colony domes by Earth forces.

2071- Second Sol Government established. The Pax Sol begins.

2189- Doctors Andrew Chan, Paul Johansen and Maria Estevez-Rivera win the the Nobel Prize for Physics with their development of their “fold-space” transmitter than can reliably transmit data at Faster Than Light speeds.

2198- First probes equipped with “jump” engines, based on the “fold-space” technology are launched from Saturn. Of the five probes, three reach their destination and transmit data.

2210- First launch of the Millennium colonization project.  Large colony ships, carrying over 10k colonist each are launched from the Sol System.

2280- Large colonies established across the local star group. Humanity expands along the central axis of the Orion Arm.

2351- Humans encounter first alien species of limited intelligence. As the distances between Sol and the outer colonies increase so do tensions between local governments.

2355- Large scale cross raiding human space occurs. Local governments blame each other.  Pax Sol ends as Earth forces can not contain the fighting.

2361- Alien forces strike at the human world of Hodierna.  First contact with intelligent hostile species.

2362- First intergalactic war begins.

2369- Sol forces fight a series of delaying actions across the Butterfly Cluster but the cluster is lost. Contact with the enemy ceases.

2414- The enemy is finally identified as the Garou, a canine-like species.  The Second Intergalactic war begins.

2419- Human forces manage to hold  enemy gains but are unable to strike back. Raiding of human space ceases once more.

2449- Collapse of the Second Sol government as infighting between colonies deplete its resources. Garou raiding starts anew.

2494- Third Sol Government launches a series of counter strikes against the Garou and rebel factions.  After severe losses on both sides the Sol goverment creates a buffer zone of “free states” between itself and Garou occupied space.

2514- Admiral Otto Von Kaiser launches a series of bold strikes into Garou territory after “discovering” intelligence that some Free World governments conspired with the Garou to launch an assault on the Sol Government.

2516- On his return to Earth, Von Kaiser made a successful plead to finish the Garou threat once and for all. The government grants him extraordinary powers to deal with the enemy.

2518- Now Grand Marshall Otto Von Kaiser launches a strike deep into the Perseus arm and into the Garou home world. Caught off guard the Garou central government capitulates.

2520- Von Kaiser returns triumphant to Earth. He is declared the first “potentate”.

2852- The Kaiser oligarchy extends human rule to the core of the galaxy.

2856- Liu Bang Han leads a successful rebellion against the Kaiser oligarchy.

3000- Hian Xian Han grandson of Liu Bang  declares  January 1st, 3000 CE as Year Zero of the Empire. Humanity expands from the center of the galaxy across the remaining arms.

3309- Liu Han, 8th direct descendant of the Han Dynasty, having conquered most of the galaxy divides the territory among newly created “Houses” lead by his most successful generals.  He claims the Orion and Cygnus Arms as his own plus the Galactic Center. The Kaisers are given the Centaurus Arm and House De Havilland is given Sagittarius Arm. The remaining arm is gifted to the Garou for “loyal service to the Empire”.

3436-  Wu Han launched the “One Year Campaigns” to rein piracy from the Void, (areas between the galactic arms and the outer star sphere of the galaxy).

3548- Lao Han, a first cousin to the reigning Han Dynasty Empero, launches a planetary bombardment using nuclear arms and high impact kinetic weapons of a rebel colony on the Void.  . 80% of the planets population (600 million total) die in the onslaught. However this world belonged to a De Havilland Minor House. Entreaties to the Emperor about this war crime fall on deaf ears.

3550- The de Havilland House Major allies with dissident factions inside the Han Dynasty and launches a successful assault on Earth.  The battle devastates the planet and ends the rule of the Han over the Galaxy.

3551- A new Emperor John I rises to the throne. He shifts the Imperial capital to  Pharris in the Galactic Central Spar.  To placate the other houses, he severs ties with his own House Major (House De Havilland), renounces control over the Sagitarrus Arm and creates a new House, the Imperial House.

3778- Law of Natural Birth announced by Alfred I. No child conceived by artificial means could be considered a rightful successor to any House, including the Imperial House.

4001- John III dies without a successor. The  Third Dynasty collapses and the Galaxy falls into Civil War.

4010- Edward Duke de Havilland, dies at the result of an ambush.  Imperial forces under Marshall Makarov attempts to restore order but fails.

4011- Edward son, Jamess dies without an apparent heir.  His sister Elizabeth becomes regent of House de Havilland until her own son can assume the Ducal seat.

4023- Civil war erupts between two factions claiming the right of succession to House de Havilland. Jeremy de Havilland claims legitimate  status from his father. His cousin  Edward II disputes the claim.  After a year of infighting Jeremy slays his cousin and her aunt accepts his claim.

4250- Red Horse Campaign.

4320- Present Day.

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I know, pretty long. Again, most of this stuff will never see the light of day, outside of my notes or this blog. But it puts certain things into perspective.

And now for some music with The Crystal Method: