The first germ of my "History of the Galaxy" (or "The Lyndaren", taking the word for "history" from one of the languages spoken in it) appeared in 1978, when I was 14 years old. I wrote a story where a man invents a faster-than-light spacecraft and discovers an alien planet inhabited by humans descended from a vanished Galactic Civilization long ago destroyed by a plague. There he becomes a swashbuckling hero in the old-fashioned pulp SF mold of an Edgar Rice Burroughs book (I was a terrific Burroughs fan).
I still have that story, and-- it's really, really bad. The basic outline is okay, if a little thin in the logic department, but the writing-- br-rr-rr! I can only hope I've grown better since (a judgment I'll allow others to make).
But that story never left my mind. No sooner had I finished it than I started on a notebook with details about that vanished Galactic Civilization. I dropped the outdated idea of the present-day inventor who builds his own FTL ship and made my hero a pilot from a future time when humans have colonized much of the Solar System-- and his world started to fill up notebooks of its own.
I started to wonder exactly what the relationship was between humans from Earth and humans of the vanished Galactic Civilization-- did those ancient people colonize the Earth? Or was there some deeper mystery involved? Fantasy elements crept in as I realized there were not two human species in the History but three, and the third opened up an entirely new dimension behind the events I'd already outlined. As near as I can tell, the Mi'vri-- which is what the third human race is called-- stepped directly out of Faerie into my previously clear-cut science fiction world, and they did it without asking my permission (although I'm happy to have them now they're here). And although they kindly put on science fiction clothes to fit in, they stubbornly refused to give up their Otherworldly nature.
It all kept growing and getting more interesting (to me, at least). The History went far beyond the original story (which is still a part of it, but only one part). Other story ideas came into it, centering around other times and places. Developing it became a hobby of its own, independent of any stories I'd eventually write (though I always planned to someday write them). It's a "sub-creation" hobby, to borrow JRR Tolkien's term. I've done chronologies and essays, illustrations and languages, devised technologies and decided how advanced they were at the time of any given story. It's all been fun for me-- but will anyone else ever see it?
I am writing stories now, books that will outline the major events. It will have to be seen whether they'll be better than what I came up with thirty years ago (one would certainly hope so). Meanwhile, here's an overview of the main events in the History. I keep it simply to "what happened" -- how it happened and why, those answers must wait for the stories.
The First Race
They live in the background of the History, extinct but for a single planet by the time any of my stories begin.
The First Race arose on the planet Turith many ages ago. They achieved faster-than-light travel between fixed endpoint devices, but never devised a self-propelled FTL drive. Thus as they colonized the Galaxy, swift travel between established systems was possible but the expansion into new solar systems could take place no faster than the sublight speeds at which the endpoint devices could be sent. It took them tens of thousands of years to spread across the entire Galaxy.
The Galactic Civilization endured for an immense period of time, indeed so long that it becomes a mystery that Terran scientists have trouble explaining; by the best estimates, it lasted more than a million years. For the bulk of that time the First Race enjoyed peace and stability, indeed an almost complete absence of any kind of change. Eventually it fell before a plague, a mystery in its own right. If Galactic Civilization endured so long, then surely other new diseases had arisen before, and been dealt with. Surely other disasters had threatened. But now the First Race lay helpless before the plague, too paralyzed by the weight of ages to even really try to save themselves.
A few scattered planets escaped the plague, but as if an evil fate had determined to destroy humanity to the last, the surviving worlds met with disasters of their own: bizarre, unnatural disasters that could not be explained. Their suns became irregular; epidemics of insanity swept their populations; their planets tore apart in geological chaos. Eventually only one world remained, the planet Zoranth, and its decimated population fell into barbarism, their past forgotten except in myth.
Those myths told of a supernatural power of infinite evil, which from the dawn of time had sought to spread chaos, destruction and death. The Evil was finally defeated and bound and the Galactic era of peace was the result. But then, after ages had passed, It escaped and wreaked its vengeance upon a civilization grown too sheltered and helpless to resist it. This creature the Zoranthian myths called The Red Light and the Shadow, or Eta-pak-lin.
Of course, no one believes old myths like that.
The Terran Race
The Terran Race of humanity emerged on Earth some twenty thousand years after the fall of the Galactic Civilization; thousands more years would pass as Terrans slowly built civilizations of their own.
Through the late 21st century into the early 22nd, expansion into space began in earnest as the depletion of mineral resources (especially metals) on Earth forced the exploitation of resources from the Moon. Maintenance of the extensive satellite networks around the Earth also provided motive for permanent offworld bases. A growing offworld population lived largely in orbital space stations, except for Copernicus, the mining colony on the Moon.
In the middle of the 22nd century, prompted by worries that the offworld population was living in "company towns" and following a wave of scandals in which company officials were found embezzling from their dependent residents, or trying to unduly influence their votes in Terran elections, the Terran government embarked on a massive construction project to build 23 huge space stations, holding the political status of states within the Terran union and designed not merely to house the current offworld population but also to accommodate expected population growth for the next century. At the same time, Copernicus on the Lunar surface gained statehood, for a total of 24 offworld states.
Above, the Colony of Star City around 2150.
Below, a view of the Midway residential district in the Star City interior:
Their interiors lit by reflected sunlight, the Colonies were almost self-sustaining. Algae tanks recycled atmosphere, and extensive hydroponic farms lit by the sun mirrors raised more than enough food for their populations. They could trade with the smaller outposts, food for minerals mined from the Moon or from Earth-grazing asteroids, and their dependence on Earth was minimal. Most interior space was devoted to the farms and algae tanks, along with some parkland, while the inhabitants generally lived in apartments below the inner decks. "Above-deck" housing districts such as Star City's Midway (above) were highly expensive.
Chronology of Terran history after building of the Colonies:
2170 - 2190: The Sun becomes irregular, wreaking havoc on Earth's ecosystems and triggering famine, economic collapse and political upheaval. The Colonies, with their artificial lifesystems, are relatively unaffected. Buffers in the solar energy collectors and adaptive control of the Sun mirrors allow them to retain stable systems. However, alarm over what the Sun's new activity might mean is as strong in the Colonies as on Earth. January 2182: Alexander Monroe sworn in as Terran president. His Earth-first party has come to power on claims that the Colonies are the cause of Earth's problems by "artificially draining resources" from the planet, which would otherwise have been able to handle the "natural" behavior of the Sun. For desperate populations, the "unfair" prosperity of the Colonies makes it easy to believe them the villains. August 3, 2183: Monroe orders the Colonies abandoned. Aug '83 - Apr '84: Conflicts and divided loyalties as the Colonies resist the evacuation order. They vote to end all imports from Earth and attempt to become wholly self-sufficient, but this doesn't satisfy Monroe who demands the return of all "stolen resources" including the human population (though the majority of them were born offworld). He orders military action to forcibly evacuate the Colonies, forgetting that almost all offworld troops are also offworld natives. Most units defy the order and place themselves under orders of their Colonial governors; those who don't are arrested by Colonial forces. May 16, 2184: By popular vote, Star City declares independence from Earth. The other Colonies follow suit over the next week. June 23, 2184: The Council of Colonial Governors declares the formation of the new United Offworld Colonies (UOC). The Independence War begins.
2184 - 2189: The War. A Terran fleet under command of Admiral Richard Galt succeeds in passing the Colonial Navy blockade of orbital entry lanes. Using stealth technology the Terrans evade detection until they attack and seize the Colonies in Lunar orbit, establishing their own blockade and cutting off the UOC from vital mineral resources of the Lunar mines. The War drags on with constant battles but no decisive victory by either side. February 2, 2190: Solar observatories detect a complete cessation of all solar emissions except blackbody light and heat; it appears that all fusion has ceased inside the Sun. If it does not resume, the Sun will cool and darken until, in about a year (it cannot be predicted exactly) it will undergo a gravitational collapse and blow off a shockwave of material. The Sun is too small to go nova even under these circumstances and the shockwave will be trivial by astronomical standards, but still devastating on the human scale, and the Sun will be left too dark and cold to maintain life on Earth. 2190-2191: Preparations for disaster. Losing all reason, the Terran government issues shrill calls for Galt to "punish" the Colonies for a disaster it insists is their doing. Mass hysteria and panic on Earth and it is apparent the government is in complete disarray. Rather than obey its orders, Galt calls a cease-fire. Returning to Earth with his fleet, he carries out a coup against the government and seizes power. He pledges mutual cooperation with the UOC in preparing for the disaster to come: their expertise in maintaining artificial lifesystems in exchange for Terran help in constructing fusion reactors to replace the soon-to-be-lost sunlight on the Colonies. Massive projects to build lifesystem domes on Earth and reactors on the Colonies, both projects carried out with frantic haste. The Colonies also work on such radiation and blast shielding as they can, and those that are able adjust their orbits so that, with enough notice, they can place themselves in the shadow of Earth or Moon when the shockwave comes.
March 30, 2191: The Catastrophe. The Sun collapses and emits a shockwave. Light and radiation go out ahead of the wave of matter, giving the Colonies a few hours' notice. Only some are in position to take shelter behind the Earth or Moon. Miraculously, when it arrives the shockwave is much less severe than expected, but the Colonies of Orion, Aurora and Prometheus are destroyed and many of the others take severe damage. Worse yet, it sets up a secondary shockwave in the Earth's atmosphere which circles the globe, leveling everything and destroying the lifesystem domes. As best can be known, all life on Earth is extinguished either on this day or soon thereafter. The Catastrophe's final death toll is in excess of 10 billion people. 2191 - 2201: The Dark Years. Earth now receives about the same light and heat from the Sun as a moon of Neptune. Oceans freeze, the atmosphere freezes. There is some thought that deep sea life around underwater volcanic vents may endure, as the Earth's interior heat remains, but this is not confirmed. Humanity hovers on the edge of extinction as the Colonies struggle to hang on with inadequate fusion reactors for power. Almost all energy has to be devoted to the algae tanks for air and -- in the form of pressed algae cakes -- food as well. Minimum survival light and heat is supplied to barracks where the population is gathered together to conserve warmth. The fusion reactors become defective due to their hasty construction, and no energy or resources can be spared to construct new ones. All signs point to imminent extinction. April 13, 2200: Linda Ryder creates the first hyperfield. She published her theory of hyperspace in her doctoral thesis in physics during the War years, and recognized the possibility of an energy-generating technology. All through the Dark Years she and a team of colleagues desperately tried to make that possibility a reality. A hyperfield is a precise network of electromagnetic fields that creates a connection to hyperspace. The field then emits energy drawn from hyperspace, in the form of blackbody radition. Theoretical calculations say a hyperfield should be able to emit enough energy to power its own generators, with plenty left over (like a water wheel dipped in a river, which can keep the wheel turning and do useful work besides). Over the next year, Ryder's team continues research, seeking the configuration that will be useful for power generation. Early 2201: First self-sustaining hyperfield, using photoelectric panels to capture some of the energy emission and using that to run the generators. May 23, 2201: Linda Ryder's first public demonstration of a self-sustaining hyperfield, in the Midway district of Star City. Recognized end of the Dark Years although it will take another year or so to produce enough hyperfields to take over from the fusion reactors. The chief value of the hyperfield generator is twofold: one, though requiring extreme precision in manufacture, it is very small and next to a fusion reactor costs almost nothing in resources, and two, it emits nothing but light and heat-- no radiation requiring heavy and expensive shielding. It's exactly what the human race needs, and people understand this even before enough generators are constructed to make a difference. A surge of public optimism follows immediately on Ryder's demonstration, leading to: February 2202: Nine months after Linda Ryder's demonstration, there's a huge baby boom across the Colonies. 2200's: The hyperfield revolution. The technology advances by leaps and bounds. Lines of generators down the interiors of the Colonies replace the lost sunlight. The farms reopen. New types of hyperfield produce energy in forms other than light and heat: voltage gradients to power equipment without the need for photoelectric panels, kinetic energy to drive spacecraft without rockets, artificial gravity to end the engineering requirements that the Colonies spin to produce gravity. c2250 - 2400: Expansion of the Colonies in response to population surge. Star City's landmark disk, with the division of the Colony into the farms and parks of "domeside" and the industries of "dockside," is constructed.
Cultural changes follow. With the loss of Earth, attachment to former continental languages and customs fades. Terran replaces English and other Earth languages. Ethnic and racial divisions are blended out of existence by intermarriage.
Star City circa 2400. Note the original Colony still present in the center of dockside.
Artistic license in this illustration places a visible crescent Earth in the background of the Colony; in fact by the time it was expanded to this degree there was no sunlight to show the planet, which would have been white with ice in any case.
Early 2400's: With neither Sun nor a habitable Earth, there's no reason to remain near the Earth-Moon system, and new settlements spring up in the outer system, wherever moons or asteroids offer abundant mineral resources. Political tensions grow as many of these new colonies consider independence from the UOC, over disputes about trade regulations, taxation, and legal jurisdiction. A thriving black market in smuggled goods mingles political idealists with criminal organizations using the political cause as cover. Smuggling and piracy rise, and the Colonial Navy is beefed up.
In a new wave of planetary exploration (not pursued since the Catastrophe) with an eye toward settlement as well as science, unmanned probes are sent throughout the Solar System and out to its farthest reaches. Hyperfield-drive probes sent to Pluto all vanish. Since malfunctions are common, it takes a while to become clear that something unusual is happening.
2435 - 2436: The Colonial Navy begins to take an interest in the Pluto-Charon system when Navy surveillance probes also disappear, including one manned expedition. The Navy concludes that a separatist settlement has established itself on Pluto and has armed itself, destroying any ships that come near. The Navy equips a scout ship with advanced stealth technology for an intelligence-gathering mission, and assigns Captain John Ransen as pilot. September 21, 2436: John Ransen departs for the Pluto-Charon system; on approach, despite his stealth ship, he is transported out of the Solar System, appearing to the Navy to have simply vanished like all the previous ships.
We now know that Charon is not a natural object at all, but a First Race FTL endpoint. It was sent from Mirith, the nearest First Race world to Earth, and automatically activated when it reached the Solar System; but while it was en route, the plague wiped out its builders.
2436 - 2448: Trying to find his way back through the complex FTL network that still spans the Galaxy, Ransen eventually finds himself on Zoranth, home to the remaining First Race survivors. He finds an industrial but pre-spaceflight civilization whose archaeologists have only recently discovered the evidence of their past. He also finds their Sun has become irregular in a pattern very similar to that of the Catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Navy establishes a cordon around the FTL endpoint, not knowing what it is. It appears to be a hugely complex machine that simply destroys any ship that comes near it. Assuming this to be a security feature, the Navy concludes it is the beachhead for a potential invasion: first contact with an alien, and apparently hostile, race. Tension throughout the Solar System put the UOC's other political troubles on the back burner for a while.
2448: Ransen returns from Zoranth with his report, having finally been able to translate a map of the FTL system with the help of Zoranth's archaeologists. He proposes the UOC aid the Zoranth population in evacuating to another First Race world before their version of the Catastrophe occurs. Given all the tensions back home, it is a near thing that the UOC and Zoranth could have gone to war with each other, recovered First Race technology against Terran fleets in a conflict that could have been fatal to both. But the crisis is averted and negotiations between the UOC and Zoranth proceed.
Ransen returns to Zoranth with a UOC fleet to evacuate the planet. But they never appear at their intended destination, and indeed are never seen again anywhere. To date, the fate of Ransen, the Zoranth survivors, and the Terran crews of the fleet remains unknown.
An antique map of Zoranth, among the documents obtained by the UOC prior to the disappearance of the evacuation fleet.
January 19, 2449: The CNS Safreth sets out for a year-long "Grand Tour" of the Galaxy, exploring the FTL network and former First Race worlds in the wake of Ransen's information. 2450 - 2500: Intense research and study into First Race civilization, translation of Makentryn, their language, recovery of much of their technology. Political debate over who "owns" the planets outside the Solar System. 2497: First extra-Solar Colony established on Mirith. This is the first time since the Catastrophe that Terran humans have had a habitable planet. Few have realized how precarious their situation has really been without one, or how much more secure this one new Colony makes the human future. In a popular vote, Mirith declares its intention to remain a member state of the UOC, which thus begins the transition to a new Galactic Civilization. 2513: Second extra-Solar Colony established on the First Race world Rayith, renamed Haven by the colonists. c2500 - 2630: "Scientific Dark Age": the rush to recover First Race science and technology takes decades, and by the time the work is done a whole generation of scientists have grown up knowing "science" only as the process of studying First Race records. Over the next century this will harden into a belief that the First Race knew everything and no further research would have any point. Makentryn becomes the new Latin, the universal language of scholarly publication. By the late 2500's this has led to complete stagnation as there's nothing left for "researchers" but to slavishly imitate First Race documents.
Unlike Earth's Dark Age following the fall of Rome, in other respects this is a thriving period for Terran humanity as they spread rapidly into the Galaxy. The expansion is not without tension as the UOC changes politically to adapt itself to its new identity as a Galactic Nation, but such tensions never again escalate to threats of secession or civil war. The general peace and prosperity of the period helps to disguise the unhealthy state of its intellectual life-- who could think this was a dark age?
2610 - 2630: Growth of a new movement, chiefly among younger scientists, to recover the tradition of original research and take science and technology beyond its First Race level. The movement struggles to achieve respectability, and begins to publish its own journals since the established publications regard the mere fact that research is new as proof that it is invalid. 2633: Harrison Stevens' Ph.D. thesis lays out theoretical equations for an entirely new type of hyperfield generator, once which according to his equations would offer the possibility of a self-contained faster-than-light drive, something the First Race never achieved. His publication establishes him as a leader of the New Science movement. 2638: The Institute for Terran Research is established as part of Star City University, Harrison Stevens as its first chairman. The ITR sponsors any research that either goes beyond or completely ignores First Race knowledge. The Celeritas project, to build a faster-than-light ship using Stevens' Type-II hyperfield, is the ITR's first major endeavour. Other early projects include research into the Genetic/Biochemical classes into which all known life falls, and the question of the relationship (if any) between the First Race and Terrans. 2645: The ITR purchases a planetary shuttle for the Celeritas project (and renames it the Celeritas) as a test vehicle for the FTL drive. Multiple test flights over the next year fail to achieve faster-than-light speeds, until:
November 23, 2646: First successful faster-than-light flight by an object under its own power. The Celeritas under automatic controls achieves a velocity of 28c and sustains it for 3 minutes. The expected speed was only 2c. Further research and tests follow. January 2647: Alan Jarrett pilots the Celeritas in its first manned flight. Sep 3 - 10, 2647: Jarrett pilots the Celeritas from the Solar System to Mirith, 21 light-years away, officially concluding the Celeritas project. The Celeritas is made available for other ITR projects. May 2648: The Celeritas departs with a research crew on a planned several-month survey of star systems, nebulae, and other objects of astronomical interest not included in the First Race FTL network.
Instead, they find something they could never have expected. And here, the History ends.
Sharu, the home of the Mi'vri.The Mi'vri
I can say almost nothing about them without giving away everything I want to keep secret. They themselves would approve of my saying as little as possible, since they have walked in secrecy in the background of History from the dawn of the First Race to the far future of the Terran, and few have ever known of their existence.
Their homeworld is called Sharu and its unique shape is only the most obvious of its unusual features. It is not a planet as we understand the term, but neither is it-- quite-- artificial. The Mi'vri travel to and from it by means we cannot understand, and the most any of them will say of it is, "we don't use ships."
They know more of what's really going on in Human history than any Terran scholar, and they know where that History is supposed to be going-- and what will happen if it is diverted. They're fighting a War over the destiny of humanity, and on its outcome will depend the fate not just of the human race but of the Galaxy itself.
There are three major languages spoken in my History of the Galaxy. Makentryn, the language of the First Race, Terran, a blend of Earth languages spoken in the UOC, which arose in the years following the Catastrophe, and Sharuai, the language spoken by the Mi'vri.
As a dramatic convention, English is substituted for Terran throughout all stories of the History. I haven't done any development of the "true" Terran language. Makentryn has a fair amount of vocabulary and a little bit of its syntax worked out.
Sharuai is the language I have most thoroughly developed. I have notes on its grammar and syntax, and a vocabulary around 1,000 words. There's also a written language for Sharuai.
The Sharuai account of the History of the Galaxy, the Lyndaren, exists in its native language as well as in translation. If you read it, you would find a very different account than the one I've outlined above.
First page of Eira Lyndaren ("The History"), scanned from the original.As a sample of the language, here is that first page written in Roman characters. The spelling follows the best system I've devised so far, but isn't perfect since Sharuai vowels aren't quite the same as English. They're close to Spanish vowels, so I used the Spanish vowel pronunciations to guide my spelling, though the fit isn't perfect. Spoken Sharuai generally stresses all syllables equally. There are slight variations in syllable-stress in some words, but they're irregular.
Daresanna misharen seshel talyeven hadhen ra'Sharu. A Sharu semennel a'Mi'vri no syshar nosharva nan ngauryn ra'Eiralynn imana ralyvri.
Etadaryn sydar ari Venryn ra'Sharu, nan lyfennyn alnares a fennyn syesel maten yqua sylanel. Sy nan misharen alna a wishres thana thelen rasy y sythel a syfehel a'Eiralynn, nan lythai y malen meros a se'esel arangen alyndaren lynnes. A venryn ra'Sharu syngemel aviren eithana.
Tu syvithel lyn misharen rasy no sydesel thos mir rathai. A tu Sharu lyfennyn ralyeven u senamel.
