BY LETTER
4450 to 4650 AT: The Version War Period
 Image from Anders Sandberg | |
| The explosion of the Danab-Gantor Stargate Plex seen from the surface of Pico Danab II | |
Following increased tension around versions of the Ontology, war breaks out between the standardizationists and revisionists. As the war continues, the wormhole nexus is gradually crippled by destruction, and relativistic support fleets began to course through interstellar space. Whole clades of vecs, bionts, ais, and cyborgs are wiped out by viruses. Individuals or whole cultures hijacked by mind control devices and turned into zealous allies, and several major Houses, Institutes and other interstellar organizations are destroyed.
Though this period is often referred to as the great Interstellar Dark Age, such judgement is incorrect. Even as the Version War raged at its most fiercest, systems still prospered. This was admittedly a time of great uncertainty: at any moment a relativist fleet might come roaring out of interstellar space to wreak total annihilation on entire systems, and there were many who believed that the Version War would end only with the destruction of civilization itself. Apocalyptic literature, theatre, virches and interactives, were very popular. For most, though, despite the hardships caused by loss of stargate commerce, life went on as usual anyway with its small joys and sorrows. Whole generations could pass before there were any signs of the war; wherever the wormholes were closed, no up-to-date information could be obtained about events elsewhere.
The "dark age" was largely in the large scale situation, where the breakdown of interstellar economy, communications and cooperation forced many societies back to a mere First Federation interplanetary level.
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The Integration
 Image from Bernd Helfert |
4400 AT
45th Century - Neo-whorfianism emerges on Ao Lai.
4445 - First of the Solar Dominion-backed 'version sabotages'.
4450 - 4560 AT - Version Cold War.
4452 - In the Sagittarius Sphere the militant Hager 5 explorer cyborg clade, under clademaster Innam Ho4 Hager, gained power, much to the surprise and chagrin of the ruling Mestheus Hegemony, who were forced to form a Coalition Party to stay in power.
4454 - ToneWatcher, a leading member of the Argus Project in its early stages, transcends to third toposophic level relatively quickly. One of the first transapients in the region to do so. E converts eir body into a massive spiky ISO ten kilometres wide, acquiring the popular name UrchinStar.
4456 - Joint Cyberian-Metasoft objection to degradation of protocol.
4458 - The Solarist God Emperor orders the Irna-Loran purge of the Dominion 'hawks'.
4460 - several Cyberian cliques launch a number of ai viruses.
4461 - joint Negentropy Alliance and Solar Dominion Interstellar Police Task Force travels to Phoebus Hie.
4464 - DeepCover Solar Dominion Agents infiltrate a Cyberian Cracker Cell - Operation Viktor - this was the first of chain of events that triggered the Version War.
4464 - New Beneficence vehemently protests the war, blames most of the Sephirotics for allowing it to commence, but especially the initial belligerents.
4466 - Solar Dominion and Alliance forces launched police raids on a number of habitats deep in NoCoZo territory, but they are seized by NoCoZo insurance companies.
4467 - A number of NoCoZo private defence armies begin forming, in reaction to revisionist actions.
4470 - Solar Dominion forces occupied Jaynes in futile attempt to recover assets.
4470 - Following years of frustrating talks, Solar Dominion forces occupied Jaynes in futile attempt to recover seized assets, ind themselves enmeshed in a quagmire.
4470 - The Institute for Primate Provolution's branch offices are endangered in many places by the Version War. IPP shelters it's daughter organization, the Institute for Vec Progress, from attack by Metasoft Standardizationist fanatics.
4700-4600 - Many Institute for Primate Provolution personnel from outposts threatened during the Version War are sheltered at Ao Lai, as are members of its daughter organization, the Institute for Vec Progress. Over 3 billion refugees settle at Ao Lai; many remain after the peace.
4471 - Negentropy Alliance annexes Rengood.
4472 - Increased Cyberian/NoCoZo attacks on Solar Dominion and Negentropy Alliance, including attacks by powerful corporate fleets.
4476 - In response to the infamous Alternate Ontology Implementation 2.0 from the Dominion, the Metasoft Version Tree , then and now the major vec House, declared that it would not stand by this degradation of the purity of protocol, and declared that it would enforce version and standard purity.
4478 - Destruction of the Danab-Gantor Stargate Plex marks a dangerous new phase of the war. (image here).
4478 - New Beneficence closes all its wormholes.
4480 - Wormhole destruction escalating; more wormhole AIs join the blockade.
4482 - Revisionist forces begin invasion and occupation of NoCoZo.
4487 - The Solar Dominion AI known as Sunbrain is one of a number of wormhole ai that cut emselves off from the Nexus. (The Elcondris Incident).
4490 - 55 Cancri B used as base for long distance attacks on Shamash.
4496 - Cyberian software agents capture the important Dominion system of Mithras.
4497 - Eostre evolves into the Third Toposophic Level. She uploads herself into a 12.7 kilometer-wide golden sphere, which had been constructed in a geosynchronise orbit on the far side of Eostremonath's moon. This sphere, afterwards called the Body of Eostre by the locals, is then moved into a stable 400 kilometer high orbit. [61 Virginis].
4498 - The MPA enters the war on the standardizationist side because of attacks by Negentropist raiders (or possibly NoCoZo irregulars).
4500 AT
4500's - The Iniliak, a clade of provolved sophont polyps which are rather like a cross between coral and sponge, are created by a Pan-Sophontist group on the ocean world of Vanora in the Pan-Sophontist League.
4500 - The Vonoiralli Collective, a group of baseline bionano artists on the Solar Dominion world of Niazova become aware of the Neputons and decide to recreate the still-extinct bionano form of Putorians.
4500 - Sophic League Council and the Communion Aphrodithe make the joint announcement that they were closing their stargates to all external traffic.
4501 - Stadener Habitat destroyed by autowars (more).
46th century - Deorvyn arrives at the Newlife system.
4511 - Contemplative Neverflux's first appearance; e is already SI:2.
4521 - Soft Cathedrals destroyed by the Sagittarius Sphere when they infect the Cathedral core systems with conversion weapons which destroyed their stars and planets.
4523 - Admiral Tka Lett-Vorek placed in charge of the Peta Dromanis Interpolity Combined Fleet.
4525 - It is the height of the Version War, and two isolated groups of combatants enter the 61 Virginis system. Various NoCoZo mining habitats on the outer moons are destroyed by Solar Dominion forces, which then travel inward in pursuit of remaining survivors. However, intervention by an angry Eostre reduces the Dominion attacker's vessels to dust through nano-breakdown methods. NoCoZo survivors are allowed to land on Eostremonath, followed by Dominion survivors. The NoCoZo company eliminates the Dominion forces, and then decides to enter into Eostri society. Only one person does not wish this, and Eostre delivers him to NoCoZo territory.
4532 - The Mermo Lachbannia Case - Infamous murder case on Pardes.
4537 - Destruction of the Spacefarer Union tradefleet leaving only a few relativistic ships, which promptly flee to a Union mercenary force working for the Solar Dominion.
4538 - The Sagittarius Sphere is crippled by long-range attacks on its remaining wormhole links from Cygexpa and the unexpected rebellion of the minor archailect Kellesh-Mai.
4540 - Sagittarius infiltrator fleet attack on Tichy using neuronano mental control replicators. The infiltrators play hide-and-seek with the local forces in the outer system while the neuronano spread through the planetary immune defences, reducing the planetside civilization to barbarism.
4543 - Twenty worlds in the Enif Prefecture are subverted by Metasoft shabtis.
4544 - In the outer volumes, Pereira suffers a massive hypereconomic and social breakdown, causing the death of 2 billion inhabitants. More.
4556 - Solar Dominion attack on Landau II, but cunning Metasoft strategists turn the loss of their capital to advantage and destroy many of the Dominion forces.
4560's - the MPA autowars are unable to halt the advance of the Negentropist Third, Eight and Ninth Fleets (due to losses merged into a single tactical unit and commanded by Admiral Inez U), and the Solarian Fleet Ammon-Ra (now under the command of Admiral Tav Aani).
4570's - The MPA Design Task Force on Chodas V begins work on the Liberator Series autowars.
4576 - A large Negentropy Alliance relativistic force enters NoCoZo territory to retaliate against Cyberian/NoCoZo attacks committed earlier in this decade. The task force of the Negentropy Alliance suffers heavy casualties through the stiff resistance offered by NoCoZo forces and have to retreat to a nearby Alexandria Dyson swarm. The NoCoZo strategists feared that the task force could ally themselves with the Alexandria Cluster and use the dyson as a port. This fear is fuelled by similarities in the prevalent memes governing both the Alexandrian Cluster and the Negentropy Alliance.
4578 -Several systems in the Further Enif Prefecture, including Walloo are cut off when the wormhole links are destroyed by Metasoft.
4582 - The Alexandrian dyson is destroyed in a NoCoZo/Negentropy Alliance clash when the task force is finally confronted by a NoCoZo Homefleet. The NoCoZo commander takes no chance and uses an experimental strange matter weapon. This is just a small example of the atrocities committed during the Version War by all parties involved. This event results in the Clusters became more and more reclusive and adopting several memes from hider cultures.
4586- Twelve second toposophic delegates meet in the NoCoZo / Negentropy Alliance border system of Diamet; these entities later become the single third toposophic entity known as The Twelve.
4587 - Cyborg inhabitants of the Negentropist outpost Kang 554-0-22/34 Gm-A are infected by a Cyberian 'mutiny' program causing them to all challenge the chain of command at the same time.
4590 - Neo-Whorfian thought leads to the Great Diversification movement; this endears the Institute for Primate Provolution in general and Ao Lai in particular to neither Solarist nor Metasoft forces.
4594 - Superbright engineer and project manager James Prakash Napoleon Vitalyevitsch Tscherbaschov is born on Djed as son of Vitaly Clyde Tscherbaschov, transmission protocol safety specialist, and Natalie Christine Nsengba, editor of a popular nanotech virchmagazine: more.
4598 - Straight Arrow, the capital of the Sagittarius Sphere, is attacked and destroyed by the Negentropist Fifth Relativistic Fleet, which however suffers serious losses at the hands of the defending Sparta IX Series replicants at the battle of Straight Arrow. MPA Sentinel Class autowars, although arriving too late to save Straight Arrow, finish off what is left of the Negentropist Fifth fleet.
4599 - The NoCoZo system Mutual Satisfaction is isolated by the Solar Dominion, resulting in an economic collapse
4600 AT
4603 - Enremdea colonised using the Eden AI symbiosis solution, and a benign AI calling itself Orion emerges.
4608 - Metasoft outpost on 55 Cancri B destroyed.
4630 - The economy of Mutual Satisfaction begins to recover.
4635 - Destruction of the Sagittarius Sphere system Canakka by the Negentropy Alliance. (more)
4645 - The Caretaker God Smoking Mirror (O'hoth'so'toh), declared the To'ul'h homeworld eir domain and announced e would destroy any entity that trespassed on the Compact of Eden in the system.
4650 - Imperial powers agree to call for cessation of Version War hostilities.
4653 - Peace accords signed. Message ships are dispatched to those systems cut off by the closure of wormholes.
4654 - The creation of the Seams Baseline Transavant Protectorate & Commerce Treaty Zone.
4670 - Zoeific Biopolity Genen provolve the previous subsapient alien xenophylum the Lignosagittae.
4690 - The economy of Mutual Satisfaction is fully recovered, although without any wormhole links or other connections, the polity is completely self sufficienct.
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The Commonwealth of Empires
Articles
- Al'Eida Massacre - Text by Todd Drashner
Version War atrocity. - Allosaurus (ship) - Text by Anders Sandberg
Soft Cathedral carrier ship. - Atlantis Freedom Fleet - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
NoCoZo mercenary fleet of the Version War period. - Enif Prefecture - Text by Steve Bowers and John B.
Isolated Solar Dominion department, mostly lost in the Version War. - Twelve, The - Text by Chris Shaeffer
A demiurge archailect based in the Disarchy. - Version War - Text by Anders Sandberg, M. Alan Kazlev, Peter Kisner, Aaron Hamilton
A major Inner Sphere war of the Fifth Millennium. - Walloo and the Bellerophon Archipelago - Text by Steve Bowers
Pegasus Prefecture - Solar Dominion. Partially terraformed world abandoned after Version War
Related Topics
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
timeline entries by various OA contributors
Initially published on 12 July 2001.
timeline entries by various OA contributors
Initially published on 12 July 2001.
Additional Information
