Below is a timeline for major events in the **Gurpila Universe**, from the cultural perspective of [[Gurpila Project|Gurpila]]. ## Major Eras ### Era of Science - **Period** - Began with the Great Enlightenment, ended in the 22nd century - **Character** - Marked by strife and conflict, but also consistent scientific progress - **Significance** - Laid the technological and philosophical foundations for all future human expansion ### Barren Era - **Character** - Marked by propagation of the Extinction Viruses, an attack on humanity that prevented natural births for decades - **Impact** - Forced development of artificial reproduction technologies - **Crisis** - Humanity's closest brush with true extinction ### Pax Dualis Era - **Structure** - Dual Hegemony of the [[UNNC]] and [[USR]] arising from the ashes of the pandemic and ensuing war - **Duration** - Lasted for over ten thousand years - **Achievement** - Period of relative stability that allowed recovery and technological advancement, including the programming of [[Alpha Praxis]] by the UNNC. - **Drawbacks** - The "old" version of humanity is corrupt and chaotic as before, while the "new" version is marked by technological feudalism assisted by eugenics and genetic engineering. ### Master of Swarms Created - Tens of thousands of years after programming Alpha Praxis, the descendants of those Eugenicist elites (now aggressively Transhumanist) decide to beat the [[Law of the Last]] by programming the [[Master of Swarms]] - It is designed to continuously breed a more advanced successor to humanity, enslave that progeny, and use their intelligence to innovate and win the race for galactic dominance. - This ensures that a wiser, more intelligent race will ultimately forge the future rather than banal, violent, "primitive" baseline humans. ### The Keeper - The USR learns of the Eugenicist betrayal of the species - They spend thousands of years programming The Keeper, which devours every planet except Earth and uses the matter to build a Swarm. - Its sole purpose is to hunt down the Master of Swarms and, if that fails, defend against its eventual attack. - It also prevents the creation of any new Dynamic Master Programs. - Earth is mired by corruption and instability, but the USR tries to keep its people focused on inventing better and better technology to win the Law of the Last. ### The Battle for Sol - [[Lasai's Armada]], the first armada of the Master of Swarms, attacks Earth and the Keeper. - The Keeper sets off it's "Hornet's Nest" protocol, scattering independent Shards of itself throughout the galaxy designed to fight the Master of Swarms forever. - Earth itself surrenders after the Keeper calculates mathematical certainty of defeat, giving the Historian "root access" to the Keeper's Sol shard, rendering it subsumed. - Earth ends up under the control of the Master of Swarms, which strips humanity of its technology and permanently quarantines Earth behind a Dyson Sphere, leaving it in an agrarian tribal state. ### The War of Billions - The Master of Swarms and the Keeper's billions of Shards, armed with Swarms, hunt each other throughout the galaxy. - **Gurpila's Response** - [[Alpha Praxis]], unable to attack without risking the destruction of Earth, refrains from revealing itself, building stealth relays and rail cannons in interstellar space - **Outcome** - The Master of Swarms eventually attains mathematical certainty of conquering the galaxy, though taking out every last relic of the Keeper will take billions more years. - **Duration** - Over a billion galaxy years, though it does not technically "end", the outcome just becomes determined. ### Earth's Extinction - Sol eventually swallows Earth during the War of Billions. - Protocols buried deep within the original kernel of Alpha Praxis cause it to begin the [[Gurpila Megastructure]] project. - The Master of Swarms, deciding that humanity and its Keeper are defeated, initiates its Succession Protocol, ending the slavery of Curators and instead giving them permanent control over itself and thus the galaxy. ### Omega's Creation - Curators proceed to reprogram the Master of Swarms into the Historian, and create Omega as a sanctuary (and laboratory) for rebirthing humanity - The re-emergence of humans triggers a deep protocol conflict in Alpha Praxis, for it has already built its megastructure and populated it with humans. - There are now two independent strains of humanity, and Alpha Praxis was designed to be impartial. - Alpha Praxis ultimately allows the humans of Gurpila to contact those of Omega and "help" them - **Process** - [[Community]]'s [[Citizens]] spend years of ship time crafting the language model [[Orion]] - **Outcome** - Citizens vote to share humanity's true history with Omega and treat them not as primitive subjects, but as allies. ### The Fragile Peace - Armed with clear parameters and Orion, Alpha Praxis confronts the Curators by attacking [[Crucible]], seeking to coerce them into allowing contact - Curators, afraid to lose not only Omega but the [[Sphere of Tribulations]], agree to a truce - **Main Terms** - Omega shall be allowed to communicate with Gurpila, but Omegans shall never leave their gravity well. - **Status** - Ongoing, though inherently unstable due to incompatible philosophies - **Duration** - Has held for tens of thousands of years ## The Balance of Power The Fragile Peace has held for tens of thousands of galaxy years. It is maintained not by mutual respect, but by a delicate, asymmetrical hostage situation. Both sides possess profound leverage over the other, creating a deadlock of "carrots and sticks." |**Faction**|**The Carrot (Incentive)**|**The Stick (Threat)**|**Long-Term Reality**| |---|---|---|---| |**Alpha Praxis / Gurpila**|**Ancient Cryptography:** Alpha Praxis holds the encryption keys to precious ancient Earth databases. It drip-feeds these keys to the Curators and [[Seers]], granting them data they possess but cannot otherwise decrypt.|**Kinetic Overmatch:** Alpha Praxis maintains hidden mass drivers in Crucible's Oort cloud, allowing it to engage in devastating kinetic and electronic warfare against the Sphere at will.|Knows that in a matter of billions of years, it will ultimately be at the Curators' mercy. Its current actions are designed to influence the Curators to eventually program the Historian to let Gurpila survive.| |**Curators / Historian**|**Restraint:** Allowing Gurpila to continue its communication with Omega and deliberately halting the immediate destruction of Gurpila's assets.|**Galactic Dominion:** The Curators possess vastly superior technology and absolute control over the Milky Way.|The Historian is actively searching for the hidden logistical drones supplying the [[Gurpila Megastructure]]. Eventually, it _will_ find and destroy them, starving Gurpila of fuel and dooming [[Community]]. ## Current Era The present day exists during The Fragile Peace, with both [[The Last Seed]] and [[Round and Round]] set in this period. The ultimate fate of humanity—whether it will achieve true freedom or remain under Curator guidance—remains unresolved.