Background Colour:  -White-  -NavajoWhite-  -Wheat-  -Beige-  -AntiqueWhite-  -LightGray-  -Silver-  -BurlyWood-  -Tan-  -Black-  -Blue-

 

Text Colour:  -Black-  -Brown-  -Blue-  -Green-  -Red-  -Yellow-  -White-  -Orange-  -Silver-



 

A Chronology of the Technic Civilization

Compiled by Sandra Miesel.

The Technic Civilization series sweeps across five millennia and hundreds of light-years of space to chronicle three cycles of history shaping both human and non-human life in our corner of the universe. It begins in the twenty-first century, with recovery from a violent period of global unrest known as the Chaos. New space technologies ease Earth’s demand for resources and energy permitting exploration of the Solar system.

Note: Although Poul Anderson was consulted during the preparation of this chart, he is not responsible for its dating nor in any way specifically committed to it. Rounded dates are quite approximate.

 

(Further note: I have taken the liberty of expanding the notes somewhat, as well as slightly adjusting Sandra Miesel’s dates; for example, she clumps “A Sun Invisible,” “The Season of Forgiveness,” The Man Who Counts, “Esau” and “Hiding Place” together simply as “stories overlap in 2420s” but internal evidence—such as Falkayn’s age—gives pretty firm dates for most of them.)

 

Polesotechnic League

ca. 2055 — Century of recovery. “The Saturn Game”.

 

22nd century — The discovery of hyperdrive makes interstellar travel feasible early in the twenty-second century. The Breakup sends humans off to colonize the stars, often to preserve cultural identity or to try a social experiment. A loose government called the Solar Commonwealth is established. Hermes is colonized.

 

2150 — “Wings of Victory”. The Grand Survey from Earth discovers alien races on Ythri, Merseia, and many other planets.

 

23rd century — The Polesotechnic League is founded as a mutual protection association of space-faring merchants. Colonization of Aeneas and Altai.

 

24th century — “The Problem of Pain”.

 

2376 — Nicholas van Rijn born poor on Earth. Colonization of Vixen.

 

2400 — The Council of Hiawatha, a futile attempt to reform the League. (This would make van Rijn 24 at the time of the council; however, his statement in Mirkheim—“We was born too late, though. If I had been at the Council of Hiawatha, what I could have warned them!”—seems to me to imply that his absence was not due to being too young to attend, but rather due to him not yet being born.) Colonization of Dennitza (in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows simply dated to the 25th century).

 

2406 — David Falkayn born noble on Hermes, a breakaway human grand duchy.

 

2416 — “Margin of Profit” (van Rijn). “How to Be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson”.

 

2423 — “Three-Cornered Wheel” (Falkayn, aged 17).

 

2426 — “A Sun Invisible” (Falkayn, aged 20).

 

2426-2427 — “The Season of Forgiveness” (set on the same planet as “Three-Cornered Wheel”). The Man Who Counts (van Rijn).

 

2427 — “Esau” (van Rijn).

 

end of 2420s — “Hiding Place” (van Rijn).

 

early 2430s — “Territory” (van Rijn). “The Trouble Twisters” (Falkayn).

 

2433 — “Day of Burning” (Falkayn saves civilization on Merseia, mankind’s future foe).

 

mid 2430s — “The Master Key” (van Rijn).

 

2437 — Satan’s World (van Rijn and Falkayn).

 

late 2430s — “A Little Knowledge”. The League has become a set of ruthless cartels.

 

2446 — “Lodestar” (van Rijn and Falkayn, a decade after Satan’s World; Coya is 25 and 18 years younger than Falkayn, who is thus 43). Rivalries and greed are tearing the League apart. Falkayn marries van Rijn’s favorite granddaughter.

 

2456 — Mirkheim (van Rijn and Falkayn; in the main story, Falkayn says, “Mother, I'm fifty years old.” Nine years earlier, and one year after “Lodestar,” Anderson confirms this by saying that Falkayn is 41. However, in “Lodestar,” a year earlier, Falkayn is 43 and so should be 44 at this point and 52 in the main story. Anderson wrote the stories four years apart, and may of course have changed his mind about Falkayn’s age, thus making him older here. On the other hand, Falkayn’s age of 50 is in Terran standard years and corresponds to 45 years on his home planet of Hermes, and 45 is of course very close to the 44 he “should have been” according to the earlier story). The Babur War involving Hermes gravely wounds the League. Dark days loom.

 

late 25th century — Falkayn founds a joint human-Ythrian colony on Avalon ruled by the Domain of Ythri.

 

26th century — “Wingless” (Falkayn’s grandson). “Rescue on Avalon”. Colonization of Nyanza.

 

2550 — Dissolution of the Polesotechnic League.

 

27th century — The Time of Troubles brings down the Solar Commonwealth. Earth is sacked twice and left prey to barbarian slave raiders.

 

Terran Empire and beyond

ca. 2700 — “The Star Plunderer”. Manuel Argos proclaims the Terran Empire with citizenship open to all intelligent species. The Principate phase of the Imperium ultimately brings peace to 100,000 inhabited worlds within a sphere of stars 400 light-years in diameter.

 

28th century — Colonization of Unan Besar. “Sargasso of Lost Starships”. The Empire annexes old colony on Ansa by force.

 

29th century — The People of the Wind. The Empire’s war on another civilized imperium (the Domain of Ythri) starts its slide towards decadence. A descendant of Falkayn (Tabitha Falkayn) and an ancestor of Flandry (Philippe Rochefort) cross paths.

 

30th century — The Covenant of Alfzar, an attempt at détente between Terra and Merseia, fails to achieve peace. The Empire takes control of Aeneas through intrigue and judicious use of force. (Though in The Day of Their Return the governor’s Imperial House on Aeneas is 200 years old, so the takeover must have been in the 29th century.)

 

3000 — Dominic Flandry born on Earth, illegitimate son of an opera diva and an aristocratic space captain.

 

3019 — Ensign Flandry. Flandry’s first collision with the Merseians.

 

3021 — A Circus of Hells. Flandry is a Lieutenant (j.g.); Aycharaych appears offstage.

 

3022 — Degenerate Emperor Josip succeeds weak old Emperor Georgios.

 

3025 — The Rebel Worlds. A military revolt on the frontier world of Aeneas almost starts an age of Barracks Emperors. Flandry is a Lt. Commander, then promoted to Commander.

 

3027 — “Outpost of Empire”. The misgoverned Empire continues fraying at its borders.

 

3028 — The Day of Their Return (Aycharaych). Aftermath of the rebellion on Aeneas.

 

3032 — “Tiger by the Tail”. Flandry is a Captain and averts a barbarian invasion.

 

3033 — “Honorable Enemies”. Captain Flandry’s first brush with enemy agent Aycharaych.

 

3035 — “The Game of Glory”. Set on Nyanza, Flandry has been knighted.

 

3037 — Mayday Orbit. Set on Altai.

 

3038 — Earth­man, Go Home!. Set on Unan Besar.

 

3040 — Hunters of the Sky Cave. Flandry and Aycharaych. Set on Vixen.

 

3041 — Josip dies, an interregnum follows.

 

3042 — “The Warriors from Nowhere”. Snapshot of disorders in the war-torn Empire.

 

3044 — After three years of civil war, Hans Molitor rules as sole Emperor.

 

3047 — A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows. Set on Dennitza, Flandry meets his illegitimate son Dominic and has a final tragic confrontation with Aycharaych.

 

3054 — Emperor Hans dies and is succeeded by his sons, first Dietrich, then Gerhart.

 

3061 — A Stone in Heaven; Vice Admiral Flandry pairs off with the daughter of his first mentor from Ensign Flandry.

 

3064 — The Game of Empire. Flandry is a Fleet Admiral, meets his illegitimate daughter Diana.

 

early 4th millennium — The Terran Empire becomes more rigid and tyrannical in its Dominate phase. The Empire and Merseia wear each other out.

 

mid-4th millennium — The Long Night follows the Fall of the Terran Empire. War, piracy, economic collapse, and isolation devastate countless worlds.

 

3600 — “A Tragedy of Errors”. Further fragmentation among surviving human worlds.

 

3900 — The Night Face. Biological and psychological divergence among Surviving humans.

 

4000 — “The Sharing of Flesh”. Human explorers heal genetic defects and uplift savagery.

 

7100 — “Starfog”. Revived civilization is expanding. A New Vixen man from the libertarian Commonalty meets descendants of the rebels from Aeneas.

 

 

Although the Technic Civilization is extinct, another—and perhaps better—turn on the Wheel of Time has begun for our galaxy. The Commonalty must inevitably decline just as the League and Empire did before it. But the Wheel will go on turning as long as there are thinking minds to wonder at the stars.

 

 

Index