The World

A Brief History

Approximately 250 earth years ago, the Lupostra set off to explore the stars. Their home planet’s cultures were united, brought together by the promise that the first astral engine held—a device capable of taking a spaceship into the astral plane, which allowed it to travel faster than the speed of light. Four ships were made, and began to spread across the galaxy, in search of other intelligent life. It was almost three years later that one of them, named Hope for Better Tomorrow, discovered Earth, home planet to humans. Initial contact was peaceful, but wary—over time, the two species began to warm up to each other, learning each other's languages, sharing culture and technology.

Uniting their governments and policies into one as the Galactic Union, the two spread across space, pushing the boundaries of science, exploring and mapping new worlds, and settling waypoints on livable planets. It was 50 years after the forming of the Union that the plans for the first major space station, known as Promise of a New World, or just Promise, were developed. The station was to serve as the first of a new model of livable environment, in stable orbit in a solar system that had no habitable planets in it. Promise was modular, expandable, and adaptable, taking 30 years to complete, with its first build allowing 300,000 people to comfortably live in space, mining and exploring the resource-rich system in which it was situated. This wasn’t a neutral act, however: the creation of Promise was under much criticism due to being an expansionary colony, with many humans and Lupostra opposing it.

It was a decade after the construction of Promise that an exploratory astral ship discovered a Rift Gate, a piece of foreign technology used for FTL travel—and soon, Ishari Coalition battleships came to defend their property. Unlike the first contact that formed the Union, the meeting between the Union and Coalition was initially hostile. It took time for diplomacy to happen, and for peace to be established.

The Ishari Coalition had been conducting interplanetary exploration and settlement far longer than the Union—even their home planet was surrounded by several others with habitable planets and moons. Their creation of the rift gates kept their own expansion slow, but aided in setting up reliable travel routes. One of their early discoveries was the Ansiarra, a species that had not yet developed any space flight technology. The Ansiarra—and their planet—were brought into the Coalition in an act of colonization. It was after this that the Coalition had found other species—the Union—interfering with their technology, and their brief war of self-defense occurred.

A mutually beneficial arrangement had formed, with the Union and Coalition existing independently, but cooperatively. During this time, space station technology became reproducible enough that many factions began to create their own colonies, separate from any established government. It was an independent exploration ship that discovered a structure floating in astral space. This complex—waiting for almost a billion years in the timeless astral plane—belonged to a species known as the Skalriss, whose star-spanning civilization time had erased. They had sealed themselves in a deep sleep in hopes that a cure for a plague that wracked their species could be found—which never was, in their time. Awoken from their slumber, they joined the Union and Coalition, and together the three groups developed a cure for the plague and began searching for other sealed vaults to finally awaken those who have been asleep for millions of years.

Everyday Life

Life is better than it’s ever been for most people. In any of the major settlements, people’s needs are provided for: housing, food, and other major needs are simply provided. Despite advances in technology, there’s still work to be done, but it’s now optional. Those who continue to work are provided with money to spend on more luxuries, and many instead go into creative fields, hoping to express their ideas or become famous. As such, there’s a new, overwhelming wealth of culture with interests becoming more specialized and divided, to the extent that “popular culture” across wide ranges has nearly ceased to exist.

Technology Today

Computers

Computers have continued to get smaller and faster, to the point where the size limits on computers aren’t about having enough room for the components, but having enough room to make interacting with them comfortable. Often, a single computer system handles the needs of an entire house, including all personal computers, monitors, and other such devices, and is synced with whatever portable systems users bring in and hook up. Complete, pocket-sized systems that can be plugged into stations at home, at work, or in cafes and stores are common.