Timeline for ictoanftc

On the Comic Genesis version of this comic, there are several additional pages with a lot of background information for the reader to look over. The general idea was to have a rich and diverse world built up with a lot of information that would help readers understand concepts or expand on ideas without needing to have them explained within the comic.

After all, when talking to your friends, you don't explain to them how a telephone works - you just use it. So I wanted to have a lot of this extraneous data available, but outside of the story. So I put it all onto one page here, since this is basically a mirror for the Comic Genesis version.

Summary of what has happened:

Around eighty million years after the fall of man, the one was born. The one was a cat, just a regular cat. But he had a small genetic mutation. He had opposable thumbs on his forepaws. This let The One have a slight advantage over the other Felines. And that’s where it might have ended, except that the mutation was a dominant trait.

As the generations passed, the cats started using their front paws more to hold things and less to walk on. The more time they spent holding things, the more time they spent standing upright. The pelvis slowly rotated to accommodate the new stance, the fingers longer, and the claws less pronounced. It didn’t take long for tool use to start, and as the tools became more complex the brain became larger.

Through the ages, the Felines progressed. From simple farming communities through a medieval system and onto a more advanced scientific era. It was then that Feline Astrologers discovered The Rogue Star. When they saw that a wandering star would enter the Solar System, they were dismayed. So momentous was this news that it altered the calendar. That year became known as Year Zero. The news was spread far and wide and for the first time in recorded history the Felines were united in purpose.

Fortunately, the star was spotted with ample time to spare. First with primitive rockets and then with massive arc ships, the Felines started to spread out from their homeworld. Little success was met, until Y785, when FTL flight finally became possible. Almost two hundred years passed and despair was starting to set in. Then, in Y943 the first compatible world was discovered.

Dubbed Salvation, great plans for an exodus of the population were started. It wasn’t until Y1311 that a second compatible planet was found. Then came the heady days near the end of Y1316, when 73 compatible worlds were reported within four months.

At this time (Y3564) the Felines inhabit, to a greater or lesser degree, over 400 worlds.

Originally, all warfare was conducted as hand-to-hand combat. Early weapons were either extensions of the claw or basic cutting implements. Ranged weapons were not introduced until quite late. Land wars were mainly massed troops, with very little officer corps.

Air wars came before ocean wars as Felines avoid water. Flight was achieved long before any boats were made. Galactic wars started with spaceships just used as transports as they were too expensive and rare to be used in actual combat.

After the great dispersal, warships become more commonplace and cheaper. Stellar war effectively ends with the introduction of the FTL missiles. The capacity to destroy ships at great ranges with no capacity to defend makes JJU the new pan-world government.

Timeline.

This timeline will show a general idea as to what happened and when. More info will be added to it as the comic progresses, and events of interest will have links to pages with further details added. It uses two different calendar systems. The first few use today's calendar, with years denoted as B.C. and A.D. After that it moves to the Feline system whereby Year Zero (normally abbreviated to Y0) is the year that the Rogue Star was discovered. As this was a significant event in the history of the world, all other dates are tied to that year.

Date:	Event:
In the beginning...	Start of the Universe.
~4,500,000,000 b.c.	Earth is formed.
~228,000,000 b.c.	Start of the Reign of the Dinosaurs.
65,000,000 b.c.	End of the Reign of the Dinosaurs.
6000 b.c.	Start Reign of Man.
3400 a.d.	End Reign of Man.
80,000,000 a.d.	The One is born.
81,000,000 a.d.	Start of first basic tool use.
-14,000	Rudimentary Villages.
-9500	Start to spread across the planet.
-8000	Start of Feudal system.
-4500	Start of proper scientific endevour.
-3400	Start of genetic self-modification to improve the body.
-3050	Genetic modification increases brain size.
-2380	The Clavicle is added to the body.
Year 0	Discovery of Rogue Star that will crash into the sun in approx 2,600 years.
6	Start of Grand Unification under Teaan the Righteous.
9	Grand Unification Official - End of Feudal System.
14	Creation of Centralized Government.
29	Primitive Spaceflight.
53	First Satellite/asteroid settlements.
289	First Arc Ship launched.
347 to 352	Second, third and fourth Arc Ships launched.
357	First Arc Ship reports critical failure. Further Arc Ship construction halted.
785	FTL Flight discovered.
859	FTL becomes widespread - start of blind star jumping.
943	First compatible world discovered.
1136	Start of Grand Terraforming Project.
1311	Second Compatible world found.
1316	Over Seventy compatible worlds reported within a few months.
1317	Grand Terraforming Project abandoned.
1327	Start of the great splintering.
1945	275th compatible world begins settlement.
2565	Earth Abandoned.
2591	Rogue Star enters Solar System - sun and all planets destroyed.
2703	Another sentient life contacted. (Nothing in common)
2800 to 2814	First Great War.
2835	Further splintering of different worlds.
2901 to 2907	Second Great War.
2907	Start of Second Feudal System
3494	Creation of FTL Missles by JJU.
3501	Consolidation of Power to JJU.
3564	Today.

Other pages

Communications

Long distance communication has always been a problem. At the moment, the best way to send a message is to put it on a data disk and physically send it via a courier. As a result of this, there is a huge market for commercial vessels to carry information back and forth across the stars. Since only early stage colony worlds import materials and commercial products on any great scale, the biggest trade across the known worlds is data.

There are a few small, independant companies and traders who transport information. It is these vessels that keep the prices down, despite the best efforts of the larger corporations.

Anyone with a ship can give it a go, so long as they can pay for the fuel.

Grand Unification

The Grand Unification is the name given to a momentous event that occured around Y8.

Started in Y6 by Teaan the Righteous, The Grand Unification was a plan to unite all the peoples and resources of the old Earth under one government. The goal was to put everything into saving the Feline species. With the discovery of the Rogue Star a few years earlier, few realised the implications that came with it.

Teaan understood that with the way the world was organised at the time, all the conflicts and petty bickering would waste resources (and more importantly - time) so that when the threat became more imediate it would be too late to do anything.

The basic idea was to try and get the Felines off-world as soon as possible. It wasn't until several lifetimes later that any plans that had any possibility of actually working were finally presented. But it was through the singular efforts of Teaan that it was even possible for the Felines to leave the doomed world.

As it turned out, there was just over two and a half thousand years in which to leave the planet. Seven hundred and eighty years after Teaan died, FTL flight became possible, and with the discovery of new, compatible worlds the exodus to leave began in earnest.

By Y2480 the entire remaining population of Earth had been relocated, and the last scientific observers left in Y2565, officially abandoning the planet.

Planet Svarr

The Reggio System has two inhabited planets and one orbital colony. Planet Svarr is the main center of habitation, although Mannay is slowly but surely overtaking Svarr.

The main reason for the change in status is the indegenous population of Svarr. When first discoverd in Y2956, Svarr seemed like an excellent choice for settlment. Excellent biosphere, lots of natural resources and compatible vegitation.

Vast recources poured into the company charged with developing the planet. Messages were sent out to all known systems and surplus populations from other planets were welcomed with open arms to the new settlement.

Unfortuneately, the planet had a natural predator, named the 'Unseen'by the first to encounter it. It has the ability to become totally undetectable. None of the known sensors are capable of detecting it. It has been postulated that it is capable of folding into D-Space in a similar way to the Jump Engines on starships.

This wasn't deemed a problem and colonists moved in within a year. Great cities were planned and foundations laid out for new construction. However, after a hundred years of unabated expansion, huge walls had to be built around the cities in order to keep the population safe.

The natural food supply of the Unseen had been severly diminished, and the Unseen had made a great discovery: Felines are delicious.

Augmentation:

After many years of genetic study, body augmentation is not only possible, but somewhat routine. It's not uncommon to see Felines with bionic arms and legs, relpacement or upgraded eyes and so on.

Not to mention all the stuff that can't be seen (such as brain augmentations).

There is also a brisk trade in illegal upgrades. Everything from boosts for mercenaries up to total body replacement for EVA work in orbit.

Genetic Self-Improvement:

It is quite common to have the genetic material of the family 'tweaked' to the latest standards. The most frequent adjustments are simple reinforcements of the imunne system and life extension, plus increased resilience in free-fall.

As the proccess is relatively expensive, it's mostly the more well-off families that are able to perform such genetic improvements. However, since the change is essentially permanent, all future decendants of that individual will also benefit from that one transaction.

Replicators:

Around Y-342, a group of scientists working with Nanotechnology managed to build a successful replicator. It had a modest library of templates and could have more templates added in order to create new objects.

Further testing showed that it was even possible to use the “nano machine soup” to take a sample of an object. Admittedly, the sampling process was destructive since the little nano-bots would tear the object apart, molecule by molecule, in order to see how it was built.

When news of this great technology leaked out there was great rejoicing. Felines everywhere wanted one, businesses tried to get it banned and lawyers rubbed their hands with glee. However, there was a catch. It took THREE YEARS to build a single spoon.

The reason for this was mainly technical, but Kraat N’Hassaa (the head researcher) explained it thusly:

Imagine that you are building a brick wall in your back yard. You travel across to the other side of the continent, swim across the ocean, cross another continent, jump on a starship and cross a few systems and then pick up one single grain of sand. You return to your house, spend a few weeks looking for the perfect spot and then place the grain of sand where it’s needed. Repeat until the wall is finished.

Nano technology was quietly put back on the shelf.

Additional pages for ictoanftc

Summary of what has happened:

Timeline.

Other pages