Ameer writes:
>Anyway one of the major areas of work are the Sword Worlds. There are a
>lot of very strange things about them. So I need to get as much info as
>I can about what/who they are and their motivations for their settling
>where they did. This info being in the context of "official" pre-history.
>I'm also interested in how other GMs have interpreted the Sword World
>past. Past meaning pre -200 info.
>Here is what I have of their past (pre-Imperial ):
>PI
>- -420 Sword Worlds (colonists of Scandinavian origin) leave Terra
>- -399 Sword Worlds settle Gram.
Where did you find the date for leaving Terra?
>Why did they leave Terra to settle so far away? If they wanted to settle
>in uncolonised space then the rimward frontier is far closer.
I have some ideas about this, but first I'd like to know if the bit about
coming from Terra itself is official. I've always assumed that they came
from a scandinavian-settled world, not Terra.
>The Syleans contacted Vland about -495 and Vland was back in space by
>- -450. So were the Terrans and obviously the Syleans were major players.
>How did the Sword Worlders get by them?
Possibly the Syleans and Vilani didn't want them around (or the Sword-
worlders didn't like the conditions for settling down, ie. subordinate
themselves to another government). Still, both Syleans and Vilani were
'Rule of Law' adherents, so they didn't want to attack a peaceful
colony fleet. Instead they welcomed the Swordworlders, gave their ships
a free refit, and then escorted them to the other side of their sphere
of influence with instructions to keep moving.
>Why in a time of resurging space activity did they want to go into the
>middle of nowhere to start a Confederation?
Piper's original explanation makes as much sense as anything: They were
the loosers of a war and fled to somewhere far away from their successful
enemies.
>How many settlers left Terra?
I give up. How many settlers left Terra?
>Why did it take them 21 years? At jump 2 it takes about 6 years to get from
>Sol to the Marches. The Itzin who landed on Darrian in -1520 took only
>about 7 years. The Itzin were travelling as the Long Night was starting
>and had about 30,000 settlers. A possible reason for the delay is that
>about -420 the Long Night was ending however the vast majority of the
>worlds of the 1st Imperium were still in decline and had no ability to
>support starports and such facilities......
Maybe they spent some time negotiating with first the Sylean Confederation,
later Vland, about permission to settle somewhere. They finally decided
that if they wanted to do things their way without interference they would
have to go somewhere far away from established areas.
-oOo-
For some time I've been working on a chronology for the Spinward Marches.
I hadn't planned to post it until I had typed it all in, but Ameer's
questions about the Sword Worlds have made me change my mind. At the
rate that I finish my projects it could take years before I finish this
one, so what the hell, here's the first half.
What follows is a collection of dates culled from all the Traveller and
MegaTraveller sources that I have access to at the moment.
Entries in brackets are made up by me out of whole cloth. If only the
date is in bracket then the entry has been mentioned somewhere (or can
reasonably be inferred from other information) without a date, and I've
made up something I found reasonable.
When several contradictory dates for the same event exists I've selected
the one that makes the most sense or the most recently published one if
they are equally likely. I've been tempted to revise several really odd
dates, but have settled for footnotes.
When an event is dated as 'by now' it means that the event took place
before that date, but that this is the earliest mention of the event
that I've found.
Note that I've included everything I could find, from the most trivial
to the most momentuous. There's only one major exception: There are
lots and lots of information about the conduct of the Fifth Frontier
War, from TAS messages in the Journal to capsule resumes of character
backgrounds in 'Tarsus' and 'Beltstrike'. I think that including them
all will add 50% to this listing. If any of you want to make a
seperate listing, go ahead.
If you have any snippets of information that I've missed, please let
me know with reference. If you've got different dates for some event
chances are that I know the reference already, but by all means let
me know.
A CHRONOLOGY FOR THE SPINWARD MARCHES
Ca. -400.000 Ancients transports humans from Terra to Darrian.
-"- Earliest dated evidence of droyne presence on Andor.
Ca. -300.000 Final War destroys bases all over the Marches. The droyne
of Andor and Vanejen becomes isolated and goes into a slow
decline.
Ca. -75.000 The droyne of Andor regains the ability to caste. Their
society begins a long, slow recovery.
Ca. -6000 Earliest known droyne jump-ship. [1]
Ca. -2500 The Zhodani colonizes a few worlds in Chronor Subsector.
Ca. -2400 First Empire outpost established on Vanejen and promptly
forgotten again.
-1520 The Solomani trading company Itzin organizes an emigration
fleet with ca. 30.000 people in 35 transports and 10 armed
escorts and leaves Dingir in search of a better world.
-1516 The Itzin fleet visits Vland.
-1513 The Itzin fleet makes a temporary stop at Spinward Marches
1325 (Sacnoth) and conducts a quick survey of the area
around.
-1512 The Itzin fleet secretly comes to Darrian.
-1511 The Itzin fleet reveals itself and joins the Darrians.
-1410 The Darrians achieve jumpdrive and commences exploring the
surrounding space.
-1400 The Darrians have totally assimilated the Solomani by now.
-1270 Darrian exploration reaches 20 parsecs from Darrian.
-1044 Aslans crosses the Great Rift to Riftspan Reaches.
Ca. -1000 Algine colonized by Solomani colony ship.
Ca. -990 Darrians establishes an outpost in the Bowman Belt.
Ca. -980 Tarsus propably visited by Darrian explorers.
-924 Darrians reach tech level 16. Darrian sun destabilizes,
destroying the Darrian civilization.
-922 The personnel of the Darrian outpost in Bowman runs out of
supplies and commits suicide.
-905 Surviving Darrian ships are shared by surviving colonies
and mothballed to wait for better times.
-860 Contact between Darrian colonies ceases.
[Ca. -500] Zhodani scouts finds Darrian colonies and studies them co-
vertly.
-460 Trade between Zhodani and Aslan in Trojan Reaches.
-399 Gram settled by Solomani.
-321 Caladbolg settled from other Sword World.
-300 Joyeuse, Colada, Tizon and Hrunting colonized by now.
-275 Mire regains jump-capacity and reestablishes contact with
Darrian and the surviving Darrian colonies.
-238 New Darrian Confederation formed.
-200 Tyrfing, Beater, Sacnoth, Excalibur, Hofud, Sting, Biter,
Orcrist, Anduril, Durendal, Narsil and Dyrnwyn colonized
by now.
-189 The Sacnoth Dominate forms the first interstellar govern-
ment in the Sword Worlds Subsector.
-187 First contact between Darrians and Zhodani.
-164 First (official) contact between the Sword Worlds and the
Darrian Confederation [2].
-145 Bowman visited and named by Sword World expedition.
-140 Sword World survey of Bowman begun. Sword World explorers
discovers and maps Tarsus and surrounding systems.
-133 Large mineral strike in Caliburn Belt. Interest in Bowman
wanes.
-104 Sword World oil extraction plant built on Tarsus.
Tyrfing Incident: Clash between naval vessels of Gram and
Sacnoth in orbit above Tyrfing.
-104 to -88 War of the First Rebellion (Sword Worlds).
-102 Widespread rebellion among the Sword Worlds triggered by
the Tyrfing Incident. Sacnoth Dominate fragments into Gram
Confederation, Sacnoth Confederation and Hofud Coalition.
Oil extraction colony on Tarsus abandoned.
-88 War of the First Rebellion ends with the breakdown of all
three successor states, followed by a period of confused
internectine struggles with no clear interstellar govern-
ments.
-80 Complete breakdown of all interstellar control in Sword
Worlds Subsector.
Ca. -60 Last remnant of Sword World colony on Tarsus dies out.
-40 Engrange recolonized from Illium.
-11 Limited interstellar control established in Sword Worlds
Subsector with the area split between five powers.
[45 to 60] First sweep by Scouts of Spinward Marches.
50 First contact between Zhodani and the Imperium.
53 Scouts contact Sword Worlds. [3]
[54] Scouts contact Darrians. [3]
60 to 160 Scouts map most of the Spinward Marches.
60 Imperial colonization of Spinward Marches commenced with a
large-scale settlement of Mora financed by Ling Standard
Products.
73 First regular trade route between the Imperium (Mora) and
Sword Worlds established. [3]
75 Regina colonized.
Ca. 85 Fornice colonized.
104 The Triple Dominion (led by Colada-Anduril-Dyrnwyn axis)
formed in Sword Worlds Subsector.
120 The eventually sector-wide merchant corporation Al Morai
established with headquarters on Mora.
3rd Cen. The merchant corporation Al Morai establishes an Explora-
tion Division which explores and develops Windsor and Shi-
rene.
217 Collapse of The Triple Dominion (Sword Worlds).
220 to 348 The Vargr Campaigns.
228 Frisini (later renamed Beck's World) colonized.
240 Vilis colonized from Gungnir.
250 Regina and 6 neighbouring worlds have joined the Imperium
by now.
290 Garda-Vilis colonized from Vilis.
300 The Regina Cluster have grown to 17 worlds by now.
-"- First Survey begun.
300 to 400 Colonization of Jewell Subsector.
305 Aramis surveyed.
306 Gliss system (later known as Glisten) surveyed by a team
from Tirem.
310 Paya and Dhian colonized from Regina. Other systems in
Aramis Subsector colonized from Deneb (system, subsector,
or sector?) 'soon after'.
326 Foren Caliphren Doon is shipwrecked on an uncolonized part
of Frisini.
-"- Techniques for surviving on worlds with insidious atmo-
spheres perfected.
335 Foren Caliphren Doon rescued.
342 The Octagon Society, an organisation to help shipwrecked
spacefarers, started by Foren Doon. In the following years
a shelter for castaways are established on all worlds in
Regina Subsector except Roup.
Ca. 350 First human settlement on Junidy (home planet of a minor
non-human race called Llellwyloly).
352 Scouts survey Tarsus.
353 Scouts visit Bowman Belt.
354 Ancients base found on Efate.
382 Lanthanum and other rare metals found in Glisten Belt. The
Navy and the Scouts both establishes bases there shortly
after.
388 Aramanx colonized from Junidy.
390 Darrians locate an old cache of TL-16 warships.
410 The Octagon Society expands their activities to Regina's
neighbouring subsectors. Octagon shelters are subsequently
built in nearly every system in Aramis, Lanth and Rhylanor
subsectors.
[418] An Octagon shelter is built on Utoland.
420 First Survey published.
421 Aslans establish jump-4 trade route between Riftspan
Reaches and Spinward Marches.
427 SuSAG buys chemical plant on Mora.
450-460 Tarsus colonized from Fornice.
450 Darrian Confederation establishes Special Arm of the fleet
to handle the Star Trigger.
470 Most of Vilis Subsector annexed by the Imperium.
487 Roxanne Oberlindes founds the Oberlindes family and firm.
489 The Star Trigger is demonstrated.
499 Corruption scandal causes the Octagon Society to dissolve.
500+ Imperial surveys reaches Zhodani territory.
__________________________________________________________________________
Notes:
[1]: I've personally decided that these are found on Andor. This is com-
pletely unofficial.
[2]: Even if Sword World starships didn't find any of the Darrian colonies
between -399 and -275, two starfaring cultures within 12 parsecs of
each other must surely interact sooner than after 111 years. Contacts
could have been restricted to unofficial meetings, though.
[3]: The date for first contact between the Imperium and the Sword Worlds
are variously given as 53, 73, and 147 in different places. The date
for first contact with the Darrians is given as 148. I've decided
that a) The Scouts would find a subsector-wide interstellar community
during the first sweep, and b) that they would find the Darrians very
shortly after finding the Sword Worlds.
==========================================================================
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir