Timeline of Union's History

Well after the Fall, the surviving remnants of humanity stabilize into city states and proto-nations across the surface of Cradle. Some discover the Massif Vaults, using their knowledge to grow powerful and cruelly self-interested. In a bid to expand power, a series of wars break out, daisy-chaining across the world as governments scramble to grab land and subjugate their enemies. The wars embroil the world, (later called the Little Wars,) threatening to destroy it once more. The survivors purge the power hungry, throw aside capital, and band together to form a single state: Union.

On Karrakis, the New Annorum movement demanded the New Federation push harder to move the polarity of galactic power from Cradle to Karrakis, furious that their representatives had been so passive and accommodating to Union’s demands. The calls for revolution boiled over following the destruction of the UNS Pilgrim, a Union diplomatic yacht bound for Karrakis. Destroyed by radical Karrakin elements, the UNS Pilgrim was a rallying cry for Union, who sent a newly raised fleet to Karrakis with the intention of crippling their shipyards. The UNS Pilgrim was also a symbol for the Karrakin peoples showing that the distant giant that was Union could be hurt. With the announcement of Union's incoming strike, the New Federation showed that it refused to back down by voting en mass to raise levies and bolster their fleet.   Months later, as Karrakin interdiction sorties skirmished with Union subline ships, the New Federation realized the true target of Union's hurtling kinetics; they had targeted the worlds of Karrkis and Arrudye with gigaton kinetics with the intention of turning the planets' surfaces into molten rock and dust. The New Federation fleets diverted themselves to destroy the kinetics before they could destroy their populated worlds, leaving themselves open to Union's fleets. In the end, while the worlds were saved from the worst the kinetics' destruction, the Karrakin fleet was destroyed by Union, leaving Karrakis undefended. Union, with the heart of Karrakis open before them, stops short of a full-scale invasion of Karrakis.   But the invasion never happens. Karrakis — its anti-orbital defences either destroyed or dry of ammunition — does not fall. With little fanfare, the Union fleets pull back and head for Cradle to deal with something that needs their desperate, immediate attention.

On Mars, a strange entity manifested as a result of the Forecast/GALSIM iterative. This was not entirely a random event: rumblings across the F/G campus indicated something big was on the horizon, and work had been underway to construct a fallback campus on Mars’ moon, Deimos, in order to contain the data overrun expected from the next 5V iterative. The wash, when it came, overran all firewalls — physical and digital — settling eventually in the massive architecture inside Deimos.   While Mars-based security forces and disaster response teams worked to get the situation under control, the science teams on Deimos worked to acclimate and acclimatize the entity — they worked to make contact with it, to understand it, and to get it to understand them.   In time, it did. And then Deimos disappeared; it would return two Cradle standard years later, and it would speak then. In the meantime, Paracausality studies are born, later leading to the discovery of Blinkspace. This discovery resulted in development of the two most important technologies that support Union; the omninet and blinkspace travel. The Second Committee organizes the disparate ships, shuttles, and force organizations of the Union Space Program into the Union Navy.

Following a decades-long political and military campaign waged across Ecumenical space, a crusade lead by a folk hero named Os overthrows the Ecumenical government. A new government called the Aunic Ascendancy is established, based upon theocratic rule and worship of Metat Aun. Remnants of the Aunic Ecumene flee, with most taking refuge in Union space on the planet Cornucopia, capital of the Boundary Garden sector.   Following this, Metat Aun repeatedly creates miracles on the Aunic homeworld, granting the Aunic Ascendancy access to advanced, esoteric technologies. These technologies are centred around interaction with a metaphysical plane of energy referred to as the "Firmament". Individuals interacting with this plane are known as "Minds", and artificial intelligences made using it are called "Minds".

As Union’s fleet departs in 3000U to deal with the Deimos Event, Karrakis' New Federation government steps down, and is replaced by a new government, operating largely along the same organizational principles as the short lived New Feds. This government is composed of the heads of each house as a nod to their homeworld, a move meant to reemphasize the unity they ultimately shared. In 3200U the new government, to cheers and fanfare, declared itself the Federated Baronic State of Karrakis and Her Colonies. Less formally, it comes to be known as the Karrakin Trade Baronies.   Union's Second Committee, reeling from the trauma of the Deimos Event, seeks a way to assert itself in the face of the existential threat, and finds one where it left it: Karrakis. Utilizing the first NHPs to pilot heavily autonomous ships, Union moves to secure Karrakis. With the Baronies still recovering from the decimation of their fleets and shipyards, a second Union-Baronic war simply never happens.   Negotiations are swift, as both sides realize the possibility of profit -- Union agrees to assist in expanding Karrakin infrastructure, in exchange for the Barons agreeing to cease building their fleet. The Second Committee guarantees the Barons will remain heads of their houses and state, so long as they agree to keep Union in supply from their vast material wealth. The Baronies find this agreement profitable. War, for the Barons, made them appear powerful, but was costly, and less profitable than peace and trade. To win without death by capturing markets was the ultimate coup.