Important events
What is Kyos?
Kyos is one of four continents of Aya, the only habitable planet in Logan-Hades star system, and it’s where major events of first books and games of The Universe of Seven take place.
So, what’s going on here?
A lot, actually, but there’s an order to all things. To help you familiarize yourself with the world of U7, we’ve put history of Kyos on a timeline. So grab yourself a Stargazer (or a cup of your favorite hot beverage) and start from the beginning.
Distinct periods
Observations
Prior to ≈500 BW (before War era)
Kyos is least advanced continent of Aya. Several tribes fight ceaseless war over resources; the land is far from barren, but their technology is outdated. As Hifu Solson, a famous Artasian historian, put it, Ilyon (a continent to the south of Kyos) “was already standing on the verge of industrial revolution, while people of Kyos were fighting over their poorly grown crops with wooden sticks”.
≈500 to ≈400 BW
In 502 BW, scouts from Nari, a country from continent to the north, landed on Kyos and advised their government to use it as staging ground for planned invasion of Ilyon. For the next 20 years, Narians systematically exterminated or subjugated Kyosian population; a common threat unified previously isolated communities, and newly emerging pockets of resistance complicated Narian plans. In 478 BW, Kyosians won their first substantial victory in the center of their continent, near a settlement which later became known as Metropolis. Their fight against Narian occupation, however, continued for almost 80 more years.
≈400 to ≈350 BW
By 400 BW, Nari was no longer able to sustain its mission on Kyos, which turned from quick invasion to a century-old war of attrition, and had withdrawn its forces. The only Narians left on the continent were either dead or switched sides, and Kyos entered a period of relative stability.
Kyosians became stronger, but still acted separately. Local princelings who established their authority over small villages during Narian occupation learned to fight smart and invested heavily in scientific research, but the continent lost a lot of blood and we became less aggressive. Such is the inclination of all living things, I presume, even Demons. — Hifu Solson, a lecture at Artas University, 315 AW
357 BW
Elara Bates, future first Queen of Tetra, is born in the village of Northern Star.
Around 350 BW
Contrary to popular belief cultivated by Tetrian High Council later, Elara grew up in loving family, had no trouble with friends or neighbors and even after leaving Northern Star was never so much as scratched on her travels. Aldi Goffel, inventor of flux and an amateur historian, insisted that “she became an agent of change to improve rather then to fix”, since at the time Kyos, having learned from its mistakes, was nothing like before Narians. Some scholars refer to this time as “Silver Age”, but it’s debatable whether it started before or after Elara took power.
328-320 BW
In 329 BW Elara marries Huston Plight, a rich trader from the Western regions with unrealized political ambitions, who dies from illness a year after, leaving her as sole heir to all his assets (including estate and impressive collection of art, which Elara sells almost immediately, earning herself a nickname “huckstress” from her future enemies). Seemingly dissatisfied with abusive treatment of farmers and craftsmen in the region, she soon sends a letter to her lord Wilty Stones, one of three princelings of Western regions; she calls it “A fair warning”. This title gave name to her military campaign, which started with the hanging of poor Wilty and continued for nearly ten years, resulting in unification of almost all of Kyos under her banner.
Yes, those mountains surrounding Low Pass, Wings of Elara, are named after this impressive lady. In fact, I’m named after her, too!
320 BW
Elara is crowned first queen of newly founded State of Tetra. She declares every native on Kyos a Tetrian and establishes Metropolis as State’s capital.
320-283 BW
Elara reigned over her newly founded country for almost 40 years, which are generally viewed as prosperous time for Kyos, an introduction to its Golden Age. She established political, economical and social patterns which continued to exist long after she was gone. She stopped at nothing to cement Tetra’s integrity, and any and all attempts to threaten it were met with merciless response, which led to devastation of some separatist regions. However, Tetra as a whole has no doubt benefited from her actions, as they strengthened its military and economy, and quality of life has improved for its citizens.
283 BW
After Narian occupation Kyos adopted hostile policy towards outsiders, and even when memories of occupation started to wear off, Kyosians were too busy handling their internal affairs to care for anything else. Elara, too, was mostly focused on making the idea of Tetra work, and it was only around 290 BW when she started to build diplomatic relations with countries from other continents. In 283 BW she left Tetra for her first and last time. She and her embassy were headed to Lacus, second largest city on Ilyon and a capital of Adrion, its prominent country, but were never seen after leaving one of small towns near its gates.
This almost led to war, but since Queen Bates never remarried and left no heirs or clear instructions on succession, some of pretenders to her throne used their influence to avoid setting against Adrion and focused their efforts on preventing chaos within Tetra. It’s unlikely that they were ruled by peaceful tendencies; rather, they understood that war will prevent them from fulfilling their ambitions, and there was no strong military leader at the time to take advantage of this situation. Less then a year after Elara’s disappearance, she was presumed dead, and High Council, established by late Queen as second most powerful authority in Tetra, selected Arches Long, one of its members, as her successor.
283 to ≈150 BW
The period after Elara’s disappearance and until approximately 150 BW is known as Golden Age of Kyos. During that time, Tetra was led by Long dynasty, which produced a number of capable and efficient rulers.
Golden Age was a time when seeds planted by Elara bore fruit, and Longs were good gardeners. It seemed as if nothing was impossible… Tetrians conquered Garuda, and we almost wish they weren’t so efficient in doing so, since their elegant solutions, which look more like a triumph of imaginative mind than its desperate attempt at survival, supply Corrupted with fresh water to this day. — Hifu Solson, “A complete history of Kyos before, during and after War”, fourth edition, 322 AW
By 200 BW Tetra became primary military and economical power on Aya. Ironically, during their Golden Age Tetrians accepted thousands of refugees from Nari, who suffered from unending political turmoil throughout third century before War.
By the by, Hifu was referring to infamous collective in Flavia… My kind hates those brothers and sisters-in-law of ours.
≈150 to ≈50 BW
In 152 BW, Kivu Long, youngest king of Tetra, died at the age of 17. According to rules of succession established by Arches, his uncle, Ortis Long, was the next pretender; however, since Ortis was unable to have children and was a weak-willed man (often called later “a thorn among Longs”), he was persuaded by High Council to abandon his claims to the throne, which effectively turned Tetra from monarchy to oligarchy. Council then dealt with his remaining relatives (who had little chance of succession to begin with) by offering them seats, and Aegis, Syan, Tali, Danton, Artas, Soma and Long families started their rule over Tetrians, which lasted for century and a half.
At first, three arrows on the emblem of High Council symbolized its presiding families, but after Long’s renunciation were identified with its supervision over legislative, executive and judicial branches of power.
Around 100 BW
Since High Council sat on Ivy street in Metropolis, political setup at the time was often referred to as Ivy Oligarchy. It was, in general, a continuation of the course laid out by Elara and sustained by Longs; however, rivalry between families, some of which started to call themselves septs to honor pre-Narian traditions, led to poor judgement of risks during heated competition, which ultimately brought Tetra to ruin.
After High Council took power, those arrows started to symbolize something else — three parties, or wings. The rate at which Tetrian science had been moving forward was frightening to Talis; they also considered this progression to be regulated insufficiently. They were the first wing, the conservatives, who were concentrating their efforts on trade and preservation. Their profound opponents were Dantons and Aegises, two families which invested heavily in industrial and high-technology research — those were called the progressivists. The rest (except for Longs, who usually took it upon themselves to balance things out) were the spiritualists, who believed in superiority of one’s inner potential over technology. As we now know, they proved themselves right in a horrifying way. — Hifu Solson, series of public lectures on history of Kyos, Artas University, 315 AW
26 BW
In what is first sincerely, and then ironically called a “Good Year”, all three wings make announcements concerning their major projects. Artas and Soma families launch Northern Research Center (NRC), the mission of which is “discovery and cultivation of psychic abilities”. They have no shortage of research material; in fact, Tetrians, sympathetic to their cause or attracted by generous compensation, stand in line to participate. Talis publish their plans for Virtue, a new city on Kyos with partial autonomy from High Council and a special trade zone. Ana Danton, head of Danton family, reveals being a test subject for her own Danton corporation, and becomes known as first voluntary synthet after famous apple-crushing demonstration; Aegis sept keeps up by presenting Guardians — first in line of battle robots coordinated by programmable AI, which are known as Bygones in AW era.
New races:
1 BW
An event known as Kindling, which resulted in heavy casualties among personnel and research subjects, happens in NRC. The incident was contained almost immediately, but no reports of it remain; two main theories about what happened are: first manifest of a Demon by esper, or a riot.
A week later, last module of Mover of Planets is successfully launched from a platform near Galvana Science City.
Year 0
There’s nothing to fear. — High Chancellor Danton, speech on Conflagration, Metropolis, Year 0
After Kindling, High Council promised to shut down NRC as soon as its subjects undergo rehabilitation. Many believe that its personnel continued their research instead; whatever the case, three month later the facility was almost completely destroyed during Conflagration. In just one day, hundreds of Demons were manifested by espers, who neither wanted nor, in most cases, could control what they gave birth to. The ensuing conflict of espers, Demons and Tetrians became known as War, possibly the shortest one in history of Kyos. It was a one-sided battle that Kyosians lost; rather than having to deal with organized attack from outside, Tetrian military had to fight a horde of rampaging creatures, even one of which posed significant threat, pouring from within. In less then a year, Kyos lost two-thirds of its population and all of its major cities and outposts.
New races:
1 AW
A year has passed since Conflagration, and what was left of organized Tetrian resistance fought on south-eastern part of Kyos, farthest from NRC. There, a group of scientists led by Norma Tali, who was working on evacuation plan, had accidentally discovered a source of energy which, when harnessed in a certain way, was capable of producing a defensive field impassible to Demons. They called it Axis, and within a month Talis mounted a defensive dome around one of their outposts near Swamps of Kes. That was the first dome city (DC) of after-War Kyos.
2 AW
The immediate solution was to launch more Axis domes; however, it was soon discovered that they effectively eliminate single, objective reality outside all over Kyos and near its borders. The effect was proportionate to the amount of consumed energy, so it was clear that if Kyosians intend to create other domes, they should do so simultaneously; otherwise, any coordinated effort would be impossible.
Several Axis-rich locations, which were inter-connected by remaining railways (Demons’ inexplicable phobia of trains was already known and exploited at the time), were chosen for delivery of generators and randomly distributed in what was later called Hades’ Lottery. Over 20 groups, some of which were led by families previously presiding in High Council, left for their destinations; however, Somas, who drew a short straw and had to position themselves in western part of High Pass, launched their generators before coordinated time, effectively abandoning everyone who was still on their way. As a result, only six more domes were created; objective reality outside all seven domes (or simply Outside from then on) failed, and the event became known as Collapse.
You’ll be able to find out more about how objective and subjective realities on Kyos work in Red Crown. Knowledge, I say!
12 AW
Very soon Kyosians learned that Demons aren’t the only threat to their existence on the continent. Several groups, who were unable to reach their destination after Hades’ lottery, found themselves in or near other Axis-rich areas during Collapse. Their attempts to launch Axis generators after the event failed (just as any that came after), but the areas still sustained objective reality, so they founded small settlements in hopes that sooner or later, help will come. Almost ten years later, some of those camps managed to establish communication with DCs, which is where official reports about them come from; unfortunately, almost all were soon wiped out during The Scourge, mass exodus of Corrupted from all regions of Kyos to Flavia. These seemingly mindless creatures, which are suspected to have evolved from humans who were Outside when Collapse happened, were known to Kyosians before, but in ten years they appeared to have obtained leadership under more advanced of their kind, such as Banshees, Liches and Deaths, who were able (perhaps due to their origin) to move between subjective realities and organized themselves in groups which grew larger by day. Corrupted were unaffected by Axis, so Kyosians, worn out by War, had little to counter them with. It was pure luck that none of the domes stood between largest mobs and their destination.
New race:
Around 50 AW
We discovered that, for some strange reason, we were never alone in old trains; makes one think about whether Axis even existed before War. And we traveled safely, even if getting tickets was hard. “Runs are full,” they always said; you had to buy one weeks in advance. I remember how Talis discovered Axis-rich area while planting their garden; with little effort it could sustain objective reality and provide some protection, which turned out to be bad news for espers, as they were quickly exiled out of the city into this new settlement. A lot of those popped out later, but only few lasted long enough to get themselves an esper or two to shoo especially pesky Demons away. Inside domes, we moved on foot, but there were news from Mira about some new thing they found which could bring cars back. Hades, I’m one of the few who at least remembers how they look; you know, someone told to me once that Tetra will be gone forever once its last citizen dies, and I feel like this time is coming soon. — Nod Artas, Memoirs of War Correspondent, 57 AW
52 AW
Several attempts at portable Axis drives are discovered on black markets of Mira DC; they are confiscated by authorities and reverse engineered for industrial use. Since Axis is more readily available than most other energy sources, their appearance allows for restoration of civilian public and private transport and military vehicles; the latter have become known as machines.
≈70 to ≈120 AW
End of the first post-War century and beginning of the second are known as “Age of Restoration”, the reason for this name being (primarily) recovery of science and industry to Year 0 standards. Kyosians were still very limited in their attempts to re-discover areas Outside, but, just like combustion engine in its time, Axis drives made a major impact on overall progress. And since Collapse made large-scale armed conflicts nigh impossible, after a while septs have managed to agree on all vital areas of interaction between domes: transportation (intradome travel infrastructure was well-established and operated smoothly), communication (continent-wide Mesh network was restored to working condition), trade and finance (common currency called lot and a set of rules regulating trade between DCs and settlements were introduced around 100 AW).
132 AW
Aldi Goffel, an Artasian scientist researching Corrupted, invents Flux — a device which allows its carrier to move between subjective realities outside Axis domes.
148 AW
Representatives of every major family gather in Tali DC to finalize a set of rules which regulate relations between cities in an exhaustive number of scenarios. As a result of this discussion, a treaty known as Logan’s Law is signed by all of them.
Around 150 AW
Flux opened the door to Kyos slightly: one explorer (or hunter, as many of them called themselves) can only go so far. Larger part of the continent was accurately mapped for the first time, and many locations which Kyosians would claim during Age of Expansion two centuries later were first re-discovered. Machines have undergone significant transformation: whereas previously every attempt was made to make them as versatile as possible, Flux allowed for their specialization, which resulted in a more diverse line-up. But most importantly, many more Kyosians volunteered to become either members of PSFs of dome corps, which were often tasked with Outside missions, or independent hunters, which, according to a current article from Logan’s Law, “do not always act in everyone’s interests, but ultimately do more good than harm as a whole”.
207 AW
Androids became public knowledge in 203 AW; it was speculated that they appeared on Ilyon several years earlier, but there’s no evidence to establish the exact year. Kyos kept very limited trade relations with Ilyon and states to the north, but androids were never officially imported; Ilyon banned them soon after start of mass production. However, in 205 AW smugglers from Mira once again spearheaded progress on Kyos by managing to obtain several units, which were confiscated and reverse-engineered. Technology required to manufacture them followed soon after, and first android, named Ingo, was produced on Kyos in 207 AW.
New race:
212 AW
Ilyon was the most advanced civilization on Aya by third century AW according to Kyosian calendar. Its many countries were finally united under banner of Adrion, and few questioned its financial, scientific and military leadership. Especially not Kyos, who, according to a mocking remark by one of Adrionian diplomats, was by then an observer rather than a participant.
If Kyosians, who never really learned to love outsiders despite having suffered their own demise from within, heard his comment, they’d probably “observed” Calm with even less compassion then they did. In just an hour, every living thing completely disappeared from Ilyon, leaving no explanation as to what happened behind.
Miras, Talis and other septs have sent joint expeditions to Ilyon; they failed at their main goal, but scientists from the first of them, after having walked silent streets of Adrionian cities, gave Calm its name.
235 AW
Helmsmen company, which will later grow into Helmsmen group, largest weapon manufacturer on Kyos, is established in Ares DC by a number of shareholders, which include representatives of Ares and Artas septs.
238 AW
Arthur Soma, younger brother of his sept’s elder at the time, returns from his journey to The Void with esper Elara Quinn to claim that he has evidence of Ilyon’s agents financing and directing research at NRC. Despite this evidence never being shown to the public, the word of it sparks civil unrest in the city; over a thousand of androids, the technology for which came from Ilyon, get dragged out into the streets and literally torn apart. As fires spread, Somians start destroying machines and burning their Axis drives; the riots are so violent that hundreds of citizens die in local conflicts.
Hysteria, as Somians themselves later called it, lasts for three months. Even after agitation quiets down, in part by force and in part out of exhaustion, Somas take measures to ensure their own safety and the safety of their people: they radically reduce number of androids allowed in the city, limit import of Axis drives and access to Mesh, establish communes for pure Kyosians and close almost half of synthetics clinics.
≈260 AW
There were accounts of sightings of demonspawn long before 260 AW; some even go as far as to suggest they appeared during Year 0 events, but credible historians think it unlikely. However, it was only then that a small settlement of these creatures was found in Axis-reach area by a group of fluxed hunters from Nova near one of Javelin river sources (ironically, this was not far from the place where March of the Damned ended — see below). Intentions of both parties were peaceful, and contact was soon established.
After several months of communication with demonspawn and other septs, Novas produced a relocation plan which was approved by all parties involved. Demonspawn were moved to a temporary camp; based on information they provided, a campaign was launched to find and move other groups. They were to stay there until Pions finish construction of a second dome, adjunct to their existing one (and, since it was otherwise impossible, powered by the same Axis generator) — a project which was financed by joint effort of various septs and large companies, including rapidly growing Helmsmen. This was hardly a charitable venture — each investor pursued their own agenda — but to Demonspawn this was a promised land, so they cared little about underlying motives and more and more of them flocked to temporary settlement.
New race:
295-312 AW
Demonspawn were provided with several flux generator prototypes; these devices, which were being developed by Mirians at the time, allowed for a bubble of single subjective reality to be produced anywhere Outside. Like Axis-rich areas, they didn’t provide any protection from Demons, which is why temporary camp was set in western end of Low Pass not far from Nova.
Pions started their construction in 295 AW; second dome took almost two decades to complete, during which time the population of the camp grew to several thousand demonspawn.
312-314 AW
In 312 AW, Chad Pion, elder of his sept at the time, declared he doesn’t intend to cede second dome to demonspawn, motivating it by various social and financial issues the dome faced at the time. Instead, he suggested a renovation of Old Metropolis, which could be provided with unified subjective reality by already well-developed flux field generators. Chad offered Pions’ full financial support, but Daniel, a demonspawn representative, left the negotiations outraged. He returned to camp and rallied his people to reclaim what they believed was rightfully theirs. A crusade was started, which became known as March of the Damned.
Demonspawn dismounted ff-generators, which allowed them to move as an army rather then in small groups. Since Nova, which stood between them and Pion and would not tolerate the offense, posed too much of a threat, they decided to circumvent Low Pass and attack from the east, gathering additional forces on the way. By the time they reached mountains surrounding Javelin river, it became clear that their path suggests “stops” at Mira and Tali; septs of both domes abandoned talks which were held by Novas in order to reach a peaceful solution and mounted a counter-attack, using the same strategy as demonspawn to stay unified. As a result, Daniel’s army was pushed back and ultimately defeated in Battle at the foot of Aegis in 314 AW, the largest conflict Outside on Kyos since Year 0, and remaining demonspawn were scattered over the Eastern Plains.
“Fear the fallen”, huh? Better think about the living.
300-400 AW
Fourth century AW is known as Age of Expansion. Flux fields allowed Kyosians to send large groups to previously unexplored locations, even if those weren’t rich with Axis; despite not being able to establish domes there, new generators had at least sustained unified reality. Many pre-War structures, such as Stargazer and Aegis Castle, were refitted for military purposes, while several others, like Parker Dam, were built entirely from scratch. Kyosians also continued to actively explore their own continent, which resulted in both re-discovery of several known locations (such as finding of Northern Star by Arthur Soma in 330 AW) and mapping of entirely new points of interest.
Unfortunately, some of these expeditions led to local conflicts; since Kyosians were no longer bound as much by frailty of their carefully constructed habitat, they began settling disputes by fighting rather than negotiating. Kate Wars, which started from Kate Artas demanding Talis to return artifacts their party found in Artas Estate and ended in destruction of Tali-Artas railway, is probably the most notable example of such conflict. To be fair, the result did cool Kyosian heads a bit.
416 AW
Talis sent last expedition to Ilyon in 322 AW, and it found no signs of life. However, in less than a hundred years Mirians were shocked to discover sentient penguins, who claimed to have come from there, literally at their own door. Having managed to survive…
Having managed to overcome seemingly insurmountable dangers, my brave brethren landed on inhospitable shores of Kyos. Naturally, their majestic bearing struck terror in its denizens. So travelers explained: “Do not be afraid, we come in peace. We come as pilgrims.” Unfortunately, mainlanders are not very bright and it took them a while to understand what’s going on, but their prisons aren’t so bad.
New race:
Around 450 AW
We felt that Kyos was well-established: it learned to defend itself, had a common currency and relations between domes were open and regulated. That feeling of wonder our predecessors explored Kyos with faded somewhat, but remained strong. We had our own marvels: dark marbles which appear out of nowhere, gatherings of unallocated androids at Terminus, pinz on pilgrimages. That was also the time some started saying we should leave, get back to evacuation plan forgotten so long ago, but who would listen to them? Talis had just completed their War tunnel; a miracle constructed by train which was outfitted with hundreds of cranes, large and small. Who’d want to leave something like that behind? Not Ilyonians, ha-ha! — Madi Soul (VP of AmpArms), interview to Nova Stand, 492 AW
≈470-480 AW
During first half of fifth century AW, Mira was plagued by inner struggles of its sept and series of scandals surrounding TFX corporation. The situation changed when Jacob Mira, younger son of late Stafford Mira, came to power in 469 AW. First ten years of his leadership are known as city’s Second Renaissance: Mira almost tripled its export of goods, restored poorly serviced Mira Platform to full power, thus eliminating rising competition in other DCs and even (imagine that!) settlements, and introduced important regulations to its inner markets, which helped drastically reduce the number of accidents caused by illegal mods. Jacob is also known for opening and supporting several pilgrimage hotels and bars, which made him a popular figure among pinz.
483 AW
Events of Red Crown take place.
502 AW
Veins of Felandrite, a combustive rock, are discovered to the south of High Pass. Several corporations make a joint effort to extract Felandrite at a newly established mining site called Gambler’s Fallacy, but run into many difficulties which ultimately force them to abandon the project.
At the same time in Nova DC, events of Minotaur take place.
518 AW
Vyne Lockheart, an ambitious manager, gets a job at Helmsmen’s new ERD (experimental research division) in Ares DC.
523 AW
Soma DC is destroyed; Baal, a Demon from The Void, ravages its last train to Nova.
New age comes with The Fall of Kyos.