History of the Astral Web, Part 4

The is the fourth in a series of articles covering the in-world history of the Astral Web. I originally wrote the history as 15 or so eras of history. Rather than make one long post, each era is getting its own post.

All the posts so far have been the “pre-History” of the campaign. No one is sure when those events occurred because they don’t know how much time passed in the sleeper ships. This post begins the “recorded history.” “Year 1” of the campaign calendar begins with the settlement of Dearborn.

The Story so Far

In The First Step, mankind had terraformed Mars, and established settlements there.

In The Departure, mankind decided to send a million settlers to establish life around distant suns.

In Left at Albuquerque, the fleet leaves Earth and is scattered far and wide by some unknown event.

The Awakening (Years 1 - 167)

One of the settler’s ships was commanded by Captain Melissa “Mel” Dearborn. Her situation was typical of the others. She awoke from suspended animation and found herself in charge of a small group of about twenty ships that had somehow become isolated from the main fleet. Afraid, alone, and orbiting a strange new world, she did the only thing she could: she launched the Changeling torpedoes and began to create a new home.

It took almost twenty years for the terraformers to finish, but when they did the new world was ready. Twenty-thousand pioneers stepped foot on their new frontier, and created a home.

Mel been killed by a hornbeast trying to establish the homestead. The settlers named their new world “Dearborn” in her honor.

An Explanation

I view each of the eras to fall into one of three categories: prehistory, playable eras, and bridging eras.

The previous three eras were the prehistory. They’re just setting the stage and providing the context for everything that comes after.

This era is the first of the “actual” history of the Astral Web. It’s what I consider to be a playable era. I think it would be great to set a campaign in this time period. A group of star travelers arriving at a strange new world, with no way to leave and nothing but what they brought with them trying to establish a new home.

“Bridging” era are just pieces of glue that joins the rest together.