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Standard Sci-Fi History
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Back in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, a rough outline of the future began to form. It was largely hinted at in various stories that shared many common attributes. Whether or not this was done consciously is unknown, but the fans noticed the trends and pieced it together. Thus formed a common "future history". The Standard Sci Fi History is a broad template — it allowed writers to suggest at a common reference the audience would understand. The savvy reader would notice these hints, and understand the background to the setting. This avoided bogging the tale down when trying to explain everything. Although the details greatly vary, the outline was basically the same: 0. Development of the Earth Sphere Mankind reaches and fully explores the Moon. Space Stations, Space Elevators, and even Colonies may be erected in orbit around the Earth, and bases and colonies constructed on the Moon. Apart from the oldest SF, none of the worlds explored are humanly habitable, so travel to other worlds in the system will be very limited. Forays to the Asteroid Belt to gather resources are typically the farthest frontier. Intra-orbit travel is typically done in a few hours from closer Lagrange points, with maybe a day at the farthest distances. 1. Exploration and Colonization of the Solar System Humanity explores Venus, Mars, and the Outer Solar System. Earth is always a looming presence. While travel times may be immense, space trips are common and a message can always reach Earth in under a day. Terraforming and colonization of Mars and possibly Venus has begun in earnest, and Space Colonies are usually popping up around Jupiter and the other Gas Giants to harvest their bounty. Typical plots also include the colonies starting Wars of Independence from Earth. 2. World War III Disaster strikes (often nuclear war), and Earth is devastated, bringing most modern nations to ruin. This may also be triggered by or resulting in an environmental collapse or deadly pandemic or famine. When the Apocalypse occurs can actually vary, sometimes after Interstellar Colonization, sometimes before Spaceflight, sometimes during the Decline of the Empire. But often, a devastating war occurs in the beginning of the timeline. No matter how bad it gets, Earth and humanity eventually recover. Whenever it happens, it serves to wipe the political map clean, removing all modern day nations as players. If the timespan till the next phase is long enough, multiple wars may be used to fill the centuries in-between. See also The War of Earthly Aggression. 3. Interstellar Exploration and Colonization Superficially similar to #1, only spreading out to the Stars. Unlike #1, the focus is on inhabitable worlds, and contact with Earth is difficult at best. There's no phoning home for advice when the message round trip would take years. Lost colonies were typically founded during this phase. This is also the period during which faster than light travel is generally invented. 4. Alien Contact Humanity makes First Contact. This can happen at any point. It's placed for here for convenience, since the best known Alien Contact tales occur before the Empire forms. But it may happen in the earlier steps as well. The precise sub-genre depends largely on whether the aliens are technologically inferior, comparable, or superior to humanity, and whether or not they are hostile, but it ranges from Alien Invasion to humans playing star-god. 5. The Cycle of Empires Formation of Empire At this point, the independent human and/or alien worlds unite for whatever reason. Sometimes they join together for a common defense, perhaps for cultural or economic reasons, or by force. The result is the birth and expansion of a new government. Note: Empire doesn't have to mean The Empire (although it often does). It could be The Federation, The Republic, or the rise of interstellar civilization. The First Empire is often centered on Earth. Empire at its Height Here, civilization is at its apex, showing the best qualities and values. Technology is highly advanced and there is order. The Pax Galactica reigns - a long period of peace and prosperity throughout space (on the surface at least). During the Interregnum, people will look back to this time as a Golden Age. The various iterations of empire differ slightly. The first is the most optimistic period. The Second Empire is generally wiser and more benevolent, but is also aware that empires can fall. In the Golden Age, the Second Empire was often also the Final Empire. Third and later empires are essentially the same setting as the Second Empire, but the higher number serves to imply an old galaxy, not locked in stasis. Whichever iteration it is, authors rarely focus much on the Empire itself. Presumably there's simply not enough action. Tales set during this period typically focus on exploration of unknown space, or small scale dramas - the kind of events that might shake a solar system, but go completely unnoticed by the larger galaxy. If this period doesn't turn out to be the Final Empire, eventually the edifice begins to crack, leading to: Decline and Fall The Empire begins to decay, often due to decadency and corruption. Outer provinces begin to revolt, barbarians begin to invade, internal conflict increases. At the end of this phase, the Empire is but a shadow of itself. Expect this phase to bear at least a passing familiarity to Edward Gibbon's seminal text or Gibbon's own successors, though exceptions have been known to exist. Interregnum Interstellar trade and communication fails, final demise of the former Empire, knowledge and technology is lost, rise of petty wars and kingdoms. Overall, not a great place to live. A lot of Space Opera tales are set in this stage. Rarely, this can end with humanity's extinction. Renaissance Rebirth of civilization. Interstellar trade and communications resume, and the seeds of a new Empire are planted. From here, the history can circle round back to Formation of Empire. Otherwise, it leads up to: 5A. The Galactic Community Alternately, Humanity may find itself surrounded by other alien empires. This is the Standard Sci Fi Setting, with intrigue and war looming ever present in the background. The Cycle of Empires may be applied to a race of Precursors whom have left influences on some or all of the races of the area. 6. The Final Empire During the final empire, humanity/interstellar civilization becomes highly civilized, peace reigns, and humanity explores the ultimate questions (God, Life, and the Universe). Note that all empires at their zenith do this kind of thing. It is just at this stage, humanity can confront such questions directly. This period can only be distinguished from previous empires when its future is mapped out. 7. Humanity's Final Fate Humanity Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence or mysteriously vanishes/goes extinct. Sometimes this could lead to the literal End of History. |
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Empire from the Ashes: Set during the Interregnum following the fall of the Fourth Empire, the story witnesses the formation of the Fifth Imperium. The reason of the constant Declines and Fall (invasion of Genocidal aliens), may be solved, and may prevent another relapse of history | |
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In the Para Imperium verse three parahuman colonies in the Belt sent seed ships to Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani, and Epsilon Indi shortly before Berserker probes home in on Earth's radio signals, destroy all life in Sol, and manage to intercept the Indi ship. The exosolar colony ships that make it abandon radio and hide for the next thousand years. Then Alpha Centauri develops quantum entangled comms and wormholes and begins to build an empire. | |
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"The Last Question": This story starts while humanity begins to master solar energy, then skips ahead to humanity colonizing multiple planets, then again to galaxies and then to the entire universe, ending with the heat death of the universe and the start of the next. | |
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Master of Orion has this trope almost to the letter for its backstory (albeit for Precursors aliens, not humanity), then plays through a fresh cycles of empires in each game of the franchise. The first game has a new empire growing out of the ashes of the Precursors, the second assumes this all ended in tears and starts things again, while the third is set after a faction of Abusive Precursors returned and set up their own empire which is now in decline and ready to either be knocked down or taken over by the player. | |
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The X-Universe has gone through The Cycle of Empire twice. In both cases, the Decline and Fall was due to somebody creating artificial general intelligence. The first time around, the Terrans nearly destroyed themselves, only surviving because the commander of their space navy lured the terraformers through the Earth jumpgate, which was destroyed behind them. The survivors of said commander's fleet created a new civilization in the X-Universe, the Argon Federation. In the 2940s, threatened by Earth's superior military, the Argon created AGI warships and unleashed them on the Terrans, sparking an interstellar war that forced the Community of Planets the Argon were a part of to divert the military forces holding the terraformers (now called the Xenon) at bay. The Xenon went out of control, forcing the Old Ones to shut down the jumpgate system. This caused Galactic/Societal Collapse. X: Rebirth is set during the Interregnum about thirty years later. | |
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All Tomorrows: Humans colonize Mars, then there's a civil war between Mars and Earth. Afterwards, humanity colonizes many star systems, only to be conquered by the Qu, who use genetic engineering to forcibly evolve them into grotesque forms. The Qu leave, and over tens of millions of years some of these species re-evolve sapience and develop interstellar communication again. Then the Second Galactic Empire is destroyed by the Gravital, who forcibly mutate the survivors. They pick a fight with the Asteromorphs, who defeat them and promote a new era of cooperation between the surviving species, sometimes taking on a God Guise. | |
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Space Battleship Yamato is set when a Human civilization at Colonized Solar System is attacked by an Interstellar civilization. | |
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The Expanse starts out in the solar system colonization stage with Earth and Mars in a cold war and the Belters caught in between. Meanwhile the Church of Latter-Day Saints is building a Generation Ship. However the balance of power is upset with the introduction of an extrasolar "protomolecule" that converts a couple Belter settlements into Meat Moss and creates a stargate near Uranus, while the Belters take advantage of the chaos to form the Outer Planets Alliance. The setting then moves into exploration and colonization of the Precursors' Portal Network opened by the protomolecule. | |
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∀ Gundam is set during an Interregnum. | |
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Arthur C.Clarke's "Childhood's End" bizarrely jumps from Stage 1 to Stage 4 and then horrifyingly to Stage 7 without any gaps in between. His short story "The Nine Billion Names of God" is even worse, ending at Stage 7 for the entire Universe without any hint that humans have even reached Stage 1. | |
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Twilight Imperium is set in between two Cycles of Empires, or perhaps in an Interregnum period due to the warring player factions. The game is preceded by the "Dark Years" where each faction retreated to their home-system after a incredibly brutal deposition of the previous Empire, the Lazax - and there is evidence that they weren't even the first Empire due to the presence of artifacts from a race called the Ixth. | |
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CoDominium manages to delay World War III until the interstellar colonization stage, thanks to the titular American-Soviet alliance. When the CoDominium does fall apart, Earth is rendered barely inhabitable, and there is no unifying human government until Sparta conquers all the other colonies. Also, first contact occurs during the time of the second Spartan Empire. Several of Pournelle's High Justice stories are set during the Exploration and Colonization of the Solar System. Perhaps thinking of this trope, the publishers had assumed that the stories were prequels to the CoDominium series. The author disagreed. |
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The Final Empire period is parodied in Big Finish Doctor Who as "the vulgar end of time", when all the great questions have been answered, and the sentient races of the galaxy are essentially sitting around wondering what to do next. | |
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Escape Velocity Nova's official timeline only goes back as far as stage 3. The Colonial Council colonized much of the galaxy. Then it began to crumble due to a string of wars. The deathblow was the Armetis terrorists' destruction of the Sol hypergate, which caused many of the others to be destroyed, cutting the member systems off from each other. The Renaissance began when physicists rediscovered how to build hyperdrives, allowing humanity to reform interstellar governments. Things have since solidified into a fairly Standard Sci Fi Setting. Most of the endings report that humanity reaches stage seven several thousand years after the end of the game and Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence, while all but two — and one of those two still hints at it with a mention of an "era of peace and unification" — mention the establishment of a Second Empire, though the nature of it and how quickly it is established after the end of the game varies, from just under two centuries later to technically during the endgame. | |
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Stargate SG-1: Hinted in the Stargate universe, where the Ancients had left their home galaxy, colonized the Solar System, ushered a Golden Age, and then declined. Although, the Ancients end up reaching a Final Fate. Thanks to the Stargates Earth humans have skipped Exploration of the Solar System and World War III and are effectively in Interstellar Exploration, while planets of Transplanted Humans are at various other stages (the few that have spaceflight). The Asgard had reached The Final Empire, but thanks to the Replicators and genetic defects, they're in decline. In fact, the only Asgard still confirmed alive are the members of the breakaway Vanir faction in the Pegasus Galaxy, whose unethical experiments on humans allowed them to stave off genetic degradation. | |
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Arrivals from the Dark starts with the exploration of the Solar System, but this is cut short by the arrival of hostile Human Aliens (putting the fourth stage here), who proceed to blow away Earth's primitive Space Navy and are only stopped thanks to the intervention of a shapeshifting observer from another race. World War III is skipped, although the first two books mention that the struggle of the Western world against the global terrorism is reaching new heights, with terrorists using fusion bombs to devastating effect, although their activities are limited to Earth. Presumably, the third stage (achieved thanks to Imported Alien Phlebotinum) allows many of the dissatisfied to move off-world, lessening much of the tension. The expansion and colonization of new worlds results in the formation of The Federation, although much of its history is rife with wars with other galactic powers. Unlike most examples, there doesn't appear to be any decline phase here. Throughout the series, the Federation is steadily growing in power, despite the conflicts and, eventually, although it takes centuries, becomes a superpower in our neck of the woods (i.e. the Orion Arm), with every other aggressive expansionist race limping away to their worlds with bloody noses. However, despite handily defeating the aliens, humanity does its best to make peace with them, knowing that, barring total genocide (which is entirely off the table), good diplomacy is the best chance of preventing follow-up wars, and tries to establish as many economic and cultural ties as possible. The Trevelyan's Mission spin-off series showcases the Federation at its height, sending envoys to primitive worlds to attempt to uplift them and bring them to the stars. It's heavily implied that humanity is being groomed to replace the former Precursors, who became Abusive Precursors and vanished after a What Have I Done epiphany. | |
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Dune: The background history of the Imperium tends to follow this trend. The Buterlian Jihad serves the role of World War III by resetting the political and technological situation. The Corrino-led Imperium serves as the First Empire, and the Paul/Leto II regimes as the Second Empire. It's one of the few examples in which the Second Empire follows up the first without an Interregnum—although arguably the Fremen Jihad establishing Paul's regime over resisting parts of the Imperium serve in its place. The collapse of the Atreides Imperium is followed by an Interregnum known as "the Scattering", in which humanity spreads beyond the galaxy. The Bene Gesserit-Honored Matres-Tleilaxu contention in Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune are intended (according to Herbert's notes) to set up the establishment of a democratic Third Empire under the aegis of the Bene Gesserit (who have incorporated the Honored Matres). | |
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Halo seems to be heading in the Cycle of Empires direction since 343 Industries took over: The Precursors founded the first empire, created all known life in the galaxy, and may have been (emphasis on the "may") a bunch of all-around assholes thanks to their penchant for (allegedly) wiping out lesser species. After the first decay and collapse, they were replaced by one of their creations, the Forerunners, who made their own empire in the image of the one that came before. They even took-up the Mantle, sorta like a combination of the Marshall Plan and the Mandate of Heaven. The Forerunners also proved to be a bunch of all-around asshole jerkwads, especially towards this tasteful, fashionable, and attractive young species called 'Humanity'. Right now, the great hope of the Forerunners (or what's left of them) is that the tasteful, fashionable, and attractive young species called Humanity will found the third and final empire, one far greater than the two empires that came before them combined and that which will create a spectacular new Golden Age as nobody and their aunt and uncle has ever seen before. All they have to do is stop the local Eldritch Abomination from eating everything. However, given the sum history of Humanity, the third empire will probably just be more of the same. Of course, from humanity's point of view, their First Empire stage was actually during the time of the Precursors, as the ancient humans have carved out a fairly large interstellar empire together with their San'Shyuum (future Covenant Prophets) allies. Unfortunately, they got on the bad side of the Forerunners and were wiped out, all traces of their empire gone. Besides the "Cycle of Empires" stuff, "modern" humanity's history is a pretty close fit of the first four points on the standard timeline: Humanity colonized the Sol System, then fought a series of Interplanetary Wars which led to the establishment of the United Earth Government (UEG) and United Nations Space Command (UNSC) as humanity's main governing bodies, then developed the Shaw-Fujikawa engine which allowed them to go FTL and commence interstellar colonization, and then eventually made First Contact with an alien hegemony who tried to wipe them out. After humanity survives the war, the UNSC begins to establish itself as a major power in the Orion Arm, and even make alliances with former Covenant races. However, there is one deviation from the standard example; the UNSC has had continual trouble keeping its colonies in line, with Insurrectionists everywhere and several colonies which have become autonomous or outright seceded. |
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In Sword of the Stars humanity discovered node-space while rebuilding after WWIII and was just launching their first colony ship when the Hivers showed up and started bombarding earth. After barely managing to fight off the Hivers, Solforce embarked on a campaign of aggressive expansion, incidentally the Liir and Zuul are building their own empires at the same time, while the Tarka had lapsed into decadence and the Hivers and Morrigi have started to emerge from an Interregnum. As shown in the sequel, in the case of the Liir, they are actually rebuilding after a war with their own crazed Elders, whom they have labelled Suul'ka. Those same Suul'ka are responsible for the creation of the Zuul and the devastation of the Morrigi. The Hivers themselves constantly engage in inter-clan warfare, resulting in entire systems being destroyed, so they keep repeating parts of the cycle. | |
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In the Mass Effect series, humanity is a relative newcomer to galactic civilization, with the First Contact War being humanity's first encounter with an alien species when human explorers try to activate a dormant Mass Relay, though all-out war is prevented when the Council intervenes and brokers peace between the two sides. It is later revealed that galactic civilization in this series has happened over and over and over, with civilization after civilization rising, reaching its technological peak, and then being wiped out by the Reapers, a very Abusive Precursor race of Living Ships/Eldritch Abominations that have lived for billions of years, and Commander Shepard has to stop the latest cycle of this from wiping out humanity and the other races of the galaxy. | |
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Traveller follows this with several cultures. At the default time of the GURPS version, the Third Imperium is old and seemingly stable but the frontiers are chaotic and incompletely explored. Though the First Imperium was actually founded by Transplanted Humans from the planet Vland and Earth achieved jump drive during its decline and quickly surpassed it technologically to conquer the Vilani and establish the short-lived Second Imperium. The Third Imperium originated from a combined Vilani/Solomani colony known as Sylea 1500 years into the post-Second Imperium Long Night and in the (discontinued) MegaTraveller continuity persisted for 1116 years before the emperor's assassination led to an apocalyptic civil war. | |
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The To Ride Pegasus and Tower and the Hive universe is a variant, taking place in the early stages. World War III is skipped, the Talents take the lead in both Exploration and Colonization phases, and a functional United World smoothly segues into a Star League (the First Empire) well before First Contact. The latter series is about First Contact with both hostile and peaceful aliens. | |
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Star Trek: The background history of Earth. 20th/21st Century humans play the role of the First Empire, World War III occurs and everything collapses. Then following the Interregnum (the aptly named Post-Atomic Horror), First Contact is made. Humanity begins to explore the Stars. Eventually, this leads to the formation of the Federation. There are hints that Humanity may reach Stage 6 and 7 in the far future. | |
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Alien in a Small Town is set at Stage 4. The solar system is heavily colonized, there were at least two huge wars generations ago which have given way to a time of relative peace, and we've established diplomatic relations with a few alien races as we have begun traveling out into interstellar space. | |
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Gundam: Most series are typically set within a colonized Earth Sphere, and moving into Exploration and Colonization of the Solar System...and sadly jump into World War III. ∀ Gundam is set during an Interregnum. The Universal Century faces multiple World War III scenarios before The Federation finally collapses, and most of the post-One-Year-War series show a Decline and Fall motif. Mobile Suit Victory Gundam borders on an Interregnum, as while the Federation theoretically exists, it's unable to control its own space and even local defense is left to a militia force. |
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The Empire Novels: The galaxy is getting explored (by Settlers) and small empires are rising from expanding warlords, such as the Tyranni (see The Stars, Like Dust). Due to Earth's unusual radioactive crust, it is despised and ignored by the galactic community. The Spacer worlds are forgotten, while the Trantorian Empire would conquer all the known galaxy, renaming itself the Galactic Empire. | |
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Known Space: Often shows the exploration of Solar System and Interstellar Space, as well as Alien Contact. | |
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BattleTech: The game itself is set during the Interregnum, following the demise of the Star League. Up to that point, humanity had gone through Solar and Interstellar exploration, Formation, Decline, and Interregnum. Currently, the game wobbles between Renaissance and Interregnum. For the most part, Alien Contact has been avoided. Semi-intelligent aliens have shown up twice in the fiction- once as a minor incident in the early novel "Sword and Dagger" with a primate-like species known as the pinkies that may or may not have had tool using ability, and once as a major plot point of "Far Country", with a species of intelligent birdlike aliens that had Stone Age technology. "Far Country" has frequently been criticized over this point, and the head of production for BattleTech has stated repeatedly that the intention is to keep the game about different human empires fighting, not to make it a humans vs aliens game. The opening cinematic of the 2018 video game is a brief overview of humanity's history from the discovery of Jump drive to the fall of the Star League. |
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A second series of his fits this pattern as well — the Technic History stories set in the Polesotechnic League of Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn and subsequent Terran Empire of Dominic Flandry. | |
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Standard Sci-Fi History | |
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Foundation Series: The Prequel books take place while the Galactic Empire is at its peak. The first story (in publication order) is "The Encyclopedists", where the decay has allowed the territories at the edge of the empire to declare themselves independent nations. While the first Galactic Empire collapses, the focus is on the accelerated growth of the second galactic empire. This accelerated growth will minimize the Interregnum, reducing the "Long Night" to only about a thousand years. However, The Plan is disrupted, and Foundation and Earth decides that humanity's final fate is to become a galaxy-wide shared intelligence to protect against potential intergalactic alien threats. | |
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The History of the Galaxy follows this trope for the most part. World War III is barely mentioned, followed by the emergence of One World Order. Then the Solar System is settled. FTL is discovered, which leads to a massive extrasolar colonization effort, during which Lost Colonies are created. A devastating War of Earthly Aggression follows, resulting in the formation of The Federation (First Empire). After a millennium of rule and exploration, it collapses due to internal strife and the inherent inequality of the colonies. The official First Contact happens during the First Empire stage. During the Interregnum period, a surprise attack by a previously-unknown alien race cuts off many worlds from communication and nearly spells doom for humanity. A few brave individuals manage to repel the invaders. This convinces the disparate colonies that The Federation needs to be reformed (Second Empire stage). At this moment (the author keeps writing), The Federation shows no signs of weakening. Some races have managed to reach a Final Fate, but humans aren't likely to give up their bodies any time soon, although Imported Alien Phlebotinum allows humans to preserve their consciousness after death, and cloning tech can, theoretically, grant Resurrective Immortality to humanity. However, knowing how this practice had affected a Human Alien race, they are cautious about allowing this. | |
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Starfinder glosses over phase I and II with The Gap. They happened, just that the millenia or three between Starfinder and Pathfinder was lost in what seems to've been a galaxy-wide blast of amnesia around three centuries prior to the game's present day. Shortly after, the new god Triune gave them Drift Drive and contact was made with the Vrex in the neighboring system. | |
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Futurama plays this template completely straight: the Universe at large is portrayed as the Empire At Its Height, but (with the exception of obvious higher tech) is meant to be a straight analogy to the triumphs and conflicts of our present civilization, rather than being any kind of utopia or dystopia. Interstellar travel is so casual, any being with a decent enough ship can travel to the edge of the Universe and back in the span of a week, not unlike a globe-trotting vacation that can be taken in the 21st century. Aliens, humans, robots and everything in-between co-exist (relatively) peacefully. The Federation is present (though it isn't perfect), and alien invasions aren't really an Outside-Context Problem; they're actually so common that Earthlings can do it without even realizing they're the aggressors. The thousand years between Fry's freezing and reawakening isn't clear, but offhand comments from the characters imply everything between Exploration and Decline has already happened twice, and have only now worked their way back into Height. Going forward, we see several different Final Empires, and by the year 1,000,000,000, Stage 7 has set and all life is extinct. | |
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Fading Suns pretty much follows this pattern too. Averts the World War III part by going for corporatocratic period instead, though Earth still becomes an Insignificant Little Blue Planet (aside from being the home of the largest religion, similar to Rome). The game is set at the dawn of the third imperial period, in a sense: The first "empire" was the Second Republic, a highly-advanced state that fell apart under its own weight. The second, the Empire of Vladimir Alecto, was aborted when the Emperor was killed at his coronation, but it set the precedent that Alexius Hawkwood would use to build the current Empire. | |
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Orion's Arm has gone through the empire cycle at least once, after the fall of the First Federation Terragen space was divided into several "sephirotic empires". Also the Nanodisaster seems to stand in for WWIII in that it erased all the current nations and drove humanity off Old Earth. | |
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire as part of the back-story of the planet Magrathea. | |
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Warhammer 40,000: The Eldar fell into an interregnum after the destruction of their empire through their own excessive hubris and hedonism scattered them across the galaxy. Humanity are firmly in the "decline and fall" period, continuing to have a single strong government that holds The Empire together despite plenty of internal strife and external threats. The Imperium is actually humanity's second time through the Empire cycle. The first empire, during the Dark Age of Technology rose after the development of the warp drive in the 15th millenium and reached heights the current Imperium has never attained. The first empire declined and fell due to several factors, such as the rebellion of the Men of Iron, the appearance of the first psykers, and the warpstorms caused by Slaanesh's formation cutting off colonies from each other. A 5,000 year interregnum followed after the Fall of the Eldar before the Emperor reunified Earth under his rule and formed the Imperium. A brief golden age followed during the Great Crusade before it was cut short by the Horus Heresy, and the Imperium then stagnated into its current state. The Tau are currently on the ascension of their first empire, although there's little information on what came before it. The Necrons are somewhere between the end of an interregnum and the formation of their second empire - they are in the process of waking from hibernation they were forced into due to the lack of sentient food for their Eldritch Abomination masters, having previously dominated most of the galaxy. Although the exact details of their previous cycle and reasons for hibernation and waking up now depend somewhat on the writer. |
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Warhammer is similar to Warhammer 40,000, what with the latter having started off as the former Recycled In Space. With the end of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and its replacement with Age of Sigmar, Warhammer has effectively become a sci-fi game set in the interregnum following either World War III or the end of the first empire, depending on how you look at it. |
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Eclipse Phase takes place ten years after "The Fall", a combination Robot War and Singularity that left earth a radioactive wasteland patrolled by killer robots. Most of the <1 billion survivors are scattered across the solar system. A couple years after the Fall the Pandora Gates were discovered and used to explore and colonize a few extrasolar planets, shortly after The Factors made contact. Transhumanity is too fragmented for any sort of "empire", though the Planetary Consortium has ambitions towards such, despite the Anarchists attempts to thwart them. | |
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Doctor Who: The original series had the Earth Empire and the Galactic Federation, which apparently succeeded the Empire. The Federation doesn't seem to last, since the show later involves the Second and Fourth Great And Bountiful Human Empires. The Empire also doesn't last. In fact, according to the Editor, there never was a "Fourth Great And Bountiful Human Empire". It was just a smoke screen for the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe, who was also a smoke screen for the Daleks. The Final Empire period is parodied in Big Finish Doctor Who as "the vulgar end of time", when all the great questions have been answered, and the sentient races of the galaxy are essentially sitting around wondering what to do next. |
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A Canticle for Leibowitz: World War III, the Interregnum, and Renaissance. However, the trope is subverted. Instead of showing history as Linear (things keep on getting better), history turns out to be Cyclical, history repeats itself again and again. | |
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Like Gundam, Exo Squad starts off at Exploration and Colonization of the Solar System and leaps into a system wide War. Interestingly, it does have elements of being an Empire At Its Height at the beginning. | |
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Retief hints at this, the CDT playing the role of the Second Empire following the fall of the first human government. There are a few (very minor) hints that the first government was the Terran Concordiat from Laumer's Bolo series, although the tone of the two series' doesn't really mesh. Said stories are also an example themselves, covering a timespan from the start of World War III up to the collapse of the Concordiat in the Final War with the Melconians. | |
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Andromeda: Features the Decline and Interregnum of the Systems Commonwealth. Interestingly, according to the backstory, the Commonwealth is not the First Empire in this case. The Vedran Empire is this. It's only later that the Vedrans decide that The Federation is better than The Empire and reform their government. Also, humanity was contacted and annexed by the Commonwealth towards the end of World War III, they had just sent out a single relativistic exploration ship when aliens offered them slipstream drive. It also manages to avert the "Earth-is-the-center-of-the-universe" cliche, both by all the characters (save the engineer born on Earth) amused at the idea of liberating it because it's become so pitiful. Even to Humans like Beka, "the homeworld" is Tarn-Vedra, not Earth, even 300 years after it has disappeared. The show is ultimately the telling of a Renaissance , in which Humans are the center of the new empire, trying to deal with the absence of the Vedrans that formed the backbone of the last Commonwealth. |
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Stars Without Number has its default setting near the end of an Interregnum, with humanity starting to put interstellar civilization back together again after the Scream destroyed all the jump gates and drove the few psychics it didn't kill hopelessly insane. | |
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Last and First Men: The creation of a world state, the removal of modern cultures and nations from consideration, the cyclic rise and fall of empires and humanity facing its final fate are all duly explored, although the cycle of empires happens across entire species rather than cultures or governments. | |
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Chakona Space features The Federation of the Chakat universe which is at its Height and has hints of being headed for the Decline and Fall. WWIII (also known as the Gene Wars) is mentioned frequently, having apparently killed billions and also resulted in the liberation of gengineered human-animal hybrids, and the eponymous Chakats were designed to aid in the rebuilding. | |
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Star Carrier shows some stages, even though humans only occupy a tiny portion of the galaxy and are engaged in a struggle for survival (and/or freedom) against the oppressive Sh'daar Masters. There is no formal World War III in Earth's history, but there are two Sino-Western Wars (the latter of which ends with a Colony Drop that devastated many coastal cities) and the wars with the terrorist states. The Pax Confederata (AKA the Terran Confederacy) could serve as One World Order, if not for the fact that it doesn't include the Chinese Hegemony and the Islamic Theocracy. Also, not all member nations are happy with the Confederacy, the United States of North America being the most vocal opponent of Confederate policy. While humans are engaged in a war against the vassals of the Sh'daar, the Confederacy schemes to increase its power to become a true One World Order. During the cease-fire between humanity and the Sh'daar, the Confederacy makes a daring grab for power, sparking a war of secession with the USNA and several other member nations. The Chinese and the Muslims side with the USNA in exchange for future favors. The war doesn't last too long and ends with the total collapse of the Confederacy (thanks to a successful information war by the USNA). It all leads to the formation of a new, more inclusive Earth government, albeit a USNA-dominated one. | |
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Stellaris is set in an ancient galaxy with a history of spacefaring life stretching back 12,000,000 years. There were five great Precursor empires that are all long gone, and there's also a sixth set of empires who are currently long-decayed, with the galaxy itself in an Interregnum as the younger races develop space travel. Many of the younger races didn't survive their World War III, but those that did are positioned to bring about a Renaissance. The Fallen Empires think they are, but their ancient decadence is likely to ensure that any attempt at rebuilding their empire leads to another collapse. | |
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The timeline for Genius: The Transgression is the approximate history of the universe, and seems to cover every possible stage of civilization ever proposed. There are federations, empires and what looks like about a dozen apocalypses. A Trillion years on from now, the remaining species desperately try and revert the heat death of the universe. | |
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Robot Series: This series begins 20 Minutes into the Future, with the positronic brains as a technology that facilitates basic Artificial Intelligence (see "Robbie"). They're used to facilitate humanity's expansion into the solar system (see "Runaround") and eventually develop Hyperspace travel (see "Little Lost Robot" and "Escape!") so that they can expand into the larger galaxy. The division between the space exploring robot users and the bigoted Earthers drives a social wedge between the two groups. The colonies begin to call themselves Spacers to distinguish between themselves and the Earthmen. By the era of Elijah Baley, the loose association of Spacer societies has calcified. Scientists don't share their theories/experiments because they want all the credit for themselves, robots provide all of life's necessities, and there is no threat to struggle against. During this decadence and decay, Baley encourages the overpopulated people of Earth to explore new planets without relying on robots (becoming known as the "Settlers"). Thus, a new era of interstellar exploration is begun while the first "empire" slowly collapses. | |
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Babylon 5: Human history pretty much follows the trope: Exploration, followed by a devastating conflict (the Minbari War), which leads to the formation of the Babylon project. It ushers in a brief peace, until the Shadows begin causing problems again. After a brief Interregnum (The Shadow War and the Clark regime), the governments form the Interstellar Alliance, which is hinted to much more lasting. However, History repeats itself. The Centauri were once a great Empire, but have long been in decline. Though this is reversed when Vir Cotto become the greatest Emperor in Centaurian history. Babylon 5 is probably one of the few examples in which other civilizations have reached The Final Empire and The Final Fate. | |
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1.0 | |
| Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f74b5f80 | |
| Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f95a1dc9 | type |
Standard Sci-Fi History | |
| Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f95a1dc9 | comment |
Space 1889 is in phase I exploration and colonization of the solar system. Unusual in that in this case, first contact and succesful travel to another planet happened very early, 1870 to be exact. | |
| Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f95a1dc9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f95a1dc9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Space 1889 (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Standard Sci-Fi History / int_f95a1dc9 |
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