Aberrant RPG - Aberrant: Nexus - Complete Timeline

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Okay, folks. Here's what I've managed to hammer out for the Aeon Continuum timeline. Some of the listings will be shorter than others, but that just gives other writers & STs more wiggle room to operate in. I've kept it as generic as possible, so it can be used in all three Aeon Continuum games. Please read & review. If there's any mistakes made or details left out, they'd best be caught now.

The New Century and The Adventure! Era

As per the timeline in the Adventure! core book, pp. 259-262.

Interregnum I - Twilight of the Inspired

The following section covers the period between the Adventure! and Aberrant settings, and focuses on the activities of the Inspired and the circumstances affecting them.

1946: Having been infiltrated by the KGB, the Ponatowski Foundation is taken over from within. The Czar is captured and thouroughly interrogated by KGB agents, only to eventually be reduced to a broken shell of a man and sent to die in the gulags. Princess Anastasia manages to escape to Canada with the majority of the Czar's wealth and information. She shares the information with the Aeon Society in return for their aid in setting up a new identity for her retirement. Back in the U.S.S.R., enough hard information is found to begin what will become the KGB's psychic warfare & espionage programs.

1947: The surviving Inspired begin to go underground in the First and Second World nations, although some Second World Inspired manage to quietly defect to a First World nation. Many then cease all Inspired activities and begin to settle down and start families. Others do so to evade official notice and involuntary conscription - especially as they make juicy targets for anti-communist or anti-imperialist investigation - sometimes by becoming part of their local political hierarchies and hiding in plain sight. The physical effects of aging serve to put a brake on the activities of most of the other Inspired. In the First World nations, some of their offspring will briefly carry on with their parent's Inspired activities for larks - usually by digging out a handy gadget such as a flight pack out of a steamer trunk in the basement - but little comes of this save for discounted tall tales and reports of Fortean events. An alleged UFO crashlands on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, and is quickly taken by the United States military. The event is ineptly covered up, and civilians are threatened by the government to remain silent about the event.

1948: The Aeon Society begins their covert efforts to cover up any and all Inspired activity in the First World nations. In the United States, these efforts take silent advantage of Senator Joseph McCarthy's witchunts for communists and leftist intellectuals to ensure that what few Inspired remain keep their existence well out of the notice of the government, the business community and the public at large.

1949: The spread of television and televised journalism brings further incentive for the Inspired and their offspring to remain discreet.

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1950s: Maxwell Anderson Mercer vanishes, undertaking another one of his time travels. Hammersmith's Telluric Vortex finally dies down, causing the disappearance or death (in the case of dinosaurs & the like) of the vast majority of the Inspired weirdness. New Inspired beings tend to be either offspring of existing Inspired or latents who come into direct contact with powerful Inspired beings and/or devices. Dramatic Editing is no longer available to most of the Inspired. United States intelligence agencies become aware of the KGB's psychic warfare & espionage programs, which is primarily focused on investigating telepathy, Kirlian auras and psychotronics.

1960s: Apparently natural increase in the number of Fortean Events and other Inspired weirdness. In the United States and Western Europe, the emerging counterculture sparks a renewed popular interest in paranormal capabilities. This allows the Inspired a slight degree of freedom for their activities, provided that they can be written off as advertising stunts or drug-induced hallucinations. First recorded incident of nova activity in Gary, Indiana, United States of America, in 1964. The incident is covered up by Aeon before any other serious notice is taken of it.

1970s: The Mini-Quantum Boom. Divis Mal's most notable early attempt at creating a Telluric Vortex, and something of a qualified success by his standards. Instead of being focused on creating novas like his later attempt in 1998, this vortex creates a population of Inspired individuals more in line with Hammersmith's vortex in 1923. Most of the new Inspired do their best to keep just out of the public eye, having adventures and doing right and/or wrong as their personal inclinations direct. This vortex lasts until the late 1980s. The Aeon Council begins to alter the directives of Proteus, making into a corps of assassins and saboteurs as well as spies. The United States Federal Government initiates the Stargate Project, which explores the potential of psychic phenomena with military, intelligence and domestic applications. Similar projects investigate electrodirection and pyrokinesis. Most noted for their work in remote viewing and precognition. The Stargate Project continues until its cancellation in 1995.

1980s: First known highly-Tainted nova eruption occurs in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981. The nova is kept in quarantine by the CDC until the Aeon Society uses its influence to take the nova to one of their private clinics. The nova's fate after that remains a mystery. Acting on the revelations of the upcoming Nova Age provided by Max Mercer, the Aeon Society also quietly begins developing what will become Projects Utopia and Proteus and the Triton Foundation.

1990s: Max Mercer reappears circa 1995, only to find that the Aeon Society has strayed very far from his original ideals and operational methods. He immediately begins plotting to regain his former influence over the wayward Aeon Council members. The two major worldines of the Aeon Continuum noticeably diverge at this point due to Mercer's own personal bifurcation in his time-jump to 2122 - see p. XX of this book for details. Divis Mal and a few of his select allies begin preparations for creating his own version of the initial Hammersmith Telluric Vortex. On March 23rd, 1998, Mal finally succeeds in his efforts and triggers the Nova Age.

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The Early and Middle Nova Age

1998 - mid-2008: The Dawn of the Nova Age, as per the Aberrant core book, pp. 9 - 13. From here onwards, the inevitability and even the precise nature of the events described in this timeline depends on which universe your chronicle is set in and the whims of your Storyteller. The dividing point from which your chronicle diverges from the "canon" timeline will be established by your Storyteller. There will be timeline variations due to the individual circumstances your Storyteller establishes for your chronicle and possibly the player characters' actions and the consequences thereof. This section and all those following are only considered to be "inevitable history" for Adventure! and Aberrant chronicles set in the Universe One timeline, in which canon Trinity is set. For chronicles set in the Universe Two timeline - where canon Aberrant is set - these are only potential future events that can be altered and even prevented with sufficient and well-directed efforts. Refer to "Split Continua" on p. XX for further details.

Mid-to-late 2008: Randal "the Fireman" Portman runs for and wins the Presidency of the United States as a Democrat. The Aeon Council meets and votes to act against breeder novas, with only two council members voting against the decision. Director Thetis begins laying the groundwork for Proteus motherhunting operations. The Aberrants make plans in turn to thwart Aeon, Utopia and Proteus in this matter however they can. Count Raoul Orzaiz and Altaz "the Apothecary" Zia establish the Maer Enclave to solve the mystery of nova sterility and to research possible cures for it.

2009: Beginnings of public disenchantment with the nova phenomenon in general and Project Utopia in particular. Spencer "Antaeus" Balmer leaves Project Utopia due to concerns over the detrimental effects of Operation Genesis to Earth's environment. Donald Zeleckis, a Jewish-American nova tourist, dies in the course of preventing an Israeli nuclear missile from obliterating a Syrian city. Gabriel "the Miracle" Melchior escapes from Utopian/Proteus slavery. Having developed extreme levels of both power and Taint, Melchior makes his way to the headquarters of the Church of the Immanent Escheaton in Boulder City, Nevada. Melchior proceeds to broadcast apolcalyptic sermons with threats to unleash bioweapon-grade plagues on the general populace, provoking a standoff with forces of the U.S. military, the Directive and Project Utopia. Unidentified nova operatives manage to remove Melchior from the scene without him releasing any plagues, with his death reported a few weeks afterwards. The Church of the Immanent Escheaton fades back into obscurity with the loss of its leader, with members quietly leaving to begin new lives elsewhere as either normal citizens or members of other nova cults. The Camparelli-Zhukov Megasyndicate begins their biotech operation under the auspices of Dr. Morgan Dwyer. In Burma, an altruistic if highly Tainted nova devours "the Generals", the nation's oppressive ruling cabal. Instead of the nova taking over the agricultural nation, he/she/it allows Burma the freedom to decide its own future as a peaceful isolationist nation that will make it through the upcoming Aberrant War unscathed.

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2010s: André Corbin publicly turns himself in to Utopian custody at the Bahrain Rashoud facility, during which Director Thetis and Proteus plan to have him assassinated. Proteus' plan fails due to unforseen interference from Divis Mal and several members of the Teragen Pantheon. Mal soundly thrashes Caestus Pax in front of a global audience, while the Pantheon members present free many imprisoned novas from the Bahrain Rashoud facility. At his trial, Corbin is acquitted of all implications in the death of Jennifer "Slider" Landers, and is a free man. Project Utopia is implicated in many scandals of massive corruption, including the actions of Project Proteus and the murder of Jennifer "Slider" Landers. Project Utopia publicly disavows Project Proteus and makes moves to excise all Proteus infiltration from Utopian interests. Project Proteus survives with only token personnel lost to serve as scapegoats as the bulk of Proteus goes deeper underground. With the covert aid of the Aeon Society, Proteus resumes its operations with a lesser amount of support than that they had received from an unwitting Utopia. Covert conflicts between motherhunters and their "delivery boy" foes take place as breeder novas and their offspring are discovered.

The "Night of Long Knives" occurs sometime during this decade (see Aberrant: Teragen pp. 97-98 for details). A shadow war breaks out between the Camparelli-Zhukov Megasyndicate and Opus Dei, a cultic faction within the Roman Catholic church. Nova Arthur Francis Anningsley and his "Temple Of The King" cult/conspiracy is exposed and neutralized. Radu "Impaler" Szlaniskovich and his squad of elites attempt to take over the Ukraine. Team Tomorrow novas attempt to raid the Amp Room, resulting in Ibiza being devastated by novas, many of them running riot for no particular reason. The Cult of Astaroth finds their sixth and final Domitori, then make their way to the Mexican desert for their prophesied arrival of the "True Beast Astaroth". The Domitori manage to merge their bodies into a gigantic Taint-wracked abomination, which proceeds to devour all the Astaroth cultists present before seeking to wreak devastation on the world. However, unknown nova operatives manage to destroy the "True Beast Astaroth" well before it can harm any innocents or even make the local news.

The United States begins Earthside construction of the Olympus Lunar base. Yoshiro Nakamura launches his "Blood Fever" plot (Aberrant: The New Flesh pp. 56-57); which leads to the mass arrest, conviction (and in many cases execution) of the Nakato Gumi yakuza clan, the nationalization of Kuro-Tek and the purging of all Nakato gumi infiltrators from the Japanese branch of the Directive. In 2018, the collapse of the Three Gorges Dam triggers the collapse of the People's Republic of China. The PRC was already weakened due to a mix of government corruption, the harmful influence of their local organized crime, unethical business practices and unrestrained corporate capitalism. The novas of the Heavenly Exploding Mandate split apart into factions with differing goals and philosophies, with the largest supporting a former PRC general and would-be warlord in his quest to establish himself as China's new dictator. The Heaven Thunder Triad makes it's own bid to assume rulership over China at this time as well.

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2020s: A state of civil war breaks out in the former People's Republic of China, as the various factions vie for dominion over the nation. The Heaven Thunder Triad is more or less exterminated in the factional struggles, presumably by former Heavenly Exploding Mandate novas. The Neo-Confucian New Chinese Empire establishes itself as the successor to the PRC in 2022, and quickly reverts China to an isolationist state primarily concerned with improving its own decrepit and inadequate infrastructure. Many Chinese novas begin leaving the NCE - whose isolationism and focus on improving the living conditions of the common people they find utterly dull compared to the last two decades of the PRC's reign - for more "exciting" nations to live in. Dr. Soguk Birlesme develops hyper-fusion, which revolutionizes energy production and makes space colonies viable. The United States unveils its first hyper-fusion powered orbital spacecraft. Orbital defense satellites are launched by several nations, the most notable of which is the United States' OMEN deathsat network.

Proposed acts of anti-nova legislation start becoming more frequent, if not successful in being passed and made into law. Finland, Sweden and Norway merge to form the Northern Collective. Queen Elsbeth Tsarich becomes monarch of Romania. Incidents of novas (some Taint-mad, others just naturally anti-social) harming baselines begin to increase beyond the point where they can be prevented and/or covered up by Project Utopia. Conditions in the global ambient telluric environment finally allow the Camparelli-Zhukov Megasyndicate's Eruption Catalyst to function, causing its users to erupt as highly-Tainted novas (Aberrant: The New Flesh pp. 24-25). Novel pathogens known as "Taint diseases" begin to spread among the baseline population. Some actually are caused by Tainted novas, while others are deliberately created bioweapons. Daedelus League novas discover their first highly Earthlike extrasolar planet and promptly begin drawing up covert colonization plans. The League formally invites the Protectors to join them on the new colony world. The Protectors wholeheartedly accept the League's offer and begin relocating personnel, supplies and equipment from their subsurface Mars base. Other Daedelus League exploration efforts turn up several more highly Earthlike extrasolar planets later in this decade, which they plan to offer to other peaceful nova factions and their baseline followers who wish to escape the coming conflict on Earth.

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2030s: The United States begins Luna-based construction of the Olympus Lunar base, which ends in 2041. Great Britain begins construction of the Camelot Lunar Base. Increasing levels of Taint among the general nova populace leads to increasing numbers of said novas either becoming actively dangerous or seeking to join the Teragen in attempts to control their Taint. Nova conflicts increase in both their frequency and in the amount of collateral damage they cause to life, property and the environment. Baseline-nova relations begin to noticeably degrade, with many nova entertainers and nova-based media concerns either dropping in popularity - such as Alejandra and her New River Productions - or going out of business like the XWF or Mefistofaleez and his Quantum Boom recording label. The Pandaimonion terat faction is subsumed into the Casablancas as Narcosis' media empire finally collapses. The Nova Vigilance, Primacy and Harvester terat factions begin increasing their attacks against baseline humanity, some of which are provoked by anti-nova actions and others completely unjustified. Also, sometime in the early part of this decade a nova with global-scale powers over the ecology - the suspects include Antaeus, Regina Mundi and Belladonna - manages to restore the fertility of some if not all of the nova population.

Anti-nova sentiment among the baseline populace rises as a result, leading to marked growth of the Church of Michael Archangel in the United States and Canada. The perjorative term "aberrant" becomes more widely used among the general baseline population than the neutral term "nova" when referring to the erupted. The New Chinese Empire formalizes their pre-existing unofficial status as "where the novas don't want to live" into actual law in 2035; excluding all novas from entering, residing in or having citizenship in the NCE. This action provokes a few minor retributive attacks but is otherwise shrugged off by the general nova population. Japan begins ejecting or secretly executing any native novas with mental aberrations, and develop scientific tests to determine which novas were likely to become mentally unstable by 2035. Any Japanese nova who fails the tests is secretly executed. The number of (relatively non-Tainted) novas and allied baselines emigrating to the nova colony worlds increases as the more savvy among both populaces realize that matters on Earth will only get worse for them. These unexplained disappearances only serve to heighten the paranoia on both sides of the Terran nova-baseline conflict. Terran baselines assume that the baseline colonists were secretly abducted and/or murdered by hostile aberrants, while Terran novas assume the nova colonists were secretly murdered by anti-nova operatives.

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2040s: Baseline-nova relations seriously degrade, as many First World nations begin drawing up and passing increasingly draconian, half-baked and unjust acts of anti-nova legislation. Many independent novas residing in those nations either emigrate to more accepting countries or nova colony worlds or join the Teragen or Aberrants as their individual preferences dictate. Conflicts between novas and nova attacks against the baseline populace reach new levels of both frequency and collateral damage inflicted, due to increasing levels of power and Taint-induced madness among a significant portion of the nova population on Earth. The Aberrant movement and other such factions try to maintain the peace in the face of increasing numbers of novas coming to agree with the more radical facets of Terat philosophy. Japan begins accepting "genetically and intellectually fit" refugees from Korea, Australia and the United States as a source of inexpensive labor. By 2047, 13 million refugees and other resident outsiders have become second-class Japanese citizens. The Terat Feathered Serpent attempts to raise the ruins of the Aztec city Tenochtitlán to the surface in 2043, destroying the modern Mexico City that rests above them in the resulting earthquake. Over a million people are killed in the disaster. Russia starts building the Yeltsingrad Lunar base, which is a mining facility. Both the Camelot and Yeltsingrad Lunar bases go online in 2045. In 2046 nova Abdul Masiq and his "Allah's Legion" nova group take over the entire island nation of Bahrain, converting the former Bahrain Rashoud Clinic into their main headquarters. This action spurs governments and corporations into making serious efforts to defend themselves against nova attacks and make retaliatiory strikes in return.

Having made relentless attacks against Divis Mal in an attempt to avenge his intial defeat by him at Bahrain in 2009, Caestus Pax is finally killed by the leader of the Teragen in a public battle. Project Utopia and Team Tomorrow finally collapse, as former Utopian novas leave for the pro-nova factions or the nova colony worlds or go off to pursue their own objectives. Japan closes its borders to all non-commercial traffic in 2047, citing concerns over rising global terrorism. Japanese novas not loyal to the government are publicly exiled from the Home Islands while the loyal and sane novas are secretly retained, leading the world to assume that all Japanese novas had been expelled. The Camparelli-Zhukov Megasyndicate finally falls apart due to a blend of nova-aberrant conflicts, innovations in law enforcement and competition from newer organized crime groups. The covert extrasolar colonization efforts kick into high gear, as more qualified baseline colonists begin realizing how bad things are getting on Earth and wanting a safe haven for themselves and their loved ones. Some novas organizing these colonization efforts turn to stealing funds and/or supplies from certain transnational corporations - usually those with a history of human rights abuses and criminal behavior - which either drives them out of business or makes then vulnerable to hostile takeovers. Finally, in 2049 the United Nations declares war against the aberrant population - whether that resolution applies to only the Taint-deranged novas or the entire nova race depends on whom one is talking to. The first Aberrant War has begun.

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Interregnum II - The Late Nova Age, The First Aberrant War and The Exodus

The following section covers the period between the Aberrant and Trinity settings, and focuses on the activities of novas and the circumstances affecting them.

Late 2049: The Taint-mad aberrants start constantly acting against - or acting without regard for, at the minimum - baseline humanity as their default modus operandi, while the still-sane novas seek to thwart and restrain them. Baseline human groups aid both sides in this conflict, and the death tolls of innocent bystanders mount ever higher. Emboldened by the increased support from the increasingly Tainted nova population, the Teragen shift their attacks against baseline humanity into high gear. The Olympus Lunar Base is taken over by the "Space Brigade" nova group. After establishing control over the other Lunar bases, the Space Brigade destroys 75% of the OMEN deathsat network and declare Luna to be neutral ground for all who wish to escape from the ongoing conflict on Earth. A powerful aberrant calling itself "the Colony" rises to prominence and a position of leadership among the psychotic aberrants, and soon is considered to be a rival of Divis Mal himself.

Somewhere beyond the Solar System, the alien Doyen sense the emergence of quantum-manipulating beings and immediately deem them a lethal threat to all life in general and themselves in particular. As a race of ageless beings mostly composed of noetic energy, mere exposure to quantum energies can not only disrupt their psionic powers but can make a Doyen's body literally not exist for a few moments. Accustomed to refraining from direct conflict due to racial cowardice, they eventually decide to find a useful alien species to fight the quantum-born by proxy. This debate takes ten years to hammer out, given the Doyen habit of long-term thinking. The Doyen split into two factions after this. The majority faction plans to use humanity against their quantum-born relatives by gifting them with (limited) psionic powers and basic (by Doyen standards) noetic biotechnology. The minority faction seeks the extinction of all humanity and begins searching for a suitable warrior species to perform that task.

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2050s: Major cities - mostly in North America and Europe - are destroyed by aberrant attacks over the decade. Likewise, aberrants attack commercial aircraft - ending intercontinental air travel for decades - and launch biological attacks against baselines lacking quick access to medical care. In 2050 the Balkan nations devolve into ceaseless warfare, becoming known as "The Shatter". Later that year Leon Borsov becomes president of the Russian Federation and begins a campaign to eliminate all Russian aberrants. While successful as the Russian aberrants had either already fled Earth or become highly reclusive dwellers in the wildnerness, this provokes aberrant retaliation which devastates Russia over the rest of the decade. The nova colony world of Eden is discovered by the Seekers, a nova space exploration group. It is given to Diana Kadmon and her faction of sane novas, who establish it as a nova colony world and quckly begin recruiting many sane novas and thousands of baselines to populate it. The Yeltsingrad Lunar base is closed to most baseline humans by the Space Brigade, who remake it into their home for the duration of the war. They also establish a "no contact" truce with the baseline Lunar colonists.

Various government officials and members of sane nova groups collaborate with the Aeon Society to find a solution to the global crisis. What will become known as the Chinese Ultimatum is their final solution. The NCE initiates "The Great Leap Upwards", redirecting considerable national resources into space exploration. In 2053 China launches the Xingyang Sujia - its first manned interplanetary exploration craft - on a mission to Mars. This is followed in the next year by the construction of a series of orbital factories and space colonies secretly loaded with fusion missiles. Showing remarkable foresight, the nations of South America establish the "Necessary Wall" in 2054 to protect themselves against possible North American military and economic aggression. In late 2054, terat Calvert Wycoff establishes the Prophets of Jehovah, a survivalist and fundamentalist Christian cult in Hastings, Nebraska. Their illegal multimedia transmissions of Wycoff's apocalyptic sermons provoke the FBI into attempting to shut the cult down a few weeks later. Just minutes into the raid on November 3rd, Wycoff releases a tremendous blast of plasma and Taint energies - likely induced by exposure to eclipsidol - that obliterates himself along with everyone and everything around him in a 200 kilometer radius and Taint-irradiating a further thousand kilometers. With the area now called "the Blight" unfit for agricultural use and human habitation, the U.S. military joins with a coalition of U.S. corporations ans successfully takes over the federal and state governments. The Omaha Declaration and the rise of what will become a true fascist police state soon follow. The U.S. military - aided by loyal military novas and aberrants - then invades both Canada and Mexico in 2057 to gain new agricultural lands to replace that lost to the Blight. By the end of that year, all major North American population centers and industrial centers are under U.S. martial law. In 2058 nova Felice Taylor accidentally floods and obliterates Florida and Cuba in an attempt to stabilize the weakening Gulf Stream and revitalize Florida's economy. Taylor apparently dies in the catastrophe of her own making.

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2060s: Out in extrasolar space, the nova colony worlds thrive in their relative isolation, with the novas finally being able to breed freely and their baseline citizens also doing very well. Under nova guidance, their colony worlds quickly become viable free-standing civilzations well able to function on their own in all ways. Most nova colony worlds cut themselves off from contact with Earth by this time, not wanting to bear witness to Earth's possible destruction. The nova colonists establish regular contact between their worlds for purposes of trade, communication, cultural exchange and giving advance warning against any aberrant and/or alien threats that might show up in the future. Meanwhile on Earth, matters degrade even further.

In 2060, the Malay Republic is devastated by the aberrant Dragon's Eye, who enslaves most of the residents of Kuala Lumpur and transforms them into cyborged beastmen. An aberrant causes the Neva River to flood St. Petersburg, killing 25% of the city's population. The Japanese government begins genetic testing of all citizens, with those having the potential to become low-Taint novas given the choice to be artificially erupted and serve the government or have that potential eradicated. Those who could erupt as high-Taint novas simply have their potential eradicated, as do many with anomalous genetic markers - namely the potential to become psiads, psions and paramorphs. The Second Omaha Declaration is made by the U.S. military, declaring the establishment of the Federated States of America. In 2061, aberrants begin attacking Russian fission reactors to gain access to their radioactive waste materials, which they then proceed to spread across large swathes of the Russian countryside. Nova Geslav renders the remaining Russian fission reactors inert to prevent any further deliberate contamination. Terat Alex "Synapse" Doan is attacked in the OpNet by the aberrant Mungu "Backlash" Kuwasha. Their battle wrecks large sectors of the OpNet, but Synapse manages to kill Backlash, whose deathscream manifests as an "electro-optical pulse" that destroys the entire OpNet.

On September 7th, an unknown spacegoing aberrant attacks a Chinese orbital fusion platform, only to be killed with a fusion missile. In retaliation, the NCE makes a strike with six fusion missiles that obliterates the aberrant-controlled island nation of Bahrain. Just after that the NCE issues the "Earth Strike Ultimatum", stating that any further acts of aggression from either aberrant or human forces will be met with a global fusion missile strike. In coordination with the NCE, Aeon and their nova and government allies begin exiling most of the Taint-maddened aberrants from Earth by any means necessary. Realizing that he has no other viable options, Divis Mal reluctantly agrees to help enforce the Ultimatum. After 24 hours of concerted effort, the task is completed and the majority of the novas leave the planet. Some rare few novas and aberrants remain, but stay in hiding for various reasons. Divis Mal then has the Teragen leave Earth, but does not depart himself before going to the relocated United Nations to issue his final declaration to Earth's residents while personally incinerating the current UN Secretary-General. Mal joins his followers and soon after they depart from the universe itself, emigrating to a new universe that the Father of Teras has personally created.

Certain novas - who semi-seriously refer to themselves as the "Solar Guardians" - volunteer to both covertly create and maintain a quantum barrier around the Solar System. Provided with support from the Nihonjin (Japanese) novas, the Solar Guardian novas spend their days patrolling the outer edge of the Oort Cloud to guard against any aberrant incursions. The First Aberrant War has ended, and the NCE fleet stands down as most regions of Earth begin to suffer in what will become known as the Crash. The exiled aberrants make homes of the lifeless worlds where the novas stranded them and quickly seek to survive, regain their lost numbers and redevelop their lost capacity for insterstellar Warping. All this is done for one goal: to once again make war against their nova cousins, wherever they can be found. The largest faction of the exiled aberrants - led by the Colony - refuses to accept their exile and continually seeks the means to breach the quantum barrier and conquer Earth. The Colony begins a program of intensive breeding among its followers - in which it also participates - in order to swell their ranks as much as possible.

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2070s: The aberrant colony worlds slowly begin using the Colony's techniques to produce increasing numbers of aberrants, as they are forced to use any means necessary to make their world "livable" and produce as many offspring as possible. The fact that they become even more Tainted in the process is shrugged off as unavoidable and not worth worrying about. This includes reining in their natural egomania and cooperating with each other, leading to the establishment of contact between their worlds facilitated by "courier" aberrants from the Colony's faction. Other aberrants of the Colony's faction begin searching for the nova colony worlds.

The NCE launches the Khantze Lu Ge expedition in its first interstellar colony spacecraft in 2075, which is piggybacked onto the Lito comet and is headed for Alpha Centauri. Nippon and the Solar Guardian novas covertly assist them by allowing them through the quantum barrier and shortening spacetime between the Sol System and the Alpha Centauri system, allowing their journey to be made in a mere 12 years instead of decades or centuries. The spacetime distortion alerts the Colony and its faction, who covertly study the colonists, their technology and their databanks but otherwise do not make contact or interfere with them. Special attention is paid to their passage through the quantum barrier, and the Colony begins forming its plans for the Solar System and baseline humanity.

In 2079, the NCE launches the colony spacecraft Kuan Yin to join the colonists from the Khantze Lu Ge expedition. Following the same trajectory as its predecessor, it is attacked mid-journey by the Colony's forces, is captured and taken to the Colony's own world. The surviving human colonists are enslaved and transformed into sub-aberrant mutates by the Colony and other aberrants with that capability. The fertile sub-aberrants are drafted into the breeding program, while the others are trained to serve as cannon fodder for the invasion of the Sol System. The ship's technologies and databanks are also examined to gain an updated idea of current circumstances on Earth and its intrasolar space colonies.

2080s: The Colony's explorers manage to locate some - but not all - of the nova colony worlds. In particular, Eden remains undiscovered.

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2090s: Nippon initiates the Star Project in 2093, using Nihonjin novas to locate and secretly colonize a viable Earthlike extrasolar planet with Nihonjin citizens. The colony world chosen is the second planet of the Iota Pegasi system and is named "Restored Hope". A quantum gadget is used to warp the colonists, some Nihonjin novas, their equipment and supplies to the new world. Once an infrastucture is established with nova aid, the covert Nihonjin colony world thrives with its steady influx of Nihonjin citizens and Superiors eager to escape the confines of the Nihonjin macro-arcologies. Nova Rushing Mountain claims the third planet in the Beta Canum Ventaicorum system as her own, and transforms a species of the native animal life into primitive sapients. When discovered by ISRA psions in 2110, the planet is named Erebus.

2100s: In 2100 the Doyen minority faction locates the Chromatics. Quickly recognizing them as a feasible soldier-species due to their conflicts with the bestial Howlers, they locate a nomadic band of aberrants known on Earth as the Seraphim. Influencing their mentally unstable leader Uriel with telepathic visions, the Seraphim are lured by the Doyen to Chrome-Prime. Their initial contacts with the Chromatics are peaceful enough, but the Seraphims' true nature is soon revealed as they betray the Chromatics' initial trust and attempt to conquer Chrome-Prime for themselves. In 2104 the Doyen then reveal themselves to selected Chromatics as "gods of light", granting them noetic biotechnological knowledge stolen from humanity. With the new weapons, the Chromatics manage to defeat the Seraphim and exterminate much of the Howler species. The Doyens' Chromatic lieutenants establish their control over Chromatic society and thrust the formerly primitive civilization into a greatly accelerated program of technological development. Within about 20 Earth years, the Chromatics go from a pure T2 Bronze Age culture to a amalgam culture incorporating technologies from many different Technology Ratings, including T10 space travel roughly equivalent to Trinity Era Earth. Information on Technology Ratings can be found in Appendix #1 of this book, pp. XX-XX.

In 2103 the Doyen majority faction implements their plan to transform suitable (and pliable) humans into psionically empowered agents of the Doyen. Doyen telepathic propaganda doesn't manage to convince all the canidates to respond, but eight of them do. In a hidden installation on Luna, the candidates are informed of the upcoming return of the aberrants and misinformed that the Doyen are engaged in combat elsewhere. The humans are convinced to take up the struggle and are transformed into potent (and limited) users of psionics via implants of Doyen genetic material. S. K. Bhurano, the Quantakinesis Proxy, is also possessed by a Doyen operative in order to maintain a titghter control over the nascent Quantakinetic Order. The newly-empowered proxies are each given a nascent Prometheus Chamber, knowledge of how to create noetic biotechnology and psi coordinates to habitable worlds surrounding known nova/aberrant space. They are also given Doyen-style plans for the psi orders to be established in secret, eventually growing to the point where they can launch interstellar war fleets from the aforementioned habitable worlds to exterminate the nova & aberrant colony worlds.

[Sprocket 1]

(2100s cont.d)

Later that year, the Colony's forces attack, overwhelm and slaughter the Solar Guardians, causing the collapse of the quantum barrier. Most of the Nihonjin novas - including all those capable of interstellar travel - are killed by the Colony's forces soon after. The warp device is destroyed and Restored Hope is cut off from Nippon. Armed with information stolen from the Chinese colony ships, aberrant spies are sent ahead to Earth to secretly inflitrate human society at all levels. People in positions of authority are physically replaced, mind-controlled and subverted into willing pawns of the Colony as is feasible and/or necessary. Even the Aeon Society and the United Nations have human aberrant sympathizers among their ranks. Meanwhile, the bulk of the Colony's full aberrant forces are used to continually harass the nova colony worlds they've found, in order to keep the novas from coming to Earth's aid. Fortunately for them, precognitive warnings of the upcoming aberrant raids - and the more nebulous threat posed by the Doyen - have already galvanized the extrasolar novas into preparing for the onslaught. Nova strategists and tacticians begin planning on how best to deal with the aberrants once and for all.

On January 28, 2104, the Colony sends a band of its followers to Research Outpost Vesta in its first overt attack against baseline humanity since 2061. The raid has two goals; first to announce to humanity that the Second Aberrant War had begun, and second to determine how advanced Earth's weapons technologies had become since the 2070s. The research station is wrecked, most of the scientists and staff inside are murdered and military reinforcements are held off with ease. The aberrants leave after one of them is slain by an experimental pulse cannon, leaving irrefutable evidence of what humanity is up against. Further attacks are made against isolated intrasolar space stations and colonies over the rest of the decade.

In 2106, an aberrant attack on the Sydney Spaceport is thwarted by Psi Order Legions. Having received prior warning of the attack from ISRA, the Legions soldiers are posted early and ready to take on the Colony's forces, who are just as surpised by the psions' interference as most of human society is. Further aberrant attacks on Austronesian territory are likewise repelled by Legions psions, granting the Psychokinetic Order astounding good press as trustworthy defenders of humanity.

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2110s: In 2112 a mining expedition from Eden is discovered by Upeo wa Macho psions on an exploration mission. Tentative contact between the Edenites and Upeo wa Macho psi order follows during the next year, leading to the Proxy Atwan and the Upeo coming to understand the truth about the novas' existence and the difference between them and the aberrants. Unfortunately this information leads to the Upeo having to abandon Earth in 2114 in order to keep themselves from being enslaved by the Ministry, Orgotek and the Legions. In 2116 nova Apollo Milliken and three other Edenite novas covertly assist the Upeo in the defense of Karoo Station by vaporizing an attacking Chromatic war fleet via matter/electromagnetic energy conversion.

In 2118 the NCE colony world of Khantze Lu Ge is invaded by a sub-faction of the Colony's forces, led by its daughter Kali. Their initial conquest of the city of Kuan and Khantze Lu Ge's northern territories goes well for them, until internal bickering between Kali and her rival Yog-Death and their followers slows down their battle plans considerably.

2120 and beyond: As per the timeline in the Trinity core book, pp. 82-83 and subsequent books.

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Whew! Provided that there's nothing in the preceding timeline that needs fixing, it's time for a serious question. Namely, is this just a timeline or will it also do as a Grand Unified Metaplot for the Aeon Continuum games?

[student 0]

Well, it certainly looks like a viable foundation for a metaplot. Nothing in it seems contradictory to what's been revealed in canon writings. We can easily use it to hang future works on, with the understanding that this is one view, not the one and only view. I like it, I do ....

[Sprocket 1]

In the absence of an official metaplot for the whole Aeon Continuum - which I would dearly love to see posted by Bruce Baughn somewhere - I figured this was the best shot I could take at it. AFA accuracy & all, the details have always been open to revision by individual Storytellers, so there's no problem there. AFAIC, The concept of roleplaying setting material being "scripture writ in stone from which thou shalt not dare deviate" died out w/ TSR, & good riddance!

AFA my absence from these boards, I've been toiling away in Development Hell w/ leavenings of RL interference. Once I have a first draft of AB:Nexus worth posting, I'll be posting it for peer review. And Chosen will have near-free reign over the cover art this time, as I (currently) have no idea as to what image would be appropriate for it.

[astronomer 0]

Cool beans! I'll certainly be watching.

[MooAberrant 0]

Many thanks for the work, a great read