When Men walk in Forgotten Halls

First of all before we cover the events of the 38th to 41st century, we shall look at what has happened to Earth since then.

The Secessionist Migrations represented the first major shift of whole human populations from Earth. Establishing their homes on new planets, the idea of Throneworlds became common place. As more and more states established an offworld presence, more states could gain control over a whole planet and after the Slaver-God Wars thousands more habitable worlds were accessible. Poor states with a smattering of colonies managed to seize a planet and settle it. And when the population of such a tail-world began to wag the Earth-dog it didn't take long for the capitol of an Empire to relocate to the proper centre of their empire.

By the time of the 38th century not only Earth but the Solar System had largely been abandoned by humanity. All recognised states were centred on other planets, and the Great Empires had whole worlds as their core territories. A few remained on Earth and a special administration had been established to try and restore Earth to its pre-Industrial state. The process had taken place so long ago, that the remaining Earth humans had fading memories of their industrial age...


The 41st century is a dramatically altered time. The empires of the galaxy turned on each other in the 39th, and others were torn apart by rebellion as alien nationalism surfaced. Two centuries of terrible conflict ensued, a war in which some technologies accelerated and other stagnated and collapsed. The Great Empires suffered some of their few major setbacks in millennia, and some nations were destroyed entirely be terrible weapons of unspeakable power.

The final blow in the war was struck by the Fourth Soviet Union. Their breed of Communism was extremely radicalised by the war, and the leaders of the USSR believed that as their human elite was no longer important, their wealth requisitioned and redistributed, one small minority amongst a sea of New Soviet Men, that they had a key advantage over their enemies. Most of their opponents were still dominated by a powerful, wealthy elite of humans. If they could be wiped out, they would decapitate the snake and bring their enemies to their knees. A virulent space disease was designed specifically to target humans. Mere months after its release, billions of humans were dead. Their deaths were swift and reasonably painless, but those who survived found themselves infertile. The war ended rapidly as economies (still very much in the hands of wealthy humans) collapsed.

Now the few remaining humans are venerated, as the aliens who are their heirs attempt to remember the old days of Earth, a planet that even they call the Homeworld. A few humans are desperate to survive and drift across the galaxy in worldships, the last remnant of an elder race. All governments are obsessed with preserving remnants of human history, acutely aware that history is their history and they are living through the last generation of mankind. Wars have been fought over ancient artefacts, continents cleansed with purifying flame, only to discover that the artefact in question is a recipe for lamb hotpot.

On Earth, men and women are still born, live, fight and die. But Earth has been forgotten by the Galaxy, and the worldships of the aging, cyberneticised humans scour over worn star-charts to find the Homeworld, desperate to know if there is a cure to their condition, and to find if there is a way to save their species.

The old nations and empires still exist, and the few new states born from independence movements and rebellions are still deeply rooted in human culture, religion and technology. The Great Empires no longer have the overwhelming levels of dominance that they enjoyed in the old days but they have weathered the trials and tribulations of recent decades well, and to a certain extent have enjoyed a resurgence as human monopolies have been eliminated and broken up.