TimelineOur fictional universe history starts in the beginning of the XXI century and spans over a quarter millennium until the second half of the XXIII century. But there is a problem - things have changed. We no longer refer to years as 2225 AD or 2253 AD... Too much has happened since then: Humans have lost Earth, but also conquered the stars; we've surpassed the fear of death and found out that we are not alone in the Milky Way... So it's no wonder that even the calendar has changed. We no longer say 2227 AD, but 155 ER. Year 155 after Earth Restriction.
Now there are basically two kinds of humans sprawled over the galaxy periphery: The space breeds, heirs of the first pioneers, who made their home at the Moon's orbital habitats; and humans like us, common workingmen, so to speak.
Those pioneers have split themselves into Spacers, Belters and Worms. Spacers kept living in their own artificial habitats. Belters descend from the first Spacers who dared to explore and colonizie asteroid belts and comet cores sprawled all over the Solar System. As to Worms, some people might say that many of them are proud of being able to trace their origins back to the old Selenite colonizers. Consisted of ancient intellectual and scientific elites of terrestrials, the space breeds early have adopted a social and professional promotion criteria based strictly on merits (called Meritocracy). They have also implemented noteworthy improvements in the human genome. Most communities of these breeds have abolished the idea of family and nation a long time ago.
And what about people like us?
They are the terrestrial humans, heirs of people who have chosen to stay on humankind's home planet.
Why is this dichotomy - some staying and others going?
Well, to answer that we need to reopen an old wound. But that's alright! Let's go through this old trauma once again and talk a little bit about the most important event in Taikodom history : the Restriction
In January 23rd, 2073, when approximately 30 million people inhabited the space and the Moon, Earth Restriction happened. A mysterious force established an energetic field blocking the passage on the surface of our planet. Although spaceships and objects could leave the atmosphere, nothing, not even a worthless solar wind proton could get through this impregnable barrier on the way across to space. The Restriction came as the coup de grace to a decaying global civilization drawn upon economic and environmental crisis. And so, political and social chaos took over the planet. Governments of regional blocks of influence were dissolved within months. Despite the wondrous resources at the Earth-Moon system, Spacers couldn't have done much to help the dying terrestrial civilization. And yet, there was more to come. Eight years after the Restriction, an extremely lethal virus - the Restriction Plague - fell over the Terrestrials, washing away the last remains of the planetary civilization.
Tens of millions of people were able to escape from such planetary holocaust. A vast majority of these survivors got out of the planet thanks to the efforts of Spacers. This was made possible through the Ships of Despair - disposable vehicles built on the surface with Spacer and Selenite resources on Earth. Migrants who couldn't afford their escape were forced to agree with the conditions imposed by the Spacers: They would have to leave the planet inside cocoons, which would keep them in suspended animation until a Spacer or Selenite community could properly reabsorb and place them in an adequate socioeconomic niche.
Currently, almost two hundred years after the advent of Restriction, more than 90% out of the 33 million of Hibernauts still remain in suspended animation. The awakened ones are called Resurrects. Victims of the Shock of Future, they are considered second class citizens, for their organisms and genomes did not receive any biological improvement at all. Folksfrom the old times before Earth Restriction.
At this point in our fiction, there are about one million people living on Earth. They are the Tribespeople, survivors of the Restriction Plague still segregated from the rest of the galactic human civilization by the Restriction designs, which persists as impregnable and mysterious as in the day it first manifested.
Space humankind stepped forward in the age of Earth Restriction (ER), period whose beginning was marked by crises and fears, but also by remarkable discoveries and great opportunities. A time when humans put all their resources and effort in the colonization of the Solar System.
Some of the advances and blunders of space civilization during this period are brought in details by the Taikodom Universe official website, available at www.taikodomuniverse.com . For further information you may consult our Archivist, official host of the fictional universe website. However, visitors should be aware of his doubtful position over certain events and his opinionated interpretation of our historical cycles.
The first century of the Stellar Diaspora meant something like a Golden Age for space humans. The Core systems have prospered in an unprecedented rhythm under the watch of the Consortium, at a time when the Consortium partners had hardly heard about the dissidents who broke away to the solitude of the Frontier.
It is in the end of this period of expansion and conflict, one and a half century after the advent of Restriction, that the first module of the MSG TaikodomTM takes place. The first module, launched in October 15 2008, is set at the Core and at the Territory systems just around the year 150 ER, when the Consortium and dissident factions have already faced each other, but haven't yet got into the dispute over the Territory - Taikodom region located between the Core and the Frontier. The game plot spins around the consolidation of the Aster Patrol as an armed branch of the Consortium and the clash of interests between partnered and autonomous corporations.
Considering that this is one of the richest historical fragments of the exciting taikodonic saga, we aim to share with you the most fascinating stories of this stage of expansion, consolidation and several conflicts.
However, as stated above, our fictional universe spans over 250 years, a quarter millennium. Being so, many stories will be read (as short stories, novels, graphic novels) and experienced (as future modules of the MSG) at the most diverse periods of this immense narrative arc interwoven within our History of the Future. All these things amounts to one of the richest fictional universes ever designed for a game.
Our works of fiction are only available in Portuguese. Soon, they will be translated to English. Until then, you have loads of content to explore at the fictional universe website (www.taikodomuniverse.com). Among the literary works we have been preparing for you, here goes some:
Despertar [Awakening] by João Marcelo Beraldo, a novel occurring in the same period of time of the first game module.
Coletânea de contos TaikoDom: Crônicas [Taikodom's Chronicles: The Collected Short Stories] - Collection of seven short stories already published online, plus a couple unpublished works. The short stories and novelettes spanfrom 52 ER to 176 ER.
Sob os Véus de Tau Ceti [Under the Veils of Tau Ceti] - novel set in 160 ER in a mysterious system, whose access is kept confidential by the Consortium. An epic and heterodox vision of some hidden secrets of our fictional universe.
Protocolos de Etrúria [The Etruria Protocols] is a trilogy taking place between 177 and 179 ER. As a work of wider scope, the trilogy portrays the overall picture of Taikodom fictional universe at a very special period:
Greatly distressed by external menaces and internal disagreement, humans of many space breeds ally to Resurrects to negotiate protocols for peace, not only to guarantee the survival of their civilization and species, but also as a way to continue human expansion into the galaxy periphery.
Legados [Legates], first novel of the saga, is ready for launching. The second, Litígios [Disputes], is my current ongoing work. With the grace of the Galactic Spirit, I expect to conclude the third and last novel until the end of the year.
But as we always say, at Taikodom the best is yet to come!
As we have saved a few aces in the hole for the three decades between 150 and 180 ER:
Romanos no Espaço [Romans in Space]: The Spacer dissidents will establish their power in the Frontier. Bringing back the old idea of family and State, evoking an Empire inspired by Julius Caesar's Rome.
Yet unsatisfied with the conflict against partner corporations, pirates and other dissident factions, the Imperials will blunder into the facilities of an alien supercivilization in Chara.
And the Wars of the Territory will break out between the Consortium and the Independents.
Humankind will come face to face with another alien civilization, but this time they are an active , mysterious and definitely hostile species: The Enemy.
Resurrects will force space civilization for equal rights and opportunities.
In the midst of great confusion and disagreements, several human breeds will get together to negotiate a peace treaty. Hence they can face the challenges hidden in the galaxy periphery, so mysteriously complex and absolutely indifferent to the aims of the human race as it is.
Taikodom is all this and much more.
Get on board of your starship and experience the future of humankind as you've never seen it before!
