Vector Shift — Saga Timeline Update#
Canon • Stated by Briana • 18 September 2026
Briana described this as "our updated lore (not yet posted)". It revises the relative chronology in the five-saga chronology of 15 September 2026, which described the sagas as overlapping. That file is unchanged; this update takes precedence where the two differ. Whisperling to integrate.
The sequence (Briana's words)#
in our updated lore (not yet posted) the first conflicts are between the Crowns and Contested Worlds which kick off the First Colonial War:
That changes the timeline into a succession of wars whose consequences create the next era.
- Crowns and Contested Worlds / First Colonial War: human nations and colonies fight among themselves; contact with the alien empire begins.
- The Interstellar Empire War: Earth, its countries, and its colonies unite against that empire. Reverse-engineered alien technology accelerates innovation and drives extraordinarily rapid human expansion.
- The Golden Age: roughly 50–100 years of prosperity and peace across Earth's expanded empire.
- The Colonial Fracture / Second Colonial Wars: colonies break away from Earth, fracturing that unity and renewing conflicts over sovereignty.
- The Varkhesh Reckoning: the Varkhesh arrive while humanity is divided again.
Then The Defence of Humanity's Homeworld takes place during the Varkhesh Reckoning—the same war, with Earth's defence as its own saga. The sequence becomes: First Colonial War → Interstellar Empire War → 50–100-year Golden Age → Second Colonial Wars → Varkhesh Reckoning, including the war reaching Earth. The Reckoning covers the wider conflict; Homeworld Defence follows Earth's experience within it.
What this changes#
| Point | Before (15 Sept chronology) | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Order | Sagas overlap; the homeworld and colonial wars have no fixed order | A succession of eras, each caused by the one before |
| Humanity's homeworld | Unnamed | Earth |
| Homeworld Defence | A separate war against an earlier invader | Part of the Varkhesh Reckoning: the war reaching Earth |
| Zhorak Dominion | Draft invader of the homeworld | Removed. Briana: "remove the invaders" |
| "The alien empire" | — | Contact begins in era 1. The empire is fought in era 2, and its technology is reverse-engineered. Which approved faction fills this role (for example, the Orravan Empire) is not stated here and remains open. |
Where Kethra sits#
Briana chose to place Kethra after the Reckoning. The story of Lives Across the Line follows all five sagas:
- Earth was lost during or after the Reckoning.
- Survivors crossed to Andromeda.
- Over time, Earth's location was lost. This agrees with the Earth heritage decision and Earth-of-the-songs.
- The five sagas are the songs of Earth-of-the-songs.
- Kethra's nations carry the old names as inherited titles.
The factions that live on Kethra: the Homeworld Assembly and the Crown factions, without the invaders. Briana answered: "Homeworld + Crowns - except remove the invaders".
She chose this placement from three options Claude offered; the other two were "during the sagas" and "long after, sagas forgotten". The detailed placement of each faction on Kethra is drafted in the Kethra Almanac as a proposal.
Still open#
- How Earth was lost: destroyed, occupied or simply abandoned.
- Which faction is the alien empire of eras 1 and 2.
- How much time passed between the Reckoning and the Crossing.
- Whether the Varkhesh still exist, and whether they are searching.
Prepared by Claude.