First Universe

God born, presumably in the final generation before the Universe ended. Real name unknown; gender, male; other data unknown.

Second Universe

Natives meet God, create concept of religion around him, thus inspiring him to create his Game.

Lucien's Universe (ordinal unknown)

Universal Coalition founded by inhabitants of planet Roku, date unknown; city of Sotu made the UC's capital.

Template discovered by Universal Coalition Scientific Council archaeological exploration team, date unspecified, planet presumably Earth, which had only recently joined the UC (presumably hundreds or thousands of years after UC was founded).

c. One century before End, (presumably thousands of years after Template discovery), SC discovers there is one century remaining til the End of the Universe.

c. 45 years before End, Lucien (last name unknown) was born on the same planet as the Template.

c. Five years before End, Ambassador from Telronakt (name unknown) gives bottle of slar-eth to now-UC President Lucien.

c. One month and a few days before End, computer file reminds SC of the Template's existence, and they begin studying it.

c. One month before End, Secretary of SC (first name Dean, last name unknown) informs President Lucien of Template's existence.

Last Day, time unspecified, God possesses 15-year-old girl named Dolores (homeworld unknown) on UC capital planet of Roku; steals Lucien's slar-eth; takes transmat to the Template's planet.

Last Day, 5pm local time, Universe ends, with Lucien and God (in Dolores' body) standing on the Template.

New Universe

c. 42,000,000 BC

• Day One, midmorning, Lucien has first encounter with God, learns of the Game.

• Day Two, Lucien names his surroundings "Hell," and dubs "eternity" the first official curse word of the new Universe.

• Within first few months, Lucien creates alcohol he calls "Everywhere."

• Unknown decades later, God asks Lucien to deliver a message to Dolores. Since she's old now, even though she still looks 15, she won't have long to live if he leaves her. He thanks her for the use of her body (which he has occasionally left for astral projection explorations of the planet), and apologizes that he won't be able to leave it again until there are other humans to possess, which will be long after her natural life-span, leaving her with no time at all to live once he leaves her. She asks that he give her her body back now, and he reluctantly agrees, and will spend thousands or millions of years to come disembodied, except for occasional animal possessions.

• About three years later, Dolores dies of old age, despite appearing to be in her late teens, after spending her final years as a friend to Lucien. He buries her before the Template, while God looks on from a nearby tree in the body of an owl-like bird.

c. 2700 BC, Lucien begins gathering group of students of magic, who may or may not be involved with Lucienites.

c. 100 BC (hundreds of years since Shifter had been seen), a religious cult called The Followers of the One True God emerged, prompting Lucienites to begin establishing their own faith more firmly, and take on the name Seers of Truth Unmasked (they use the acronym "sotu" amongst themselves, though in the future everyone else would abbreviate the name "STU"). They preached that the Followers' God was actually false. Around this time, the Seers built/excavated a fabulous city of precious metals and gems, which they named Sotu en Goas Calus (Rokuan for "seat of the universal coalition"). Thus began a series of open conflicts between the two religions.

CY 1 (on the anniversary of the First Day of the new Universe), the Followers attacked Sotu en Goas Calus, slaughtering the Seers. After that the city's very existence would become a myth, and no one would see it again for roughly 1600 years. In commemoration of this victory, God proclaimed the day of the battle to be the first day of Year One of a new dating system he introduced to the world. He called this calendar era "Civilized Years" (CY), as he considered his victory to represent the true start of civilization on this world. Years prior to this would be dubbed "Before Civilization" (BC). Meanwhile, Lucien's magic users survive in secret, elsewhere.

c. CY 500, the Renaissance began, with great strides made in all areas of civilization, for the secular world as well as both the Followers and the Seers (who each published religious texts). Because of the flowery language used in the Followers' texts, people began referring to them as "Verilies," a name which they themselves embraced. Science begins to clearly supplant magic. Heretofore, the two were considered of roughly equal importance.

CY 1500 (LY 1), Lucitania is founded by emigrants from various other countries, looking for a place to live away from the various conflicts between nations, religions, magic users and science users, and so forth. However, the peace will not last forever. Also, there's more to the story of the nation's founding than most people know.... And at roughly the same time, there are other worlds coming together to found the Interstellar Alliance of Free Worlds. The year will be known in the Alliance as "Lucent Year" (LY) 1, and despite differences in various worlds' solar revolutions, alliance years will be officially set to match Akkadian years (even though it would be centuries before Akkadia joined the alliance).

CY 1603, Civil War breaks out in Lucitania. The war is between the Verilies and the Seers, who the former have recently dubbed "Antevies," a name about which the Seers themselves are fairly neutral. However, the Antevies soon begin calling the Verilies "Masks" as an offensive religious slur. Despite their religious differences, the war isn't strictly about religion, it's more about the Verilies' desire for war (for war's sake), vs. the Antevies' desire for peace.

CY 1605, Lucien (now using the surname "Smith") sells weapons to both sides in the war, for the purposes of building the profits of his recently started company, SmithCorp, as well as to jumpstart an Industrial Revolution on Akkadia. Though he does give a better deal and slightly better weapons to the Antevies....

CY 1608, The Antevies win the war. Lucien's double-dealing is discovered, he is put on trial and sentenced to five years in prison for constructive fraud, but because of his help winning the war manages to beat the charge of high treason.

CY 1613, Lucien returns from prison to his mansion, where he meets up with his old friend and former business rival Charlotte Hawk (now a writer of science fiction as well as memoirs). He takes her to a secret cavern over which his mansion is built... a cavern which contains Sotu en Goas Calus. He tells her the whole truth about himself and God. Not so long afterwards, they would be married and start a family. And while Lucien's descendants wouldn't have eternal life, they would reap some genetic benefits, such as an imperviousness to possession or mind-reading...

CY 1730, Lucien's great great grandson, George Smith, Sr., is president of SmithCorp, and begins a merger with an applied sciences research firm which is headed by a man named Lucien Larik, and a publishing house of which he makes a science fiction writer named Horace Gernsdotir managing editor. Another man, Roger Tomason, is in an unnamed position something like executive vice president of SmithCorp. All of these people are descended from some of the original Lucienites, thousands of years ago, though not all of them are aware of this fact...

CY 1758, George's son, George Smith, Jr., is President of Lucitania when he is killed in a terrorist attack. Lucien secretly replaces him in office, though pretty much everyone outside the family believes George Jr. has survived his injuries. George's brother, Tad, is currently president of SmithCorp.

CY 1761 (LY 262), God, currently a developer of video games using the name Clifton Gadson, meets with President Smith to discuss the nuclear arms race between Lucitania and a country called Jagara. God seems to be in favor of war breaking out, but Lucien informs him that it won't happen. At this point, an envoy of an alien race makes an announcement to the world, an invitation to join the Interstellar Alliance of Free Worlds, assuming the various nations of Akkadia can overcome their differences to become a united people....

c. LY 400, God and Lucien both secretly begin going to forbidden primitive planet Kujihanyosei, where each spend some time playing with the planet's religions. This process takes place, off and on, over the course of several decades at least, perhaps centuries, but it's more a hobby than anything else. Or simple nostalgia for the old days of ancient Akkadia, though neither of them takes it too seriously, they're mostly rather playful about it. Or so it seems at first.

LY 430, God creates a holiday in his chosen religion on Kujihanyosei, called Yukihana. It falls in winter and has a feel much like Christmas, though its origins and meaning are different.

LY 1997, Kujihanyosei joins the Alliance.

LY 2007, Lucien spends Yukihana with friends on Kujihanyosei.

LY 3142, Lucien (calling himself Vicar Vokoba) and God (calling himself Josash) are both high school teachers on planet Onal.

LY 3860, Terax joins Alliance, which then joins Terax's war against the Corgarian Empire. A few years later, Lucien, God, and the Teraxians negotiate a peace between Terax and Corgar, letting the Alliance think it was the one responsible for achieving peace. Soon after, the Alliance creates its own Council of Magicks.

LY 3895, Lucien, calling himself Abe Millifool, has spent the last 30 years in an asylum on Akkadia, when he hears that archaeologists have discovered Sotu en Goas Calus, so he slips away to find out what's going on....

distant future: Lucien goes back in time on founding worlds of the Alliance, directing them to Akkadia to help found Lucitania?

The Template Index