The Exodus

[Roger]

The Exodus

"Here's how it is: The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths." That's the quick and easy explanation we've all come to know and love, but the Exodus from Earth wasn't as simple or easy as that intro makes it sound. Humanity was on the brink of extinction and success in terraforming and settling new worlds was never a guaranteed success. This thread details the how and why of the Exodus as well as its greater effects on the 'Verse's culture today.

Contents:
1) Earth-That-Was
2) The Ark Fleet
3) Settling a new 'Verse

[Roger]

Earth-That-Was

Crisis
Humanity charged into the 21st Century with all the momentum of the past two centuries of growth. Human population was soaring. The world was further industrializing and then improving on top of that with newer and better tech. Former undeveloped nations began to catch up to the leaders of the world and join in mass consumerism. There had never been more growth or prosperity in the world. Everyone wanted more.

But Earth-That-Was (ETW) was reaching the point where there simply was no more to give. The first major signs showed in 2021 and by 2030 it was all but certain. The Earth would not be able to sustain humanity at its current levels (i.e. 21st century living with 21st century populations) and would completely fail within a century. A combination of over consumption and waste, along with pollution combined to create this calamity.

As that last remaining century of life ticked down, the projections became even worse and worse. "Simple" population control would not save mankind. Any continuation of the species would require a massive reduction in population (i.e. populations in the hundreds of millions rather than 10 billion) as well as a return to a less industrialized time with massive recycling projects as well. Soon even such radical plans were no longer feasible as the Earth became more and more toxic.


Solution
Humanity's salvation from a dying Earth was the prospect of new Earths. In 2020, the year before people began to get worried, the nearby star system of 34 Tauri was discovered. Within the next twenty years, the original star was discovered to be a star cluster with dozens of potentially terraformable planets and the stars within the systems providing acceptable Earth-like conditions.

Meanwhile, in 2035, humanity began to master manipulate gravity through new quantum theories. Over the next few years, numerous breakthroughs would follow including: artificial gravity, gravity shielding, and eventually the gravity drive. Gravity manipulation also saw implementation into what had previously only theoretic ideas about terraforming while simultaneously cutting the estimated time of terraforming to a tenth of what it otherwise would have taken. Terraforming is tested on Mars, Venus, and the Moon with positive results. Unfortunately, large scale attempts to fully terraform run into setbacks. The projects are ultimately halted due to a lack of native resources left on Earth to allocate to what is seen as a failure.


Repeat of History
Some claim that humanity is repeating in the 'Verse the very disastrous practices that occurred on ETW hundreds of years ago. The population of the Core is exploding, they have exhausted much of their own resources, industry is widespread, and consumerism is at an all time high. As the Core Worlds are used up are they merely reaching out to the Rim to sustain their lives, at least until those worlds are also exhausted?

The difference, however, comes in the advanced technologies of the age and the hindsight of where humanity came from. From the start, the 'Verse has always seen a strong focus on recycling of resources. In the Core at least, industries are also relatively clean limiting their pollution output as much as possible. Just as one would place a factory away from homes in a city, in the 'Verse some high polluting industries are operated only on remote moons so that the inevitable harm will not kill a vibrant planet. Finally, humanity has mastered terraforming technology and with that comes expansive knowledge in maintaining atmospheres. Each world's atmospheric processing centers which regulate their air (along with a number of other things) also work to purify what toxins are emitted (or so the public is told).

[Roger]

The Ark Fleet

Building the Fleet
Despite the setbacks to terraforming, the Global Exodus Alliance (GEA) formed in 2048 to marshal Earth's remaining resources for the planned mass exodus. In 2060, the Articles of Alliance were officially signed with the Anglo-Sino Alliance becoming the de facto government of Earth at the head of the GEA. All of humanity's remaining authority is under the control of the Exodus program. The Alliance splits its power between keeping the peace on a panicking planet and constructing massive Ark ships.

Plant and animal species are cataloged as is the wealth of all recorded human history and knowledge. This is followed by supplies and stores with which to stock the Arks. In 2072 the first wave of spacecraft are dispatched to 34 Tauri, the selected resettlement site. By 2075 the Ark project is expanded tenfold after even bleaker reports of Earth's future sustainability. Entire cities are torn apart for raw materials and millions labor on the projects over the course of decades.

Meanwhile the rest of the planet is falling apart. Starvation and disease are widespread due to panic, anarchy, conflict, as well as general conditions on Earth becoming more toxic. Small factions wage war for what is left of the Earth while the Alliance tries to keep the peace, control those resources it can for the Arks, and of course to protect humanity's only future, the planned exodus. Over the next few decades Earth's population would plummet from these variety of ailments and for the most part the Alliance could do little more than watch. There simply was no alternative and the Ark Fleet was the highest priority.

By 2090 the Ark ships were beginning to be finished and loaded with supplies. By 2094 passengers began to be admitted to the massive ships. It will be three full years before any ships depart, but the passengers are happy to be aboard the sterile and safe environments and away from what Earth has become. In 2097 the first wave of ships, the terraforming Arks, depart Earth. The last wave of ships leaves in 2101. 250 million souls escaped aboard the Fleet with many being left behind for lack of room. It is believed that by 2110 Earth was completely lifeless, the estimated century of remaining life back in 2030 only lasting eighty years.


The Journey
34 Tauri (AKA the 'Verse) is located 40 lightyears from Earth-That-Was. The Ark ships were and are the pinnacle of human engineering and the fact that hundreds were made just shows how dedicated humanity was to the cause. These ships could travel at an astonishing one third the speed of light (2.5 times that of a typical ship built over four hundred years later) and did so for the 120 years it took to travel that distance.

These brave pioneers lived and died in their ships. Entire generations were born and died aboard the Ark Fleet. Children had to learn to maintain their ships, the hands-on know-how of terraforming for once they actually arrived, and better perfect the sciences and technologies behind terraforming so that it was sure to work this time because there would be no second tries.

By 2220 the first wave of Ark Fleets arrived and finished terraforming Londinium and Sihnon. By 2225 the last Arks had arrived and colonization of the Core had begun.

[Roger]

Settling a New 'Verse

Terraforming
The early terraforming crews hardly had a break after Londinium and Sihnon before they went to work on the rest of the Core. Soon dozens of worlds were terraformed and work began on the highly experimental helioforming process of the protostar gas giants.

The story of humanity for the past two centuries had been a dying world, decreasing populations, and cramped living conditions. Once free to expand, humanity did so at an incredible pace especially in the first few generations in the 'Verse. The runaway growth that had led to such human advancement as well as such tragedy returned. In three hundred years humanity's population has increased by nearly a hundred fold and most every world in the 'Verse is terraformed or being terraformed. The exodus was a resounding success. Humanity would continue to live and thrive.


Exodus and Culture
The people that left the Arks in the 'Verse were not the same people as their grandparents, great grandparents, or even great great grandparents that had originally boarded back on Earth-That-Was. The cramped conditions of the Ark ships combined with the general nature of a brotherhood of man, the Anglo-Sino Alliance, etc. had created a new culture.

The culture of the 'Verse today is a hodgepodge of those from ETW, predominately "Eastern" and "Western" from the main powers of the Alliance. English and Mandarin Chinese are the dominant languages in the 'Verse and are often used interchangeably and even with the language switching mid sentence. Most everyone in the 'Verse will speak both languages, although not everyone can speak one or the other perfectly or even fluently.

The dominant religions of the 'Verse are also those of the former Alliance nations as well. Like the languages (but unlike the broader cultures, dress, food, etc), religions have not meshed together even though they have come into such close contact. Buddhism and Christianity thus dominate the 'Verse and seem to coexist.

Now, there are always exceptions. The 'Verse is a large place and the source pool from ETW was also large and diverse. There are various dialects and accents that have either developed in the 'Verse or survived through the Exodus (e.g. Dyton's cockney English). Other "mutt tongues" exist as well, i.e. the various unique languages from ETW. Some communities and even smaller worlds use one or another as their dominant tongue yet no languages come close to the widespread use of English and Mandarin. Thus study of foreign languages is not as prized as it once was, with knowledge of a mutt tongue typically only being useful if doing business with a specific community or for purely academic purposes.

As the languages survive so too do their individual cultural identities at least in some form as it too melds with the Anglo-Sino influence. Other religions have also survived the exodus (Islam and Judaism as two that seem to be seen in the series as well as the Amish-like inhabitants of Triumph) though they are not as dominant or widespread as they may have been on ETW.