History

The history of the known civilizations is long and storied; this is but an attempt to collect the most important data.

Overview
Iriondan history is divided into the following periods:

Stone Age
Before civilization emerged; not much different from Earth prehistory. Several hundred thousand years at least, depending on the criterion for when “mankind” starts.

Classical Age
Development and flourishing of civilizations; wars and other historical events happened that set the basic cultural substrate for the different Iriondan peoples; saw a gradual development of psychics, highly inefficient and nearly irrelevant at first, growing into a force to be reckoned with toward the end of the age; ended with the Wars of Sorcery. About 6000 years.

Dark Age
As powerful psychics threatened the very fabric of civilization in several parts of the world with the Wars of Sorcery, there was a general trend for societies to grow isolationist and authoritarian, either due to the iron rule of psychics, or to paranoia of psychics and the resulting (literal) witch-hunts and surveillance state. Large and powerful empires, a general state of “cold war” and heated political intrigue marked by the occasional (and short) military conflict marked this period. Many transhuman races were developed in this period, usually confined to the highest psychic ruling families. Ended with the Liberation Wars that toppled many regimes and sparked a new era of hope. About 2000 years.

Golden Age
Marked by both a steep development of psychics (refining it and applying it in ever more innovative ways, opening up whole new areas of human endeavor and experience), and refinement of social and political customs, leading to more stable societies and allowing for thriving cultural, technical and psychic progress. Saw fierce competition between nations and other interest groups, usually restricted to commerce and business in general. Transhumans developed more fully. Saw considerable development in astronomy, including the prospecting of livable planets and hyperspace-exploration psychics. As space exploration became a reality, fighting over psychic resources led to the lengthy Great War, which devastated the world and ended the Golden Age. About 3000 years.

Age of Exploration
Reeling from the Great War, Iriondan nations formed an uneasy truce and turned their focus toward the newly-settled planets of Asherah, Chertan V and New Eugeron. Expansion into this new territory, the subsequent building of whole new societies from scratch, and the difficult dealing with native races turned the main Iriondan powers’ attention away from each other, allowing for a period of protracted peace. Still, disputes over territory and resources remained relevant, and tensions occasionally flared. The three main political entities of the Core Worlds were consolidated during this period. The Wars of Secession that raged within the Confederacy, sparked by political disputes over territory and native-peoples policy regarding the recently-settled Reshep II, led to the Second Great War that raged all across the Core Worlds, with seizing of territories by all three major factions. About 2000 years.

Modern Age
As the Golden Treaty ended the Second Great War and settled the territorial borders of the Core Worlds into roughly the same shapes they have now (and creating the Golden Treaty Territory to boot), civilization reached a new era of peace and prosperity. Business interests have become gradually more powerful and prominent in the interplanetary scene as the centuries went by, now being more important than nation-states in many instances. On the other hand, individual nation-states have faded into the background as the three big transnational entities assumed an ever-larger role in politics and law – in fact, countries are now practically like provinces, with sub-national law regulating little of importance and national leaders having little autonomy in face of the overarching transnational entities. Disputes and conflicts have largely moved to the commercial and political arenas (though of course war never stopped being a reality), with a much more diverse and complex set of players and rules than ever. As natural and psychic resources in the Core Worlds grow ever thinner and societies grow stagnant and decadent, the recently-settled (about 800 years) Rancent’s World appears as a hope for a fresh beginning, being fiercely disputed by all three factions and dominated by none. About 1500 years so far.