On May 18th, 2045, a demonstration was held on an island off the coast near Brownsville, Texas, USA. That demonstration, intended to prove to a number of corporate interests that practical and portable fusion power had been achieved, went horribly wrong.
The Time of the Sisters
Beginning on May 18th, 2045, culminating with the last event of the Great Grieving on May 18th, 2135, and truly ending in 2142, this 97 year period of human history began with a personal tragedy, and ended with tragedy writ large upon all of humanity. In between humanity transformed from a single-planet species just beginning to colonize their own moon, to a species stretched across two worlds, two planet-sized moons, and countless asteroids.
A time of great change, immense opportunity, and the return to terrible tyranny and stark disparity, it was both noble and mean, great and terrible, joyful and tragic. Perhaps that, indeed, is its seminal character, a time of opposition.
Formation
2045 2065
The first decade of the Pleiades Corporation are known as Formation. The beginning of The Corporation, initial successes, the first great market battles, and eventual dominance.
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May 18th, 2045
The Demonstration
Life, Trauma/ Loss
Dominance
2065 2095
Beginning around 2065, The Corporation changed from an economic entity subject to national governments, to a complete replacement for those governments. This process took about 20 years to complete, but only truly ended with the First Grieving in 2095.
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2066 through 2071
The Hostile Takeover
Political eventThe Pleiades Corporation began simply as a corporation, an economic entity dedicated to dominating the market for fusion energy and space transport. By 2066 that ambition had grown and, in a five year series of well planned actions, The Corporation executed a "hostile takeover" of several national governments on earth, leaving The Corporation both an economic and political power throughout the solar system.
The Grievings
2095 2128
On May 18th, 2095 the first of the Seven Sisters died. The timing, so precisely coincident with the formation of The Corporation, instantly became the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories. There was plenty of time for both as The Corporation furloughed every single employee for seven weeks out of respect for the deceased. This, effectively freezing all economic and governmental activity for seven weeks, and stripping nearly every human in existence of their means of support, without warning, brought about immense suffering and millions died. The most widely believed, and most persistent, conspiracy theory was that The Sisters, grieving their own, took this action out of pure spite, to ensure that all humanity shared their private sorrow and loss.
Thereafter, when each of the remaining sisters died, The Pleiades Corporation repeated this seven-week pause in all life, and each time the effect was devastating. The worst, the most destructive, however, was the terrible series of events that began with the death of the last sister in 2128.
The Great Grieving
2128 2135
This time, beginning in 2128 and ending in 2135, started when the last of The Sisters died, and ended seven years later. The time was characterized by annual events, prepared in advance by that last Sister, that caused terrible chaos and destruction. There is little disagreement among historians that each event was carefully calculated to inflict suffering and grief upon the mass of humanity to satisfy some terrible anger from this Sister at her own death. In the end more than 9 billion persons died over the seven years; leaving a solar system filled with the infrastructure for 16 billion, but populated by well less than half that number.
Reconstruction
2135 2140
By the end of the terrible events of the Great Grieving, most of humanity wondered if civilization could ever truly recover. The actual work surprised even the most optimistic, as the leaders of humanity remaining safe among the domes of Luna directed the most rapid reconstruction in human history. In a mere five years the restoration of much of civilization was completed. Immense disparity between the elite and the unwashed masses remained, and in fact was greater than at any time in more than six centuries, but the infrastructure and systems of civilization were completely rebuilt.
Ending
2140 2145
Following the time of reconstruction, civilization settled into a new normal. The elite, living in the domes of Luna had been largely unharmed by the terrible events of The Great Grieving. This insulation allowed them to direct the incredibly rapid pace of the Reconstruction, but also left humanity with a greater disparity between the masses and the elites than at any time in centuries. This new normal left most of humanity laboring under soul-crushing conditions with little opportunity and less hope. It was in this environment that the first Echoes were "heard", and the Time of the Sisters truly ended as the Echoes began.