Analysis: how history became lost

Reading through the Core Rules you understand that the people have little memory of anything before the Long Night but this isn't that far into their past, so I want to establish how a futuristic culture that's capable of good record keeping managed to leave their past behind.   See also: Timeline of the Third Horizon history  

Databases and information lost or destroyed

This is a purposefully long article in which I think through the problem I've set myself - skip to the summary at the end if you want the main points listed.   159 years ago the Portal Wars ended, and the devastation was great
If people are only going to remember as far back as the Portal Wars then computer databases must have been lost, damaged or wiped during the fighting, or after it with some related purpose. So, why didn't - or couldn't - the First-come Factions and governments protect their databases?   Storytelling must also have been affected
History will still be preserved in human storytelling but this can be equally open to loss, and also to manipulation. Assuming there's a new generation every 25 years or so, then the loss of recorded history means verbal history has to travel through around six to eight generations of storytelling. This gives plenty of time for embellishment, interpretation and the effects of selective memory but not enough by itself to lose a connection to the past. So, why did people choose to forget - or perhaps, how were they influenced or encouraged to do so?   Loss through simple damage
Damage of ships and structures during the Portal Wars will have destroyed many databases: ships through combat, piracy and disaster; buildings and objects through bombardment and collateral damage. Depending on the weapons used, the damage may well have been irrevocable but there may well be computers out there - in space and planet-bound - that could be repaired and some of the data rediscovered.   Abandonment and a change of priorities leaves data behind
Some places and technologies were likely completely abandoned; without an infrastructure to support them, cities and dedicated facilities across the Third Horizon couldn't sustain a population for long. Some facilities may have been repurposed, their databanks wiped to store more-relevant trade information, and computers may well have become more useful for their components, to build or repair other machines needed for survival. A solid computer terminal might even make better use as a table for preparing food where the need is great.   Some information even hides in plain sight
Perhaps some databanks remain untouched, the truth of history sitting there just waiting to be read, and it's rather the lack of a reader that keeps the information lost. On old Legion battleships the force of techs that once sustained the complicated machinery may have been killed; and though the ships limped on with a skeleton military crew the techs were never replaced. In this case the information was simply forgotten, parts of the ship falling into disrepair, the crew simply finding ways to live without each failing machine. On planets, civilians pushed to the edge of survival may have forced their teachers to turn their lessons to just that needed to stay alive, causing learned folk to die without being able to pass their old knowledge and equipment on.   Intentional loss or manipulation
In surviving prominent and central locations there will have been computer databanks that survived. The Horizon is too big to lose all its history to damage: though the destruction was great the wars were fought for territory not as an intentional purge; but after the wars there would be nothing to stop the victors writing the histories as they preferred to read them. Surviving databases may have been purposefully changed to match an ideology.   The Order's 'protection' is enforced
The Faction that retained the most power, and with it influence, after the war is also one most likely to want to change written history, to match its ideology, to force everyone else to change their databases "for their own safety" - the Order of the Pariah. In this way some histories may have been rewritten, some parts simply deleted. Other databanks might only have avoided this alteration by being hidden away before they could be labelled as a problem needing solved.   The protection extends into a policing of storytelling
On distant planets the populace are free to tell all their old stories but wherever the Order holds any influence, so-called dangerous stories would begin to fade away. Where the Martyrs themselves patrol no-one would dare speak a forbidden tale but even elsewhere, in places where cultural leaders need to cultivate a popular image in the eyes of Faction trade and political partners, such stories might be frowned upon or just fall out of favour.   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

Summary of ideas on how history was lost

 

• Computers and databanks were lost and damaged across the Third Horizon, turning history itself into a valuable commodity
• In some cases it's the loss of the archived material itself that takes it out of circulation
• In other cases it's the loss of someone who knows how to access that data that makes it lost - it's still there waiting to be found but there's no tech who can operate the machine or no learned person to interpret the words and numbers to reveal the true meaning
• Though there's not been enough time to block storytelling handing down information since the Portal Wars, enough of the Horizon was pushed back into struggling to survive that the advanced knowledge needed to sustain and access databanks was not passed down through the decades, such that when learned people died a lot of knowledge died with them
• The Order of the Pariah tried to protect the population of the Horizon from its past by rewriting or deleting 'dangerous' histories - they had the power and the influence, so they decided what counted as dangerous
• Databanks and true histories still survive in places throughout the Horizon but hidden away to save them from this alteration, meaning they can only be accessed by those with both power enough to keep them hidden and the will to risk reading them

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Knowledge that remains

 

Ahlam's Temple	Some branches of the Temple have hidden libraries but they tend to be dedicated to specific topics and not complete histories
Algol	Attacks during the Portal Wars destroyed a lot of the planet's databanks; the remaining systems were then abandoned or overwritten through the needs of pure survival, which took over thereafter Archaeological finds may reveal lost data but nothing remains in the working domain
Dabaran	Since Dabaran remained free of serious attack during the Portal Wars, it holds some of the best libraries in the Horizon; but academics and rulers there have chosen not to reveal their existence for fear of upsetting some of the Factions; this withdrawal has still allowed the knowledge to fall out of common usage
Draconites	Not the sort to collect written knowledge they have nonetheless gathered a fair amount of information through their collection of old science and technology; as is their way however, the Draconites share neither
Legion	Legion databases never gave space to non-military data
Mira and latterly the Church of the Icons	Databases on Mira and Aiwaz are hidden from the Order's purges and the information vanishes from common understanding; a few priests still study them but it remains the Church's secret
Nomad Federation	Those nomad groups that were interested in historical data - really those in the Quadrant - did manage to preserve some of their libraries; however, a certain lack of care and loss of ships that contain parts of the data means that gaps have appeared and widened over time, reducing the span of the libraries
Order of the Pariah / Zalos	The Order either rewrites history to suit its ideology or the truth gets buried in religious interpretation
Sadaal	Xenophobic governments selectively alter the histories to suit their ideologies

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Summary of remaining libaries and their use

  Remaining libraries with good data

• Dabaran: probably the best but they remain hidden
• Mira and Aiwaz: took a little damage in the Portal Wars but they're still excellent... but they remain hidden
• Nomad Federation: are very piecemeal but contain reasonable data - people's reduced willingness to mix with the Nomads keeps it out of the hands of all but dedicated academics
• Ahlam's Temple: the branches of the Temple could combine their data to create an excellent library but see no reason to do so

  Educated people with access to these libraries do know the histories
All of them know better than to share this knowledge too openly however, for fear of persecution or other reprisal.   Everyone else knows only the stories
Educated people focus on maths, science and the arts and contain themselves with their family and local planet histories. The lower orders of society remain content with stories.   JUMP TO CONTENTS