Fading Halo

Beyond A Fading Halo

Welcome to the wiki page for Beyond A Fading Halo, a freeform game being played on rpol.net currently. The game is a sci-fi space opera set in a homebrew version of the Milky Way but using the science of the Mass Effect universe. The setting information was started by me (username: iwantpie) but expanded on by all the players in the game as well as other members of the rpol.net community. As the amount of information collected is likely to get quite large I've decided to keep the details on this wiki page where it can be indexed and referenced more easily than the in-game posts at rpol. Below you'll find the timeline for the game and a brief history of humanity got from 2012 to the time period of the game. You'll also find headings for different sections of the reference.

Brief Timeline

Below is a time line of important moments in humanity's history. The history and setting will adapt over the course of play and I will update the time line from time to time as new details are established or discovered. Initially, the time line focuses on human history and uplifting. The 112 years between the start of the rapid human expansion phase and the current date is left purposefully blank so as not to limit player creativity in terms of their characters' origins, work, lifestyle, network and history.

• 2020 - Traveller mission to Europa launched to investigate possibility of extraterrestrial life under the ice.
• 2024 - Auriga discovered at the ocean floor on Europa along with a significant stockpile of Element Zero.
• 2027 – The language used on the Auriga fully codified and logs are able to be translated (language is later discovered to be Apothenian)
• 2044 – Humanity completes its first successful FTL flight on the Auriga, from Europa to Earth.
• 2100 – Terran Exploration Fleet (TEF) launches from Earth to explore nearby systems in the Local Insterstellar Cloud.
• 2102 – TEF Shiva arrives in the Formalhaut system and discovers the Pike Relay. First contact made with the Silfa.
• 2138 – After years of negotiation, the Terran Senate is formed and the Silfa Accords are signed, agreeing to the Silfa’s terms of release for their logs and technology and use of the Pike Relay.
• 2141 – The Silfan settlement on Valnya is dismantled and the Silfa leave the Local Interstellar Cloud.
• 2143 – Humanity makes its first trip through the Pike Relay. The Silfa host the Brerinth Summit at which humanity is introduced to many other galactic races
• 2150 – First human off-Terra settlement marks start of rapid expansion phase
• 2262 – Humanity has spread to 41 billion souls on over three hundred different planets and space stations in the galaxy

Humanity's Journey To The Stars

By the start of the 21st century, humanity’s interest in interstellar travel or even exploration of its own solar system had dimmed due to a combination of domestic pressures and realisation of the true technological barriers of space exploration.

Still, some projects pushed ahead and one such effort was NASA’s Traveller program, an ambitious project with the aim of establishing a manned scientific colony on Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter. The establishment phase of the mission, launched in 2020, was a success, with Europa Base fully up and running by the end of 2021. From here, the team began to explore the enormous oceans under the ice of Europa and it was on the ocean floor that they were to make the most important discovery of human history.

In 2024, a starship was discovered resting on the ocean floor. Over the course of several weeks the ship was transported closer to Europa Base for further study and scientists were amazed to discover the ship completely sealed and undamaged by time under the water with fully functional systems and an engine the likes of which had never been seen before. Over the course of three years a team of codifiers worked on translating the language used aboard the ship and were eventually successful, able finally to read and understand the logs aboard the ship, named Auriga for the chariot of the stars.

Meanwhile, study was undertaken at great pace on the incredible technology aboard the Auriga. The engine was powered by a substance referred to as Element Zero in the ship’s logs. When an electrical current was run through the material it was capable of generating fields that could affect the mass of everything within, either increasing or decreasing it. With the application of sufficient motive force, the scientists soon discovered that this technology was capable of the holy grail of science, faster-than-light travel.

Suddenly funding for space exploration and related science was not hard to come by and a new Space Race emerged as humanity sought to understand better the applications of Element Zero (eezo) and the other scientific discoveries aboard the Auriga.

In 2044, humanity succeeded in its first FTL journey as a crew piloted the now fully-functional Auriga from Europa to Earth under the command of Marianne Schepel. For over 50 years, study and construction continued at feverish pace until, in 2100, the first Terrestrial Exploration Fleet (TEF) was ready to launch.

A collection of a dozen FTL-capable ships kitted out for a lengthy voyage of discovery, the TEF set off for the closest star-systems to Sol, exploring Earth’s neighbours in the Local Insterstellar Cloud. They first travelled to Proxima Centauri, a system over four light years away from Earth. The journey took just over a day.

The TEF continued to explore the LIC until, in 2102, the TEF Shiva entered the Formalhaut system. Here they discovered an incredible device in orbit of the star; a giant mass-effect field generator the size of a planet with an incredibly complex core far beyond anything humanity had previously thought possible. Before the Shiva could close to investigate further though their LaDAR picked up a ship launching from the nearby planet of Formalhaut B. The ship was alien in design, slender and graceful like a shark and more than eight times the size of the Shiva.

Communication with the alien ship was established and the race of tall, graceful aliens introduced themselves as the Silfa. They explained that the device was a Mass Relay, capable of forming corridors of nearly mass-free space across the galaxy effectively allowing nearly instantaneous travel across hundreds of thousands of light years. According to the Silfa, they had been waiting on Formalhaut B for over two thousand years for the arrival of humanity in their capacity as guardians and overseers of the Mass Relay network.

It quickly became apparent that the Silfa were technologically advanced far beyond humanity’s level. Experts who had been aboard the Silfa ship and to their colony on Valnya (the planet known to humanity as Formalhaut B) estimated that the one Silfa destroyer the Shiva had encountered was capable of wiping out humanity’s burgeoning fleet and commencing an orbital bombardment of Earth that would effectively end all life on the planet. When the Silfa informed humanity that they would be allowed to use the Mass Relay only if they agreed to the terms they set out, humanity was in no position to refuse.

Some items on the Silfa Accords were a non-issue, some humanity had even already met. However other items were the subject of intense and lengthy debate. Top of this list of difficulties was the Silfa’s requirement that Earth create some kind of unified top-level of government to present to the galaxy; one who could speak for the planet as whole in the galactic arena. It took 36 years for humanity to agree this but, eventually, in 2138 the Terran Senate was formed. The Senate was a body of 32 politicians from across the globe under the supervision of two Consuls responsible for representing the entire populace of Earth in galactic matters.

With the Senate in place, as well as economic, political and social reforms across the globe, humanity was finally in a position to sign the Silfa Accord. As well as the use of the Mass Relay in Formalhaut, the Silfa also released their logs to humanity; a vast library of documents that contained a wealth of information of the galaxy and its inhabitants and technology that is still being studied today. In 2141, the Silfa officially granted humanity the use of the Pike Relay (as it had come to be known) and dismantled their settlement on Valnya, disappearing off into the stars.

In 2143 humanity made its first jump through the Pike Relay and at the Brerinth summit (an event organised by the Silfa) humanity was introduced to the other races of the galaxy and its place as a galactic player established.

In 2150, humanity began a rapid expansion phase as its first off-Terra settlements were established. By the current date, 2262, humanity is a race of 41 billion souls on over three hundred different planets and space stations in the galaxy.