Timeline of the Foundation

The Old Earth

• 2045: With the discovery of cold fusion, mankind’s long nascent dreams of space awaken once more. Commercial asteroid mining concerns begin to operate, and the first manned missions are sent to Mars.
• 2080: The colonization of space is underway. A new fusion-powered spacecraft called the Horizon is sent to colonise the red planet. Establishing a colony on the hostile Martian surface is a mammoth task; even the most optimistic projections estimate that the terraforming efforts will take at least 300 years.
• 2085: One of the first asteroid mining facilities, now exhausted, is converted into the Beyonder. It is turned into a secure vault containing seeds, embryos and other samples of Terran life - including humans. Its purpose is to safeguard Earth’s life against any catastrophe - for millennia, if need be.
• 2100: Improved deep-space scanning technology discovers an unstable “wormhole” at the solar system’s edge. It is dubbed “Heaven’s Gate” by the media, and the world buzzes with speculation about what might lie on the other side.
• 2120: Despite the invention of clean energy, the biosphere of Earth has passed the point of no return, and environmental collapse is ongoing. Religious and ethical tensions regarding the newest advances in genetic engineering and life extension also contribute to make Earth a tense and dangerous place, with pandemics and environmental disasters becoming increasingly common.
• 2125: The “great leap into space” has already fallen by the wayside as Earth struggles. A diplomatic incident occurs on the Martian Colony, stemming from an ideological disagreement about the ethics of terraforming Mars. It sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately result in global thermonuclear war on Earth.
• 2150: Twenty-five years later the Earth is crippled and dying, and has withdrawn into itself. Most deep-space infrastructure has fallen into neglect, and the Martian Colony has collapsed without logistic support. The colonists are presumed to be dead, though the Horizon has gone missing.
• 2151: Control of the Beyonder is seized by the remnants of the Martian Colony, led by Captain Malcolm Shaw. They alter its orbit, sending it on a collision course with the Heaven’s Gate wormhole.
• 2152: The Beyonder passes through Heaven’s Gate and vanishes. The unstable wormhole collapses shortly after, and the asteroid base is presumed to have been destroyed by the immense forces involved.

Birth of the Foundation

• 2152: The Beyonder emerges in the Tau system. By examining their surroundings, the crew are able to identify that they have travelled over 500 parsecs in the blink of an eye. The dumbfounded residents of the Beyonder realise that they are in a star system with several planets, one of which is ideal for human habitation by a stroke of sheer dumb luck.
• 2157: A tiny outpost has been established on the system’s most hospitable planet, which has been christened “Tabula Rasa”. The Horizon is used as a workhorse and a ferry to establish the nascent colony.
• 2457: Tabula Rasa celebrates its third centennial. Three hundred years on, the planet’s surface is now dotted with settlements and outposts, helped along by embryos from the Beyonder and the advantages of an extremely hospitable, almost idyllic world. The Beyonder has been emptied out, and the Horizon is no longer safe to fly. Unmanned satellites are humanity’s only presence in space.
• 2707: The population of Tabula Rasa reaches 2 million. The new human experiment has succeeded conclusively, and the colony is no longer focused exclusively on survival. Great progress has been made on preserving and reconstructing the lost technologies of Earth, though much is gone forever. Humanity once again begins to contemplate the stars.
• 2720: The Reclamation of the Beyonder. Humanity’s first manned mission to space for over a hundred years; flying brand-new shuttles manufactured on the planet’s surface, they return to the ancient dusty vaults of the Beyonder and reclaim the asteroid base in the name of science.
• 2815: Humanity has spread from Tabula Rasa and colonised the rest of the Tau system, establishing space stations and satellite colonies. Three nearby stars have been identified as good candidates for further colonisation: they are christened Amber, Mira and Eden. The colony ships sent to them are significant improvements on the old Terran spacecraft, but still expect to take decades to make the sub-light journey.
• 2870: Colonists have arrived in Amber, Mira and Eden. The existence of primitive alien life, long suspected, is confirmed.
• 2925: The population of Tabula Rasa reaches 1 billion. Small but promising colonies have been established in Amber, Mira and Eden. The four systems are almost totally disconnected from each other; even communication takes years.
• 2932: Scientists attempting to understand the “Heaven’s Gate” phenomenon discover the principles of otherspace, and the Llewellyn Drive is developed. Though not without its limitations, practical interstellar travel appears possible for the first time.
• 2935: Contact is established with the new colonies for the first time since they were founded. Ships, technology and resources flow into the fledgling colonies from Tau - giving them a kickstart and bringing them firmly back within Tabula Rasa’s sphere of influence.
• 2940: This is the official year that the Foundation, humanity’s first truly interstellar government, was formed.

The Interstellar Renaissance

• 3000: With the freedom afforded by a Llewellyn Drive, trailblazers of every denomination set out into the cosmos to map and colonise the stars. An explosion of culture and scientific discovery ensues, dubbed by some as the “Interstellar Renaissance”. Humanity’s prospects have never been brighter.
• 3150: Rudimentary outposts have been established on several star systems, as far as 10 parsecs from Tau. These fledgling colonies are largely autonomous, though officially part of the Foundation. With the newest colonies separated from the “core worlds” by weeks of interstellar voyaging, questions are being asked about the Foundation’s ability to rule the ever-widening interstellar diaspora.
• 3165: Colonisation of Hope, the most distant system yet. Expansion has slowed, since more distant systems are either unprofitable or too far away to maintain contact. New colonies will slowly be established over the next century, often by those who wish to live far from Foundation control.
• 3180: The Tau Ultimatum is broadcast throughout the known worlds by the Foundation. It reaffirms that all human colonies are members of a single interstellar government, and invites each system to voluntarily “incorporate” into the Foundation. It’s a mandate: you’re either with us or against us. For most systems, the benefits of joining the “Incorporated Territories” outweigh the risk of losing access to their interstellar lifeline. The Foundation cannot effectively control the more distant colonies; they remain independent in all but name, and come to be known as “the Rim”.
• 3185: The five-year grace period set by the Tau Ultimatum ends. A handful of systems refuse to incorporate, and close their borders to Foundation ships. Most notable and influential amongst these are the Limina and Chuangzi systems. The coming years will be known as the “War of Pacification”.
• 3195: The Battle of Athens. The Foundation occupies the Limina system and deposes the existing planetary government.
• 3205: The Foundation is struggling with the enormous expense and difficulty of interstellar war, and suffers a crushing defeat against Chuangzi’s formidable navy. However, intense pressure from corporate interests leads Chuangzi to agree to a “special arrangement” shortly after. They retain a great part of their independence and power in exchange for incorporation, and will ultimately become a regional hegemon.
• 3210: The War of Pacification officially ends, and the Interstellar Renaissance ends with it. It’s a pyrrhic victory for the Foundation; they achieved their goals on paper and forced the “rebel colonies” to capitulate. Nonetheless, the war stretched the Foundation thin. It’s now apparent to everyone just how little control they have over the more distant systems.

Recent Events

• 3257: The first reports begin to circulate of mysterious alien ruins found on the most distant systems of the Rim. Academics debate the existence of a so-called “Artificer” culture that inhabited the Foundation before humanity.
• 3265: The present day.