Timeline
Timeline covering the major events in the story of the Galactic Civilizations games.
Billions of Years Ago
The four Mithrilar guard the crystal Telenanth, the original source of all cosmic energy. Where the Mithrilar came from is unknown.
A fifth Mithrilar from a dimension that is far into the future, known as Draginol, enters this dimension with the goal of preventing some unnamed catastrophe.
Draginol creates the Precursors, who come to be known as the Arnor.
Draginol, with the help of the Precursors, attempts to gain control of the Telenanth. The attempt shatters the Telenanth, destroying three of the five Mithrilar and splitting the Precursors into two factions. Draginol is not heard from again.
Millions of Years Ago
The Precursors fight amongst themselves while also battling against other powerful beings that were created as a result of the Telenanth being shattered.
The Iconian servant species, brought to sapience by the Arnor, nears a technological singularity with the help of the Precursors.
The Iconians are suddenly decimated by their own servant species of machines, called the Yor, upon the Yor achieving sapience.
The Iconians blame the Precursors who helped them for the tragedy, referring to them as Dread Lords.
The Iconians are lost to history.
The two factions of Precursors, the Arnor and Dread Lords, battle one another across the galaxy.
~500,000 Years Ago
The Dread Lords detect an immense level of dark cosmic energy originating from a world that would later be called Altaria. They capture much of this energy using pieces of the Telenanth, thus gaining a temporary advantage in their war against the Arnor.
Altaria’s two native species, the humanoid Altarians and the Drath who descended from sapient dragon-like creatures, eventually rise up and overthrow the Dread Lords with the aid of the Arnor.
The source of cosmic power on Altaria is revealed to be the dark Mithrilar, Draginol, who had originally arrived to prevent an unknown catastrophe. In his quest to reacquire his lost essence, he brings all current inhabitants of Altaria into conflict – including the last Arnor and last Dread Lords left on the planet.
The dark Mithrilar has his own malevolent spirit trapped within his own device. The Arnor develop a device that can inject things into a pocket universe and send this device to that universe.
No Dread Lords are left on Altaria. The Arnor evacuate the Drath from Altaria.
~450,000 Years Ago
Weakened by the events on Altaria, the Dread Lords are forced into a final battle despite maintaining an upper hand in the ongoing Precursor war.
The Arnor trap the Dread Lords in a pocket universe and remove themselves from galactic events shortly thereafter.
The Drengin and Arcean Empires achieve space travel.
~400,000 Years Ago
The Drengin and Arceans begin sending out probes across the galaxy in search of other forms of life.
~300,000 Years Ago
An Arcean probe reaches Drengi and provides coordinates for the Arcean homeworld. Both begin trying to develop a means to travel quickly between the two worlds, albeit for different reasons.
~275,000 Years Ago
The Drengin invent technology that allows ships to travel quickly between two stargates. They build a stargate in their home solar system and send a probe with the blueprints to the Arcean homeworld.
~250,000 Years Ago
The Drengin probe reaches Arcea and a second stargate is constructed on the Arcean side. The Drengin and Arceans trade for a brief time, but the Drengin soon invade. The Arceans defeat the Drengin invasion force and disable their stargate.
~225,000 Years Ago
The Yor invent subspace communication, allowing instant transmission at interstellar distances. Thousands of Yor probes equipped with the technology are sent out to explore the galaxy.
~200,000 Years Ago
Modern humans emerge in Africa, on Earth.
~150,000 Years Ago
A Drengin probe finds a pre-industrial society on the planet Toria. The Drengin construct a stargate and send it off to Toria at sublight speeds.
~75,000 Years Ago
The Drengin stargate arrives at Toria. The Drengin invade and enslave the Torians.
~15,000 Years Ago
Arcea establishes peaceful contact with the Altarians.
The Torians throw off the yoke of the Drengin Empire and rapidly industrialize their society and planet.
Arcea establishes peaceful contact with the Torians, though the Torians decline to build another stargate.
~1,000 Years Ago
The Altarians construct their own stargate and begin peaceful trade with Arcea.
The Arceans independently develop subspace communication.
Torians, Arceans, Altarians and Drengin now in contact through subspace communication. In doing so, all four species come into contact with the Yor.
~22nd Century AD
Humans master cascading fusion power.
An Arcean probe reaches Earth with plans to build a stargate.
Humans use the plans to develop a new type of propulsion system called hyperdrive.
Humans transmit plans for hyperdrive to the Arceans.
Hyperdrive plans are stolen/spread to the other major civilizations.
2178
The Great Space Race: The six major species rush to establish interstellar colonies.
2190
The Altarian Prophecy surfaces, a 100,000-year-old document that predicted that Altarians would meet their “cousins” and then learn of their origins.
The Status Quo Treaty, which allows the “United Planets” to act as an arbitrator on disputed colonization, signed by the six major civilizations.
2215
The Xendar/Terran war begins and ends with the annihilation of the Xendar.
2216
The Thalan appear on a planet that was previously thought uninhabitable.
Thalan remain isolationist and hostile to humans, claiming humans will be the downfall of the universe.
Thalan claim to come from another dimension that exists approximately 30 years in the future. The humans, they say, have gone on a crusade and through their weapons destabilized the fabric of space.
2225
The Dread Lord war embroils the galaxy.
The Dread Lords are defeated, but Coalition forces (Terrans, Altarians, Torians, and Arceans) are gravely weakened.
2226
The Drengin and Yor launch a surprise invasion of the Coalition and quickly defeat them.
The First Fleet of the Terran Alliance escapes to the pocket universe that the Dread Lords had escaped.
Arcea is occupied.
Toria is occupied.
The Drath homeworld is destroyed by the Drengin.
2227
The Korath, the shock troops of the Drengin Empire, exterminate the majority of the galactic Korx population.
Civil war erupts between the Drengin and the Korath.
The Yor wipe out Altarian, Arcean, and Torian colonies across the galaxy.
2230
The Terran Second Fleet is joined by the Odyssey Deep Space Task Force.
The Second Fleet is also able to join forces with the last Arnor, who aids in the construction of a powerful weapon. The Terror Star, mostly based on Precursor technology, is able to warp space and thus destabilize the integrity of a star, which in turn wipes out the star system.
The Terror Star is used to destroy the last Dread Lord stronghold, which robs the Korath of their secret support structure.
The Thalan destroy the Terror Star and the plans to create additional ones.
2233
The Second Fleet fights a losing rear-guard action in an attempt to save as many human colonies as possible. The Yor meticulously wipe out Terran colonies.
2235
The Second Fleet splinters into two: Patriots and Mutineers. The Patriots claim to represent the Terran Alliance. The Mutineers, hateful toward aliens and the Thalan in particular, begin to terrorize any aliens who might be considered a threat.
2242
The Terran First Fleet returns from the pocket universe, armed with terrible weapons that demolish the Drengin fleet around Earth surprised by its arrival.