A/N: Yes, I know it's short. But the buildup, well, you gotta have that buildup. In any case, I think that this should be a short, but very informative read. And yes, the final entry on the timeline is intentionally blank.
Disclaimer: Mass Effect is a copyrighted, registered property of Electronic Arts and Bioware. I OWN NOTHING [except the original content].
TIMELINE
2682 AD/2000 Pre-Council- Humanity achieves interstellar spaceflight via relativistic vehicles. A tenuous empire is forged between the stars within roughly 20 lightyears of Sol over the next few centuries.
3282 AD/1400 Pre-Council- The krogan enter the nuclear age, and Tuchanka is ravaged by global conflict, triggering nuclear winter. Society is rebuilt on a formation of warring clans.
4582 AD/80 Pre-Council- The asari develop element zero based FTL space travel, and discover the Citadel.
4597 AD/65 Pre-Council- The human holdings have expanded to approximately 50 lightyears radius, centered on Sol/'First System'. Relativistic vehicles are still used for interstellar travel. Initial deep-field expeditions launched; each is a self-contained caravan of vehicles carried on a 4-kilometer long trestle structure for interstellar travel, and often called "rammers", due to the heavy reliance on catalyzed Bussard ramjet technology.
4662 AD/20 Pre-Council- The salarians discover the Citadel.
4682 AD/0 GS- The Citadel Council is formed, volus first contact and formation of the Unified Banking Act, turian Unification War.
4882-5082 AD/300-500 GS- Volus embassy established, batarian, hanar, and quarian first contact, discovery of the elcor and establishment of trade route and elcor embassy.
5082-5382 AD/500-800 GS- Rachni wars, krogan uplifting.
5317 AD/735 GS- First breakthrough with wormhole-based superluminal travel in human space. Initial experiments promising, though incredibly small-scale.
5782 AD/1200 GS- The Krogan Rebellions begin. Turian first contact, volus become turian client species.
5792 AD/1210 GS- The turians unleash the genophage. The Rebellions have been doomed.
5837 AD/1255 GS- The next major breakthrough with wormhole-based superluminal travel occurs in human space. The ability to create a compact device capable of being fitted to a ship is proposed and research into the concept is begun, though parallel research regarding deployable gate structures is still conducted.
5882 AD/1300 GS- Krogan Rebellions end, turians take on the military/peacekeeping role the krogan previously filled. Citadel Conventions drawn up.
5982 AD/1400 GS- Turians receive a Council seat.
6577 AD/1995 GS- Final and ultimate breakthrough with wormhole-based drive technology made. Ships may be fitted with jump drives, while much of human space is linked by gate structures. The Empire, as it officially becomes known, undergoes a sudden boom of expansion. In the course of approximately ten years, the Empire expands from a sphere of roughly 60 lightyears radius, to a sphere of nearly 150 lightyears across. Further contact with deep-field rammer expeditions is made, leading to several cluster-zones forming that join the Empire.
6977 AD/2395 GS- The Geth/"Morning" War occurs. The quarian embassy on the Citadel is closed by Council order.
7159 AD/2577 GS- The resource extraction colony of Shanxi is founded. Current projections indicate that the methodical extraction and claimation of every single material resource on the planet will take roughly 250 to 300 years. Liara T'Soni is born.
7221 AD/2639 GS- Saren Arterius born.
7232 AD [7 PC]/2650 GS- The Turian Hierarchy begins launching expeditions to find habitable dextro-amino worlds, as well as large amounts of extractable resources; the Hierarchy also begins research into spaceborne superstructures to house the projected overpopulation it will begin to tremble beneath within the next century. Sometime during this decade, Mordin Solus is born.
7237 AD [2 PC]/2655 GS- Saren Arterius is promoted to active turian military service.
YEAR ZERO [7239 AD]/2657 GS
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