Timeline Notes: Difference between revisions
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=== Year 0 === | === Year 0 === | ||
Month 0: The Swarm Cycle's 'calendar' is referenced to Year Zero and Month Zero being the month of the first armed clash between Confederacy/Human and Sa'arm forces. There had been many contacts before this, but this was the first one in which the Confederacy/Human side could fight back. See [[Zen Master|The First Command]]. <br> | Month 0: The Swarm Cycle's 'calendar' is referenced to Year Zero and Month Zero being the month of the first armed clash between Confederacy/Human and Sa'arm forces. There had been many contacts before this, but this was the first one in which the Confederacy/Human side could fight back. Two Castles destroy two Sa'arm scout ships but are forced to flee from the rest of the Sa'arm fleet. See [[Zen Master|The First Command]]. <br> | ||
Month 0: Unpublished story <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''Patrol Commander''' by Zen Master </span> | |||
(Done thru Month | === Year 2 === | ||
Month 24: Unpublished story <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''Ace in the Hole''' by swarmfic </span> | |||
=== Year 3 === | |||
Month 25: Unpublished story <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''You Knew What I Was When You Picked Me Up''' by swarmfic </span> | |||
Month 26: Unpublished story <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''Mobile Infantry''' by swarmfic </span> | |||
Month 30: Unpublished stories <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''The Case Of The Missing Kittens''' by swarmfic </span> and <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''The Menace from Perth''' by swarmfic </span> | |||
Month 31: Unpublished story <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''The Pied Piper of Irwin''' by swarmfic </span> | |||
Month 34: Unpublished story <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">'''Snake Eaters''' by swarmfic </span> | |||
(Done thru Month 34) |
Revision as of 07:24, 20 December 2024
Timeline Notes
This is a chronological list of notes about the Swarm Cycle's Timeline. Essentially, it's all the stuff that SHOULD be on the timeline but makes it too unwieldy. Instead, the timeline table was stripped to quick references and all the extended explanation stuff moved here.
All of the 'red' story mentions for stories that never got published have been moved here, too.
Philosophy: As has been mentioned elsewhere, a story about an interstellar war can be placed in just about any setting you can imagine. Things change. Change is constant. Things may change slowly, when a society is stable, but things change FAST in wartime. New weapons are invented, new tactics are developed, you take this territory and can use it for new advances, you lose that territory over there and have to scramble to shore up the hole in your defenses. A writer who chooses to use a war as background for their story has to look at the timeline. Tools, locations, attitudes will all change as the calendar shifts:
Look at an ordinary seaman in the Royal Navy during World War Two. In 1941, he had no expectation of surviving the war. Africa had both German and Italian armies advancing on every front. France had fallen and he and his buddies were all that kept the Nazi juggernaut out of England. Russia was siding with the Axis powers and Japan was expanding in every direction, and Britain had nothing to reinforce its colonies in the far east with.
Things were so desperate that the British government approved the Lend-Lease agreement, where the US gave the RN fifty old WW1 destroyers in return for 99-year basing leases in assorted Empire places all over the world. As hard-pressed as the Royal Navy was, those fifty obsolete and worn-out tin cans were a significant reinforcement to what was left of the Royal navy.
By 1944, though, only three years later, an RN ordinary seaman had no doubt of future victory. The US had entered the war, giving the Allies access to, not only the huge military we had built, but also the immense American industry. The Battle of the Atlantic was well on its way to being won, and England had as many as it wanted of any of the warfighting tools that the US could build.
By 1944, Africa had been cleared of Axis soldiers. The Americas were all either secure allies or, at worst, neutrals. Australia and India were secure from Japanese attack. There was still a lot of fighting to be done, but Germany and its allies were firmly on the defense. They would remain on the defense until the war ended. In Berlin, in Rome, and in Tokyo.
A naval story 'set during WW2' would have to reflect those differing conditions, locations, weapons, and attitudes. A story set in the Swarm Cycle has the same problem. We have a timeline that we have all agreed on, and a writer can either pick a time and write to match that, or decide upon the conditions he wants to use and then look at the timeline to decide where and when his story can be set. On top of that, it's an interstellar war, so the location can be any of hundreds of planets -which are all busily developing their own take on Confederacy culture- or even out in space.
Year 0
Month 0: The Swarm Cycle's 'calendar' is referenced to Year Zero and Month Zero being the month of the first armed clash between Confederacy/Human and Sa'arm forces. There had been many contacts before this, but this was the first one in which the Confederacy/Human side could fight back. Two Castles destroy two Sa'arm scout ships but are forced to flee from the rest of the Sa'arm fleet. See The First Command.
Month 0: Unpublished story Patrol Commander by Zen Master
Year 2
Month 24: Unpublished story Ace in the Hole by swarmfic
Year 3
Month 25: Unpublished story You Knew What I Was When You Picked Me Up by swarmfic
Month 26: Unpublished story Mobile Infantry by swarmfic
Month 30: Unpublished stories The Case Of The Missing Kittens by swarmfic and The Menace from Perth by swarmfic
Month 31: Unpublished story The Pied Piper of Irwin by swarmfic
Month 34: Unpublished story Snake Eaters by swarmfic
(Done thru Month 34)