jamie
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The Long Night doesn't seem long enough

Sun 30 Dec 2018, 23:25

On page 181 of the core rules, the Long Night is described as an age of darkness, isolation, and decay. Trade declined, whole cultures vanished in the sands of time, no progress was made, and populations declined. Then the Zenith arrived. But the Portal Wars that immediately preceded, and precipitated, the Long Night, ended just over a hundred years ago (page 180), and the Zenith arrived 66 years ago (page 248, assuming the current year is 61 CC), so the Long Night was maybe 50 years long. That does not seem nearly enough time for people to forget the advanced technology, for cities and outposts to fall, and civilisation to recede!

And, at the same time, the Nazareem's Sacrifice cult, that was wiped out over a hundred years ago, is still around as sleeper cells in ways that the First Horizon feel confident of being able to contact. Are these multi-generational sleeper cells?

Finally, what exactly did the less than 100,000 people on the Zenith, suffering memory loss and madness from low-tech cryo-sleep, do to kickstart trade and civilisation in the Third Horizon?
 
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Doctor KoT
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Re: The Long Night doesn't seem long enough

Mon 31 Dec 2018, 07:22

Long Night was maybe 50 years long
According to a timeline at p. 24 of Atlas Compendium, Long Night has started at -99 CC. And don't forget about 30 years of preceding Portal Wars.

low-tech cryo-sleep
Actually it was rather hi-tech, assuming how long and how good it worked :)
Looks like there is only Zenith's "generation crew" were used modern cryosleep tech, but colonist's cryosleep was entirely different -- "indefinedly" long, but one-off (like one-way ticket to the distant stars).
 
jamie
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Re: The Long Night doesn't seem long enough

Mon 31 Dec 2018, 22:03

Long Night was maybe 50 years long
According to a timeline at p. 24 of Atlas Compendium, Long Night has started at -99 CC. And don't forget about 30 years of preceding Portal Wars.
Thanks for the information, that makes it more plausible to me.
low-tech cryo-sleep
Actually it was rather hi-tech, assuming how long and how good it worked :)
Looks like there is only Zenith's "generation crew" were used modern cryosleep tech, but colonist's cryosleep was entirely different -- "indefinedly" long, but one-off (like one-way ticket to the distant stars).
I was going by what Kosta wrote in another thread:
During that time the would be colonist were fast asleep in their cryo caskets using a now partly forgotten tech (not exactly the same as in stasis pods used for portal jumps). Tech that hadn’t been perfected  and had some severe side effect. A lot of colonist died from the prolonged cry sleep, some went mad but almost all hade some sort of memory damage. During the wake up and strife between the Captain families (later becoming The Zenithian Hegemony) and the helmsmen families and other groups - a lot of colonist were lost and even more probably suffered memory damage of the  speeded up wake-up process.
 
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Doctor KoT
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Re: The Long Night doesn't seem long enough

Tue 01 Jan 2019, 13:43

a lot of colonist were lost and even more probably suffered memory damage
Well, "a lot and even more" is not "everybody" after all :)
And don't forget about Zenith's crew-families.
 
jamie
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Re: The Long Night doesn't seem long enough

Tue 01 Jan 2019, 20:57

Well, "a lot and even more" is not "everybody" after all :)
And don't forget about Zenith's crew-families.
Oh, indeed, and it's not that I don't think the people on the Zenith could have had a large impact on the Third Horizon - I'm mostly wondering what they specifically did that boosted trade, etc. A new, outside group being able to be a go-between for the existing civilisations that didn't care much for one another is just one part of this.
 
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Doctor KoT
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Re: The Long Night doesn't seem long enough

Tue 01 Jan 2019, 21:46

A new, outside group
They're not just new and outside -- they're ambitious colonists, carriers of 1000-year-ago-but-pretty-much-our-modern-culture. They came here to do claim everything they can put their hands on. Place is lready populated? Some would say -- unforseen obstacle; Zenithians said -- opportunity. After all, they have HUGE arkship, stuffed with long forgotten (by Firstcome folk) tech and -- most important -- capital goods and knowledges to produce and reproduce them. Smells like power.

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