Lore Timeline

The Guardians and Thargoids fight a long war. The Guardians push them out of their space.

The Guardians build sentient AI Constructs to fight for them. The Constructs turn on them. The Guardians wipe themselves out.

Humanity begins spreading to the stars.

The Federation forms after the first interstellar battle. Founding members include Earth, Tau Ceti, Delta Pavonis, Altair, and Beta Hydri.

Marlin Duval settles Achenar 6d and founds the Republic of Achenar, a democracy built on peaceful ideals.

Marlin dies in a shuttle crash with her partner and children. Her brother Henson takes the senate, disbands the council, and turns the republic into the Empire.

The native mudlarks go extinct on Achenar 6d. The Empire blames imported bacteria. The Federation says Henson sterilized the world on purpose.

Henson Duval is crowned the first Emperor.

The Federation invades Achenar using the extinction as pretext. Achenar wins.

On and off war between the Empire and the Federation.

Sirius Corporation is founded, supplying the war fleets.

A peace treaty is signed. The cold war starts and never really ends.

GalCop forms as a neutral arbitrator between the two superpowers and the independents.

INRA is created as a secret Empire and Federation joint project. Its official job is advanced ships, tech, and the study of alien lifeforms.

First encounters with Thargoid ships. Rumors spread of a hostile non-human race in Imperial space.

The First Thargoid War begins after a frontier colony reacts with hostility to Thargoid vessels.

INRA develops the mycoid bioweapon. It recruits CMDR John Jameson to deliver it. It kills him on the way home so he can't talk.

Thargoid contact stops. Humanity 'wins.' GalCop collapses from the cost.

The Thargoids fade into folklore. Almost nobody believes they were real.

The Alliance of Independent Systems is founded at Alioth. Systems defect from both superpowers.

Elite Dangerous begins. The narrative runs in real time from here.

Unknown Artefacts turn up. The first hyperdictions happen. Something is out there again.

Jaques Station misjumps 22,000 light years. Colonia is founded around it.

Guardian ruins are discovered. Ram Tah starts decoding the obelisks.

First direct Thargoid interceptor contact. Officially, they are back.

Salomé, CMDR Kahina Tijani Loren, is killed running data that exposes the Club, a shadow cabal steering events from behind both superpowers.

Thargoids start hitting civilian starports in the Pleiades. Aegis is founded by all three superpowers.

CMDR Robbie Junior finds Jameson's Cobra on HIP 12099 1 B. The logs go public.

INRA records are declassified by Federal resolution and Imperial decree. The genocide becomes common knowledge.

The League of Reparations starts assassinating descendants of senior INRA figures.

Battle of the Gnosis. Canonn's megaship is hyperdicted and swarmed mid-jump.

Salvation appears, claiming better anti-xeno tech than Aegis. He ties back to Azimuth.

Salvation fires the Proteus Wave at HIP 22460. It fails. He dies. The Thargoids escalate hard.

Full invasion of the bubble. Eight Maelstroms appear, each with a Titan inside: Taranis, Indra, Cocijo, Leigong, Oya, Hadad, Raijin, and Thor's Eye.

Commanders kill the Titans one by one, starting with Taranis.

Colonization opens up. Players start founding their own systems.

The current year. Colonia just marked its tenth anniversary.