LoTHNet: Pre-Establishment History
Posted by The Bellman on May 2, 2010
Very little recorded Learning is available regarding the years immediately following Planetfall. In the Foundation phase, the Cities landed, shed their shells and created and established their fundamental infrastructure out of recycled and local materials. It is not within the Learning of the Hive or any available source how long this took or what the population of the Cities did during this phase, however there is strong evidentiary support for the widely held view that the Cities kept their populations in some sort of statis or sedation and that he process took on the order of weeks or, at most, months.
After Foundation, the Cities began to operate as separate entities and all populations underwent greater or lesser periods of social and political upheaval. It was some time before there was substantial local stability and unified local governance in all of the Cities (with some settling sooner than others); longer before there was material and sustained communication and trade among them. The period between Foundation and the establishment of stable and sustained communication and commerce among the Cities is generally called the Pre-Establishment period. Numerous Pre-Establishment sources survive and are within the Learning of the Hive, however they are not internally consistent and typically cannot be sufficiently distinguished from fiction to determine baseline credibility and trustworthiness for any given source. There is substantial disagreement in contemporary sources even as to the length of Pre-Establishment history — that is, the precise time between Planetfall and Year One CR. ((The game takes place in the year 1187 Common Reckoning)). Estimates from highly credible sources range from 50 years to over 400. Certain physical evidence establishes to the satisfaction of the Hive that higher estimates are likely to me more accurate.
In general, it is the present Learning of the Hive (consistent with that of certain high-credential value contemporary historians) that large sections of Pre-Establishment history are properly considered “dark”, in the sense that no Learning of acceptable utility is available regarding them. There are, however, Pre-Establishment sources relating to certain historical periods in certain Cities and Territories that appear to be reasonably verifiable. Such sources have been integrated into the Learning of the Hive. The Hive continues to seek and assimilate additional Learning on this subject and considers such Learning of high value. This is the Learning of the Hive.
