Lost Colonies Compendium
A companion guide for the Lost Colonies science fantasy space opera series that will grow as the story expands. Includes a galaxy map, timeline, colony information, and additional reading.
A companion guide for the Lost Colonies science fantasy space opera series.
Contents
Galaxy Map
Timeline
Nine colony ships escaped Earth from the Uu’nok and scattered across the galaxy. Ten thousand years later, thanks to the recent advent of faster-than-light space fold travel, four of those ships have been accounted for. Despite their differences, they have banded together to form the Lost Colonies Alliance.
BC: Before Colonies
AC: After Colonies
10094 BC — First contact with the Uu’nok
9986 BC — Colony ships flee Earth (The Exodus)
5029 BC — Galileo Colony invents gravity tech
20 BC — First human successfully space folds
1 AC — Fortunus Colony discovered
3 AC — Entropia Colony discovered
7 AC — Vice Colony discovered
12 AC — Enigma discovered, Project Xerxes begins
The Colonies
Galileo is a desert planet where temperatures range from hot to inhospitable. Harsh sun, sparse clouds, an infrequent rain have darkened the colonists' skin over the last 10,000 years as a survival mechanism. No life existed prior to human arrival; what little greenery and fauna exists are the result of millennia of terraforming and concerted ecological effort.
Galileans value science and logic above all else, and are the most technologically advanced planet in the Lost Colonies Alliance. They were the first colony to perfect faster-than-light (FTL) travel after the Exodus, which has enabled the recent discovery of the other colonies. Pacifists by nature, they haven't shared the technology because they don't yet trust the other colonies to not weaponize it.
Vice began lifeless, but an ideal chemical balance allowed moss and algae to proliferate across the globe, coloring the entire planet green. The colonists implanted aggressive predators and prolific prey, intentionally creating dangerous wilderness that have honed the inhabitants into rugged survivalists.
Might makes right; power is what you can take. Vicean society centers around preparing for The Final Battle, where they will return to Earth more powerful than the Uu'nok can possibly imagine to reclaim their ancestral home. Their civilization is divided into great Houses, ruled by the strongest families who are intentionally at constant war, determined to hone each other into foes the Uu'nok will fear. The leader of the strongest house is the High Warlord, respected and feared by all.
Entropia boasts the most water of any colony, and is enviably the most Earth-like planet in the Lost Colonies Alliance. Temperatures range from polar-freezing to swim-in-your-clothes tropical, exacerbated by very long days and high global humidity. Like the other colonies, Entropia possessed no biological life prior to human arrival. However, prime conditions allowed the colonists to rapidly populate the planet with Earthen flora and fauna. Today, Entropia's continents are green forests and jungles filled with wildlife, its oceans teeming with aquatic life.
Sometimes called a kleptocracy, Entropia has fluctuated between anarchy and oligarchy for its entire existence, perpetuated by a powerful criminal underground. Piracy is common, bribes the norm. Society is dominated by a handful of powerful families who hold their riches close and stick to their own in a constant, silent war with the freedom-loving "criminal element."
Iron-rich dirt stains Fortunus red, marbled with snow from its cool-to-arctic temperatures that layer perpetual ice in many regions. Still, moderate rainfall and warm-ish summers enabled the colonists to seed life on this once-barren planet and support a population of three billion.
Donnant donnant. "You don't get nothing for nothing." That's the mantra Fortunians live by. Wealth is power. Hard work and clever bartering pave the road to prosperity for those with the stomach to play the ultimate game. Mega corporations have the most influence, but balanced laws enable new businesses to quickly flourish, creating an ever-changing competitive landscape that keeps the entire population on its toes.
Enigma earned its name because perpetual cloud cover obscures its surface from observation, and its strange technology-disabling properties make it difficult to survey, let alone access.
However, a daring reconnaissance mission by a lone agent has revealed the first possibility of alien life since the Uu'nok invaded Earth. Is it another colony? Or have they uncovered something worse than their ancient foes?
Even though the colonies fled Earth 10,000 years ago, humanity's homeworld remains the standard by which all other planets are measured. Little is known about Earth's fate and the billions of people the colony ships left behind. The savage Uu'nok may have slaughtered everyone and moved on, or enslaved the populace and taken up residence.
And they may never find out, for one thing every member of the Lost Colonies Alliance agrees upon is that folding back to Sol isn't worth the risk of giving away their location.
Character Interviews
Cappa and Dela interview Britta Silverstar:
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Ryan Southwick
Ryan Southwick