The Precursor Age
The Precursor Age is the most distant of all historical ages still remembered by people of the Gamma Age. In truth, it is not really an age, but really an aggregate term for anything that happened before the Gene Age. It is so far removed from the experiences of the people of the Gamma Age as to be legendary. There are many stories from these times, but almost no one has any idea how the stories all relate to each other, if at all, or in what order they occurred. Only the rarest of scholars have been able to put together these stories into any coherent historical narrative.
Common stories say the
Lion Man walked the earth in the flesh during the Precursor Age and that almost everyone knew the enlightenment of the
Great Intelligence. However, for the most part, these and other stories like them are just stories. Little historical evidence exists for them. "Vaults" (a catch-all term for caches of historical artefacts that can be anything from libraries to tombs to military bases) from this period are extremely rare, and most are poorly understood, leading to the creation of even more myths and stories that may or may not be true.
About all that can be said about the Precursor Age with any real certainty is that technology was at a very primitive level, with chemical combustion engines and primitive computers being the height of technological achievement.
The Gene Age
Although this age is almost as distant as the Precursor Age, there is much more evidence of its existence, and thus it is somewhat better known and understood. This is the period when humanity stole the secrets of genetic manipulation from the Lion Man, setting humanity on the path that would see the species seize control of its genetic future. In many ways, this age placed the seeds for the eventual emergence of the Gamma Age, owing to its ground-breaking scientific and technological discoveries, spurred on by the
Great Intelligence.
Gene Age vaults, while still rare, are somewhat more common than those of the Precursor Age. Advances in engineering and architecture made them more resilient and often just better hidden.
The Noetic Age
The Noetic Age marks a significant milestone in what would be the development of the Gamma Age. This was when humanity created the first true artificially intelligent lifeforms. The appearance of AIs, androids, and other artificial beings was a major turning point in the history of the world. It was the first time that humanity shared the world with other sentient creatures, and it was also the beginning of a revolution in psychology, psychiatry, and related disciplines. Humans now began to plumb the secrets of their own minds, using the insights they'd gained from creating AIs. A wide variety of new medical treatments arose as well, designed to give people the ability to manipulate their own mental processes in ways never before possible. This was the era when intelligence itself fell to the onslaught of human science.
This age is both better and less well-known than the Gene Age. Many more vaults survived the Final Wars due to better protections, meaning there are more historical records of the Noetic Age than any other age, including the Final Wars Era. However, those same protections mean they are much harder to access. The Noetic Age also saw the rise of the first AIs, some of which are still extant in the Gamma Age, and their reputations amongst the remnants of humanity and other beings is often less than positive, leading many people to view AIs as monsters or gods. As a result, the Noetic Age is often seen through this lens, turning historical record into myths and legends. Moreover, many AIs have deliberately obscured or eliminated information about the Noetic Age for reasons known only to themselves, or often, not even themselves as many have erased their own data banks of information from the period.
Nonetheless, the fact is that many of the most powerful forces in the Gamma Age are those that have liberated technology, particularly weapons, from Noetic Age vaults. This age was the near pinnacle of scientific and technological achievement, and its artefacts are key to immense power and influence.
The Final Wars Era
The Final Wars Era is not a true age, as it probably lasted no more than a handful of years, likely less than a generation. However, it is an important period of time as this was when the world very nearly ended completely.
Almost everyone in the Gamma Age has heard of the Final Wars, though very few know any actual details of them. The combatants in these wars and the reasons for their conflicts are unknown. Stories of what happened frequently contradict each other, and most focus on a single person (probably not a real one) who is by turns both mythical and sketchy. The era is almost always presented as a cautionary tale, and the era looms large in the imaginations of nearly everyone who lives in the Gamma Age.
There are many vaults from this era, all of them with extreme security, brought on by an apparent extreme paranoia of the people of that time. Final Wars Era vaults are the holy grails of the Gamma Age, bringing power and influence beyond even those of the Noetic Age, in particular because most of them are caches of ultra-powerful weapons. Plus, so few vaults from this era have been successfully accessed and explored that just doing so can bring great gains to one's reputation.
The Gamma Age
This is the current time, covering everything from the end of the Final Wars to now. It's not entirely clear just how long it's been since the Final Wars ended. Survivors of the Final Wars had more pressing needs then recording events and dates. However, many of the oldest people alive today claim that, when they were children, the oldest people then were survivors of the Final Wars, suggesting that it has perhaps been five to six generations, or a little over a century.
There are a few vaults from early in the Gamma Age, just after the Final Wars, but these are few and far between (relatively speaking) and generally contain less of interest. That's if there's anything left in them. Most were far less sophisticated than those from just a few years before, meaning most have been emptied already.
