The failure of the Black Fleet persuades humanity to cease active resistance to Hyades deracination.
This sweep is considerably more melancholy, as all failed colonies are reseeded, so the ruins and corpses of previous civilizations are visible. Colonial Myrmidons die; Swans survive marginally, but are insufficiently communal or family-oriented to thrive. Humans thrive, especially Sylphs, Witches, Chimera, Hormagaunts, Hibernals, and Nyctalops. The smaller failure rate is perhaps due to stronger Terraforming effort and subtle, more patient Pantropy.
[Jupiter is roughly 40,000 miles in diameter at this time, and 25^7 IQ—achieving plateau maximum.]
• 26th Millennium A . D . / 44 V
(A.D. 25177) Arrival of the Antepenultimate White Ship.
Influx of snow ushers in a period of supremacy by pro-Domination Potentates. (No further expeditions to Omega will be mounted until the 29,900, some four thousand eight hundred years hence.) Del Azarchel returns, duels and kills the Myrmidon Nobilissimus, a copy of himself, who suffered divarication during the long absence.
Widespread use of snow (antimatter-powered weapons) makes the Sculptured Lifeways nonviable, as handheld weapons could wipe out a city, or an army.
The wealth of the expedition allows Jupiter to establish the first Collaboration-Strength Launching Lasers, a human-built starbeam.
(A.D. 25544) Foundation of the Starfaring Guild. From this date until the 37th Millennium, Jupiter is in direct control of all interstellar trade and traffic.
Polaris is again the Pole Star
• 27th Millennium A . D . / 43 V
Rust, a system of chaff clouds and superhighspeed nanotools (including small atoms spun at lightspeed, colliding with antimatter to discharge the energy back along the path of attack) is found to be a partial defense against snow—the snow-weapon is still formidable, but no longer unstoppable.
Discovery of Nerve-Mandala and Nerve-Mudra techniques. Warfare now formed by neural symbols. Nations break into smaller psycho-morphically similar sets. Note that only species practicing neural uniformity, Locusts, Melusine and after, are vulnerable.
Alrai is the Pole Star
Hierophant Era
• 28th Millennium A . D . / 42 V
After centuries of Nerve Wars, the Hierophant Cohesion forms. First and Second Mankind form one psychomorphic set of man-swans called the Hierophants. The Swans can use their man-brains to defend against Nerve-Mandala techniques, but employ aesthetic logic and xypotechnology as Swans.
Myrmidons migrate to 82 Eridani, the planet Cyan.
• 29th Millennium A . D . / 41 V
Under pressure from Cahetel, Hierophants enter this symbiosis with Ghosts, which mitigates their natural love of isolation, and produce a social system based on a flexible series of highly individualized rules, known as the Gracious Acts.
The Graciousness includes the removal of large-scale weapons and the reintroduction of a dueling custom. Women subjugated as several misogynistic philosophies and sects gain predominance. The Graciousness reduces Firstling humans into fawning servility.
Interstellar slave trade begins.
Iota Cephei is the Pole Star
• 30th Millennium A . D . / 40 V
(A.D. 29024) Launch of the Penultimate White Ship toward the Omega Nebula, there to establish a permanent colony and a Second Empyrean Polity of Man.
Cahetel departs. Hierophants left without calculation power which had been loaned to them (at interest) by Cahetel. The Hierophant Cohesion lost forever.
• 31st Millennium A . D . / 39 V
Hyades signals detected at 82 Eridani, thought to originate from a descendant or revision of Cahetel. (The Cyanese loyalty to the Hyades dates from this early period.)
The Gracious Acts ended in a year widely hailed as the Matriculation of Man. The Servants of the Spirit of Man enforce anarcho-libertarian covenants on Earth, for perhaps six months, before falling apart into factional grief and strife. The Holocaust of Northern Hemisphere.
Spiritualists clash with Sacerdotes. The Sacred Wars reduce the biosphere of Earth to partially uninhabitable. Ghosts, Locusts, and Troglodytes wiped out by mandala techniques.
Alderamin (Alpha Cephei) is the Pole Star
• 32nd Millennium A . D . / 38 V
The Cherishing. Under Hierophant guidance, Earth recolonized from Mars, Proxima, Cyan, Splendor, Covenant, Nocturne, and Gargoyle. Establishment of the Castellan system: Arcologies at various points, well defended against snow and murk attack forms, dominate local countrysides. Human training techniques nullify mandala and mudra impositions added to posthuman consciousness.
At about this time, Cerulean, a second Power after Jupiter, is born in the 82 Eridani system, constructed by the Cyanese.
• 33rd Millennium A . D . / 37 V
Spread of the Oneness: biotechnological Archangels inhabit the local biosphere, and revive the Living Empire. Battle of the Trees: invulnerable tree-monsters slowly uproot and destroy the arcologies. Hierophants flourish in the environment, surfeited by ambrosia, nectar, and sweet dreams. Technology forgotten by humans.
Splendid engineers convert the outer three asteroid belts of the Delta Pavonis star system into a cognitive matter entity called Peacock, a third Power.
• 34th Millennium A . D . / 36 V
Starfarers from Splendor use weather control technology to decimate the Oneness, and return Earth to a technological footing. Rise of the Ninety-One-and-Nine Realms. Labor market for slaves both on and off Earth is abetted by a return to plantation and factory work.
Epsilon Eridani creates a Power called Atramental. Under his guidance, the Sacerdotes of Nocturne, in advance of the Third Sweep, launch a voluntary multigeneration colony ship toward Rigel, and colonize Orphan.
The Splendids prevail upon Jupiter to take closer control of mankind.
Deneb is the Pole Star
Third Sweep—The Long Golden Afternoon
• 35th Millennium A . D . / 35 V
The Long Golden Afternoon of Man—Earthly society, under the gentle guidance of the Jupiter Brain, using Cherished technology and Oneness Edenwork (a type of biotechnology), produces a stable yet flexible genetic caste system.
Widely regarded as a near-Utopia, the Long Golden Afternoon endures from the 35th to the 53rd Millennium, over eighteen thousand years, one of the most stable forms of society in human history. Wars are contained as small and local, executed with punctilious chivalry on all sides; disease is unknown, except as a weapon; poverty is unknown, except as a voluntary spiritual discipline. Sacerdotalism persecuted.