| Type | |
| Traded items | Alien materials • Knowledge • Beings |
| Economic activity | Illicit trade |
| Place of discovery | |
| Controlling factions | |
| Earth government awareness | Hidden |
The history of civilization beyond Earth and its Solar System begins with the fateful 1969 Apollo 11 mission that put the first astronauts on the Moon. During their lunar expedition, the crew stumbled upon an unknown alien artifact containing the technology for faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion. This discovery would forever change the course of human history by making it possible to travel to and colonize distant exoplanets across the galaxy.
In secret, the major global powers formed the FTL-Coalition. This coalition utilized the newly discovered FTL technology to establish space colonies in various galaxies throughout the nearby universe. In the following decades, the number of colonies grew rapidly and eventually gave birth to various factions, each with their own distinct ideologies, goals, and means of survival in this distant frontier. A growing number of space nations, megacorporations, scientific organizations, and other space entitys began controlling different territories and sectors across the vast extragalactic expanse.
The FTL-Cohort were the largest and most powerful faction, controlling most of the Milky Way galaxy's colonies. The FTL-Cohort's interests range from mining asteroids for precious materials to biologically engineering exotic plants and animals for food production and even terraforming planets to be more Earth-like. Other factions included the Corporation Consortium, a coalition of multistellar corporations focused on commercial interests, the Federation of Science, a group of scientific institutions dedicated to knowledge and research, and non-aligned factions that independently control smaller sectors of space.
As the years went by, a thriving economy began to take hold among the extragalactic colonies. Often illegal or clandestine, this intergalactic commerce encompassed the trade of various alien materials and knowledge unseen on Earth, and even the trafficking of alien beings themselves. Various trading hubs and spaceports sprung up across the galaxy, serving as essential nodes for interstellar commerce. This black market trade played a vital role in the survival and development of the many extragalactic colonies, but was often accompanied by space pirates, criminal syndicates, and other illicit entities seeking to profit from the booming trade.
Despite the growing reach and influence of this network of extragalactic colonies, governments and general public on Earth remained largely oblivious to their existence. This was due to various conspiracys by the FTL-Cohort and other factions to maintain cover-ups and deniability, including black project funds and vast propaganda machines. As time passed and civilizations grew across the stars, the colonies remained hidden from Earth and the Solar System, all the while shaping the fate of humanity's interstellar destiny.
