The Next Five Centuries — Within Reach of the Sun

The world of 2497 has been shaped by five centuries of rivalry. Some 45 years ago, the Concord Accord brought the Mirror Race—a contest to build vast arrays near Mercury to collect and direct sunlight—under shared rules. The arrays kept growing, but the agreement brought an uneasy peace, but left the rival powers facing one another across the Solar System. Every habitat remains within reach of sunlight controlled by someone else, and that light can be turned against it.

Five centuries at a glance

The first three centuries are defined by overlapping crises. Climate change pushes beyond manageable limits, while the AI Hollowing disrupts the systems people depend on. These upheavals reach their height in the late twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. Four major power blocs emerge from the wreckage:

The Settlement grows out of the Basin Compacts, agreements that help communities survive and rebuild, signed in halls that once belonged to an older, failing world body—the UN.
The Mandate forms around China. A Russia carved up by warlords falls under its rule, and as the Long Heat ravages South-East Asia, sending refugees north and south, China takes the land they leave behind.
The Parishad emerges from India's foothill communities and fortified cities, refuges from the heat of the plains. Bound by a shared parliament rather than a single ruler, it draws in its neighbours one by one, until it reaches from Bengal to Arabia.
The Open Cities grow out of the American technology giants, built around a belief in meritocracy and free markets.

After 2300, an age of recovery known as the Renewal begins. Over the next two centuries, humanity rebuilds and spreads beyond Earth. But that expansion creates a new danger: vast mirror arrays near Mercury that collect and direct sunlight. They supply power, but can also turn that sunlight against distant habitats.

Around 2380, the superintelligent AIs of the Vaults demonstrate that these arrays can be built. They also predict that no major power will risk letting its rivals control the technology alone. All four blocs begin building, starting the Mirror Race.

Around 2430, The Caloris Runaway brings this competition close to open conflict. The Concord Accord of 2452 establishes a register of the arrays, but leaves their capacity to threaten human settlements intact.

By 2497, the largest array, probably the Mandate's, produces about 45–60 terawatts, roughly as much power as all the fusion reactors outside Earth combined.

About three billion people now live beyond Earth. Proxima is the only inhabited star system beyond our own, and five colony ships are travelling towards other stars. Meanwhile, the Lifeboat is slowing down as it approaches Gliese 876, unseen by the rest of humanity.

By about 2300, the worst of the climate and AI crises is over, and the four major blocs have taken shape. Wars, disasters and political upheaval continue, but humanity enters a period of recovery. Around 2380, the Mirror Race creates a new threat to humanity’s survival. The uneasy peace of 2497 keeps that threat in check without removing it.