The Revelation Space universe currently encompasses five novels and a cluster of short stories, of which all but
"Monkey Suit" are collected in the books Galactic North and Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days. There is no
Bible or extensive set of background notes - I basically just make it up as I go along and rely on my own shaky recollection
not to tie myself in knots. That said, I do have a timeline that I hope is not hideously inaccurate or riddled with dire inconsistency.
Feel free to distribute but please do not amend in any way.
Timeline
2050 – 2080: period of great expansion into the solar system. By 2069 twelve million people live off Earth;
mainly around Earth and the Moon. Smaller settlements dotted around whole system, out to fringes of Kuiper Belt. Political
fragmentation and social unrest follows massive breakthroughs in bio-sciences.
2081: increasingly violent police actions against rogue states lead to retaliatory actions; onset of war. Emergence
of “chimeric” factions: heavily bio-engineered and cyborgized human splinter groups.
2083: ceasefire. Departure of flotilla of colony ships for 61 Cygni-A. At
1/8th of the speed of light, they will not arrive until the twenty-third century.
2090 – 2110: establishment of early colonies on a number of extrasolar planets via Von Neumann robots carrying
fertilised human cells. Most such societies fail within two or three generations. End of so-called Amerikano era.
2110-2140: period of turmoil; solar system convulsed by more wars. Emergence of Demarchist states in 2141 signals
new era of peace and prosperity. Solar luminosity begins to drop, heralding a new ice age on Earth.
2145 – Nevil Clavain born on Earth.
2155 – first Demarchist settlements around Jupiter. Great freeze sets in on Earth.
2161 - Sandra Voi leads first human expedition into Europa’s ocean
2178 - Great Wall of Mars project begins. Unease at extreme neural experiments being conducted under Demarchist
aegis leads to formation of the Earth-based Coalition for Neural Purity; a military pact of conservative states opposed to
further technological or social innovation.
2182 - first phase of GWOM completed. Demarchists distance themselves from the more radical factions.
2190 - Experimenters on Mars initiate Transenlightenment. Birth of Conjoiner faction and immediate onset of Coalition-Conjoiner
war.
2191 - ceasefire in Conjoiner-Coalition war brokered by Sandra Voi.
2191 – 2205; Conjoiner quarantine period.
2205 - Galiana’s Conjoiners escape from Mars. First relativistic starship constructed and launched from Mars
orbit.
2205 – 2250; period of great expansion; numerous interstellar colonies established; recontact with surviving
settlements from Amerikano era.
2217 – Conjoiner expedition to Diadem. Discovery of Setterholm’s Worms.
2340 - Denizen uprising; fall of the Europan cities.
2338 – Bernsdottir discovers first Shroud.
2351 – Dan Sylveste born in Chasm City, Yellowstone.
2358 – Shiva-Parvati cordon crisis.
2372 – the Eighty.
2373 – Philip Lascaille’s encounter with the Shroud in the Trans Tau Ceti sector.
2378 – Hostage crisis around Fand.
2405 – Departure of Sylveste expedition to Lascaille’s Shroud.
2415 – Departure of Galiana and Clavain’s expedition into deep space.
2441 – Return of Sylveste’s expedition to Lascaille’s Shroud.
2460 – Dan Sylveste vanishes from Yellowstone for 30 days.
2491 – departure of Resurgam expedition.
2510 - Melding Plague afflicts Chasm City; effective end of Demarchist era.
2517 – Tanner Mirabel arrives in Chasm City.
2524 – Ana Khouri arrives in Chasm City.
2541 – arrival of “Voice of Evening” around Turquoise.
2551 – outbreak of Conjoiner-Demarchist war around Yellowstone. Establishment of Ferrisville Convention.
2566 – abduction of Sylveste from Resurgam.
2567 – expedition into Cerberus/Hades artefact; death of Dan Sylveste.
2582 – Clavain’s return from deep space.
2605 – Galiana’s return from deep space.
2615 – Clavain defects from the Conjoiners. Exploitation of grub technology, including inertia suppression
machinery.
2633 – Confrontation between Clavain and Volyova around Delta Pavonis
2651 – arrival of Nostalgia for Infinity around p Eridani system
2673 – Irravel Veda recloned from herself.
2675 – departure of Nostalgia for Infinity from Ararat
2650 – 2850 – events of the human-Inhibitor war
2931 – meeting between Irravel Veda and representative of the Nestbuilder intelligence.
2950 – Emergence of the Green Wave. Systematic dismantling of many solar systems.
3354 – Irravel Veda buries Mirsky in interstellar space.
4161 – Irravel Veda in the Subaru Commonwealth.
40000 – humans abandon host galaxy.
