Year Zero

Year Zero is the colloquial name given to the vast biological and technological extinction event that occurred across HubSpace just over four hundred years ago.

Origins
The first warnings of the event came following detection of massive energy spikes near Hub Fourteen, although the data was quickly disregarded and labelled a slightly larger than standard supernova radiating energy across the cosmos.

Dissemination
Unlike prior energy discharges however, the pulse that would cause Year Zero seemingly displayed an ability to be transferred through the Doors, facilitating for widespread dissemination throughout HubSpace. Within a Standard Measure Hour a quarter of all Hubs had been affected, within a Standard Measure Day, all but one - Hub Sixteen, which would later grow famous as the site of the Oracle Academy - felt its presence.

Acting in a manner not dissimilar from the VoidPulse munititions manufactured by Laston Systems, although albeit on a galactic scale. In unusual contrast to understanding of energy flow, the power of the pulse only seemed to grow as it spread, violating laws of logic associated with the diffusion of energy.

Corruption
Wherever the pulse passed, it corrupted. All beings with augmentations, from simple ocular implants to those existing as minds grafted into artificial constructions perished instantaneously. Those without desire or means to augment themselves quickly followed as Environment Sustainment systems across the Hubs grew corrupted and suffocated or ejected all that remained upon the huge space stations. Vast databases filled with information collected over generations vanished, never to be recovered. Automated systems farming crops, livestock and all other manner of sustenance malfunctioned, creating famines for those that suddenly found themselves unfortunate to live upon the Worlds.

The only group of people that did not truly suffer from the spread were those of Hub Sixteen. Whilst some ninety percent of the data stored aboard the station fell foul to the same degradation, that which remained would serve immeasurably valuable in rebuilding what remained.

Aftermath
Year Zero marked the rebuilding of HubSpace anew, the wake of the event fundamentally shaping the society that exists within since. With the knowledge saved in the bastions of Hub Sixteen, much could be restored, but very little surely resembled what came before, for lack of understanding of what truly had come before.

It would be a generation before the Doors would be manipulated again to allow communication between the Worlds, and when they were, it was chaos and disorder that the reformed order of WaveWalkers found. Guided by primal instincts of survival, the survivors of the Worlds seemed naught but societies in their infancy to the peoples of Hub Sixteen, who had taken to calling themselves the Oracles. When the Oracles descended from the skies in their ships, they were set upon with spear and arrow, declared demons from the void by those seemingly so quick to forget their grandparents once walked between the stars.

The Oracles and their WaveWalkers would return, bringing fire and chain in response. For civilisation to survive, there would have to be order and from order organisation. The caste system was created, inspired by records from before Year Zero of proposed expansion plans. Latent aptitudes were discerned through neural analysis of all those subjugated, and intensive conditioning programs utilised to carve the necessary components to rebuild from the stock available. In the one hundred years after the formation of new civilisation in the form of the castes, society advanced at a startling rate, building upon what was left behind with a refined efficiency. The Doors were retamed by the organisation that would eventually become Glimmer, Hubs and Worlds rediscovered as once more people ventured into the great abyss and beyond.

Near all that hail from the OmegaCaste of the HighTiers claim heritage from the Oracles, although a few others too made the ascension in the early years of rebuilding. Somatic augmentation remains deeply uncommon among the HighTiers for fear of a repeated event, although has only grown more popular in those of lower status.

While automation systems do exist (and form much of basis of the MegaCorporation Corius), those that keep Year Zero in mind prefer to use biological solutions to menial tasks in place to technological, most typically ZetaCaste stock. Despite this, Corius claims to have recently developed a new advanced Artificial Intelligence System, although with working stock of Zetas being so numerous, even the boldest PhiCaste investors of Strilice see the potential for widespread success.

Life before Year Zero has remained a matter of greatly contested debate among scientists, philospers, theologians and all manners of thinkers alike. Nothing is more so hotly discussed than the origin of the Doors, be they natural occurrences, creations of the Society before, or designs of other beings entirely.