Defines the material, institutional, health, travel, communication, knowledge, technology, rights, and transition rules available to a World.
The Life Engine / Epochs
Epochs
The capability contracts that Worlds are built from.
Current contractFifteen numbered Epoch capability contracts are active. Epochs provide rules; Worlds provide the playable histories.
What this surface promises.
An Epoch is a reusable historical or speculative capability contract. It defines the technology, institutions, professions, goods, transport, medicine, law, culture, language context, rights floor, and transition rules available to a World. Players choose a World; the World binds one of these contracts.
You can become
A person shaped by one era, a household across a complete life, or a lineage carrying memory into later generations.
Connected systems
Identity, time, health, relationships, money, property, work, organizations, reputation, evidence, law, politics, research, geography, NPC civilization, information, archives, moderation, and operations remain one platform.
Long-term end state
Additional content packages deepen regions and eras through reviewed configuration rather than fragmenting the simulation into unrelated games.
15 canonical Epoch capability contractsEpoch reference catalog · Reusable era rules, numbered in broad chronological order
Separately defines whether that World is a Continuum, Epoch Eternal, or Chronicle, how admission works, and how retirement becomes an archive.
Alternate History, Mythic, Supernatural, or Frontier mechanics can be added without replacing the Epoch contract or creating another codebase.
The World binds the Epoch contract, World Charter, and optional ruleset to its own isolated population, places, events, and permanent history.
World-building information
How to read an Epoch
- Contract version
- The revision number of an Epoch's capability rules. It changes when the actual era contract changes.
- Content package version
- The content edition of this Epoch’s playable material: professions, goods, institutions, technologies, places, and everyday details. It is separate from the game’s Alpha number.
- Validated package
- A ready foundation is complete enough for the game to load and use safely. Historical and cultural detail can still improve through expert and community review.
- Reference entries
- The included details across professions, resources, technologies, institutions, laws, transport methods, cultural notes, and regional variations prepared for this Epoch.
- World context
- The World using this Epoch as its historical foundation. An Epoch can support separate Earth, Aurelia, or Parallax timelines without merging their histories.
Prehistoric and Neolithic
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractPrehistoric & Neolithic
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- subsistence, cultivation, craft, kinship exchange. Resources: stone, fiber, wood, ceramics, biomass.
- Institutions
- households, bands, councils, ritual communities
- Health and lifespan
- era-bounded household, community and specialist care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- seasonal paths, foot travel, river craft. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- oral, embodied, local ecological knowledge. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
First Civilizations
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
2bound public Worlds
Worlds using this contractFirst CivilizationsThe Long Chronicle
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- irrigated agriculture, craft specialization, tribute and exchange. Resources: bronze, clay, grain, timber, stone.
- Institutions
- households, temple and palace economies, councils, early states
- Health and lifespan
- era-bounded household, community and specialist care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- road, river, coastal and caravan routes. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- writing, accounting, astronomy, early medicine. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Classical Worlds
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractClassical Worlds
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- agrarian estates, urban markets, taxation and long-distance trade. Resources: iron, grain, timber, stone, animal power.
- Institutions
- cities, republics, kingdoms, empires, associations and households
- Health and lifespan
- era-bounded household, community and specialist care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- roads, sea lanes, caravans and messengers. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- formal scholarship, engineering, plural medical traditions. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Late Antiquity and Migration
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractLate Antiquity & Migration Age
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- regional exchange, agrarian continuity, urban contraction and adaptation. Resources: iron, grain, timber, animal power.
- Institutions
- regional kingdoms, imperial remnants, religious and local institutions
- Health and lifespan
- era-bounded household, community and specialist care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- roads, caravan corridors, sea lanes and migration routes. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- manuscript learning, practical craft and plural medicine. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Connected Medieval
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractAge of Crowns
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- agrarian production, guild craft, rents, markets and long-distance exchange. Resources: iron, timber, grain, water and wind power.
- Institutions
- households, guilds, courts, commons, religious institutions and polities
- Health and lifespan
- era-bounded household, community and specialist care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- roads, ships, caravans, pilgrimage and courier networks. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- manuscript scholarship, apprenticeship and institutional learning. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Sail and Exchange
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractAge of Sail and Exchange
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- maritime exchange, agrarian production, extraction, finance and contested sovereignty. Resources: sail, timber, iron, wind, water and early gunpowder.
- Institutions
- states, indigenous polities, chartered enterprise, guilds, households and resistance
- Health and lifespan
- era-bounded household, community and specialist care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- ocean routes, ports, roads, caravan and postal networks. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- print, navigation, workshops, academies and plural knowledge systems. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Age of Revolutions
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractAge of Revolutions
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- industrial transition, plantation and wage labor, abolition, finance and mass politics. Resources: coal, steam, iron, print and agricultural energy.
- Institutions
- states, republics, empires, unions, movements, households and contested citizenship
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- rail, steamship, canal, road and telegraph emergence. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- print publics, engineering, clinical transition and mass schooling. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Age of Industry
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractAge of Industry
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- industrial production, wage labor, finance, empire, public works and mass markets. Resources: coal, steam, steel, electricity emergence and petroleum.
- Institutions
- states, municipalities, firms, unions, movements, households and public institutions
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- rail, steamship, transit, telegraph and early telephone. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- engineering, laboratories, public health and expanding education. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
World Wars and Interwar
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractWorld Wars & Interwar
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- mass mobilization, civilian production, rationing, displacement and reconstruction. Resources: oil, coal, steel, electricity, radio and mechanization.
- Institutions
- states, occupied societies, resistance, firms, unions, households and relief institutions
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- rail, shipping, motor transport, aviation and radio. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- industrial science, public health, aviation and mass communications. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- modern banking universal, instant communication, motor transport universal, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Postwar and Cold War
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractPostwar & Cold War
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- reconstruction, welfare, decolonization, mass consumption and globalization. Resources: oil, nuclear, electricity, mass manufacturing and computing emergence.
- Institutions
- states, international bodies, firms, unions, movements, households and civil society
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- motorways, aviation, container shipping, transit and global telecommunications. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- universities, public labs, broadcast media, medicine and computing. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- instant communication, modern medicine universal, global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Modern
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
4bound public Worlds
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- networked services, global logistics, finance, automation and climate transition. Resources: electric grids, petroleum, renewables, digital infrastructure and advanced materials.
- Institutions
- states, cities, firms, platforms, unions, movements, households and international institutions
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- aviation, shipping, motor and public transit, digital communications. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- internet, biotechnology, automation, global research and modern medicine. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
City One and Near Future
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractAurelia
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- circular industry, automation, climate adaptation, public systems and early off-world commerce. Resources: renewables, storage, advanced materials, closed-loop systems and orbital supply.
- Institutions
- layered government, cooperatives, firms, publics, households and orbital institutions
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- integrated transit, autonomous logistics, high-bandwidth networks and orbital routes. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- advanced medicine, robotics, governed AI, cybernetics and orbital research. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, beyond, advanced continuity, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Post-Collapse Reconstruction
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
1bound public World
Worlds using this contractPost-Collapse Reconstruction
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- repair, salvage, food and water security, mutual aid and institutional rebuilding. Resources: salvage, biomass, renewables, stored knowledge and scarce industrial inputs.
- Institutions
- settlements, compacts, councils, care networks, enterprises and rebuilding public authority
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- repairable routes, relays, river and overland networks. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- preserved archives, apprenticeship, public health recovery and cautious reindustrialization. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Interplanetary Beyond
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
2bound public Worlds
Worlds using this contractBeyond CommonwealthFrontier & Settlement World
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- closed-loop habitats, orbital industry, interplanetary logistics and settlement economies. Resources: solar, nuclear, regolith, volatiles, advanced materials and life support.
- Institutions
- habitats, settlements, programs, polities, firms, households and interplanetary compacts
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- orbital, lunar and interplanetary routes with communication delay. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- space systems, advanced medicine, robotics, governed AI and planetary science. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, beyond, advanced continuity, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.
Far Future and Posthuman
This reusable contract sets the era boundaries for every World that binds it. It does not contain players or an independent timeline.
Activecontract status
v2.0.0contract version
2bound public Worlds
Worlds using this contractFar Future & PosthumanParallax: Cyberpunk
Read Epoch contract details
- Economy and material baseline
- multi-system logistics, synthetic labor, long-lived institutions and scarce strategic resources. Resources: fusion-scale energy, advanced matter, computation, habitats and biological resources.
- Institutions
- biological, synthetic and digital persons; habitats, polities, commons and machine institutions
- Health and lifespan
- institutional and household care. Diagnostic certainty remains bounded and disability is modeled.
- Mobility and communication
- relativistic or explicitly declared speculative routes and delayed networks. Travel time, access, and capacity remain material.
- Knowledge and technology
- post-biological medicine, artificial bodies, digital persons and deep-space science. New capabilities require prerequisites, institutions, and regional diffusion.
- Allowed shared systems
- ordinary life, households, care, learning, work, enterprise, property and stewardship, community, governance, law, culture, environment, research, migration, succession, beyond, advanced continuity, technology
- Blocked assumptions
- global homogeneity
- Chronicle transition
- Preserves identity, lineage, relationships, memories, public history, authored archives, rights floor; converts property, professions, institutions, knowledge, contracts; never transfers currency, restricted items, anachronistic technology, office as automatic power.