The history of planet Durus can be broken down into eleven eras, of varying
duration, and are mostly based on the forms of government that ran the world
in those times. First off, the name itself has complicated origins. It
derives from the word endurance, which means lasting, but is
often used in the context of prolonged suffering. That’s perfect for this
world, because across the decades, its early inhabitants all suffered. No
one had it good—even those who had it better—until democracy took hold after
nearly two hundred years without it. But still, they endured. The name also
comes directly from the root durus, which means hard. This
relates to the world’s seemingly insurmountable harshness, and the fact
that, when found, the rogue planet was barely more than a lifeless rock,
floating through the void. The reason this series is simply called Durance
is because that means imprisonment, and many have felt trapped on
Durus, what with there being little hope of returning to Earth. The first to
become trapped was a three-year-old girl named Savitri, who fell into a
portal near her childhood home, and never returned. She spent ten years
alone, never knowing her own last name, before the next unsuspecting child
experienced a similar trauma. They were then alone together for another ten
years until other people started coming through. The first period was
retroactively referred to as the Solocracy, which means it was never a form
of government at all, but it is said that Savitri commanded the world
itself, using her powers to summon supporting life to her proximity. As
we’ll discover, that’s not really what happened, but it’s a nice idea. When
Escher Bradley appeared at the end of this single-person society, they
formed what they called the Twoarchy; a sentiment which remained in
historical records, even though the real term should have been Diarchy. Soon
after Rothko Ladhiffe showed up, the final era of pre-civilization began,
which was called the Triumvirate, though it wasn’t always composed of the
same three people.
In the year 2016, the final remnants of the once-great city of Springfield,
Kansas fell into the portal during something called the Deathfall, and
sealed it up. This was when true society formed, and it did not go well. A
tyrant named Smith garnered favor with the right people, and struck fear in
the hearts of everyone else, forcing the town to follow his law until his
disappearance five years later. There were many dangers in this world;
monsters with rarely rational reasons for their destructive behavior, so
Smith felt he needed to rule with an iron fist, and consolidate all power
unto himself. Insurgents call this the Smithtatorship, which the historical
documents support, because Smith himself never bothered naming his reign anyway. The next nine years were a mixed-bag of really bad, just
normal bad, and not too terribly bad, but still kind of bad. It’s actually
composed of a series of experimental governances, which are collectively known as the Adhocracy. It is only when the
source mages, who were born in the months after Deathfall, grew old enough
to take power, that things started looking up. They formed the Mage
Protectorate, and used their abilities to give those they deemed worthy
powers of their own, so they could keep watch over the now multiplying
towns. This was a relatively peaceful period, as the monsters now that knew they
were no match for the mages. Their patience lasted only sixty years, though,
at which point a short war broke out, and sent the world into a dark era called the Interstitial Chaos. There was no significant attempt at a
unifying governing body of any kind for these four years, but a lot
happened, so it is an era in its own right.
Believing women as a whole to be the true agents of chaos and pain, a group
of men took over Durus, and developed what they called The Republic.
Detractors called it the Phallocracy, and enduring supporters often
retroactively call it the First Republic, to distinguish it from the
Democratic Republic that finally formed in 2168. In between these two
republics were two short-lived transitional periods, known respectively as
the Provisional Government, and the Salmon Battalion Military State. The
latter came from Earth to keep things in order when some saw the Provisional
Government was taking too long getting over its misogynistic ways. Lastly,
the Solar Democratic Republic began in the year 2204. After potentially
millions of years without a host star of its own, Durus finally found itself
orbiting a binary star system. The name change is symbolic, and not reflective of any true
change in government, though some debate whether to consider it the twelfth
era. Others say Savitri’s period of solitude shouldn’t be treated as an era
on its own either way, but no one is confident in this position. We will be
examining various stories in chronological order over the course of the next
five months. Each of the eleven or twelve Durune eras will be featured, but
installments will not be evenly distributed across them. Here we go.
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