Part Two: The Ancient Era: The Age of Far Journeys

[Overview of the Era] Modern historians usually refer to the long period from four thousand years before the Stargate Calendar to the launch of the First Stargate as the Age of Travel. This title does not come from the self-proclaimed name of people at that time. In the early days of the Age of Far Travel, different civilizations had completely different views on cross-world operations. Some literature on Tiyang Star calls it "Chu Tian", Beichen Star calls it "Yue Xing", Qingqiong Realm Academy calls it "Crossing the World", and Hengguang Realm scholars mostly call it "Extraordinary Journey". It was not until after the Stargate Era that later historians collectively referred to these activities of a similar nature as journeys when sorting out ancient documents. The Age of Far Travel is not a simple age of travel, nor is it a natural extension of the age of description. Civilizations that record the times have been able to preserve archives, organize boundary maps, hold cross-civilization meetings, and initially realize that there is a world outside the world. But in that era, most cross-world contact still relied on accidental rifts, remaining boundaries, the protection of supreme powers, or a few abnormal events. Even if ordinary civilization knows that the distant place exists, it is difficult to reach it stably. The real change in the era of distant travel is that some civilizations began to take the initiative to turn "reaching distant places" into an action that can be planned, prepared, and reviewed. Therefore, the starting point of the era of long-distance travel should not be understood as the departure of a certain long-distance vehicle, nor should it be understood as the discovery of a certain road. It is closer to the formation of a concept: the distance is not the other side in legend, but a reality that can be gradually approached through observation, calculation, preparation and sacrifice. The dates used in this chapter are all the dates before the Stargate Calendar converted by modern historians based on the Stargate Calendar. The Age of Far Travel started earlier than the First Stargate, and civilizations did not use the Stargate Calendar at that time. Because far-reaching activities often span different stars, worlds, places, and spaces, the original chronological systems vary greatly, and there are errors in the dates of some events by several years to decades. Any era that is still controversial in mainstream historical circles will be marked in this article with the word "approximately". Compared to the later Stargate Era, the technology of the Far Travel Era was extremely limited. Remote vehicles cannot guarantee a stable round trip, and travel routes often rely on short windows. Travel teams need to withstand huge risks caused by deep space, boundary currents, ground fissures, and misaligned rules. A journey may last for years or decades, and the return journey may even be impossible within the lifetime of the person who set off. A large number of travelers did not reach their destinations and left no bones behind, only their names on the departure list. However, it was these failures that made the Age of Journey an extremely important stage in ancient history. Before then, civilizations lived primarily within their own worlds. Even if we occasionally know about the existence of distant places, we often regard them as miracles, legends, ancient afterimages, or the results of the travels of strong men. After the Age of Far Travels, more and more civilizations began to admit that they only existed locally in the known universe. Although the distance between worlds is still huge, it is no longer an absolutely insurmountable barrier. Later generations often say that the Stargate Era opened up the universe, and the Era of Far Travel made civilization seriously go into the universe for the first time. Although this evaluation has a literary flavor, it is not unreasonable.

【Observation and planning】 The first step in the era of long distance travel is not to set off, but to observe. This is the most fundamental difference between long journeys and early voyages, migrations, and straying into foreign places. Migrants usually move along visible roads. Navigators rely on water, wind direction, landforms and experience, while long-distance travelers face the starry sky, world phenomena, regular tides, drifts between the earth and spatial distances that cannot be directly perceived. Without observation, traveling far away is just throwing your life into darkness. Existing data show that the most important institution in the early expedition era was not the expedition team itself, but the observation institution. They have different names in different civilizations: Star Observation Tower, World Elephant Academy, Star Atlas Institute, World Measurement Building, Night Court, Dome Hall, Distance Agency, and Foreign Realm Observation Academy. The names are different, but the responsibilities are similar, which is to record changes in distant targets over a long period of time and determine whether they are possible to reach. Starry sky observation was first developed and matured by the living star civilization. Beichen Star, Tiyang Star, Luojia Star, Weien Star and other living stars have left a large amount of star map data. Lin Wang, who chronicled the era, had already pointed out that there were systematic differences in the star positions seen in different worlds. This conclusion caused great controversy at the time, but it provided an important foundation for the era of distant travel. Because the travelers gradually realized that the starry sky is not a fixed background, but the result of the interaction of different world locations, rules and observation conditions. After entering the era of long distance travel, Beichen Star Donglu Observatory began to establish a more complex star position correction system. before the Stargate Calendar In 3981, Beichen scholar Aluochi completed the "Continued Examination of Three-Day Difference", comparing twenty-seven groups of stars observed in Beichen, Luojia, Tiyang, and Qingqiong. There are two surviving volumes of this book. Although many of the calculation methods have been eliminated by later generations, it was the first attempt to convert starry sky observations from different worlds into mutually verified long-distance coordinates. A Luochi was born in 4027 before the Stargate Calendar, and was born in Shitai City in the Eastern Continent of Beichen Star. Before the Stargate Calendar 4004, he entered the Eastern Continent Observatory, before the Stargate Calendar 3981, he completed the "Three Days Difference Continuation Examination", before the Stargate Calendar 3956, he participated in the first Beichen extraterrestrial target calculation, and before the Stargate Calendar 3938, he died. Unlike later legends, Alochi did not travel far in person. He spent most of his life at the observatory and may never have even left Beichen Star. But it was people like this who gave the Age of Travel the earliest computing skeleton. Realm observation is mainly undertaken by Qingqiong Realm, Hengguang Realm and some ancient realm schools. The so-called boundary phenomenon is not simply to observe whether a certain boundary exists, but to record the outer edge of the boundary, regular fluctuations, the residual light of the boundary, the direction of pulling, the drift of the surrounding small worlds, and the periodic resonance with other worlds. Since the world itself has the ability to grow, attract, drift and change rules, boundary observation is more complex than starry sky observation and is more prone to misjudgment. Qingqiong RealmBeiyuan Academy completed the seventh major revision of the "General Map of the Realm" before the Stargate Calendar 3974. Compared with the chronicle era version, the biggest change in the seventh edition is that it no longer only records confirmed boundaries, but adds four categories of entries: "suspected targets", "unrepeatable targets", "supreme powers one-way recorded targets" and "great beings legacy landmarks". This change marks the beginning of the journey plan’s shift from simply sorting out roads to sorting out possibilities. The so-called "supreme powers one-way record target" refers to a target that a high-level transcendent or supreme power has arrived and sent back information in some way, but has not yet been successfully reproduced by an ordinary expedition team. Such records were extremely important in the age of travel. Because many ordinary expedition teams are unable to cross the distant starry sky or dangerous boundary currents by their own abilities, they can only make plans based on the coordinates, warnings and environmental descriptions left by the stronger ones. However, the reliability of such data is not stable. Being able to reach a certain place with supreme powers does not mean that ordinary remote vehicles can reach it. Ordinary life may not be able to withstand the impact of rules, void pressure, foreign diseases and consciousness disturbances that supreme powers can withstand. More importantly, the information left by supreme powers often serves their own experience rather than the transportation needs of future generations. For example, a supreme power may record that "the blue and white double stars were seen after three northward turns", but for ordinary expeditions, how to define "northward", what kind of boundary current changes correspond to "three turns", and whether the "blue and white double stars" are real stars, all need to be reinterpreted. The information left behind by great beings is even more special. Concepts such as "landmarks", "star marks", "high light seals" and "silent coordinates" are mentioned many times in the documents of the distant travel era. Modern academic circles generally believe that these may be regular marks, world-creation remnants or cross-distance information structures left by great beings in the distance. They are not designed for ordinary civilization and are often difficult to decipher, but they can prove that some remote areas really exist.

Before the Stargate Calendar in 3912, the Heluo Xuegong of Hengguang Realm compiled the "Remaining Records of Far Boundaries", which included forty-six landmarks suspected to be left by great beings known at that time. Only seven of them were later confirmed to be related to the real destination of the expedition, and most of the rest were either misjudged or cannot be verified to this day. But in the early days of travel, even a handful of records were reliable, which was enough to change civilization’s judgment of distant places. Because at that time, the most difficult problem was not how to get there, but how to know that the distance was worth reaching. Therefore, a formal trip usually requires lengthy preparation. First of all, the observation institute needs to confirm that the target exists for a long time and is not a temporary illusion, regular reflection or boundary flow noise. Secondly, star mappers and boundary mappers need to compare information from different sources, including star positions, boundary signs, old maps, records of supreme powers, information left by great beings, inter-terrestrial drift cycles, and previous failed cases of long-distance travel. Afterwards, the Yuanxing Artifact Institute or the corresponding workshop formulates a survival plan based on the target environment, including breathing, temperature, food, water, energy, rule adaptation, memory protection and record sealing. In the end, the sponsor, academy, sect, or city-state council decides whether to bear the cost of departure. This process may take years or decades. before the Stargate Calendar In 3894, Hengguang Realm Heluo Academy made a plan to travel to the west coast of Usa Land. Judging from the existing "Heluo Travel Plan", the plan actually took nineteen years to prepare. The first six years were used for data verification, the middle seven years were used for device trial production, the last three years were used for selecting travelers and formulating return signals, and the last three years were used for continuous adjustments due to the delay of the passage window. The expedition finally set off in 3875 before the Stargate Calendar, and only three returned five years later. Such examples are not uncommon in the age of travel. Therefore, embarking on a long journey is never an impulsive journey. Behind every truly recorded journey is the result of the accumulation of observations, calculations, artifacts, systems and resources. The travelers are just the last ones to take that step, and behind them are countless people who have not left their hometown but also participated in the journey.