Part Two: The Ancient Era: The Stargate Era

【Overview of the Era】 What modern historians call the “Stargate Age” is first and foremost a concept in the history of technology and society. It began in Year One of the Stargate Calendar, when the node on the outskirts of Heluo in Hengguang and the node on the outskirts of Beiyuan in Qingqiong achieved stable, public, bidirectional passage, and continued through the centuries in which the stargate network grew from a handful of engineering marvels into everyday infrastructure across the worlds. Its boundaries do not align perfectly with the later political periodization of the “Conflict of Paths”: after the fourth century, stargate technology was still expanding rapidly, even as conflicts over migration, personhood, local autonomy, and the power of the strong gradually became part of the Conflict of Paths. The two names describe different facets of the same historical period. The most striking transformation of the age was the first emergence, among Stars, Realms, Lands, and Interspaces, of an artificial coordinate network that ordinary societies could repeatedly use, maintain, and expand.

The early nodes of what later generations called the “First Stargate” were created in Hengguang and were closely connected to the star charts, experience of natural Realm routes, accounts of failure, and journeys of powerful individuals inherited from the Age of Voyaging. Civilizations including Qingqiong, Beichen, Tiyang, Luojia, and Weien contributed vital foundations; Hengguang organized this knowledge into a long-term undertaking that ordinary artisans, scholars, low-ranking practitioners, and high-ranking extraordinary practitioners could complete together.

Hengguang’s apex beings, schools of thought, wealthy cities, and resource-holding orders still enjoyed clear advantages, but debate within the project increasingly centered on the problems themselves. Open education, collaboration across social strata, and long-term experimentation allowed a single project to continue accumulating knowledge across generations, and it was in this social environment that the First Stargate was completed.