Part Two: The Ancient Era: The Stargate Era

[Overview of the Era] Modern historians usually refer to the long period from the launch of the First Stargate to the basic maturity of the ancient Stargate order as the Stargate Era. Among the ancient eras, the Stargate Era is often regarded as the most glorious chapter by later generations. This assessment is not without basis. Since the launch of the First Stargate, for the first time there has been an artificial connection structure between stars, worlds, ground, and space that can be opened repeatedly, time adjusted, maintained, and traffic records can be registered. The distant places that only a few far travelers, supreme powers, sect convoys, and academy survey teams could reach before have gradually entered the imagination of cities, chambers of commerce, academy, courts, ports, families, and ordinary people. The worlds are no longer just legends, fragmented pictures, oral accounts of returnees, and lists of failures, but have gradually become a reality where we can travel back and forth, trade, communicate, argue, and write history together. However, if you interpret the Stargate Era as a great project that suddenly opened up the universe, you will misunderstand the nature of this era. The First Stargate is not an isolated miracle. Under it are accumulated thousands of years of observations, calculations, yaws, returns, deaths, diseases, blockades, route battles and countless failed artifact experiments in the era of long journeys. Starships in the era of long journeys solved the problem of leaving one's hometown for a short period of time, but they could not support a stable round trip; boundary carriages could cross some boundary roads, but relied on cycle, protection and luck; underground capsules could enter short cracks, but were difficult to stay for a long time; escort platforms could help ordinary beings set off, but they could not guarantee their arrival, let alone their return. The era of distant travel proves that distant places really exist, and it also proves that the old ways are not enough to support civilization to move forward together. Therefore, the Stargate Era really begins with a change in historical issues. In the age of travel, civilization asked: Can we get there? In the Stargate Era, civilization begins to ask: Can we stay connected? What separates these two issues is not just technology, but also systems, time, law, medicine, language, trade, identity and trust. Before the First Stargate was launched, multiple civilizations had approached different parts of the Stargate project. Qingqiong RealmBeiyuan Academy has preserved a large amount of data on old boundary roads, abandoned passages and boundary current cycles; Beichen Star Observatory has accumulated a multi-world star position correction and distant star calibration tradition; Weien Star Sky Bookstore is good at collation, calendar conversion and data classification; Tiyang Star and Luojia Star have preserved a large number of expedition teams, return rosters, supply systems and passage contracts. Traveling bases such as the West Bank Chamber of Commerce in Usadi and Shideng Station also provided many dangerous records from the actual route. But these contributions alone are not enough to naturally produce Stargate. Data will not automatically turn into projects, desires will not automatically turn into institutions, and the one-way records of the strong will not automatically turn into public roads that ordinary lives can use repeatedly. The reason why the First Stargate was born in Hengguang Realm is no accident. The Hengguang Realm developed a special civilizational character in the late recorded era: it was accustomed to transforming differences into institutional, intellectual, and engineering problems. It is this civilized character that enables Hengguang Realm to bring together the fragmented experience of the distant travel era into the Stargate project. Stargate doesn't eliminate differences. Rather, it brings differences into contact with each other for the first time in a stable, dense, repeatable way. Different calendars need to be converted, different laws need to be coordinated, different bodies need to be quarantined, different languages ​​need to be translated, and different beliefs need to tolerate each other in the same Gate-City. Stargate has shortened the distance between civilizations, but it has not made the conflicts between civilizations disappear. It has brought trade and monopoly; it has brought knowledge and dangerous materials; it has brought community and node hegemony; it has brought new ways of life and new exclusion, fear and control. Therefore, the glory of Stargate Era has never been a pure and flawless glory. It was an era when lights connected roads, and it was also an era when roads were fought for, blocked, taxed, and militarized. It was an era when ordinary people moved across the world in large numbers for the first time, studying, doing business, and serving in the military. It was also an era when returnees, outsiders, residents of earthly worlds, and marginal civilizations continued to fight for their identities. Later generations often say that the Travel Era made civilization know that it is not the only one, and the Stargate Era made civilization have to live with "not the only one". The era used in this chapter is mainly Stargate Calendar. The day when the First Stargate was launched was later designated as the first year of the Stargate Calendar. However, it must be noted that in the early days of the Stargate Era, the Stargate Calendar was not a substitute for the local calendars of each world, but a public time standard in cross-world communication, engineering, trade, archives and legal affairs. If there is any dispute about the date, this article will mark it with the word "approximately"; if the event is only found in a single document and lacks mutual verification, its reliability will also be noted.

【the First Stargate】 There is a relatively large consensus among modern historians regarding the launch location of the First Stargate, but there are still disputes over the details. Most studies believe that the First Stargate was built outside an old far-traveling artifact courtyard on the eastern edge of the Heluo Plain in Hengguang Realm. At the end of the long-distance travel era, this place has been used for a long time for artificial short-gate experiments, rule buffer testing and return sample isolation. Its advantage is not that it is the most central location, nor that it has the most abundant resources, but that it has complex data sources, strong academic power, and many foreign scholars. It can also obtain the support of Qingqiong Realm old boundary road data, Beichen Star positioning data, Weien school texts, and Tiyang travel archives. Later generations often referred to the First Stargate as "Heluo First Gate". This name appeared later, and more common names in early Stargate Era documents include "Hengtong Gate", "Shuangdi Gate", "Chumen", "First Hengmen", etc. It was not until three hundred years after the Stargate Calendar that the term "the First Stargate" was gradually fixed in the historical materials compiled by Weien and Hengguang, and was adopted by later general histories. The direct history of the First Stargate project is usually traced back to Shang Li's "Ten Questions of Hengtong". Shang Li, a native of Heluo Plain in Hengguang Realm, was born in Yuanxing Utensils Courtyard. According to the mutual evidence between the existing "Hengtong Fragments" and the "Heluo Gongbu", he was active between the 26th century and the 25th century BC before the Stargate Calendar. Shang Li is not the first person to propose the idea of ​​artificial connections. Before him, Qingqiong Realm had the idea of ​​a "boundary gate", Beichen Star stargazers also proposed the metaphor of a "star-nailed road", and the phrase "two places on the same page" even appeared in Weien Star literature. But what is special about Shangli is that he does not describe the artificial connection as a miracle, a vision or a philosophical metaphor, but breaks it down into a set of engineering problems that must be solved. There are only eight questions left in the "Ten Questions of Hengtong" today, and part of the text has been copied by later generations, so it is difficult to completely restore the original appearance. According to Weien's textbook, the problems roughly include: how to position the two ends, how to synchronize the opening, how to buffer the differences in rules, how to safely pass life, how to calibrate the time, how to close the connection, how to isolate anomalies, and how to save records. These questions may seem almost common sense today, but at the end of the Age of Travel they made it clear for the first time that passage itself was not the only issue if connections were to become an institution. Stargate must deal with space, rules, life, time and records at the same time. before the Stargate Calendar In 2506, Hengguang Realm Heluo Artifacts Institute completed the first artificial short door experiment. The experiment did not connect the two worlds, but only established a short passage between two places in the same world that were about three hundred miles apart. According to the existing "Short Gate Test Record", the channel was maintained for less than twenty breaths and a recording stone was successfully passed. Then the structure collapsed and three artifact masters were injured. Measured in terms of actual utility, this experiment can hardly be called a success. It didn't transport lives, it didn't span the world, and it didn't form a stable path. But in a historical sense, it proves that artificial connectivity is not a completely unattainable fantasy. Qingqiong Realm's contribution comes from another direction. before the Stargate Calendar In 2489, Beiyuan Academy attempted to repair an incomplete boundary road and build double boundary markers at the entrance, shortening its opening cycle from unpredictable to about once every three years. This project is still not Stargate because it relies on the existence of the old boundary road itself and cannot be opened at any time. But it proves that artificial landmarks can change the stability of the channel, and it also proves that the old boundary road does not just have to wait passively. Beichen Star's contribution is less obvious, but equally crucial. before the Stargate Calendar In 2461, Beichen Observatory completed the "Calibration Chart for Far Stars". This table attempts to unify starry sky targets, boundary phenomenon records, and homing data into computable coordinates. Modern research has proven that the "Far Star Calibration Table" has a large error, and some targets have even been confirmed by later generations to be observational afterimages caused by refraction. But this does not affect its historical status. Because what the Stargate project needs is not a legendary direction, but a positioning system that can be verified repeatedly. Weien Star was responsible for organizing the data and time. Before the launch of the First Stargate, all parties involved in the project used different calendars, different time units, and different event recording formats. Without unified conversion, the "same moment" in the project cannot even be accurately described. The contribution of Weien scholars is not to create the Stargate ontology, but to enable different civilizations to record the same thing around the same project. The role of Tiyang Star and Luojia Star is more reflected in the experience of traveling and institutional materials. Zhucheng on the south bank of the Baihe River in Tiyang Star has preserved a large number of travel rosters, death compensation records, foreign residence contracts and star shell maintenance account books. The Luojia Star Baichao Islands have accumulated supply, quarantine, fleet risk sharing and return quarantine systems. The First Stargate project not only needs to open the door, but also needs to answer how to manage the passers-by after the door is opened.

Because of this, the First Stargate should not be viewed as a sudden invention by some genius. It's more like a long confluence. But the leader, breakthrough and ultimate creator of this confluence is Hengguang Realm. Other star realms provide data, experience, verification and institutional support; Hengguang Realm gathers these supports into projects and transforms them into public roads. Without Qingqiong, Beichen, Weien, Tiyang, and Luojia, Hengguang would be slower, more difficult, and more dangerous; but without Hengguang, these materials would not naturally grow into Stargate. Regarding the day when the First Stargate was launched, the existing information is not as complete as later generations imagined. Hengguang Realm's "Chumen Gongbu" preserves relatively detailed records of artifacts, but the text was compiled around the 200th century of the Stargate Calendar, and there are missing pages in the original part. Weien Star's "First Calendar Calendar" records the conversion results of the starting time, but the book was written later than the event itself. The Tiyang outer port document mentions that "Heluo Gate is completed, and a letter will arrive three days later", but it does not describe the process of opening the gate. The Beichen Star observation records only record the fluctuations of a certain set of stars and phenomena in the corresponding period, and do not directly call it Stargate activation. Based on these data, most historians believe that the launch of the First Stargate was not a grand ceremony for the public, but closer to a high-risk project trial. The person who successfully passed through for the first time was probably not a human being. Existing information shows that the First Stargate originally delivered record stones, empty cabins and a small number of sealed samples. The story of the so-called "first Stargate passer" appeared in multiple versions in the middle and late stages of the Stargate Era. Some said it was a Hengguang artifact master, some said it was a Qingqiong Realm road master, and some said it was a Tiyang recorder. Modern historians usually do not accept these legends because they appeared late and have obvious local honors. A more cautious statement is that the names of the first batch of life travelers cannot be completely confirmed, and the existing roster only preserves some of the participants and subsequent observation objects. The First Stargate did not change all civilizations at once. It did not allow ordinary people to travel freely across the world immediately, nor did it stop wars, nor did it establish a unified order. In fact, for the first few decades after Stargate was launched, access was still extremely cautious. Every time it is opened, it needs to be verified by multiple parties. Passing items must be sealed. Life needs to be observed for a long time after passing through. Foreign artifacts are not allowed to be brought directly into the inner city. Door maintenance records must be copied to multiple academic palaces. Many city-states and sects are skeptical of Stargate, believing that such artificial passages will disturb the world's borders and bring diseases, disasters or external forces. But even so, history cannot go back to its past. Because the First Stargate proved one thing to ancient civilizations: distant places can no longer only be reached by travelers risking their lives again and again. The remote place can be connected, can be waited for, can be opened again, and can leave a round-trip record in the same file. The road of the Far Era is the trace carved by a few people in the darkness with their lives; the road of the Stargate Era begins to become a light that can be maintained by countless people.