Ok so here is an idea I'm working on, it's really part of the background of the setting but it involves a series of events and conflicts which directly impact on the present day setting of the "universe" I'm working on. I want to see what some other people think of this idea and if I should add anything to it or subtract or what, so feel free to shoot it apart if you like. So, thousands of years from now, humanity has forged a vast civilization spread across thousands of worlds, moons, orbital colonies, etc called the "The Empire of Mankind" (henceforth just The Empire) and all this is made possible by two things: faster-than-light communications and relativistic travel. There are various kinds of relativistic "regimes", some sub-light and some actual lightspeed, but basically it takes years to travel between star systems...however, FTL comms now exist in various forms, creating a kind of interstellar internet and allowing all of these worlds to remain in direct, real-time contact with Earth despite the fact they're separated by years or even millennia worth of distance and space. This, plus the fact that humans can live for upwards of three or four centuries at least (and two "elderly" characters are old enough to recall, and long for, the 31st century, a millennium ago!) plus cryonic suspension, the time-debt of relativistic travel and mind uploading means that the Empire civilization is more connected than it seems. HOWEVER... This is when some scientists discover De-Synchronization Drives or DeSync Drives. This is a kind of faster-than-light travel which incurs its own time-debt due to screwing around with space-time (one day under DeSync is equal to a year of real-time) but because of the speed involved, you can travel hundreds of lightyears in a matter of days. So the Empire builds these gigantic colony ships, twelve in all, each one big enough to hold one-million people and roughly the size of Manhattan island, to begin colonizing other star systems...however, because we were only just beginning to understand how DeSync worked, at least two were lost. From the standpoint of the Empire, they were "destroyed" by some kind of FTL phenomenon (stuff like "hyperstorms" and whirlpools of tachyons weren't unheard of even prior to DeSync developing) and were just forgotten. Over the coming centuries the Empire expands like a storm, colonizing tens of thousands of worlds and even developing other forms of FTL ("Relays" which were basically man-made wormholes) and we just assumed these two early colony ships were lost forever. But the thing is, they didn't die. They were actually thrown back in time seventy-million years. And from THEIR point of view, they must have ended up in a different galaxy or universe, because everything was so different and there were races they'd never seen before (we'd met aliens before, some with their own FTL too, but they weren't seventy-million years in the past) so the colony ships ended up in the Sagittarius Arm, beyond the reach of the Empire of Mankind by a huge margin, and begin setting up their own civilization. They assumed they must have ended up in a similar galaxy, or again in some parallel universe, but not realizing they went back in time they just assumed that things looked "similar but different" because of that. And when you assume...anyway, they also started out with the advantage of FTL, both communications and DeSync Drives, and expanded just as fast as we did, even discovering and expanding on a kind of natural FTL involving areas of space altered by space-time phenomena ships could ride like surfing a wave ("Hyperlines") and soon they colonized thousands and thousands of worlds too. However they went through far more tumultuous wars and chaotic events, natural galactic events and conflicts with other races and civil wars, and so they became much more splintered and more of a collection of colonies than an actual nation, unlike the Empire, and and for eons this expansion stopped, some worlds were isolated and went feral some started their own civilizations and so on. It should be noted that both in the Empire and in these lost colonies, because of how relativistic travel works and even FTL interstellar travel works, ships are gargantuan (a mile long ship is "small" to these guys) and have huge crews of tens or hundreds of thousands at the lower ends, and more over whole fleets can function like civilizations onto themselves. So there were "lost fleets" for the lost fleets, some of which broke off and evolve into civilizations and cultures and warrior cults of their own in the military. Eventually a religious figure called Aria Valyn rises up and thanks to her leadership and vast noetic power (psychic abilities) becomes the de facto ruler, and quasi-deity, of this civilization called the Sagittarius Leagues. Then, millennia later, the Empire's forward expansion and exploration forces slam into groups from these lost colonies. At first, because some speciation had occurred due both to evolution and the fact both the Empire and the Sagittarius Leagues engaging in eugenics and genetic alteration on a huge level, we just assumed they were aliens with human appearances (it wasn't uncommon) but then interbreeding and genetics proved they were descended from humans, some of the older dynasties even having direct links to existent Imperial royal houses that were around "today"--which in the setting at that point is the year 10,515 A.D.--and so we realized they were the descendants of the "lost colonies". Naturally because humans are human wars break out, cataclysmic civil unrest drags on for nine centuries, but eventually things settle down and the two civilizations form one cohesive human race again, the Second Empire. Mind you about a dozen other wars with other races or splinter groups of mankind is going on in the background, so by the time everything gets under control (19,999 A.D.) and the actual story starts they're in the third century of a DIFFERENT war with an alien race we'd already fought literally half-a-dozen times in major interstellar conflicts. So they unified together less because of some feeling of "equality" but because the Empire's forces outright defeated the League's on more than one battlefield and the war against these other aliens ("The Hett") was threatening the League and Empire so we needed to band together to survive the SEVENTH war against the Hett. Sooo...how does this sound? This is kinda part of a larger backstory, because there are other groups I didn't even go into, rebel factions and other alien wars, three-century long campaigns against a pirate syndicate by the League (yeah, the Sagittarius Arm wasn't exactly Equestria) but it summarizes this key part of the backstory and I want to run it by some people.
Please hear this the correct way: This is trodden territory. By that I intend to say, go and write this story! There are precedents in place of very good, well-received works that have some basic features you are mentioning. Your travel to a distant past with futuristic technology is reminiscent of Julian May's The Saga of Pliocene Exile, and also her The Galactic Milieu Series. You are also invoking the Lost Colony trope in a way that immediately brings Marrion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series to mind. Your post is presenting the premise, not the story, and the premise is following a well-established tradition, so yeah, go write it.
I agree with Wreybies, the story should be written. Tropes aren't a bad thing, as younger and casual readers may find this story before they read all else. That said, it's a gargantified scope! I assume this would almost be a franchise, if you go into specifics of just the factions of the three epochs. It's either going to be casual reference to a lot, and a few books. Or a lifetime commitment to the entire legacy and lore. I'm pretty sure this universe isn't a casual thought for you, so consider your main points that you want to make about human nature or vulnerability or whatever. Consider your Valyn a possible nexus that connects everything in some way, so that readers aren't lost in the magnitude. Don't forget to follow specific characters so we readers have a sympathetic connection with a few 'someones' in each of the various tales. Quite the hippopelephant to feast on, this is. Happy writing!
I kinda figured this had been done before, but I never heard of some of that. Oddly I looked up like the Galactic Milieu series and the whole "family tree" stuff sounded a lot like something I actually did, I kinda sat down and wrote out some family trees to focus on certain "houses" which were vital to the central story, keep everything coherent in terms of the series canon. Oh yeah this is definitely a series kind of thing! I realize it's a huge scope which is why I felt like toning it down to like 70,000 years in the past instead of before the extinction of the Dinosaurs. I'm kinda almost sure about that part...in retrospect it seemed like a really long time to cover. And there are a lot of other factions, eras in the Empire and stuff, various wars and conflicts the League and the Empire went through. I figured almost it would be like...I don't want to conjure up ideas of the Last Jedi's failures...but the idea I had was almost kind like three individual trilogies like Star Wars, set in different eras: like the Empire, the League and the...Second Empire, idk And thank you both for the encouragement
**AGREED** You mentioned that the ship was displaced from their own timeline and believed they were in another galaxy; that reminds me of Jim Henson's "Farscape" series. An astronaut winds up being tossed into an unknown part of space. that area of space is completely unique. The whole series takes place in that unknown part of space and he's trying to figure out how to return home. I would say almost every idea has been used. Anyone can claim to have an "original idea" and i'm sure there's someone who could show you an example of that exact idea or a version of it that has already been used. It's not about what ideas you choose to use but how you choose to use them. You could also think of it like the equation for calculating the number of possible combinations. You may use a trope but there are so many different way to depict that trope when combined with other elements of your story. For example, compare alien movies "Starship" and "War of the Worlds," or even "They Live." These three movies have to do with Aliens and their relationship with humans/earth. In "War of the Worlds," the aliens are attacking earth and trying to modify it for their own benefit. In "They Live," the aliens are living among humans and are controlling them through subliminal messages on billboards. In "Starship Trooper," humans are at war with insects hell hent on destroying humanity. For your story, look at the elements you described above and think about how you can combine them in order to bring your story to life. It could be that this Desync time-debt has adverse effects on psychic powers. Maybe Aria was a member of the ship tossed through time and these side effects cause Aria to become a goddess or maybe even a goddess-villain. Maybe psychic powers allow a well-trained person to manipulate minds; Aria is a human being seen as an alien due to her powers. What effect does cryo-suspension have on the human mind. Is it like being locked up in solitary confinement; maybe you're aware of your surroundings but cannot neccesrily interact with them. How would that influence a person's mental status or even their perception of the world. I also agree that your post was also more of a premise than a story pitch; it was almost too detailed in my opinion. I had to reread it a few times to keep everything in line. After reading what you posted, it seems your story follows the ship that was sent through time. If true, all the details about the Empire may not be pertinent for the sake of "pitching" your story idea to us. When "pitching," think in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Your pitch might look something like this. The following "pitch" is merely my example and is based off your OP: In the year X, the EM Prestige (Empire of Mankind Prestige) is the second ship to be fitted with a desync drive. The desync drive is at the forefront of new Empire technology due to its record breaking travel times. Of course, no new technology comes without its setbacks; for the desync drive it is the time-debt applied to users upon use of the drive. On a test flight to Denbough IV, the Empire lost contact with the Prestige; the EM Prestige's desync drive suffered a malfunction causing the ship to spiral through time and land in the year X. Without communiction systems and the desync drive, the Prestige must figure out a way to return home while surviving in a galaxy filled with warrior cultures and psychic powers. As the crew of the Prestige attempts to find a solution to repair their drive, waves are made amonst the inhabitants of this time galaxy. A deity known as "Aria Valyn" emerges and acts a blockade for the Prestige's mission to return home. Aria would prefer to force the Prestige into submission and add the crew to her ranks in order to expand her control. The story ends with Aria being ursurped by a Ambassador X of the Prestige. The Prestige's comm system and desync drive are repaired and they return home, but Ambassador X chooses to stay behind in order to spread Empire doctrine and the Empire's overall influence. This story follows an ensemble cast of the Prestige: a dimwitted Commander named X, a spunky and self-abusive pilot named X, a egotistical engineer named X, and a womanzing ambassador named X. I guess i'm just trying to show you that you don't need to explain every little detail. You just need to tell us the important parts that set your story in motion. And please note that when I use the word "pitch," i don't mean like a professional pitch that you would give to an agent or TV network. I just mean a succint yet detailed description of who and what your story is about. The backstory stuff is wonderful for you to know but not always helpful when pitching your story to someone else. Based on your description, we don't know any other characters except for Aria and even then I didn't quite catch if she is a member of the displaced ship or someone from the past. Is she a villain or an ally? Mine was a bit sparse in some areas when looking at story details, I just wanted to give you a shorter version of what you posted. Of course, this is just my opinion. I hope what I wrote makes sense and is helpful in your writing.
