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About Skyrates[]

Skyrates is set in the world of Skytopia, a series of floating islands high in the clouds where various anthropomorphic animal races live, trade, and fight to survive. Players take on the role of a Skyrate, who must trade goods and shoot down enemy planes to make money and gain skills. The game went online in 2006, and now boasts over 11750 characters (each player can have up to 4 characters). Players communicate with each other over the in-game radio/chat feature and have formed a solid core group of flying aces, many of whom contribute to the game's mythos through this wiki, The Skybrary, and the Skyrates forum.

Game History[]

For Skytopian events, BU means "Before Upheaval" and AU is "After Upheaval". The "Upheaval" referred to here is The Great Upheaval. Skytopian years (AU) are measured by real-life months. In February 2011, the Skytopian Calendar year was 239 AU.

This timeline is player created and is intended to serve as a general 'sequence of events' reference. The conversion of real time into game time is 1 real-life month to 1 Skytopian year. Known problems with this rate are that characters age quicker than intended and that the Hidden War does "a little warping of time".[1]

The Devs have mentioned that they intend to release an official timeline someday.[2]

Skyrates
Version
Real-life
Begin Date
Real-life
End Date
Skytopia
Begin Date
Skytopia
End Date
Notes
(some IC, mostly OOC)
n/a n/a n/a 2500 BU n/a The Emergence
n/a n/a n/a 100 BU 100 BU Unification
n/a n/a n/a 100 BU 50 BU The Kingdom of Magnus was a nation that existed prior to the Great Upheaval, in the World Before. It was established by Magnus, known as the Lawgiver, he united many of the ancient tribes under his rule and created a code of laws that allowed the different races to coexist peacefully.

While many species claim that Magnus was of their bloodline, his actual species is unknown.

The center of power of Magnus' kingdom was the city of Asgard, the ruins of which are still located on Earthbreach. (more...)

n/a n/a n/a 50 BU 0 BU Children of Magnus
n/a n/a n/a 10 BU 0 BU The Great War
n/a n/a n/a 0 BU 0 BU The Great Upheaval was a period in Skytopian history after the Great War, when pieces of the land were elevated into the sky. The upheaval was caused by the use of unobtainium weapons, most likely by the Defiers who fought the Children of Magnus in the war. The anti-gravity properties of unobtainium caused several chunks of land to break away from the ground and rise suddenly, while others fell and burned. Massive floods caused by the sudden cracking of the ground washed away most of the civilization on the world's surface, and only those who clung to the rising rocks survived.

Those pieces of floating land which were settled by the survivors are today's skylands. There may be many more skylands which have not yet been discovered, although without the use of skystone to balance them they may have already fallen from the sky. (more...)

n/a n/a n/a 3 AU 22 AU Upheaval Wars
n/a n/a n/a 56 AU 56 AU Earthbreach War
n/a n/a n/a 99 AU 156 AU The Principality Wars were a series of three conflicts between a number of small factions that were prevalent in Skytopia at the time. They began with the invasion of the neutral Central skylands by the Principality of Volstoy, and ended with the defeat of the Arcadian Alliance by Admiral Svendheim, leader of the Commonwealth of Skytopia. (more...)
n/a n/a n/a 150 AU 190 AU The Commonwealth of Skytopia was the government under which Skytopia was united following the Principality Wars. The celebrated Admiral Svendheim and his young protege, Colonel Ignacious Fuseli, united the skylands through superior military force and brilliant strategic planning. Svendheim's attempts to make himself ultimate ruler of Skytopia resulted in his falling out with Fuseli, and eventually the creation of the Crimson Armada. The Merchant Guild and Azure League were also founded as a result of dissent within the Commonwealth, and what remained of Svendheim's Commonwealth eventually collapsed under his leadership. (more...)
SR0 26 March 2006 May[verify me] 2006 n/a n/a A private Alpha, this version of Skyrates started with only 10 pilots.
SR1 May 2006 November[verify me] 2006 159 AU 185 AU When Skyrates was first released publicly (as Beta) in May 2006, Skytopia was little more than a small collection of 12 phonetically named skylands: Alpha through Lima. This collection of skylands, however small, was the first functional Skytopia. Players traded 5 goods: coal, oil, wood, bread and cloth. (more...)
n/a n/a n/a 183 AU 185 AU The Guild War
Game Reset November[verify me] 2006 December 2006 185 AU 190 AU Much of the Skytopia mythos was created during this time (most of it by the game's Developers), and it was the beginning of what is widely considered "modern Skytopia". Skytopian time begins to take a more definite shape here, but the developers still hold the ultimate say in how much time has passed in a given period. The roleplayed event during this time was called the Skytopian Civil War.
SR2.1 December 2006 April 2007 190 AU 194 AU In December 2006, the Skyrates world was completely reset and expanded to include 36 skylands. This new configuration was much more complex and included some new commodities to trade (wood, bread, fish, paper, tools, iron, oil, coal, grog, catnip, diamonds and unobtanium). This version of Skytopia came to be known as the Old World. (more...)
SR2.1 9 March 2007 n/a 193 AU n/a First Unification by the Red Faction
Game Reset April 2007 May 2007 194 AU 195 AU By April 2007, a vibrant community of players had begun filling the Skyrates Forum with several posts that contained role-playing aspects as well as imagined theories of the History of Skytopia. As a sort of homage to these efforts, the Devs made several posts themselves, as well as created a few iconic characters to help "prepare" the players for another reset. The entire "reset event" became known as the Tortugan Upheaval. (more...)
SR2.2 May 2007 September[verify me] 2007 195 AU 199 AU This version of Skytopia included 38 skylands and became known as the New World. It was specifically designed to limit beginning players to a just handful of skylands, sometimes affectionately referred to as "Noobville", by significantly increasing the distances to other skylands. Skylands outside of the beginner's ring were also engineered to be more lucrative for trading to encourage more advanced players not to traffic too much in the beginner's ring. (more...)
SR2.2 May 2007 May 2007 195 AU 195 AU The Race to Grottopolis and Uurwerk - Edmund C. Fex became the first to reach the newly discovered skylands, earning him the Forum title "Explorer".[3]
SR2.2 July 2007 n/a 197 AU n/a Ellington Radio - Skytopia's first regularly broadcast radio program, earned Ellington the Forum title "Hack Journalist". Shortly after debuting, Jarylan Hundecoph joined the Ellington Radio team and was later awarded the Forum title "Adventure Journalist". (more...)
SR2.2 August 2007 August 2007 199 AU 199 AU Tortugan Marathon - A competition hosted by the Echo Flight School, the Great Tortugan Marathon Hunt was a competition to see who could shoot down the largest number of pirates within a 5-day window. Burrito Loco scored the most manual kills and won the Forum title "Combat Guru". Drah'k'mar had the most auto-resolved kills and was awarded the Forum title "Hannah's Red Wings".[4]
SR2.2 19 September 2007 n/a 199 AU n/a Second Unification by the Red Faction
Game Reset September[verify me] 2007 October 2007 199 AU 200 AU Unlike previous game resets, very little roleplay was written about this intervening time.
SR2.3 October 2007 3 November 2008 200 AU 213 AU In this iteration, skylands were shifted around quite a bit, and a few new items were added to the Skill Tree. Some new upgrades were also made available (including the Combat Kit, Performance Kit and the Trading Kit.) (more...)
SR2.3 March 2008 n/a 205 AU n/a Forum title Aviation Master awarded to Stone Cold for mastering all skills and for his devotion to Skytopia[5]
SR2.3 May 2008 June 2008 207 AU 208 AU Legacy Operation
SR2.3 June 2008 n/a 208 AU n/a Forum title Skeptical Philosopher awarded to Fierydemise for first place in the Legacy Operation's Treatise on the Factions Contest
SR2.3 June 2008 n/a 208 AU n/a Forum title Absentminded Minister awarded to Nero Shade for first place in the Legacy Operation's Art Contest[6]
SR2.3 June 2008 n/a 208 AU n/a Forum title Literary Smuggler awarded to Springcat for first place in the Legacy Operation's Life as a Skyrate (Fiction) Contest[7]
SR2.3 June 2008 n/a 208 AU n/a Forum title Relic Hunter awarded to Tommy Chong for first place in the Legacy Operation's Plane Design Contest[8]
SR2.3 October 2008 3 November 2008 212 AU 213 AU Skyrates Olympics
Game Reset 3 November 2008 15 December 2008 213 AU 214 AU Most Roleplay about this time centers around a extremely large and destructive storm that descended from the northern regions of Skytopia.[9]
SR2.4 15 December 2008 31 July 2009 214 AU 220 AU This version of Skyrates went live on 15 December 2008. What follows is a list of the anticipated changes in Skyrates 2.4: 3 new Factions[10][11][12], changes to the current Factions' descriptions[13] and structure[14], some new planes[15] (as well as new tiers[16] and, possibly, fluctuating plane prices[17]), adjustments to the Mission structure[18] and the shuffling around of the Skylands[19]. A new "Help" tab has been added to the Radio. (more...)
Game Reset 31 July 2009 07 September 2009 220 AU 222 AU Another "Reset Event".
SR2.5 (alpha) 07 September 2009 21 September 2009 222 AU 222 AU This version of Skyrates was opened to an extremely small alpha test group. Only the first 25 players to register (new account creation required) were able to play with a larger group being "allowed in" on the following day. Gradually, the Alpha was expanded to allow all players to participate.
SR2.5 21 September 2009 04 February 2011 222 AU 239 AU This round included the Hidden War and significant RP revolving around said war (which is still ongoing). Several new Titles and features were added to the Radio as well as some efforts to reduce overall CPU usage.
Game Reset 04 February 2011 21 February 2011[verify me] 239 AU ? AU Another "Reset Event". Skyrates is scheduled to com back online on 21 February 2011.
SR2.6 21 February 2011[verify me] ??? ? AU ? AU This round brought slight tweaks to the map and plane stats and improvements to the condition and apprentice systems.
Game Reset ??? 05 February 2012[verify me] ? AU ? AU

A quick reset to player stats and accumulated influence.

SR2.7 05 February 2012[verify me] 22 October 2013 ? AU ? AU This round is basically unchanged from 2.6, with no major balance passes or map changes.
SR2.8 04 November 2013 N/A ? AU ? AU New map, new plane stats, tiers shuffled around, several bug fixes. The most significant amount of Dev work on the game in quite a while.

Canonical dates[]

Echoes of History states that the Great Upheaval occurred "some two hundred odd years" before the Tortugan Upheaval.[20]

The Hidden War stories written by the volunteer RP Guides contain dates from the player timeline: 203AU as the capture/pardoning of Verron Kadath and 232AU as the current year.[21][22] Using the player timeline causes continuity problems, for example: if the Legacy Operation occurred in 207-8AU, then Kadath was pardoned to study Wutaryoo years before Wutaryoo was discovered; and if SR2.4 started in 214AU, then Acolyte Steven and Olivier Babbington would have been members of their respective factions for at least 18 years as they were amongst the first join. Further problems are introduced when analyzing the text of crew members, specifically the cynical ones who comment about having joined in the Upheaval Wars, which would require them to be more than 150 years old by the current player made time line.

References[]

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