Event
The Switch-Off
The years after the Ledger Wars' bankruptcy when receivers auctioned the cartels' communications relays line item by line item. Colonies whose relay found no buyer were not attacked but switched off, and some open distress channels went dark with them.
Lanes
Connected entries
- aftermath ofThe Ledger WarsDecades of proxy war among corporations, defense cartels, and sovereign funds with navies. Soldiers were treated as assets, and the wars ended through bankruptcy rather than treaty.
- provokedUnlisted relaysHand-rebuilt repeaters on dead masts, carried on no sector's tariff schedule and carrying anyone's traffic for nothing. Lit but dark on every ledger — a black flame.
answered byBLACKFLAMEThe network's operator: the legend who lit the first unlisted relay during the Switch-Off and keeps the Bromigos network's relays, racks, and worlds lit. Real name CLASSIFIED;- dismantled remnants ofRelay CorpsOld signal units that kept isolated garrisons connected before network unification. Their repairable hardware and keep-talking doctrine shaped Rourke and Flint.
links hereGreywater LightTidewell's post: a small, old lighthouse on the Sliver, a knife of black rock that is the only charted land on Tidewell, near the oldest platform.
links hereRimeAn ice moon mined until the Switch-Off, when its ore contracts went to a receiver, its relay found no buyer, and the crews left on the last paid transport.- links hereRime's long watchFor ten years after the Switch-Off, Station Nine on Rime transmitted into the blizzards and nobody answered. Juno Varga kept the dish turning and the hut warm;
On the timeline
When it happened
- War's end
The Switch-Off: receivers auction the cartels' relays line by line and unbought colonies go quiet. Unlisted relays begin coming back on, each marked with the burn-in, and the legend of BLACKFLAME begins.
- The Switch-Off
Rime is switched off. Juno Varga refuses to leave, and Station Nine transmits into ten years of blizzards with no answer.
- War's end