Human Population Throughout The Technic History by Johan Ortiz

What this is

The Technic civilization future history takes off in our near future, in the year 2055 (THE SATURN GAME), and the Great Survey begins in 2150. Thus, the earliest part of the Technic history falls within a period for which we now have plausible world population projections. Armed with these projections and some guesstimates regarding mean population growth rates per annum, it is possible to extrapolate - roughly - the Human population in the Polesotechnic and Imperial Eras.

I will in this endeavour make use of Sean Brooks revision of Sandra Miesels chronology of the Technic civilization, because it just makes sense. Thus I take the Empire to have been founded in the early 27^th century rather than the 28^th and Flandry’s time to be the 32^nd century, him being born around 3100 AD, not in 3000 AD.

We also know the rough number of inhabited planets at the height of the Empire - 100.000 worlds acknowledged the supremacy of the Terran Emperors, although even in the late Empire there were occasional human colonies who did not, and some worlds were primarily inhabited by non-human sophonts. Even so, we can calculate a rough average population for a human world during the height of the Empire. But we also see that average might well not be typical. There is reason to believe that only the earliest human colonies ever became worlds with populations counted in the billions.

Since the Technic stories give some data regarding the population and time of founding for certain colonies like Nyanza, we can use our growth estimates to count backwards and determine the likely size of the initial colonising population. Armed with this information, we can speculate somewhat informedly about the difference between old, populated worlds and the typical colonial Imperial world. For example, we will find that even in the late Empire, Terra herself would have been exceptional for its massive population, outstripping any other human world by a large margin.

Where to begin?

The UN at present estimates (World Population prospects, 2019) that the world population will reach around 10,9 billion in 2100, although warning that it might grow as much as to around 13 billion or more worst case. If we interpret the “Time of Chaos” as a serious disturbance of civilization – famines, plagues, ecological disasters, wars – perhaps even nuclear - then those numbers would have to be knocked back a bit – but on the other hand increased wealth after the end of those upheavals and consequent raised standards of living compared to those the UN predicts might, ironically, knock them back more!

The Time of Chaos

The Technic History begins with a “Time of Chaos” taking place in the decades before THE SATURN GAME – although the nature of those troubles is left unclear. It might have been no more than our present sorry times being looked back at with horror from a better future, a time when indeed we are risking ruining both Earth and civilization. But we can make an educated guess.

In 2009, prof. John Beddington, chief scientific adviser to the British government predicted what he called “a perfect storm of shortages” – energy, food and water by 2030, which would usher in an era of international conflict and upheaval. This is around the same time we’d expect the coming climate disaster to really start to bite, which of course only reinforces the good professors projections.

This indeed sounds a lot like a “Time of chaos”.

It is not necessary to speculate on the actual sequence of events, but by 2055 the world was unified under one government, there was ample energy thanks to the introduction of efficient fusion power, and other environmental issues had been solved or were in the process of being solved by means of moving production and mining into space. Fusion power alone could well have solved the energy and climate crisis – but it is almost unimaginable that we would peacefully arrive at a World Government, the core of the future Solar Commonwealth. It is more likely that a period of savage wars over dwindling resources begun in the 2030s and/or 2040s.  This might have caused a powerful coalition of nations to confederate to restore global order, in effect creating the embryo of the future Solar Commonwealth. In any case, the World Government, whether already known as the Commonwealth or not and whether by military means or not, won a complete victory. The only hint PA gives as to the identity of the winning faction is that the Technic civilization was a heir to the Western one – so reasonably, we could guess that the coalition was at least lead by western powers. It is also notable that Anglic is the dominant Technic language.

Assumptions regarding world population and growth rates in early Technic Era

Given the probability of large scale casualties from the climate crisis and wars, possibly even limited nuclear war, plus the expected lower birth rates at higher standards of living during the 2^nd half of the 21^st century, I’m going to assume a world population of 10 billion in 2100, somewhat down from UN estimates.

As for the rate of growth until then, the most developed countries (Europe and North America) are expected to have virtually zero population growth during the coming 80 years, growing very slightly until 2050, and then contracting in the following 50 years back to 2020 levels. But assuming essentially zero growth is incompatible with what we know of the Technic era. World population will peak because the resources of Earth are not inexhaustible, leading to the cost of raising children gradually raising until  a balance is struck. But Technic civilization, eventually expanding to a hundred thousand worlds, knows not such limitations. Also, Technic civilization is not quite the same as Western. Standards of living are higher, the society richer. The number of children each couple decides to have will be dictated only to a very small extent by economic opportunities, most people will afford to have about as many or as few children as they want.

And this, in fact, comes very close to the current situation in Sweden, a country whose rates of births to deaths is notably higher than most other western countries. While taxes are admittedly high, child care is all but free, schooling is free, even higher education is free. “Free” is of course deceptive, since taxation still has to be payed – but this is regardless of having children or not, and children are in fact also directly subsidized by the state.  Of course, children still need to be clothed, feed, housed and brought up, but for the vast majority of Swedes, the number of children they choose to have is limited far more by their life style preferences than by financial considerations. Thus I am going to assume that the proportion of net births (births minus deaths) to population in Sweden is close to the natural growth rate of a human race living in affluence, security and with mostly western values. There will of course be groups retaining religious and/or cultural mores dictating much larger families – but so are there in Sweden, where roughly 20% of current population is either born abroad or born of two parents born abroad. Much if not most of this group originates outside of Europe.

So Swedish growth rates it is. And this annual rate of net births to total population was for the period 2013-2019 on average  0,25% per annum, varying between 0,23% and 0,27%. This gives a reasonable growth rate to be applied to the human population as a whole in the Technic Era.

The first colonies

Another thing we can perhaps infer is that in the World-State that followed the time of Chaos, it eventually became possible to allow open borders and global freedom om movement. The reason for this supposition is that it is stated that the first wave of colonization was driven by a desire to preserve national identity in a world that was gradually moving towards a monoculture. Thus were founded ethnic-based colonies such as Germania, Nuevo Mexico, Dayan, Denitza and many others. This freedom of movement is only imaginable if the less developed areas of Earth were able to catch up with the more developed ones, which is also part of the underlying assumptions influencing the overall human growth rates. Compare with the European Union, where freedom of movement before the inclusion of the former eastern bloc countries caused no resentment whatsoever, while afterwards, it contributed substantially to Brexit. Migration that moves small numbers both ways is much less threatening, indeed is seen as much more as personal opportunity than threat. But over a span of centuries, even such limited migration would undoubtedly meld the nations of the world ever closer together, a process reinforcing the effects of a global mass culture. This was a likely a very drawn out process, still very much uncompleted by the times of van Rijn and Falkayn (see HOW TO BE ETHNIC IN ONE LESSON) but more so in Flandry’s days.

This desire to preserve national cultures explains the otherwise puzzling appearance of League Latin as a trader lingua franca. To the newly formed ethnic worlds, using the Anglic of the Solar Common-wealth as a common language was probably unthinkable, at least early on. A resurrected, dead language like League Latin was much more palatable.

Using these assumptions defined earlier, we’ll find that by 2150 when the Great Survey was launched, human population would have reached roughly 11,3 billion, making conditions on Earth rather cramped. In the following 50 years, humans colonised a number of worlds in a first wave of expansion. These worlds must later have become the most important and populous worlds of the Empire, as we will now show.

If we follow our extrapolated growth curve, human population would rise from 11,3 to 12,8 billion by the end of the 23^rd century.  Given that Earth would have been rather crowded at the time, we can assume that most of this increase went off-world, indeed it is likely that Earth population dwindled somewhat. But with many planets colonised already, and especially if the initial wave of colonisation was driven by “ethnic” motives as is implied, then there would have been much less incentives to start new colonies in the following centuries – there are not that many nations on Earth! Rather than founding a new colony, most people would emigrate from the “old country” on Earth to the new “national” planet where there would still be ample space. There are currently around 6.000 ethnic groups on Earth, if we go by language as a definition, but most of these are very small and already on the verge of assimilation into larger groups at present in 2020 AD. A century on, most of these would have disappeared. On the other hand, the largest ethnic groups would have had little reason to fear assimilation into a Globish culture already in the 23^rd century. Thus, it would be mainly small to middle size ethnicities that would feel the need to set down roots in a new world. This might explain why we never hear of a Han Chinese planet, but we do hear about Germania, Sassania (Persian), Dayan (Jewish/Israeli), Nuevo Mexico, Hermes (Scandinavian), Unan Besar (Malayan) and so on. Even adding a few planets colonised not on ethnical but ideological basis (like pacifist Esperance), these colonies numbered at most a couple of hundred. Some of the first colonies would not necessarily have been ethnic but merely a cross-section of the polyglot populations of Earth – Alpha Centauri springs to mind, being likely among the first worlds colonised.

I will refer to these first colonies as the “Great Worlds” because of their later prominence among others in terms of population and importance.

By the end of the first wave of colonization, we would have nearly 3 billion humans living on perhaps 200 major colonies at most, and any number of much smaller colonies set up not for ethnical/ideological reasons but for commercial, like mining or trade, or simply pure pioneering drive. Their population would remain largely insignificant although growing in the coming two-three centuries, unless for some reason attracting a large number of colonists from Earth. The average Great World would have perhaps 15 million inhabitants, mostly emigres arriving over the course of the last half century. The largest would have more. Consider for example the planet of Germania, one of the most important of the early “ethnic” colonies. If we start with the current estimate of 150 million Germans of all subgroups in 2020, and always assuming that there will be no real population growth in the developed nations from here to 2100, then we could assume that by 2200, Germans as a whole would number a little over 190 million. If, again, we assume most of the growth to go off-world, then Germania could have as much as 40 million inhabitants by that date, maybe slightly more. Other worlds would have correspondingly less.

The Polesotechnic league era

Total human population would approach 24 billion by the mid-25^th century, the start of the era of Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn. If we assume more or less constant Earth population – maybe growing to 12 billion to allow for increased wealth and technology making room for more, then we have another 12 billion people distributed across roughly 200 Great Worlds and any number of smaller ones.

Given that even these “Great Worlds” were still virtually empty compared to Earth, and that inevitably they would have grabbed the best, most human-inhabitable worlds available after the Great Survey, it is reasonable to assume there was very little colonisation of new worlds going on - most of those wanting to emigrate from Earth choosing one of the existing colonial worlds. And any emigration from the larger colonies would be mainly by those fed up with their rustic monoethnic surroundings, instead longing for the cosmopolitan sophistication of old Earth, since untouched land would still have been plentiful on their existing worlds. This would not change throughout the era of the Polesotechnic League – even by its very end around 2600 AD, with around 35 billion human beings in total, the average Great World had no more than 120 million people – the same as Earth around 1000-500 BC. Smaller colonies remained minuscule for the most part, unless one for some reason caught the fancy of would-be emigres from Earth. Even so, their inhabitants were likely counted in the thousands, rather than millions.

Break-up of the Commonwealth and The Times of Troubles

The collapse of the Commonwealth would cause not only the birth of the Terran Empire, but a second wave of human colonisation. The first of these new colonists were driven by a will to escape the ever more overbearing and corrupt Commonwealth – among these would be Avalon, founded by David Falkayn among others. While not driven by ethnological motifs, like the first wave, they would in many cases have originated from monocultural Great Worlds and thus at least start also monocultural. Soon though, the violent collapse of the Commonwealth would drive a number of people to escape from the wrecked Earth and Great Worlds of the fallen Commonwealth. In the case of the Great Worlds, they were still so sparsely inhabited that even after having been devastated by invasion and plunder, the colonists could revert to farming to feed the population. This means that, unless several Great Worlds were depopulated by war, on the whole the growth of Human population would not have been greatly affected. In the case of Earth however, the devastation would have caused severe scarcity, even famine. While there would have been refugees from every Great World, those from Earth would logically have been the most numerous.

Probably in many cases, those small colonies founded earlier for commercial purposes would now receive waves of refugees – others would settle on entirely new worlds, hoping to escape attention from raiders. Among these would be less than ideal planets, like Ocean-covered Nyanza (THE GAME OF GLORY), which after five centuries and a second wave of colonization had 10 million inhabitants in Flandry’s time. The original ones had South African roots, but did most likely not escape directly from Earth, but rather probably some unmentioned Bantu Culture Great World. There is mention of a second German colony from which the land-bound Lubbers hail – Deutschwelt. This might be a parallel case of a colony set up by refugees from Germania.

This second wave of colonies were probably numerous, because the need to escape and hide would have been ongoing during the Times of Troubles. These extended for long enough that some planets, like Denitza, Hermes, Aeneas or Ansa became culturally militarised. If we assume that humanity suffered no great genocide during this era, and that emigration to the Great Worlds from Earth more or less stopped during this time, then at the close of the Times of Troubles around 2700 AD there would be around 44 billion humans, with about 10 billion still living on Earth, 28 billion inhabiting the two hundred or so Great Worlds and another 6 billion descended from refugees spread out over much of the remining 100.000 worlds of the future Empire – with on average around 60.000 inhabitants each. Of course, some would be substantially larger, like Avalon or Nyanza.

The Imperial Era

During the rule of the Terran Empire, the Imposition of the Pax and resumption of Trade would have allowed Terra herself to prosper again. Being the centre of Empire, we could expect her population to swell – emigration would largely stop, or even be reversed, especially early in the history of the Empire when Terra and her immediate neighbourhood were safe, but many human worlds were not. Also, as the Empire expanded, the administrative needs for manpower would have grown enormous so that at it’s peak, Terra held an population far above over what it could sustain with its own resources. Similar to Italy in the Roman Empire, the capital became parasitic, dependent on the provinces even for its basic needs.

By 2900 AD, towards the end of the era of Imperial expansion, the human race would amount to about 73 billion people, whereof perhaps as many as 18 billion lived on Terra herself, 45 billion on the Great Worlds (average population above 200 million) and the final 10 billion spread out over the 100.000 worlds mostly settled during the Times of Trouble (average population ca 100.000).

By Flandry’s time in the 32^nd century, total numbers of the human race surpassed 120 billion. Because even the Great Worlds were still sparsely populated by this time, there was little colonisation going on, there still being plenty of space on each. The population of Terra stagnated around 20 billion and remained at zero growth. Around 75 billion lived in the Great Worlds of the Empire, still with on average below 400 million inhabitants, similar to Earth in the High Middle Ages. But on the on the 100.000 worlds of the Empire, now 25 billion people made their lives. On average, there were still no more than a quarter of a million people on each. Given that a few, like Nyanza, had populations counting in the millions though, the typical colonial world would have been even less densely populated. Even at this late stage, Terra outstripped the population of almost any other human world by 20 to one.

The Long night

Before the fall of the Empire around 3500 AD, human population surpassed 325 billion. Of these more than 200 billion were on the Great Worlds, by now with an on average population of a billion each. Terra herself, remained at 20 billion and the small worlds made up the remainder with now, on average, a million people each. But this time, the greater the world, the larger the fall. With much larger populations, and dependent on the produce from a myriad smaller colonies, the Great Worlds suffered a collapse similar of that of Terra during the Time of Troubles. Terra herself was completely unable to sustain her swollen population after the fall of the Empire, and having been thoroughly plundered, there were few star ships to allow the surplus to escape, nor industries left to build new ones. In the decades following the ravage of Terra billions died of famine and epidemics. The resulting turmoil rendered the planet essentially ungovernable – it become a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Most likely, 70-80% of the peak Imperial population perished. What was left was an agricultural world not much more populous than some of the former Great Worlds, its natural resources depleted to the point of hampering any resurrection of civilization. The Great worlds suffered less, but were still plundered to the bone and left with little more than agriculture to barely be able to sustain their populations. And the myriad small colonies, too small to fend for themselves could do little more than subsist – if they were lucky - as imports of everything from energy cells to star ships ceased. Those who depended on imported nutrient supplements were doomed. It would be a thousand years before some of the former Great Worlds had rebuilt enough to relaunch civilisation, but we can be certain that it was on those planets that it happened, given the disparity in human resources and potential for self-reliance between Great Worlds and second wave colonies.

After the fall of the Terran Empire, our population growth projections no longer hold. Probably total population plummeted, even if Terra made up only a small part of humanity by then. Many colonies would have died out entirely, although the vast majority did not. The Human race eventually recovered and took to the stars once more. But that is a different story.  

"Sandra Miesel's Technic Civilization Chronology," by Sean M. Brooks (Revised)

Prefatory Note.  Dr. Shackley kindly published on his blog (April 26, 2012) an earlier version of this essay written by me.  Since then, I decided it needed to be revised, mostly from dating the birth of Nicholas van Rijn to 2421 instead of my earlier suggestion he was born in 2424.  And that made it necessary to revise my suggested dates for the birth of David Falkayn and many of the stories set during the Polesotechnic League. I also found it necessary to change some of the dates for the stories set in the Imperial era.

Several editions of the Technic Civilization stories of Poul Anderson (Gregg Press, Ace Books, Baen Books) have attached to them a chronology compiled by Sandra Miesel, an excellent commentator on the works of Anderson.  This chronology lists in internal chronological order all the stories and novels of the Technic Civilization series through periods like that of the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire.  Miesel also added many annalistic notes to her chronology.

For those who wish to read the Technic Civilization stories in chronological order, or merely to have a list of the stories in a correct temporal sequence, Sandra Miesel has done readers of Anderson's works a real favor.  However, commentators like Dr. Paul Shackley have discovered inconsistencies in some of Miesel's proposed dates which contradicts what the texts says.

For example, Miesel dates the birth of Nicholas van Rijn to AD 2376 and the crucial Polesotechnic League's Council of Hiawatha to 2400.  However, as discussed by Dr. Shackley in his note "Inconsistencies II," Nicholas van Rijn was born too late to have attended that council.  The section of Chapter IX of MIRKHEIM which discussed the Council of Hiawatha ended with "But when a century had passed--".  Nicholas van Rijn could not have attended that council because he was 80 years old at the time of the Mirkheim/Baburite crisis.  He would need to have been, implausibly, well over a century in age.

I have no objection to keeping Miesel's dating of the Council of Hiawatha to 2400, but I believe dating van Rijn's birth to 2421 is more accurate.  And since the Mirkheim/Baburite war came when van Rijn was 80 years old, that means it should be dated 2501 (not in 2456, Miesel's date).  This has the advantage of not contradicting what Chapter IX of MIRKHEIM said about "But when a century had passed."

Another error in Miesel's chronology contradicting what the texts say are her dates for "Lodestar" and MIRKHEIM.  She dates the events in "Lodestar" and MIRKHEIM to 2446 and 2456.  However, the Prologue to MIRKHIEIM clearly dates the events in that book to EIGHTEEN, not 10, years after Mirkheim was discovered.  My revision of her chronology dates "Lodestar" and MIRKHEIM to 2491 and 2501.

The next major inconsistency in Miesel's chronology contradicting what the texts say came from her dating the foundation of the Terran Empire to the 28th century and the birth of Dominic Flandry to AD 3000.  These dates clash with what Chapter 10 of ENSIGN FLANDRY says, as the Merseian prime minister Brechdan Ironrede was going to the Imperial embassy for an official reception: "His destination was another offense, a compound of residences and offices in the garish bubble style of the Imperium four hundred years ago."  This indicates the Empire had existed for over four centuries by the time of ENSIGN FLANDRY (because it is reasonable to think schools of architecture needed some time after the Empire arose to become popular).

Some evidence supporting the argument I made in the immediately preceding paragraph can be found in "Day of Burning," after David Falkayn explained to a powerful Merseian leader, Morruchan Long-Ax, that the lethal radiation from the explosion of the star called Valenderay would take less than three of his years to reach the planet. We then read: "The time unit Falkayn actually used was Merseian, a trifle greater than Earth's" (THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE, Berkeley/Putnam, 1978, page 293). Since Merseia's year was only a "trifle" longer (possibly three percent?) than Earth's year, that supports my argument that the Empire was older than the three centuries or so Miesel's Chronology gives it by the time of ENSIGN FLANDRY.

Moreover, Miesel herself contradicts her chronology when she wrote in her "Introduction" for THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND (Gregg Press: 1977): "The Empire is its third century when it moves against the Domain in its first aggressive campaign against a civilized foe."  Another chronological indication can be found in Chapter 8 of Anderson's THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, as Ivar Frederiksen briefly summarized the history of relations between the Empire and the Domain of Ythri: "Still, it [the Domain] grew.  So did Empire, Terra's, that is, till they met and clashed.  Couple centuries ago, they fought."  Now, if the Empire had existed a little over two centuries by the time of the Ythrian War and then that conflict was at least two centuries in the past by the time of THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, that can only mean it had lasted more than four centuries by then.

Therefore, I would argue for dating the birth of Dominic Flandry to AD 3100, not 3000 (the year Miesel chose).  The later date better fits the chronological evidence I collected from the texts.  I am still puzzled how Miesel could have missed, for example, such crucial indications as the Prologue of MIRKHEIM saying the Baburite war occurred 18 years after "Lodestar."

Because of Dr. Paul Shackley's zeal and devotion to accuracy, I became aware of mistakes I made in my proposed ordering of the Dominic Flandry stories beginning with "Tiger By The Tail" and ending with WE CLAIM THESE STARS.  While working on a revision of Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, I erred in too quickly accepting Miesel's listing of these stories when I should have paid attention to certain texts in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS and WE CLAIM THESE STARS.  This time I made what I believe is a more accurate listing and "dating" of these six stories.

"Tiger By The Tail" is at the head of this listing because Dominic Flandry  was not yet a knight in that story.  That honor was conferred on him by the Emperor because of how he had nullified the Scothanian threat.  And also because we see Aline Chang-Lei saying in "Honorable Enemies," while trying to cheer up an anxious Flandry: "Dominic Flandry, the singled-handed conqueror of Scothania, brought down by that overgrown buzzard?" So I placed "Honorable Enemies second after "Tiger By The Tail."

"The Game of Glory" begins with mention of how an agent  serving Merseia escaped the Terrans from a planet named Conjumar in a spaceship so badly damaged that this agent, Aa'u, was forced to hide on another frontier world of the Empire. Then we read: "Two years went by. He was sent to Betelgeuse and discovered how to lie to a telepath," referring to "Honorable Enemies," which happened before the "Game of Glory" proper.  So we arrive at this partial listing: "Tiger By The Tail," "Honorable Enemies," and "The Game of Glory."

Next comes the problem of where to most accurately list, chronologically, "A Message in Secret" and THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.  In Chapter II of PLAGUE we read: "The Betelgeuseans were ubiquitous throughout this sector of space.  Flandry had engaged passage on one of their tramp ships, as the quickest way to get from his completed assignment  on Altai to the big Imperial port at Spica VI." Which means "A Message in Secret " came immediately before THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.  Last, in Chapter I of WE CLAIM THESE STARS, we see Flandry saying to Lady Diana Vinogradoff: "The Nyanza business was a trifle wearing, y' know,"  to remind her  of yet another exploit of his on yet another exotic planet.  "I came home for a rest. And the Merseians are such damnably strenuous creatures.  It makes me tired, just to look at one, let alone spar with him." And that places "The Game of Glory " not long before WE CLAIM THESE STARS.  Summing up, we get this listing: "Tiger By The Tail," "Honorable Enemies," "A Message in Secret," THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, "The Game of Glory," and WE CLAIM THESE STARS.

 In addition, I suggested below that Josip died in 3142 rather than in 3141 (Miesel's date was 3041) because a slightly longer reign for that Emperor fitted better the background of the stories.  That is, it gives more time for the events recorded in those stories to take place without being crowded together too tightly.

If the argument I gave above is correct, then that means many, not all, of the dates given by Miesel in her chronology needs to be changed.  Mostly by proposing dates later than the ones she chose.  In the chronology given by me below, the dates I advocate are given first while Miesel's dates are given in square brackets.  For the most part I used the "Chronology of Technic Civilization" to be found in the Gregg Press edition of ENSIGN FLANDRY.  I also thought it best, for simplicity's sake, to omit many of the annalistic notes added by Sandra Miesel.  I omitted many bibliographical details for similar reasons.

In my proposed revision of Sandra Miesel's Chronology I preferred to list the stories by their first magazine or book publication dates.  To be strictly accurate I should say that Poul Anderson revised a few of these stories: "Margin of Profit," "The White King's War," "Tiger by the Tail," "Honorable Enemies," and "Warriors from Nowhere." These later versions should be considered canonical and first appeared in THE EARTHBOOK OF STORMGATE ("Margin of Profit") and in the Ace Books and Gregg Press editions of the Dominic Flandry stories ("The White King's War," GALAXY, October 1969, was incorporated in A CIRCUS OF HELLS.)

The Breakup and the Polesotechnic League

2055  "The Saturn Game," ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION (cited as ASF), February, 1981

2150  "Wings of Victory," ASF, April, 1972
24th century  "The Problem of Pain," FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, February, 1973
2400  The Council of Hiawatha
2421 [2376]  Birth of Nicholas van Rijn
2451 [2406]  Birth of David Falkayn
2461 [2416]  "Margin of Profit," ASF, September, 1956
2461 [2416]  "How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson," FUTURE QUEST, ed. Roger Elwood, Avon Books, 1974
2468 [2416]  "The Three Cornered Wheel," ASF, October, 1963
2471 [2426]  WAR OF THE WING MEN, Ace Books, 1958
2471 [2426]  "Esau," ASF, February, 1970
2472 [2427]  "Hiding Place," ASF, March, 1961
2472 [2427]  "Territory," ASF, June, 1963
2473              "A Sun Invisible," ASF, April, 1966
2476 [2427]  "The Trouble Twisters," as "Trader Team," ASF, July-August, 1965
2478 [2433]  "Day of Burning," as "Supernova," ASF, January, 1967
3478 [2433]  "The Master Key," ASF, July, 1964
2482 [2437]  SATAN'S WORLD, Doubleday, 1969
2482 [2437]  "A Little Knowledge," ASF, August 1971
2482 [2437]  "The Season of Forgiveness," BOY'S LIFE, December, 1973

2843 David Falkayn discovers Mirkheim

2488 The Supermetals Company is founded
2491 [2446]  "Lodestar," ASTOUNDING: THE JOHN W. CAMBPBELL MEMORIAL ANTHOLOGY, ed. by Harry Harrison, Random House, 1973
2501 [2456]  MIRKHEIM, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977
Early 26th century [late 25th century], settlement of Avalon
26th century, "Wingless on Avalon," BOY'S LIFE, July, 1973
26th century, "Rescue on Avalon," in CHILDREN OF INFINITY, ed. Roger Elwood, Franklin Watts, 1973
26th  centruy, dissolution of the Polesotechnic League

The Time of Troubles and the Terran Empire

2600-2700 [27th century]  The Time of Troubles
Late 27th century, "The Star Plunderer," PLANET STORIES (cited as PS), September, 1952
2700  Manuel Argos founds the Terran Empire, Principate phase begins
28th century, "Sargasso of Lost Starships," PS, January, 1952
29th century [30th C], Covenant of Alfzar
2925 [29th century], THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND, New American Library, 1973

2935 THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE pub. on the planet Avalon
3100 [3000]  Birth of Dominic Flandry
3119 [3019]  ENSIGN FLANDRY, Chilton, 1966
3121 [3021]  A CIRCUS OF HELLS, New American Library, 1971
3122 [3022]  Josip succeeds Georgios as Emperor
3125 [3025]  THE REBEL WORLDS, New American Library,1969
3127 [3027]  "Outpost of Empire," GALAXY, December, 1967
3128 [3028]  THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, Doubleday, 1973
3132 [3032]  "Tiger by the Tail," PS, January, 1951
3135 [3033]  "Honorable Enemies," FUTURE COMBINED WITH SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, May, 1951

3137 [3037]  "A Message in Secret," as MAYDAY ORBIT, Ace Books, 1961
3137 [3038]  "A  Plague of Masters," as EARTHMAN, GO HOME, Ace Books, 1961
3139 [3040] "The Game of Glory," VENTURE, March, 1958
3140 [3040]  WE CLAIM THESE STARS! (also HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE), Ace Books, 1959
3142 [3041]  Hans Molitor succeeds Josip as Emperor after brief civil war, supplants short lived Imperial relative as Emperor.
3143 [3042]  "Warriors from Nowhere," as "Ambassadors of Flesh," PS, Summer, 1954
3148 [3047]  A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, New American Library, 1975
3155  Dietrich succeeds Hans as Emperor
3157  Gerhart succeeds Dietrich as Emperor
3162 [3061]  A STONE IN HEAVEN, Ace Books, 1979
3167 [3064]  THE GAME OF EMPIRE, Baen Books, 1985
Early fourth millennium, the Empire enters its Dominate phase
Circa AD 3500, Fall of the Terran Empire, the Long Night begins.  War, piracy, anarchy, economic collapse, and isolation devastate countless worlds.

The Long Night

3600  "A Tragedy of Errors," GALAXY, February, 1968
3900  THE NIGHT FACE, Ace Books, 1978
4000  "The Sharing of Flesh," GALAXY, December, 1968
7100  "Starfog," ASF, August, 1967

TRICKS WITH CARDS AND DICE by Sean M. Brooks

In this article I focused on how Dominic Flandry used poker and dice games in some of the stories Poul Anderson wrote about that character.  I have noticed, while reading many of the works of Anderson, that the two games he seemed to most favor were poker and chess.  I will not be writing a detailed examination of how often the game of poker is to be found in the works of Anderson.  Rather, I wish to review how Flandry used poker and/or dice games for both his amusement and as one of the tools he used for carrying out his work as an intelligence agent for the Terran Empire.

A logical place to see how Flandry used poker/dice games is to start as early in his life as possible, in ENSIGN FLANDRY (Chilton Books: 1966), when he was nineteen Terran years old.  The paragraphs I quoted below came from Chapter 7 of that book.

He [Flandry] tried to laugh.  "Contrariwise.  I'm thinking about food,

fun, and females."

"Yes, females."  She [Dragoika] stood quiet a while, before she too

laughed.  "I can try to provide the fun, anyhow.  What say you to a

game of Yavolak?"

"I haven't yet straightened out those cursed rules," Flandry said. "But

if we can get a few players together, I have some cards with me and

there's a Terran game called poker."

Although we don't get a detailed explanation of how "Yavolak" was played on the alien planet Starkad, mention of that game indicates to me that Anderson believed that at least some non-human intelligent races had their own games of chance and indulged in gambling.  And the fact Flandry was willing to teach the Tigeries how to play the human game of poker would be an example of cultural interaction and change due to contact with other sophont races.  I realize some people would be disdainful about that kind of cultural interaction!

Another example I quoted is from page 14 of the 1979 Gregg Press edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, containing Anderson's revision of "Tiger By The Tail," after Dominic Flandry was captured by Prince Cerdic of Scotha: "They [the Scothani] were addicted to gambling.  Flandry learned their games, taught them a few of his, and before journey's end had won several suits of good clothes for alteration, plus a well stuffed purse.  He almost, not quite, hated to take his winnings.  These overgrown schoolboys had no idea what tricks were possible with cards and dice."  And alert readers should keep that in mind--how Flandry would use games of chance as part of his policy of using guile and subtlety to bring down the Scothan house of cards--as we see in the rest of this story!

For an additional example, on page 25 of this same edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, we can read this:

In a chamber more elegant and comfortable than the highest standards

allowed--warmth, richly hued and textured hangings, incense and recorded

music sweet upon the air--dice rattled across a table and came to a halt.

Prince Torric swore good-naturedly as he shoved a pile of coins toward

Flandry.  "You have the luck of the damned with you," he laughed.
 

For a slave, I'm not doing too badly, reflected the man.  In fact, I'm by way

of becoming well-to-do, unless my master finds out and confiscates my

hoard.

"Say rather that fortune favors the weak," he purred.  "The strong

don't need it, highness."

Here we see how Flandry used games of chance to ingratiate himself with Prince Torric, a younger half brother of Dominic's captor, Cerdic.  Flandry's object here was to sow discontent in Torric at the modest fief that was all Cerdic planned to let Torric have after the former became king.  The Terran also planned to plant the notion in the Scothan that he did not have to be content with being merely a younger son, that Torric had as much of a claim on the kingship as Cerdic.  Flandry was intriguing to spread treachery and short sighted ambition at the Scothan court.  And games of chance and dice was one means of doing so!

Next, after Flandry had gone to investigate the planet Unan Besar, the hostile government of that world forced him to seek refuge in the slums of the capital city of Kompong Timur and contact elements of the criminal underworld to obtain the assistance he needed.  Part of Flandry's plan took the form of using a variant of the Spanish Prisoner scam to deceive the gang boss Sumo the Fat.  While he was Sumo's "guest," I'll discuss how Flandry passed the time, quoting from Chapter VII of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.

That night Dominic stayed in the house of Sumo.  He was, in fact, a guest

for several days.  His chamber was pleasant, though it lacked windows,

and he had enough company, for it opened directly on a barrackroom

where the bachelor daggermen lived.  No one got past that room with-

out a key to the automatic lock, which Dominic didn't ask for.  He messed

with he daggermen, traded jokes, told them stories, and gambled.  Cards

on Unan Besar had changed faces, but were still essentially the same old

pack of fifty-two.  Dominic taught the boys a game called poker.  They

seized on it avidly,  even though he won large amounts from them.  Not

that he cheated--that would have  been fatal, under so many experienced

eyes.  He simply understood the game better.  The daggermen accepted

the fact, and were willing to pay for instruction.  It would take many years

to get back from neophytes elsewhere all that Flandry eventually won,

but the Pulaoic mentality was patient.

Yet another example of cultural change and interaction by means of gambling and games of chance!  Here we see Flandry, unlike on Scotha, using gambling for amicable ends, making friends with Sumo's buttonmen (to use a term from the American Mafia).

Years later, in Chapter XII of WE CLAIM THESE STARS, after Flandry had deliberately let himself be captured by the Ardazirho aliens who had invaded the Empire and seized the planet Vixen, we see this as he was taken through various compartments in the enemy headquarters den: "Or it might be a roomful of naked red-furred shapes: sprawled in snarling, quarrelsome fellowship; gambling with tetrahedral dice for stakes up to a year's slavery..."  The interest here being how we see another example of non-humans who were as fond as gambling as humans can be.

In addition, in Chapter IV of A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, we see Chives, Flandry's invaluable butler/valet/chef/pilot, et al, a non human native from the planet Shalmu, explaining to Kossara Vymezal  how he and Flandry came to meet.  Chives had been one of the victims of Aaron Snelund's illicit trafficking in slaves from Shalmu and eventually ended up working in a mercury mine on an unnamed planet where Flandry  came across Chives by chance.  Disapproving of how Chives and the other miners were treated, Flandry took steps to correct the situation.

"I was not prepossessing, Donna.  My owner had put me up for sale

because he doubted I could survive more labor in his mercury mine.

Sir Dominic did not buy me.  He instigated a game of poker which

lasted several days and left him possession of mine and workers

alike."

Chives clicked his tongue.  "My former master alleged cheating.

Most discourteous of him, especially compared to Sir Dominic's

urbanity in inviting him out.  The funeral was well attended by the

miners.  Sir Dominic arranged for their repatriation, but kept me

since this was far from Shalmu and, besides, I required a long course

of chelating drugs to cleanse my system.  Meanwhile he employed

me in his service.  I soon decided I had no wish to return to a planet

of...natives...and strove to make myself valuable to him."

Here we see how Dominic Flandry not only first met Chives but also taking steps to correct some of the longer term consequences of Snelund's abusive governorship of Sector Alpha Crucis.   AND, albeit through somewhat questionable means, eliminated a smaller abuser of authority.  A bit later, in the same chapter, Chives conceded: "The fact is, he did cheat in that poker game."  Chives' former master should have accepted the loss of his mine instead of fighting a duel with someone as lethally deadly as Flandry!

Let's backtrack a bit, to expand on what Chives said about how he became a slave.  Legally, slavery was used in the Empire as one means of punishing criminals.  For example, at the very beginning of "Warriors From Nowhere," this is part of what Dominic Flandry said: "If you shoot your neighbor in order to steal his property, you are a murderer and a thief, subject to enslavement."  The abuse in Chives case from Snelund's agents using  "questionable" (false) charges to justify trafficking in slaves from Shalmu.  In addition,  we read this in Chapter V of THE REBEL WORLDS: "Snelund isn't stupid, worse luck. Maybe no big, spectacular warriors or statesmen can topple him.  But a swarm of drab little accountants and welfare investigators isn't that easily fended off."  I interpreted this to mean efforts were made, using these accountants and welfare investigators, to control, reduce, and penalize abuse of the system of using slavery as a punishment for crime.

It was interesting to note the various uses Flandry made of the game of poker.  Sometimes, as on Starkad and Unan Besar it was for amicable reasons (although it was useful and prudent to be on good terms with Sumo the Fat's daggemen).  Other times, as on Scotha, Flandry used dicing and gambling as a political tool, to help subvert and undermine the Frithian domination of Scotha, and nullify a serious danger to the Empire.  And even though we don't see Flandry using poker in WE CLAIM THESE STARS, I thought it was still interesting to see non-humans like the Ardazirho gambling.

Readers will also see Flandry using metaphors taken from the games of chess and poker, either for making a philosophical point or for describing problems and dangers faced by him.  Examples of the former can be found in Chapter 23 of THE GAME OF EMPIRE (quoted in my ANDERSONIAN CHESS essay).   For the latter I quoted from Chapter XV of A CIRCUS OF HELLS, when Flandry believed himself to be in a very dangerous situation: "Flandry's head had gone winter clear. He had but to call them, and ideas and pieces of information sprang forward.  Not every card had been dealt.  Damn near every one, agreed, and his two in this hand were a deuce and a four; but they were the same suit, which meant a straight flush remained conceivable in those spades which formerly were swords."  Not being a poker player, I don't claim to entirely understand these metaphors!

It's also safe to conclude from all this that Flandry, had he so wished, could have done very well making a living as a professional poker player!  It's amusing to think of him, had Flandry lived in the 21st century, gambling in the casinos of Las Vegas or Monaco, and with no need to cheat, given his skill with this game.