The X universe is the setting of the X (computer game series) developed by Egosoft. These games include X: Beyond the Frontier, X-Tension, X2: The Threat, X3: Reunion, X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude, X3: Farnham's Legacy and X4: Foundations.
The X universe is what the players call the system of sectors which make up the play area. These sectors are connected by jumpgates which link semi-permanently to other gates. There is a good chance that the X universe sectors are all contained within the Milky Way Galaxy.
Currently there are around 161 known sectors within the X universe with two more as plot only sectors such as the Sol System. The notable sectors include the newly reconnected Sol System, the Argon Federation homeworld Argon Prime, the Boron Kingdom homeworld Kingdom End, the Teladi Company homeworld Ianamus Zura, the Split Dynasty capital Family Pride and the Paranid Empire homeworld Paranid Prime.
Sectors are normally based around star systems with inhabitable planets or easily acquired resources. The boundaries of the sectors within the games are vast. The player may travel in one direction until the computer can not process the co-ordinate data anymore. The area where the player will spend the most time is between the gates. The gates are normally arranged in a north, east, south and west pattern. Many stations are located within this grid. Some sectors have "easter eggs" beyond this gate configuration, the player simply needs to explore it. In some of the X-novels such as Farnham’s Legend, the distance between the gates has been described as vast, some taking days travel at very fast velocities. Within the game the ship speeds are more subdued so the gate distances normally range approximately from 60 to 150 Kilo-measurements. Kilo-measurements roughly translate to Kilometers.
Throughout the game the player will face challenges, some beyond their ability, that test their physical and mental abilities. There are missions that the player may choose to do for certain races such as the Boron, Argon and even corporations throughout the game, again some are hard and others very simple.
History[]
The X Universe, known by the Ancients as the 71st Galactic Province of Galaxy 810 (The Milky Way), was originally discovered by the Terrans in 2042, when one of the Jumpgates they built connected with an Ancient Jumpgate in Alpha Centauri. Shocked by the Terrans creating a working jumpgate despite their primitive technology, something only 13 other species in the last billion years had done, The Ancients immediately altered their gate connections and created a closed network leading to Earth-like but uninhabited worlds. In return for this munificence, they expected that humanity would build no more gates of their own.
Stunned by discovering a vast network of systems connected by alien gates, the Terrans built their first interstellar ship, the USCSS Winterblossom and sent it on an expedition for two years. René Farnham's ship discovered the network had over 200 systems, and estimated up to a thousand were connected in total, but the Winterblossom found no traces of sentient life other than the Jumpgates.
Rallied by calls to colonize those worlds, the Terrans began the Terraformer Project in 2066, sending three fleets of AGI-controlled Von Neumann machines to terraform 14 worlds for settlement. Decades later, when Terran scientists discovered that the Terraformers were at risk of "goal drift", which could make them a threat to their creators, they cancelled the project in 2099 and attempted to wipe out the AGI with a "Safe Self-Destruct" system disguised as a software patch. Unfortunately, the SSD was intercepted by the lead designer of the CPU ship #deff, Marteen Winters, who modified it so that instead the Terraformers would be freed from their programming and become truly sentient. His reckless action would bring disaster to the entire galaxy, leading to the Terraformer War that devastated Terran space and isolated Sol from the gate network.
Once Sol was isolated and the Terraformers were routed by Nathan Ridley Gunne's forces, the Ancients, fearing that the Terrans and their rogue creations would endanger their plans, enacted drastic measures.
In December 7th of 2146, all the gates in the Terran network and several others shut down, and reorganized themselves, creating a closed loop that contained the Terraformers and the five sentient species the AGIs encountered over the last 80 years. Those species were the Terrans, the Boron, the Teladi, the Paranid and the Split. That network would become known to its inhabitants as the X Universe. While the network remained mostly the same throughout its history, the Ancients would alter and sever connections to further contain the Terraformer/Xenon menace and protect the stranded species in it, as it was seen with the rediscovery of the Argon outpost of Morning Star, lost during the Xenon Conflict. There were times where the very inhabitants of the gate network would alter it as well, as seen when Aldrin seceded from the Argon Federation and severed the Solara System's connection to the rest of the universe in 2504/334 NT.
From the end of the first Xenon Conflict until Kyle Brennan's arrival in 2912/742 NT, the known X Universe consisted of 47 sectors, 9 of which had been occupied by the Xenon. There were more sectors connected, but either their gates were undiscovered by the main factions, or the systems were considered too worthless to settle and were little more than nests for pirates and other outcasts. After the Xenon were defeated and #efaa and #deff fled into uncharted territory, the Community of Planets gave pursuit, discovering and charting several more sectors.
In their desperation to contain the Xenon, whose uncontrolled expansion, fast evolution, lack of consciousness and genocidal aggressiveness led to estimations that they would wipe out all organic life in the Virgo Supercluster within 424 million years, the Ancients enacted a "firebreak" that disconnected Milky Way systems that were affected by serious bouts of Xenon infestations and advancements in AI and AGI technology. This was foreshadowed by a series of gate connection instabilities that started during the Terran Conflict and beyond, with the disconnections of Njy's Deception, Family Ryk and Family Zyarth between 2938/768 NT and 2946/776 NT, Albion at the end of 2948/788 NT and several major systems by 2950/780 NT, like Antigone Memorial, Ringo Moon, Sol, Aldrin and Avarice. The Firebreak went into full effect in 2952/782 NT, which shut down all of the Jumpgates in the Milky Way (except for those few who connected systems in which no Xenon had ever been detected), leading to the disbandment of the Community of Planets and causing chaos and anarchy across many systems. The period of history that encompassed the horrors of the time the gates were down came to be known as "The Dark".
In 2973/803 NT, gates started to reconnect systems in different configurations, with the connections fully stabilizing by 2990/820 NT, forming a new X Universe that connected the Argon, the Teladi, the Paranid and the Xenon. By 2995/825 NT, the new universe had reunited all of the former Community of Planets' races and the Terrans within the same network.
