This page contains notes for Turquoise Blue's space-fiction timeline The Handmaid of Divinity.

Humans evolved on an Earth-analogue, got up to around 2000s technology, but then the Mice (basically cliche evil mice-like aliens) destroyed civilization and enslaved them all. They used the humans to harvest resources on many different planets, often augmenting humans if they couldn't survive or do their work well. The Mice was the harshest of overlords, and so when they disappeared, leaving us all scattered on many different planets, we kept them around in our heads as boogeymen. For 40,000 years, the scattered humans evolved. The humans of the Earth-analogue was now many different species, with the “Basic” humans being technically several species who didn't change that much.

The Human Empire! Or at least what counts as “human”…

Started in a particular 'backwards' sector where Basic Humans' concentration was highest, and so when the Mice mysteriously disappeared, the rest of the aliens (so terrified of the Mice) left that sector alone. Those humans developed civilization and eventually space travel. After a hundred years of space travel, they colonised their solar system, and after an ambitious King united most of the solar system by the sword and the rest by the pen, the label “Symphonia” was invented as an artificial label for the Empire.

Democracy in Symphonia at the start was dominated by three political parties, a centre-liberal one that argued of market freedom and universal understanding, a conservative one with leanings towards protectionism and moral values and a socialist one that viewed the Empire as a way to unite the workers of the worlds. Due to the fact that politics at an Imperial level was shifting and crazily unpredictable since the parties themselves were made out of planetary associations, which was themselves made out of regional parties, the three parties didn't last that long.

However, domestic policy quickly asserted itself as the responsibility of the regional and planetary governments, leaving the Imperial one with responsibility for the military and foreign policy, as well as Symphonia-wide issues.

Basic Humans: Homo sapiens sapienter. Not the “average” human of the past, the Mice's augmentations have removed any 'inefficiency', like appendixes and other stuff, and the “Scattering” has certainly led to many different variations of Basic, but those are treated the same way as 'racial' differences are now, as fairly minor differences that doesn't make them different from other Basics.

Aquatic-Adapted: Homo aqua: Technically evolved on several different planets, their common ancestors led the scientists to place them all under the species Aqua with variating sub-species reflecting their planetary origin. In general, they tend to have the ability to breathe underwater thanks to gills, and to have feet adapted to propelling themselves underwater.

The Mice liked experimenting on humans and Earth-animals to create new, unnatural hybrid species, and the below are the results of that.

Nekomimi: Felis sapiens. Pretty clearly not a species that could have arosen out of natural selection, this species looks like humans apart from clear feline traits like their ears, tails, sharp teeth and eyes. Used to be united in the strong-ish Nekomimi Confederation that had several wars with Symphonia before being annexed circa 11,000 AF. The last Premier of Symphonia (Sapphire Moon) was a member of this species.

The Marvellous Misadventures of Mandy Mathieu was an anime produced in the 22nd century focused on the lives of the teenager inventor Mandy Mathieu and her more “pink” twin sister Pilvi. They live with their brother Topi (who they often drag into their adventures) and their family on a small ranch in a rural part of the fictional planet of Complexia. Mandy and Pilvi are sixteen at the start of the series and by the time it finishes fifteen years later, both are starting university.

Andi to Zelda was a situational dramedy produced in the mid-156th century based around the life of two close friends (later romantic couple) the Basic Human Andi Soares and the Nekomimi Zelda Maeci. This was mildly controversial since the last vestiges of “racialism” was existing at that time, and the episode where they realised their attraction (ending with a kiss!) caused an outcry with social conservatives (of both races) who declared it a “sin”. But it was widely received positively by the audience, who recognized that this was built up cleverly so that it wasn't unexpected. It lasted for eight seasons, and was widely accepted as one of the Core Network's best shows.

Safira Lumigas (b.10947 d.11304) was the last President of the Nekomimi Confederation (from 11065 to 11072) and considered one of its best, which appears odd at first, as she signed the Treaty of Pilli that allowed Symphonia to annex Nekomimia.

By this point, Symphonia and Nekomimia was weakened from the constant wars between them (the Nekomimi/Symphonian Wars) and the rising threat of the Republic of Lyzeda proved a pressure for both to call it quits.

The Empress of Symphonia at the time was arrogant and refused to concede peace to what she considered “feline barbarians”. The Premier knew that his position relied on the Empress' good grace and that he could lose it easily. The practise of “Imperial Veneration” in the syncretic animist pot of beliefs considered a “religion” by the Empire meant that the Empress had a lot of soft influence and could get away with dismissing Premiers if they displeased the Empress.

In the end, after consulting with her cabinet and with the people (tired of constant deaths from the Wars), President Lumigas signed the Treaty of Unification, which was a victory in name only for the Empire. In practise, it was a victory for the Nekomimi Confederation as they was allowed to keep basically everything, even the Confederation itself, only without foreign policy as they were annexed into the Empire.

And it is arguable that by keeping the Confederation together, she engineered its rebirth as an independent entity in the dying days of the Symphonian Empire. The law was united, the planets still had a coherent identity (apart from some fringe ones colonised by humans), there were plenty of Nekomimi soldiers serving inside the Confederation's boundaries, so as Symphonia crumbled, Nekomimia soared once more.