THE LEIJIVERSE INTEGRATED TIMELINE Third Edition ================================== by Richard Mandel VERSION 3.05 (final edition) INTRODUCTION -----------"For me, all my works are one big work in a sense. When I write, I am aware of it as a single story. Therefore, I will bring it all together when I write my last story. However, if I begin to write that now, I'll get the feeling that I'm approaching my own demise. [That's why] I don't want to do it yet ...." - Leiji Matsumoto from his 2010 interview with Tim Eldred (courtesy starblazers.com) Welcome, friend, to the third edition of this most singular, and perhaps controversial, of fan efforts regarding the works of legendary Japanese manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto. It is an attempt to come up with an artificial linear chronology - a de facto integrated timeline, if you will for most of the major related science fiction anime titles on which he has been the creator or chief writer, as well as many of the related manga (i.e. Japanese comics) he has penned. A lot of fans prior to this work claimed this was impossible. Some still do. So, before we get down to the nitty-gritty of this document, let me explain its nature and what it is all about. There is an obvious continuity running through many of Leiji Matsumoto's major works - or M-san, as I will refer to him in this document. All of you who are fans of M-san know what I'm talking about. This is that wide-ranging group of his science fiction stories, both major and minor, that we have collectively come to call the "Leijiverse." The same characters, stories grouped around certain events in time, or the rise and fall of certain technologies, and so forth. Even so, whenever a fan actually tries to line these stories up and put them in some sort of chronological order, they never quite fit together. The dates are always a bit off. Key events sometimes change from story to story. Characters who are supposed to have lived and died in a certain era suddenly pop up in another, and no answer is given as to why. Sometimes key technologies themselves, such as starships or the Mechanization process, will inexplicably change their appearance or ownership ... and so on, and so on. There are three main reasons for this state of affairs. First, like any good author, M-san occasionally revises his tales. He has had any number of reasons for doing so - new publishers who request certain changes, new ideas that come to him, or the conceiving of a new approach to an old tale, and so on. Perhaps the best known example of this are what are collectively known as the "revival Leijiverse" stories - partial or in some cases almost complete rewrites of many of his classic science fiction tales done for a new generation of his fans. This was one of only two times he has apparently ever attempted to unite any of his works in some sort of grand scheme. Second, the transition from manga to anime often results in any number of changes - not all of which have been with M-san's approval or blessing. The initial appearance of the little girl Mayu Oyama in the 1978 TV series SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK is one of these. She never appears in the original manga (1), nor in any of M-san's older Harlock tales, but was put there at the insistence of director Rin Taro (with whom M-san has had any number of creative

differences) in order to humanize the tale, and make it more accessible to mainstream audiences. Yes, she is based on some of M-san's own creations in other manga stories (DAIFURINDEN), but Maya as a character in her own right is NOT part of the original Harlock mythos - as shocking as this may sound to some fans. She's an afterthought, forced upon M-san by Rin Taro, and with whom he has had to reluctantly come to terms with over the years - even though she was not part of the original Harlock mythos as such. In retrospect, it's hard for us Leijiverse fans to think nowadays of Captain Harlock without thinking of little Maya - but she was not there to begin with. She is an addition to the tale, not part of the original concept. Third, M-san personal writing philosophy, which he summarizes in the Japanese phrase "toki no wa," actively works against any cohesive chronology. What does this mean? The concept behind the phrase is difficult to translate into English in just a few words, but I'll try. One way of putting it is this: all possibilities exist at all times for all people in any tale. Confused? Let me try again, but from a different angle. M-san's writing philosophy treats his creation, the Leijiverse, more like a looping multiverse - a universe of multiple concurrent possible realities - than one single dimension. He justifies changes to his works over the years, however large or small, by claiming that each tale or group of tales has its own unique chronology that folds in on itself, like a ring or moebius loop. Parallel timelines with repeating characters and events if you will - or as the old Western saying goes, "What goes around comes around." Identical characters can be born, live their lives, and die at different times. The same goes for key events and technologies. The philosophy of "toki no wa" also helps explain in part the big break between M-san's older anime stories and his later "revival Leijiverse" stories, beginning with HARLOCK SAGA. He essentially rebooted his entire Leijiverse into a new and unique chronology in order to fulfill the grand unifying concept he had for it at that time. There are those who see this claim as intriguing, even something wonderful and unique in its own right. On the other hand, critics rightly point out that it conveniently saves him from ever having to rewrite any of his works - from straightening out the multiple myriad continuity issues that have cropped up over the years. Which position is right? Who knows? "Toki no wa." "I've many times seen, in various articles, publications, websites, etc., the idea put forth that the various stories featuring Captain Harlock and assorted attendant characters don't fit into any proper chronology that could make any sense at all. After this declaration, which is significant and utterly true, the writer will then proceed to elaborate on some form of overarching continuity, as if they had suddenly been struck with a flat iron and were unable to remember their own prior assertion. Failure dogs their heels throughout the ill-fated attempt, and finally catches them and eats them. They have blown it." - unknown spokesman, Corn Pone Flicks I am not going to pretend to even try to sort out and discuss all of the different variations and permutations of everything in the Leijiverse. Such a task is beyond my skill, and would make this document far longer than it already is. I'll leave that to the critics and the true scholars of this field, and not opinionated fan spokesmen like the above. What I have chosen to do - and I wish I had made this more clear in the second edition of this work - is to come up with an artificial construct and make a chronology of that. What this document does is to attempt to make a timeline of what the Leijiverse would be like IF it were internally consistent and everything - or almost everything - fit neatly into place. I can't stress the word "artificial" hard enough. This is not an integrated linear chronology of the so-called "real" Leijiverse, and on that one point (and one point only) I will concede to my critics. Such a thing is indeed impossible, and I admit that, for the three reasons I outlined above. Thus the artificial model. This is an integrated linear chronology of an

artificial Leijiverse - a model based on M-san's multiple realities in which everything exists in a single reality, has a set place, and the flow of time is linear - not running together on multiple possible tracks or looping through a bunch of rings in multiple space-time continuums. What I am ultimately trying to describe is an idealized place. It is not Leijiverse reality. Over the past few years, I have heard from and read the comments of fellow fans who have seen the previous edition of this work. That includes any number of critics - and all of them take the same general approach. They almost always denounce my efforts at establishing a linear chronology and then make the mistake of trying to paint their own coherent picture of the actual Leijiverse with all of its rings, loops, twists, and everything. I myself prefer to keep things simple, but I honestly can't criticize these folks. After all, thanks to "toki no wa," all of us are permitted to have our own unique notions of the Leijiverse. We can accept whatever part of it we like and that is both "true" and "real," because "toki no wa" makes it so. For instance, we can accept only the original manga stories as "true" and reject all else. We can accept only the world of the "revival Leijiverse" anime and even reject its manga, which was written at the same time, because "toki no wa" allows us to do that. However broad or limited you want your scope or interpretation of the Leijiverse to be, "toki no wa" says that you are always right no matter what your perspective. So what serves as one of the chief impediments to a consistent Leijiverse also gives us an unlimited amount of freedom in interpreting it. All of us are both right AND wrong at the same time. "Toki no wa." By this same line of reasoning, I am permitted my so-called "fantasy" of a timeline for an artificial eijiverse, where everything fits like it should, just as much as my staunchest critics are permitted to claim there can never be a consistent chronology, because "toki no wa" says both of us can do that. In my case, however, my timeline - or ring, or loop, or sphere, or Leijiverse subset, or whatever you want to call it, is just a lot larger and more intricate than most fans. I try to integrate as many data points as I can, not just the ones that are the most obvious. Remember, my effort is just as much "true" and "real" as anybody else's interpretation - even if it IS just a model - because of "toki no wa." I guess, in a way, this makes me the James Dixon of the Leijiverse. Fans continue to argue over his STAR TREK fandom chronology to this day, which was very much his own creation and based on his own perceptions of what the TREK multiverse "should" be, as opposed to the official Okuda chronology. Even so, that hasn't stopped these same people from using - and mining - Dixon's extensive research for their own purposes. I accepted that from the moment I began this work ... and it was partially for that reason that I began it. I expect this to be used and data-mined - or in some cases partially reworked by my fellow Leijiverse fans just as much as serious Trekkers do to Dixon's work. Why? I've saved you a lot of research into the finer details of the Leijiverse - or at the very least, have pointed out most of the major (and minor) places where you can start researching on your own. It was with this idea firmly in mind, way back when, that I began .... "It's no surprise that there are fans out there trying to provide for a larger continuity [of the Leijiverse] that can account for multiple universes, parallel timelines, etc. We actually know that Matsumotosensei is interested in time and physics, so this is a legitimate approach (or as French fans say, 'leijitime' - which breaks down into 'leiji'" + 'time.')" - animekritik (a.k.) from the Kritik der Animationskraft Internet site. "So if I'm allowed to interpret the Leijiverse however I want, why do I need this work? There's no reason for it -- is there?" Fair point. Fans can view M-san's works however they please. That's how he has set up the Leijiverse. I think the best illustration of this was by Tim

Eldred in his STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH web comic, where Trelana gives Wildstar a vision of the infinite possibilities of time. He is given the briefest of glimpses of these parallel concurrent realities - including one in which he never existed, and the Yamato (nee Argo) was commanded by a woman. As I noted before, and to borrow one fan's notion of continuity, you can grab whatever subset of the Leijiverse you want built around whatever unifying principle or principles you chose and make it work for you. "Toki no wa" permits that. At the same time, however, there is a definite need for some kind of guide that you can use in building your own concept of the Leijiverse. That's what I'm trying to do with this revised timeline - this model, this oversized subset, this integrated linear chronology of an artificially "perfect" Leijiverse. You can use it to begin getting a grasp on how the tales (or subset of tales) you like that relate to the rest of the Leijiverse (the superset), or relate to tales that share similar elements (other subsets). In other words, this work is a RULER, not a RULE. It is a guidebook to your road, not the road itself. I have made it as broad and as encompassing as possible in order to cover as much of the Leijiverse as I can - and where I speculate I try to say so - but never forget that what I describe is NOT the actual Leijiverse. It is an artificial Leijiverse that has been made in such a way as to conform, for the most part, to what most fans' concept of the Leijiverse might be like if it were a linear and internally consistent place. It is not. The actual Leijiverse is not linear, as is this model (2). The so-called "real" Leijiverse loops in on itself multiple times - almost to the point of redundancy, one might say. Even so, "toki no wa" permits me my linear model just as much as it does the real thing, or you and whatever your own personal interpretation might be. Remember learning about Mercator projection maps in high school? That big "Map of the World" that the teacher would occasionally use when talking about world geography? Remember how funny all the continents looked, with Greenland being larger than North America when it's actually smaller? That's one way to think of this timeline. A Mercator projection map is a mathematical means of mapping the curved, continuous surface of a sphere onto a flat rectangle. The farther you move away from the equator, the more and more things get distorted. It doesn't have to be a Mercator map, either. Any attempt at mapping a sphere onto a flat surface ultimately fails because you can't accurately map a curved surface onto something flat. Something always gets distorted in the process. Think of my artificial model, my integrated timeline, as that flat map of the various and sundry "Rings of Time" that make up the actual Leijiverse. There's no way I can accurately map them all. Too many iterations, and too many data points within those different and unique iterations. With this artificial linear timeline, however, I can give you a useful tool by which you can measure and plot out whichever of those rings you choose for yourself. By showing you what the "Center Ring" might look like, if such a thing existed, and if it were made linear - or "mapped flat," if you will - with almost everything fitting nicely into place, you can then use this model to measure against your own interpretation of the Leijiverse, or whatever subset thereof that draws your particular interest. Mine is a "best fit line" through most of the known data points that will help you along the way towards developing your own theory about the Leijiverse. After all, a ring is nothing more than a line joined at its endpoints ... isn't it? "Mr. Matsumoto doesn't much care if all the pieces fall conveniently into place. He has always been more interested in telling a good story than pleasing continuity buffs." - Robert W. Gibson Eternity Comics "But why all the dates and the notes and comments and such? I though you said I could interpret the Leijiverse any way I want." They're there for the sake of convenience. They are there for research

purposes - so you will know "when" something is supposed to happen and why. They are there so you can look up for yourself the sources I consulted for any given "date" (nee data point), as well as some of my reasoning for inserting it where I did. That's why. Not only do serious researchers do this sort of thing, they insist on it. "Show your work," as my high school math teacher used to say. It's a maxim I've never forgotten. "But you make it way too complicated, and I don't agree with . I think that ." There's another way to look at this, you know. Pretend the dates and commentary aren't there. Just the events. Pull out the events in which you're interested and write them down, in the order that I give them. Now take them and compare them to your idea or concept of what you think the Leijiverse should be. Certain things almost always happen in a certain order in almost every incarnation of the Leijiverse, no matter in which of the infinite Rings of Time you find yourself. Captain Harlock is born on Earth. His parents die. He and Tochiro become friends. He becomes a space pirate and captain of the space galleon Arcadia. Captain Harlock eventually becomes one of the leaders in mankind's fight against the Machine Empire. And so on. Establishing the general pattern of events is actually quite easy. It's dating everything that's the real bitch, thanks to the way the Leijiverse is set up. That too I have tried to keep in mind as I developed my artificial reference model, and this document to explain it. You can "fix" my dates however you want. The general patterns must remain the same, though, if your own personal model is to be true to the Leijiverse itself. "A wonderful piece of fanwank." - Leijiverse fan reviewer. I decided to do this third edition once the "revival Leijiverse" period finally began to wind down. It was as much a matter of necessity as desire. The release of the second season of GALAXY RAILWAYS threw some of my initial dating assumptions for that anime out of whack, and this needed to be fixed. Also, in the past few years, I have gained access to more translations and summaries of many Leijiverse manga, and this new data also needed to be incorporated. Finally, I wanted to do what I had contemplated doing back then and convert this entire document to plain vanilla text form. That would make it easier on my many overseas readers, particularly in Japan and Europe, who wanted to make translations of it for their friends. Just feed it into the appropriate translation software and push the button, then go back and make the many necessary idiomatic and formatting corrections (urgh!), and there you go. For what it's worth, you have both my permission and blessing to do so. I want to thank author Tim Eldred for encouraging me in my start down this long and strange path. This never would have happened had it not been for his initial encouragement and advice. I also want to thank everyone across the Big Pond on the TokiNoWa web site. You were kind enough to post the second edition of this work, even damaged as it was due to an unrecoverable hard drive crash. You comments and criticisms have been appreciated. I hope your regulars and visitors enjoy this edition as much as they did the earlier one. While I'm at it, I should not forget the efforts of Kana Press in France and the American fan scanlating groups Rabbit Reich and Offtopia, for translating many previously unavailable Leijiverse manga into French and English respectively. You both helped clear up a lot of misinformation and incorrect assumptions I had made with regard to these titles. Finally, I'd like to give special praise the animekritik ("a.k.," as he is better known in the blogopshere) over at the Kritik der Animationskraft website for two things: writing the most fair criticism of the older edition of this work I have yet read, and for opening my eyes to new avenues of research I had not or was unable to pursue before - such as the MIRAIZER BAN connection to the Rings of Time view of the Leijiverse, for

example. While we may differ in our interpretations about certain things - a perfectly human thing to do - I have nonetheless found your insights valuable on more than one occasion. You will see echoes of your own research and information within these pages. I hope you and your friends profit from this new edition, too - as I hope for all read and use it. In closing, lest I forget, I want to make special mention of the people at Corn Pone Flicks, the original fansubbers of the CAPTAIN HARLOCK TV series, for stubbornly continuing to insist that any attempt at Leijiverse continuity is impossible, and for attacking me (by implication) a few years back for daring to even attempt such a thing. I took your words as a challenge to meet, as you can see. I consider myself fortunate enough to have seen my efforts bear the fruit that I had hoped they would, and more. Go ahead and continue to broadcast your closed-mindedness to everyone who visits your website, if you insist. I'm glad I didn't listen to you - and so are millions of Leijiverse fans worldwide. - Richard Evan Mandel 7 December 2011 A BROAD BREAKDOWN OF THE LEIJIVERSE ----------------------------------When most fans talk about periods of M-san's works, they are almost inevitably referring to his anime stories - but let's not forget he is an author and illustrator of hundreds of manga tales. M-san has been writing manga almost continuously since his career began. Unfortunately, most of his manga stories have yet to receive proper translations here in the West, so fan perceptions of his creative output have been shaped, for good or worse, by his anime tales or adaptations of his manga works for anime. Fans generally group these into three broad periods, as follows: THE CLASSIC PERIOD (1968-1978) This is the period in which the four great "classic" anime TV shows by M-san began production. These are STAR BLAZERS (aka UCHUU SENKAN YAMATO), SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK, QUEEN MILLENNIA, and the original GALAXY EXPRESS 999 television series. (3) There is also a large body of early science fiction manga by M-san that belongs in this era, in which you can see glimpses or early efforts at characters and concepts that eventually wound up in these four shows. This is the period that propelled M-san to initial fame, and made him second only to Osamu Tezuka as one of the founding fathers of Japanese anime as we know it. Although its first anime is STAR BLAZERS (1974), I date the start of this period to 1968 and the release of the first volume of M-san's classic sci-fi manga series SEXAROID - the story that made him famous. It was the first he wrote where his creativity was allowed free reign, and it was the first to get him major attention in Japan. It is also the first major "Leijiverse" work per se - with concepts, characters, and a graphic style that is instantly recognizable to fans of M-san's works even today. I would daresay it is one of the great classics of Japanese science fiction, despite its status as a manga, and its influence on the anime industry can be seen in everything from "hardcore" works such as Masamune Shiro's GHOST IN THE SHELL and Suzuki Toshimichi's BUBBLEGUM CRISIS to such lighthearted fare as the Personicoms of CHOBITS. Save for assorted earlier manga shorts, SEXAROID is the TRUE beginning of the Leijiverse and its classic period, in my opinion - not STAR BLAZERS. This period actually lasts until 1981, when the last episode of the GALAXY EXPRESS 999 TV series was aired, but for purposes of this document I date it to 1978 and the release of the first GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film. A lot would be changed and reworked for that effort - and that movie would also

mark the beginning of a new period in the development of the Leijiverse. There is a LOT of chronological confusion regarding this era. This is due to the fact that most of the Leijiverse stories created during this time - save for certain works such as QUEEN MILLENNIA and CAPTAIN HARLOCK, and military manga such as the BATTLEFIELD series (aka THE COCKPIT, HARD METAL, et al), are set around the beginning of the 23rd century (the 2200s), or have no date at all - although the "near future" is usually implied. One of the more obvious exceptions to this is the TV adaptation of SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK, where a date of 2977 is given right at the start of the show. Of course, the gimmick there was that the date was exactly 1000 years after the start of production but that date would stick when it came time for the next period of M-san's anime works. Some of the dates in his other "classic" works - GALAXY EXPRESS 999 in particular - would have to be adjusted upward to better fit the new continuity that was being envisioned for this next era of M-san's creative genius. THE HEYDAY PERIOD AND FALL FROM GRACE (1979-1982, 1983-1995) This era marks when M-san was the height of his original popularity and creativity, before changing trends in anime and its audience base forced him to the sidelines. The four great Leijiverse feature film adaptations - GALAXY EXPRESS 999, MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA, ADIEU GALAXY EXPRESS 999, and QUEEN MILLENNIA - were all made during this period, as was a fifth (a TV special) that is almost unknown here in the west - MARINE SNOW NO DENSETSU, aka THE LEGEND OF MARINE SNOW. This was also the first time that M-san attempted to unify his various works into something of a consistent whole. Sadly, that original effort went unfinished - as would so many of his efforts over the years, and as his second such effort wound up being almost a decade later. Bits and pieces of this first effort still survive, though - such as KAIZOKU KIKAN ARCADIA, the original pilot for the ENDLESS ROAD SSX anime TV series, and both the ARCADIA ROMAN ALBUM and SSX GUIDEBOOK - that give us an important glimpse into what might have been. The "heyday" era is generally held by fans to have ended in 1981 with the release of the feature film ADIEU GALAXY EXPRESS 999: FINAL STATION ANDROMEDA. In truth, the last anime title based on an M-san work during this time was AREI NO KAGAMI (aka THE WAY TO VIRGIN SPACE), which was released in 1995. Between these two are a smattering of TV specials and educational films, but nothing in the way of popular anime TV series or feature films as there had been only two decades before. Public perceptions had changed, and M-san's work was seen as "old school" at this time - shunned in favor of giant transforming robots and oversexed pre-teen girls with pie eyes. A virtual "fall from grace," if you will. Even in AREI NO KAGAMI, though, you can already see certain changes taking place in Leijiverse anime - such as integrated computer graphics and some revising of the old themes that so used to dominate Leijiverse tales. Nevertheless, all of the old ideas and concepts regarding the Leijiverse appear to have remained in place during this "fall from grace" period. It was not until the next major period in Leijiverse evolution that things significantly changed. FYI, the first-ever linear timeline for the Leijiverse was published during this period, and can be found in the MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA Roman Album. The dates it contains - and there are only four of them, albeit extensively annotated represent the only chronological glimpse we have into how M-san viewed his creation - the Leijiverse - at this point in his career. They reflect M-san's revised dating of his classic science fiction stories, using the 2977 date from the anime version of SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK as the new anchor point for this adjusted chronology. This new continuity, albeit with several significant alterations for his "revival" period, has remained essentially the same since this time. THE REVIVAL PERIOD (1998-2010) Fortunately for us and the rest of the world, the Leijiverse was not about

to roll over and die. M-san had never stopped writing manga, for one thing. Also, during that long hiatus where the only Leijiverse shows on TV were all reruns, an entire generation of anime writers and producers were gaining access to the industry - ones who had grown up on and fondly loved their "classics." M-san's works were among those revered by them. It should then come as no surprise that once some of these people finally gained enough power and prestige in the anime industry to begin revisiting "the classics," then the Leijiverse was swept back into the public eye along with them. These "revival period" shows are probably the works of M-san most familiar and accessible to Leijiverse fans today. They represent something of a reboot of the Leijiverse, with M-san altering or in some cases completely changing the backstories of most of his major characters in an effort to weave a new (and grand) unifying theme throughout his stories. This theme is a new threat to the universe in the form of the Metanoids - who are not as overt or as crude as the older Mechanoids, but in their own unique ways are perhaps even more terrifying. They are "too human" to be machines, for one. Mechanoids are said to have no souls, while early on Metanoids are established as having them. The Metanoid threat appears in every one of M-san's "revival" tales (to varying degrees) starting with GALAXY EXPRESS 999 ETERNAL FANTASY and HARLOCK SAGA, and continued until DAI YAMATO ZERO GO - his own unfinished effort at rebooting the revered YAMATO (STAR BLAZERS) franchise. Also part of this "revival" period are MAETEL LEGEND, SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL, COSMO WARRIOR ZERO, and more. In an odd parallel to his "heyday" period (AREI NO KAGAMI), the standalone short "Out of Galaxy Koshika" (based on the online manga of the same name and done as an interpretation of the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen) most likely marks the end of the "revival Leijiverse" period. For me, the 2011 live-action YAMATO movie, the soon-to-come CGI CAPTAIN HARLOCK feature film (2013?), and the standalone anime TV miniseries OZMA (2012, but based on an older "classic" story that is not part of the Leijiverse proper) probably mark the beginning of another period in M-san's onscreen works - one I am tentatively calling the "neo-classic" period (i.e. "new" classics), and one that has yet to be explored. It should also be noted that most of M-san's manga works in this period also reflect the "revival Leijiverse" view of his creation. The unfinished 10-volume HARLOCK SAGA manga (out of 11 planned; the concluding volume was never written), which goes well beyond what we saw in the anime OVA series, is one of these. It is the foundation work off of which the rest of the "revival" manga and anime stories are keyed. Also belonging to this period are the mangas GREAT YAMATO and THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA, both of which found their way via a long a torturous path into having parts of them adapted for the aborted DAI YAMATO ZERO GO anime OAV series. The unfinished "new" GALAXY EXPRESS 999 third manga series keys directly off of the ETERNAL FANTASY anime OVA - itself a pilot film for a new anime TV series that never materialized - and also shares common themes with the HARLOCK SAGA manga. COSMO WARRIOR ZERO, SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL and GALAXY RAILWAYS all have their proper places in the "revival" period. And so on, and so on ... but their most basic underlying theme - that of the Metanoids - can be traced directly back to the HARLOCK SAGA and GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY mangas. Thus, any fan who wants to get a better grasp on how M-san was intending to reboot and unify his most famous works around the theme of the Metanoid threat needs to pay as much attention to the manga (and other related manga of this period) as well as what anime titles were eventually produced. Finally, one must take into account two of the many Leijiverse-based videogames produced during this period. These are COSMO WARRIOR ZERO and STORY OF GALAXY EXPRESS 999. ZERO started out as a videogame before it was adapted as an anime series. Some of the material in the game didn't make it into the anime. No surprise there - this happens a lot, as any fan of Japanese videogames will tell you. STORY OF GE999 is useful as more of a reference tool than anything else. For example, neither Tochiro's nor Tetsuro's mothers had names until this videogame gave them ones - Setsuko Oyama and Kanae Hoshino,

respectively. The game itself is forgettable, but there are other such odd little bits and nuggets of trivia and lore tucked here and there within for hardcore Leijiverse fans to find. Many younger fans tend to ground their own personal interpretations of the Leijiverse squarely in the "revival" period. It's easy to see why. It's more fleshed out and has more of a unified feel to it than any other period in the development of the Leijiverse across the years. Even so, I favor the somewhat older "heyday period" attempt at continuity and use it as the basis for this document, despite what few sparse clues are available. Perhaps it reflects the fact that I grew up watching the older works, both "classic" and "heyday." My first Leijiverse anime was STAR BLAZERS, which I first saw during its original television run in the United States back in 1980. The first full-blown Leijiverse movie I ever remember watching was the Roger Corman English-dubbed adaptation of the first GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film. Both made quite an impression on me - and I still smile whenever I hear "Captain Warlock" say, "Bartender - milk!" That's probably why the "heyday" period works better for me for bringing both the "classic" and "revival" periods into some sort of shared continuity. It's what I know best. I also point out that since it lies being between the "classic" and "revival periods, spanning the gulf between them, as it were, then it's more of a natural to adapt the rest to it than trying to shoehorn all of the older "classic" and "heyday" stories into the quite different continuity of the "revival" period. Of course, you'll have your own opinion, and I respect that - but this is what works for me. To be fair, there are those fans that say you should just take everything at face value and deal with it as you get to it. Corn Porn Flicks, for example, who have been rather stridently vocal on this point. "Toki no wa," I respond. Whatever works for you. Remember, this is just your Baedeker your guide - and not the path itself that you might choose. I am showing you how all the data points COULD relate to each other as a whole in an IDEAL situation. How they all actually fit, or whatever subset of those data points you chose to interpret for yourself ... well, that's up for you to decide. The would-be Leijiverse restrictionists stand at one end of the timeline debate spectrum. I stand firmly at the other end. You, and other readers like you, will probably fall somewhere in between. That's your right, and more power to you, I say. "Toki no wa." REGARDING LEIJIVERSE MANGA -------------------------Dedicated Leijiverse fans will soon notice that I have not included all of M-san's many manga in this linear model. The reason is fairly obvious. M-san has written a wide variety of manga over the years on many subjects. Not all of them can be considered part of the Leijiverse as most fans regard it - that is, there's nothing in them that have any relation to his most famous works aside from the art style and maybe a side reference or two. Thus, you can have a M-san manga series such as the two MACHINERS CITY volumes (MACHINERS CITY and NEW MACHINERS CITY), both excellent reads in their own right, without once ever alluding to ANYTHING belonging to the Leijiverse proper (although "acknowledged" Leijiverse works sometimes reference THEM, like HARLOCK SAGA does with MACHINERS CITY and the "Dr. Harlock" character in same). You can have parodies - as M-san does in parodying his own beloved GALAXY EXPRESS 999 with the raunchily funny DRIFTING EXPRESS 000 - all done in good fun and having no impact on the Leijiverse proper. You can even have a complete "serious" standalone manga adventure like V2 PANZER SERAZARD - the story of three people engaged in a DEATH RACE 2000 style motocross race across the deserts of Mars - and not once come across ANYTHING bearing on the back history of the Niebelungen, or the Mazone, or where exactly was the base where Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture were stationed in STAR BLAZERS, and so on. It's just a entertaining story and

nothing more. Aside from the names and M-san's easily recognizable art style and stock character models, there's nothing else in here that connects with the common fan notion of the backstory of the Leijiverse. It can be "made" to fit, of course, but most fans would agree that it's no more a part of the Leijiverse as they perceive it to be than is, say, CRISIS III or TORIYAMA NO MII - or even DANGUARD ACE (4). On the other hand, there ARE a lot of M-san's manga - both old and new that have a direct bearing on this unique fan notion of the Leijiverse. There are the older Harlock stories - "Great Pirate Harlock," "Space Battleship Deathshadow," the "Duel! Emeraldus vs. Herlock" comedy short, the DIVER ZERO manga anthology, and so on - where we see M-san developing the concepts and backstory for one of his greatest creations. Somewhat in the same vein is his most famous manga series - THE COCKPIT (aka the BATTLEFIELD series) - from which selected elements of the Harlock backstory were drawn, and most of which fits nicely into almost any model of a consistent Leijiverse, linear or curved, that you care to make. Both SEXAROID and MYSTERY EVE have their places here, too - and even his most funny and self-introspective work, OTOKO OIDON (aka I AM A MAN!) has its own unique connection to Harlock's times. There are also many of what I call the "parallel manga" - done in conjunction with whatever anime projects M-san had going at the time, and often exploring side tangents that were never touched upon in the anime proper. The list of these is too numerous to give here; suffice it to say that these are the manga that most fans immediately recognize and state to be part of the Leijiverse. It goes without saying that this third and last group have their proper place in this linear Leijiverse model of mine. So too do the second group, insofar as what data and insights they can provide that do not directly contradict anything in the first group, or in the anime proper. As for the first group, I discount them entirely - not out of disrespect, but out of practicality. They were meant to be standalone stories. They were never meant to be part of a consistent Leijiverse as we fans might conceive of it. LEIJIVERSE INTRUSIONS BY OTHER CREATORS --------------------------------------I have already alluded to the fact that there are others, such as director Rin Taro, who have had a significant impact on the way that Leijiverse anime have been shaped and is now viewed by fans. Another of these is artist Syd Mead, who was called in by Yoshinobu Nishizaki as a replacement for M-san for the ill-fated YAMATO 2520 anime OVA series. Not that I have anything against Mr. Mead - he's a great artist, and his work on the designs for the classic science fiction feature film BLADE RUNNER have made him justly famous. He's not M-san, though. He's an outsider. Nevertheless, he made his own particular mark on the Leijiverse with YAMATO 2520 - just as Rin Taro did with the original CAPTAIN HARLOCK TV series, and would later do again with ENDLESS ODYSSEY. Fans were split on Syd Mead's particular "intrusion" into the Leijiverse until some of his spaceship designs also turned up - in of all places - in the 2009 YAMATO RESURRECTION anime feature film. That pretty much closed that particular issue. Syd Mead's contribution to the Leijiverse is now an integral part of it, whether some fans like it or not - just as YAMATO 2520 is itself part of the Leijiverse proper, due to its connection with the YAMATO franchise, and whether fans like it or not. (5) It should come as no surprise that intrusions are also true for the manga side of things - or "comics," as we call them here in the West. The first three primary contributors in this regard are Comico Comics, Argo Press, and Eternity Comics. All of them created Western-style comic books for the Leijiverse under license at various times. These tales fill significant gaps in the Leijiverse - just as the YAMATO 2520 anime OVA series does on the anime side of things - and no model of the Leijiverse, linear or not, would be complete without them. The fourth is comic book author and illustrator Tim

Eldred, whose hand can be seen in both the Argo Press and Eternity Comics series, and who has since gone on to produce a number of online STAR BLAZERS web comics for Voyager Entertainment. These deserve special mention, and I will get to them in due course. Comico and Argo both created original comic book stories for the STAR BLAZERS franchise at different times. Comico's two series fill in important gaps between the three seasons of the show - and in the case of the latter, provide significant backstory on the history of the Comet Empire. Argo Press mainly fills in the gaps between the Comet Empire story arc and the third and fourth Yamato feature films - THE NEW VOYAGE and BE FOREVER YAMATO. Argo Press also contributed an original story in this regard, the "Icarus" arc, which fills in an important gap regarding the youth of Sasha, daughter of Starsha and Alex Wildstar. As for Eternity Comics and their long-running yet ultimately aborted CAPTAIN HARLOCK series ... well ... the sad story of how they came by and ultimately lost their license is best told elsewhere. It's a shame that the series was never finished, because Eternity's stories fill in a major gap in the adventures of Captain Harlock, his fight against the Illumidas, and the eventual rise of the Machine Empire that has been barely touched upon in M-san's own works. There's events and data points of backstory in these tales that are found nowhere else, and help explain some of the things happening in other Leijiverse tales around the same time. Yes, there are some issues with other Leijiverse works, especially ENDLESS ROAD SSX, but no worse (or better) than M-san's own contradictions. I have include these three "outside intrusions" - as one fan called them for the same reason I included YAMATO 2520 and other such anime works. They have their place in my linear model of an artificially consistent Leijiverse. They fit nicely into slots where there would otherwise be major gaps. They have no major contradictions with M-san's own stories, and what minor contradictions exist can easily be adjusted for in the same manner that I do for his relevant manga tales. In other words, they help make this linear model of mine more complete than it would otherwise be. That is why they are here. If you don't like or want them, then don't include them in your own interpretation. Easy enough? Tim Eldred has been doing yeoman's work with the official STAR BLAZERS website for Voyager Entertainment, as the many who have visited there will attest. I got to chat with him briefly (via email) way back when at the start of the STAR BLAZERS REMASTERED project, and he's quite a guy. Have I mentioned his hand in helping to create the Eternity Comics and Argo Press comic book series? His latest - and some say greatest - contribution is to release a number of STAR BLAZERS web comics. At present there are two main series of these. The first is STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH, and the second is THE BOLAR WARS EXTENDED. Eldred had no idea that things were about to come together for Yoshinobu Nishizaki's long-delayed YAMATO REBIRTH feature film project when he began his own web-comic take. Using existing art designs and write-ups, he crafted his own version of how the Yamato (nee Argo) was rebuilt and relaunched in the 2220s to deal with an apparent black hole moving towards Earth. It's easy to accuse him of "jumping the gun" now, since the 2009 release of YAMATO RESURRECTION, but it's still an enjoyable read. The two stories are actually quite similar in many places. Even if their endings are different - and Eldred's concept and resolution of the situation is quite different than Nishizaki's - Eldred's effort still stirs the soul. His actually rings more true to the old spirit of the franchise and strives for continuity, while Nishizaki is once again on his "new uninspiring crew in new ship saves the universe at the expense of the most beautiful women around" theme that seems to permeate most of his works. STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH actually made it into the second edition of this work - as much of it as was available at the time, anyway - because back then it was the only available material that dealt with the "end," so to say, of the STAR BLAZERS era. YAMATO RESURRECTION has since been released ... and now we have a problem.

Which "take" of these events is the proper one? Eldred's or Nishizaki's? Eldred's current project is THE BOLAR WARS EXPANDED. With this, he takes most of the ideas that were intended but ultimately abandoned for the third season of STAR BLAZERS (it got cut in half, remember?) and attempts to reconstruct the intended story in web comic form. It is quite a read, to say the least, and highly recommended for all STAR BLAZERS fans in particular, as well as Leijiverse fans in general. As much as I love Eldred's work - and I still don't regret including STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH in the earlier edition of this timeline - I have to reluctantly treat it as a "second group" work, like I do certain of the relevant Leijiverse manga by M-san. In the first case, YAMATO RESURRECTION is the official on-screen continuing of the story of the Star Force. It represents Nishizaki's original intent, and his hand can seen in it throughout (for better or for worse). As for THE BOLAR WARS EXTENDED, its story does not match what ultimately ended up on-screen - even as truncated as that was. It represents an alternate take on events for the back half of the series, just as much as FAREWELL TO SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO represents an alternate take on the Earth-Cometine War. That doesn't stop me from sourcing Eldred's tales for selected data points, but ONLY when what he presents doesn't conflict with what's on screen or in "first group" print sources. I still recommend Eldred's web comics to anyone who wants to read them (I mean that, Tim, and you can quote me on it!), especially fellow STAR BLAZERS fans. Unfortunately the Rings of Time that he is depicting in these tales are too divergent from the artificial "center ring" I am trying to extrapolate to include his tales as a whole. That is why I treat them like a "second group" manga source - only cherry-picking what I can from them without going "off the plantation," as it were. I hope you understand ... and I hope Tim does, too. ABBREVIATIONS ------------The following abbreviations are used for Leijiverse works, both manga and anime, in this document: 2199 ARA BFY BWE CHR CHEO CHQ1K CHP CWZ DNA DZ DYZG Eldred FSY FY GE999 GE999A GE999F GE999P GF Gibson GPH GR GRA1&2 "2199" remake of the first season of STAR BLAZERS (2012) MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA ROMAN ALBUM BE FOREVER YAMATO THE BOLAR WARS EXTENDED (web comic by Tim Eldred) CAPTAIN HARLOCK comic book series by Eternity Press CAPTAIN HARLOCK ENDLESS ODYSSEY (aka OUTSIDE LEGEND) CAPTAIN HARLOCK AND THE QUEEN OF 1000 YEARS (HGM hack job) SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK official program book by Toei COSMO WARRIOR ZERO FIRE FORCE DNA SIGHTS 999.9 DIVER ZERO DAI YAMATO ZERO GO Tim Eldred of Voyager Entertainment (various materials) FAREWELL TO SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO FINAL YAMATO GALAXY EXPRESS 999 GALAXY EXPRESS 999 FINAL STATION ANDROMEDA (aka ADIEU GE999) GALAXY EXPRESS 999 ETERNAL FANTASY GALAXY EXPRESS 999 official program book by Toei GUN FRONTIER Robert Gibson, author of the CHR stories for Eternity Comics "Great Pirate Captain Harlock" manga short GALAXY RAILWAYS TV series (both seasons and the OVA series) GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film ROMAN ALBUMS (both movies)

GY HS HS1 HS2 HS3 HS4 I5555 KKA Lewis ME ML MSD MYA MYAR OO QE QEC QES QM QRA S99 SB1 SB2 SB3 SBC1 SBC2 SBC3 SBD SBR SPCH SBR SBTM SBY SR SSM SSX SZ TASY TC TSM TT1 TT2 TTB UTSM Y2520 YNV YPA1&2 YR YT

GREAT YAMATO (the DAI YAMATO managa) HARLOCK SAGA (in general ...) HARLOCK SAGA: THE RHINEGOLD (manga) HARLOCK SAGA: THE VALKYRIE (manga) HARLOCK SAGA: SIEGFRIED (manga) HARLOCK SAGA: GOTTERDAMERUNG (manga) INTERSTELLA 5555 KAIZOKU KIKAN ARCADIA (aka the SSX pilot film) Bruce Lewis, "History of the Star Blazers Galaxy" MYSTERY EVE MAETEL LEGEND MARINE SNOW NO DENSETSU (aka THE LEGEND OF MARINE SNOW) MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA Roman album OTOKO OIDON (aka I AM A MAN!) QUEEN EMERALDAS QUEEN EMERALDAS 4-part comic book series by Eternity Press "Queen Emeraldas" manga short (aka the "Death Herlock" short story) QUEEN MILLENNIA QUEEN MILLENNIA feature film ROMAN ALBUM SUPER SUBMARINE 99 STAR BLAZERS SEASON 1 (the Iscandar story arc) STAR BLAZERS SEASON 2 (the Comet Empire story arc) STAR BLAZERS SEASON 3 (the Bolar Wars Story Arc) STAR BLAZERS Comico comic book series 1 (the Callisto story arc) STAR BLAZERS Comico comic book series 2 (the Eurythmia story arc) STAR BLAZERS Argo Press comic book series "Space Battleship Deathshadow" manga short STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH (web comic by Tim Eldred) SPACE CAPTAIN PIRATE HARLOCK STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH online Internet comic by Tim Eldred STAR BLAZERS TECHNICAL MANUAL and ROLE PLAYING GAME SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO (live action feature film) (6) SEXAROID SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL CAPTAIN HARLOCK ENDLESS ROAD SSX STATION ZERO (Internet radio drama) THIS IS ANIMATION: SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO THE COCKPIT (aka BATTLEFIELD) THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA "The Tochiro (Part 1)" manga short "The Tochiro (Part 2)" manga short THE TALE OF A TIME GONE BY manga anthology THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA YAMATO 2520 YAMATO THE NEW VOYAGE YAMATO PERFECT ALBUMS 1 & 2 YAMATO RESURRECTION (aka YAMATO REBIRTH) YOZIGEN TOKEI manga anthology

Since many of the works in question exist in multiple incarnations, smallcase letters following the abbreviation are used as needed to distinguish among them: -a -f -g -m anime TV series or OVA version anime feature film version videogame version manga version

These can be used to mark specific distinctions among the various versions of a

given title, as follows: QMa QMf QMm Footnotes (1) SPCHm Volume 2 mentions that the late Tochiro Oyama had a daughter, but she is never seen nor named. The visual depiction of Mayu Oyama as seen on screen is apparently based on the character of the little girl Hotaru, sister of the philanderer Utamaro (a Tochiro Oyama look-alike), from the manga serial DAIFURINDEN. (2) The best way to visualize the Leijiverse is as an n-dimensional toridal spiral or Master Ring of Time in the general space-time continuum, with the pocket universe of Valhalla at its center. There are an infinite number of bisects you can do of the Leijiverse to create an infinite amount of smaller Rings of Time, each of which is distinct in its own right. They can run in parallel, they can be cut at an angle (to make an ellipse, which is a type of ring), and they can even intersect or cross multiple other rings depending on your bisect(s). Parallel Leijiverses, if you will. You can even do perpendicular bisects to create a ring or set of rings around one or more fixed points in time. The "revival Leijiverse," the heyday period, the early Harlock tales, the original GE999 TV series, the world of the SEXAROID manga, et al. Here's the goofy part - since we're dealing with an n-dimensional construct, then any Ring you pick may not "look" like a ring from your perspective. It might look like an infinity sign, or a moebius loop, or so on. That's the nature of the beast we're dealing with. Follow so far? The term "ring" is just a convenient point of reference - since the n-dimensional "rings" we're talking about are more like rubber bands, able to bend and flex and twist in time and space wherever and however the story or set of stories go. Clear so far? Good! Let's go on. Now take any point on any Ring of Time, itself a subset of the Master Ring, and it will have an infinite number of analogs on an infinite number of similar Rings. Since each Ring is unique, and has its own unique place within the Master Ring of Time, then that point on that particular ring may appear to be in a different location when viewed from the ring in which you are currently located. It depends on how far out on the Master Ring it is from you - how much removed from your chosen perspective than its Ring of Time in which it properly belongs is located. Since you can only perceive the Master Ring from within your smaller Ring of Time, everything else beyond it - including the Master Ring - is distorted by your chosen perspective. Nothing in any other ring can ever quite look right because you can never get a true picture of the n-dimensional nature of the Master Ring. Any model, including my own artificial one, will always be distorted because of the curved nature of the Rings of Time. Also, if it helps, remember to think of my timeline as a linear depiction of the one Ring of Time that's running in the exact middle of the Master Ring - save that it's been cut and unrolled from a curved Ring into a "flat," straight line. Here's an example from relativity physics to help you try to picture this. Imagine two train tracks running parallel to each other, and two trains running at the same speed on both rails. Parallel "Rings of Time," as it were. Now, make one of those tracks veer away from the other, and then back. The train on that "bent" track will now be running behind the other one because it had to cover more "real" distance even though both tracks run side-by-side. The train on the "bent" track is no longer in sync with its parallel counterpart because of that "bend". Either it has to speed up or the train on the "straight" track will have to slow down for the two to be able to sync back up again. anime TV adaptation of QUEEN MILLENIA anime feature film adaptation of QUEEN MILLENNIA manga version of QUEEN MILLENNIA

I didn't come up with this definition of "toki no wa." It's M-san's own, as described in MYA, HSm "The Rhinegold," and the MIRAIZER BAN manga. Another good alternative is the animekritik's "nested Time Sphere" concept, which he discusses on his website - Kritik der Animationskraft. (3) There is also STARZINGER to consider, a "Power Ranger type" anime TV series on which M-san played an important creative role, if one wants an honest picture of this era - as well as DANGUARD ACE, M-san's only "robot" show. Most fans discount both entirely as belonging in separate continuities apart from the Leijiverse proper, since they contain no common elements with his other, more recognizable science fiction works - the Yamato, Captain Harlock, the ThreeNine, et al. (4) Some fans have argued rather vociferously for the inclusion of MIRAIZER BAN in my model, since it does a better job of defining M-san's "toki no wa" philosophy than any other of his works. The actual story, however, creates so many problems with regards to continuity issues that I've had to exclude it from my linear model on practical grounds. I do recommend it, however, as a necessary read for anyone wanting to understand how the concepts of time and "toki no wa" work with regards to the Leijiverse proper. There's also a lot of excellent fan discussion on MIRAIZER BAN out there on the Internet animekritik's in particular - and you might want to look that up, too. (5) While we're at it, let's not forget the major part played by anime mecha designer Kazutaka Miyatake in creating most of the new ship designs for YAMATO's Comet Empire story arc - most notably that of the Andromeda, one of the all-time great anime starship designs and a perennial fan favorite. It is said that when M-san saw Miyatake's proposal, he was quite impressed. The only part of the design he changed was the upper bridge structure - to the form we know today. The original upper bridge design can be found in several YAMATO art books of the period. Miyatake's work is as much part of the Leijiverse as is Taro's, Mead's, Eldred's, and many others. Try to imagine YAMATO without the presence of the mighty Andromeda, and you will see what I mean. (6) There are elements of the 2010 live action YAMATO feature film that are unique to that particular interpretation of the tale; hence its place here. ----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X TIMELINE OF EVENTS -----------------c.15 billion BCE - The "Big Bang" (creation of the Leijiverse). [CHE0, Y2520] - The Leijiverse is formed from a zero-point singularity by the event known as the "Big Bang." [CHEO #03, "The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar"] - Two distinct universes, each the metaphysical opposite of each other, are created the moment the universe is born. One of these is the universe we know, whereas the other is dominated by the Noo and their master, the Lord of Darkness. At the exact center of our universe, lit by the star Ultimate, is the planet Eternal - where all life began. [GE999EFm Volume 3, Chapter 2, "Eternal Battle;" also various scattered references in HSm]

- The Noo, the original primordial demons, manage to controls the known universe - the "universe of light" - during the fleeting microseconds known as Planck time. [CHEO #03, "The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar"] - The high energy element monopole is formed in the chaos following the Big Bang. It will be the rarest member of its family of energy-yielding ores, as well as the most powerful. In normal circumstances, only one particle of monopole exists in any given galaxy. [Y2520 #01, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." Best evidence seems to indicate that it was formed while the Noo were in control, per CHEO #03. That might account in part for its unusual energy properties. I believe it to be from the same family of energy-yielding ores as cosmonite and iscandarium, although this is conjecture on my part.] - The Twisted Rope, the first sign of order in the universe, is formed. Noo domination of the universe is put to an end by the Descendants of the Twisted Rope in an event later known as the Ancient War. The Noo are forced through the Hourglass Nebula through "the edge between dimensions" and back into the negative universe that is their home. The Seal of Yedar is placed over the interdimensional portal at the heart of the Hourglass Nebula to prevent the Noo from ever returning to this universe again. [CHE0 #03, "The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar" and GE999EFm Volume 3, Chapter 2, "Eternal Battle." Comparison with HSa appears to imply that the gods of Valhalla and the Descendants of the Twisted Rope might be one and the same. Both are claimed to be the oldest intelligent species in the universe in their respective tales. The term "Ancient War" comes from my personal translation of HSm. Maetel briefly alludes to this with Tetsuro during their journey together to the Eternal Galaxy in 2974.] - The turning point of the Ancient War occurs when the Noo and their allies construct a giant, galaxy-sized weapon known as the Sword of Heaven in order to destroy Valhalla, the home of the ancient gods. At its heart is the planet Ultimate, whose unique energy properties are being tapped to serve as the lens or focus of the Sword of Heaven's power. From what evidence now exists, it appears that the gods of Valhalla attacked the Sword of Heaven in order to destroy it, but not before it was fired one time. That blast destroys half of Valhalla, and would have destroyed it all had not the attack of the gods knocked off the weapon's aim. Very shortly thereafter, the gods succeed in shattering the planet Ultimate, thus rendering the Sword of Heaven inert. The pieces of Ultimate are scattered throughout the known universe with one of them later becoming the planet Rhine, and another winding up in the Sol System and later named Asteroid 6565 Reiji. Prophecy foretells that if one or more of these pieces of the former planet Ultimate are ever returned to the Sword of Heaven, it can be re-powered and used to finish off the destruction of Valhalla. [HSm Part 4, "Gotterdammerung," Volume 1. There is reason to believe that the Sword of Heaven and GE999EFm's Eternal Galaxy are one and the same, but this is surmise on my part based on scattered references in the latter.] - The evil entity known as Darqueen - or more properly the Dark Queen - who will eventually be worshipped by the Metanoids as a sort of god, dates back to this time. [HSm Part 8, "Siegfried," Volume 3. She is "as old as the gods themselves." See also GE999EFm Volume 5.] - A city is built on the surface of the Rainbow Planet. Its ruins represent the oldest known construction of any kind in our dimension of the known universe.

[CHE0 #07, "The Moon Waits in the Promised Land" and #08, "In the Depths of the Shadow of the Soul." See also SPCH #29, "Struggle for Survival on the Rainbow Planet". The Ninth Sol System Expedition will visit these ruins in their quest to find the Gate of Yedar. Comparison of the dialogue among these episodes of both series would seem to suggest that this unnamed city came into existence either at the same time as or not long after construction of the Gate of Yedar.] c.10 billion BCE - The Elder Race arises on the planet Akwaar. They are the oldest of all intelligent species in our universe and also the oldest known spacefaring civilization. [Lewis. Comparison with HSm and HSa appears to imply that the Nibelungen and Elder Race are one and the same; however, conclusive proof is lacking.] c.5 billion BCE - The Elder Race embarks on a eons-long project of creating worldships scattered across the known universe. Within each worldship is a Guardian Spirit, a non-corporeal entity of great power and intelligence. The main purpose of each Guardian Spirit is to oversee the evolution of all forms of life on its worldship. Among the countless number they create over the next billion or so years are nine worldships within the Milky Way galaxy. [Lewis] - The first two Elder Race worldships ever created are the binary planetary pair Iskanda and Desla of the Sanza Star System within the Greater Magellanic Cloud. They serve as a titanic monument to the struggle between the forces of light and dark in the universe. [Lewis. It is possible that the Elder Race and the Nibelungen are one and the same, when Lewis is compared with HSa and HSm. If so, then this monument may have been created by them (or more likely the giants of Risenheim) as a tribute by the gods of Valhalla in order to commemorate their victory over the Noo, per CHE0 #03.] c.4 billion BCE - The Elder Race discovers a cooling planet, the third of nine orbiting a newborn yellow star, in the outer edge of the western spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. They decide it has the potential to become the greatest of all the worldships they have ever made. They alter the course of their own world Akwaar so that it will make a close pass of this new world. The gravitational attraction between the two will cause large volumes of water to be transferred from Akwaar, bringing with it the seeds of life to this newly born planet. According to legend, this planet is the last worldship that the Elder Race ever creates. [Lewis] - On its lonely journey through the heavens, the rogue pelagic planet Aquarius makes a close pass of the newborn Earth. The titanic tidal forces between the two during the pass pull huge amounts of water from Aquarius to Earth. This forms the Earth's oceans and is the beginning of life as we know it on our world. [FY. Date as given on the Babylonian clay tablet Dr. Sane submits for his review concerning the legend of the planet Aquarius. See also Lewis.] c.3.8 billion BCE - Having traveled back through time with the help of Mystery Eve, one of the

first things done by a young Japanese man named Mamoru is to relieve his bladder on a nearby rock. His urine provides the primal spark of life on Earth in the Leijiverse. [ME Volume 2] c.2 billion BCE? - The Elder Race successfully ascends to the next level of existence. They entrust the care of "their children" on their many worldships to their respective Guardian Spirits. [Lewis. My date is conjecture. Lewis gives no specific date for this event. If the implications of HSa and HSm are correct, and the Elder Race is the Nibelungen, then this might have been when they abandoned Akwaar and "ascended" into Wotan's service on Valhalla itself.] - This is the oldest date that the Queen Emeraldas gives for its own construction by the Mosgalut. [HSm Part 3, "Siegfried," Volume 2. The ship is guessing, and says that it can't honestly remember the exact date due to partial degredation of its oldest memory circuits. It does say that it was built specifically for Emeraldas as one of the last acts of the Mosgalut, per QEm Volume 1 and intimated in HSm Part 7. That would appear to pin its date of construction to the collapse and eventual extinction of the Mosgalut - whenever that was, which might be as late as c.960 - the date it left its own home system for our galaxy.] 650 million BCE - Alberich leads the Nibelungen in a failed revolt against Valhalla. As their punishment, the Nibelungen are banished to the remote world of Nibelheim at the ends of the universe. Only those Nibelungen who did not take part in the revolt - such as Alberich's younger sister Freya - are permitted to remain on Valhalla. [HSa, HSm Part 1, "The Rhinegold," Volume 1] c.200 million BCE (?) - The Gorda, one of the oldest civilizations in the annals of known history, construct their intergalactic warp wormhole transit network. Parts of this system will still be functioning as late as the 26th century in the Terran measure of time. [Y2520 #4, "Ancient Mysteries." This episode was never produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. NOTE - The ancient Gorda warp wormhole network and GE999's "hyperspace tunnels" may be one and the same. It would certainly explain how intergalactic travel in a year or less is possible later on in the Leijiverse. Everybody's using those parts of the old Gorda warp wormhole system that are still functional, or have been repaired. My date is a best guess based on what extremely limited data is available.] c.180 million BCE - The Mazone pay their first visit to our Sol System. They establish a temporary base on Venus during this stay. The base will be expanded and made more permanent in subsequent visits. They also establish their first base on Earth, somewhere on one of the land masses that today make up Antarctica. [SPCHa #12, "Mother Be Eternal" and SPCHm Volumes 2 and 5. We see the base on Venus in this episode. Yattaran also conjectures bases on Mars and Jupiter, although these are never shown. In SPCHm Volume 2, Doctor Zero states that the Mazone have been on Earth "since the dawn of the human species - probably much earlier." Later on in the same account, Harlock asks, "Why did they stay

hidden for tens, hundreds or even millions of years?" The fact that the first Mazone base on Earth was in what is today Antarctica comes from SPCHm Volume 5.] - As they settle Venus, the Mazone wipe out the native humanoid population already established there. They save a handful for use in genetic experimentation. [DZ Chapter 3, "The Queen of Venus;" CHP; SPCH Volume 2. CHP makes the incredible statement that humanity originated on Venus. We now know otherwise, but we now know the sources - DZ Chapter 3 and SPCH Volume 2 from where that statement came. I have chosen to re-interpret CHP rather broadly; that is, some of the genetic material the Mazone used in their later experiments on humanity might have been culled/farmed from the surviving natives of Venus. Harlock himself shows evidence to Diver Zero of ruins on the surface of Venus, which he ascribes to "an alien invasion that killed everyone." We also see similar ruins at the end of SPCHm Volume 2, for which the same reason for their state is ascribed by Harlock.] - The Mazone also do the same with the planet Mars - wiping out its natives save for the few they enslave or use as experimental subjects. [DZ Chapter 6, "Tragedy of the Tenth Planet." See also above data on Venus and SPCHa Episodes #12, "Mother Be Eternal" and #22, "Space Graveyard Deathshadow;" as well as SPCHm Volume 3.] 100 million BCE - The servants of Noo are successful in bringing about the downfall and destruction of the homeworld of the original Descendants of the Twisted Rope. Eons later, this will become the Planet of the Rubbish Heaps. The only survivors of this disaster in our universe are the various guardians of former Twisted Rope bases and worlds scattered throughout the heavens. One of these happens to be hidden deep under the surface of Luna, Earth's moon. [CHEO #03, "The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar" and #07, "The Moon Waits in the Promised Land." The tomb that Harlock and company visits is part of the planet itself and not part of the archaeological rubble that had been dumped there. The date is from the English dubbed dialogue. The subtitles say "several millennia" but this is probably a translation error. The guardian of Luna gives the same date for her people's demise in both sub and dub as does the English dub for the guardian of the Planet of the Rubbish Heaps. If the sparse implications from HSa and HSm hold any weight, then this planet may have been the original homeworld of the gods of Valhalla. The "downfall" that the guardian talks about might be the corruption of the gods of Valhalla by their sense of absolute power over creation, as is evident by Wotan's behavior in HSa and HSm. This could also be the date that half of the artificial world of Valhalla was blown away by the Sword of Heaven, as depicted and discussed in HS4. There is reason to believe, based on Mimay's (aka Melody's) dialogue in CHQ1K that the Mazone might have numbered among the servants of Noo at this time.] 98 million BCE - A large meteor hits the main island of Japan at present-day Tokyo. Its massive impact crater is dozens of miles wide and several miles deep. The course of the Kanto River is altered to flow through the crater itself. As millions of years, pass the crater will eventually be filled in by sediments deposited by the Kanto River. [QMa #08, "Mayday! An Underground Explosion"] 65 million BCE

- A planet-wide cataclysm causes the near-simultaneous eruption of every active volcano on Earth. The net result of this massive discharge of ash and dust into the atmosphere will significantly lower Earth's surface temperature, leading to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. This environmental change is brought about by a near passing of the planet LaMaetel during its thousand-year orbit through the Sol System. [QMa #07, "Invitation to the Underground." Yukino Yayoi shares this fact with young Hajime Amamori during his first visit with her to the secret LaMaetelian base beneath Tokyo. An alternate account is hinted at in HSm Volume 2, "The Valkyrie," in which Wotan himself implies he might have been the one behind it.] - The Mazone base in Antarctica is wiped out during this cataclysm. The Mazone base on Venus is abandoned not long after, and the Mazone leave the Solar System. They will not return for hundreds of millions of years. [SPCHm Volume 5. The actual date estimate given by the Director of the Science Bureau for the hunk of Antarctic ice with dozens of frozen Mazone inside is "70 to 100 million years." I have erred on the short side because this data point fits better with the extinction of the dionsaurs than it does with the closest other event on record - the meteor impact that created Tokyo Bay (QEm, QEa). That was a local event that would probably had little effect, if any, on what became Antarctica - whereas the later meteor impact shook the entire globe. Remember, the date given in SPCHm Volume 5 was just an estimate. The Mazone departure from the Sol System at this time is implied by the various SPCH materials. In SPCHa #12, "Mother Be Eternal," Captain Harlock states that it looked like the original Mazone base was destroyed by a volcanic eruption.] 26 million BCE - A Nibelungen colony is established on the planet Tiamat, the fifth in our Sol System. It is located at the present location of the inner asteroid belt. [HSa. Miime talks of having lived on the Sol System's mythical fifth planet prior to its destruction. I have yet to find a name for this planet in any Leijiverse source, so I borrowed Zechariah Stichin's name for it.] 8-5 million BCE - The Guardian Spirit of Akwaa, greatest of all such Spirits, determines that the humans of Earth, the last Elder Race worldship, holds the greatest potential for becoming a new Elder Race. It is the culmination of billions of years of subtle genetic experimentation and manipulation on all of the humanoid life forms evolving on all of its worldships scattered throughout the universe. To that end, groups of these early humans are taken from Earth and seeded on all other Elder Race worldships, including the nine in the Milky Way galaxy. To further enhance the experiment, the evolution of these seed groups is either augmented or retarded to varying degrees. Only the humans of Earth are left alone in their evolution. They will be the unaltered master template by which the development of the others can be measured. The nine major humanoid seed groups within the Milky Way galaxy will be known collectively as the Nine Daughter Races of the Elder Race. [Lewis. My date is probable conjecture. Lewis gives no specific date for this event.] - A group of humans from Earth are deposited on the planet LaMaetel and their evolution accelerated to such a degree that they become a technologically advanced civilization within two million years. Their primary responsibility is to watch over the Earth and see to it that the natural evolution of humanity and its development towards civilization is not altered or hindered in any way. This original mission will become obscured and corrupted over

the passing of many millennia. [Lewis and QMa. Yukino Yayoi's younger sister claims that the LaMaetel are the oldest and most advanced humanoid civilization in the known universe, having existed for "millions of years." This would imply that the LaMaetel are one of the oldest offshoots of the Nine Daughter Races, since the Elder Race and its contemporaries (the Mazone, the Nibelungen, et al) predate the LaMaetel by eons.] - The Iskandaa, humanoid inhabitants of the worldship Eurythmia, are the first of the Nine Daughter Races to achieve spaceflight capability. They are the Milky Way galaxy's first spacefaring civilization. The Iskandaa will become known as great explorers, bringing their knowledge and advanced technology to all worlds that they visit. [SBC2 and Lewis] - The Iskandaa visit our Sol System for the first time. They find human life on both LaMaetel and Earth. They leave Earth alone at the request of the LaMaetel, who share with them their special trust from the Spirit of Akwaa regarding the humans of Earth. From this the Iskandaa learn of Earth's unique place in the cosmos. This will become a carefully guarded secret known only to the Iskandaa ruling elite. They decide to give the people of LaMaetel advanced spaceflight capability in order to aid in their guardianship of the humans of Earth. [Probable conjecture based on QMa and Lewis. This would help explain the obvious technology gap between the humans of LaMaetel and the humans of Earth as depicted in the various QM materials. It also helps explain how Starsha of Iscandar knew so much about Earth, as depicted in SB1.] - Rise of civilization on the planet Jura. [CHQ1K. "Melody" (aka Mimay) says in the series that her people's culture had existed "for millions of years." The Japanese original of SPCHa makes no reference to this. Oddly enough, Jura is depicted as already being an old world in QEm Volume 1, albeit under different circumstances and with human colonists - the indigenous humanoid population having died out long before. Two different locations are given for the planet location. One is "a small and really strange planet near the star Antares, in the constellation of Scorpio," per SPCHm Volume 1. The other is "the third planet of the Ammonite star system ... located in the constellation of Orion within the Horsehead Nebula," per QEm Volume 1 and SPCHa #20, "The Dead Planet Jura." The latter is considered the canon location by most Leijiverse fans, since it is the one used on screen, and due to the fact that the name "Jura" is never used for the planet described in SPCHm Volume 1.] c.5 million BCE - The ancestors of the Cometine leave their homeworld on the planet Arishna, located on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, and depart on a multigenerational voyage across the void towards the Andromeda galaxy. It is the first step on their path to a long history of deep space conquest. Arishna becomes a dead world with their departure. The only traces left behind of its former inhabitants are stripped, abandoned cities on its surface and semi-sentient satellites in orbit monitoring the demise of its shrinking and dimming sun. [SBC1 #2, "The Prisoner and the Power" and #4, "Sacrifice." See also SBTM, "White Comet History."] - The Mazone encounter the Jura for the first time - and come away much the wiser for it. [CHQ1K. One of the first things Melody (Mimay) says when she encounters her first Mazone in person during the series is, "It has been many eons since last our people met. An aeon is one million years. Later, when Harlock and

his crew analyze the Mazone message capsule, and see their first image of the Mazone fleet, Melody (Mimay) remarks that "it was like this when they invaded my world."] c.2 million BCE - Dawn of intelligent human life on Earth as we know it. [Contemporary archaeological accounts and CHQ1K. In Harmony Gold's version of events, Olivia (Yukino) implies that the LaMaetel were on Earth at the dawn of humanity "over two million years ago." Miime seems to also imply the same in HSa, stating that the Nibelungen were fully aware of the dawn of humanity and may have been more than just observers to the event.] - The Domoh, the original humanoid species of the planet that will later be known as NewTokarga, develop their first primitive civilization. [CHQ1K. In the HGM English dub, Zoroh says his people have been around for "eons." He also claims his people had long known about the Mazone.] - The Mazone build up a powerful space fleet in order to solidify their off-world holdings in the Milky Way. [SPCHa, SPCHm. In the original, the Mazone claim to have been warriors "for two milion years." I am reinterpreting this to mean that this is when they built up their second invasion fleet of the Milky Way. The Mazone had been around and fighting wars for a lot longer than two million years.] - The Mazone return in force to establish a permanent presence in the Sol System. Their first and largest base is on the planet Brumus. Their second base is on the planet Venus. Their third is on the Sidonia plain of Mars. Their fourth is in the jungles of South America on Earth. The fifth and largest is on the central southwest coast of Japan. [CHP; SPCHa #09, "The Fearsome Plant Lifeform" and #12, "Mother Be Eternal." See also SB2 #06, "Rescue on Brumus" and DZ Chapter 6, "Tragedy of the Tenth Planet." Perhaps the legendary face on Mars and the purported alien ruins on its Sidonia plain have something to do with the Mazone, but this is sheer conjecture on my part. Brumus was once inhabited and the surviving architecture bears striking similarities to Mazone artifacts. This too is conjecture on my part, but the material in DZ Chapter 6, "Tragety of the Tenth Planet," hints that my guess may not be so far off ....] - From their initial footholds, the Mazone fan out over all the Earth. They discover that the indigenous human population makes excellent slave labor. They will use them as such for thousands of years to come. Their presence on Earth does not escape the detection or concern of the planet's guardians on LaMaetel. [CHP, SPCHa #09, "The Fearsome Plant Lifeform," and CHQ1K. CHP states that the Mazone brought humanity's ancestors from Venus but this contradicts all other sources regarding humanity's origins in the Leijiverse. The interaction between the Mazone and the LaMaetel comes from CHQ1K.] c.600,000 to 35,000 BCE - Several near-misses by LaMaetel as it swings through the Sol System in its eccentric thousand-year orbit are the cause for the starting and stopping of all four of Earth's major Ice Ages. [QMa #07, "Invitation to the Underground." Yukino Yayoi shares this fact with young Hajime Amamori during one of his visits to the secret LaMaetel base hidden under Tokyo.] c.500,000 BCE

- The people of LaMaetel begin sending their Millennial Queens to Earth. Their original orders are to watch over the humans of Earth as they climb the road towards civilization. Eventually this will become corrupted into a new mission: to rule over Earth and restrain the more barbaric impulses of its human population. [QMa, CHQ1K, Lewis. There are hundreds of mummified bodies within the ancient tombs of the secret LaMaetel base. If each of them ruled for a thousand years, well ... do the math. 500,000 BCE is the earliest date conjectured by many authorities for anything resembling primitive human cultures. It is also highly probable that the Millennial Queens were sent to Earth in order to combat the rising influence of the Mazone.] - The LaMaetel establish a major colony on the planet Venus. This development does not go unnoticed by the Mazone. [QMa #28, "Showdown on Venus." The date is a guess based on the apparent age of the ruins and Miray's dialogue in the episode. The part about the Mazone is conjecture, given the fact that the Mazone already had a base on Venus.] c.380,000 BCE - The Mazone and the LaMaetel clash over the fate of humanity. It is the first great war between two technologically advanced cultures on the Earth's surface and will later become known as "the war of the gods" in human legend. Open warfare is waged with advanced technology beyond the comprehension of early humanity. [CHQ1K. It stands to reason that both cultures must have interacted at some point, since both were on Earth at the same time in mankind's past - even if you discount CHQ1K as an acceptable source and go with "straight" Leijiverse sources. As to the war, there are certain historical and archaeological anomalies in human history across the globe that might point to advanced technology and the use of nuclear weapons on Earth in ancient antiquity.] c.300,000 BCE - The war between the Mazone and the LaMaetel eventually ends in stalemate and ceasefire. A compromise of sorts is achieved between the Mazone and the LaMaetel. The Mazone are allowed to continue to use humans as slaves so long as the majority of humanity is left alone to continue its evolution. The Mazone will be allowed to continue their "godlike" interaction with humanity under the watchful eye of the Millennial Queens. The LaMaetel apparently excuse this as a necessary means of advancing human civilization without having to actually become directly involved. This marks the start of a tenuous and often uneasy relationship between these two disparate advanced humanoid species. Each apparently intends to use the other for its own secret purposes. [CHQ1K. It stands to reason that both cultures must have interacted at some point, since both were on Earth at the same time in mankind's past - even if you discount CHQ1K as an acceptable source and go with "straight" Leijiverse sources. As to the war, there are certain historical and archaeological anomalies in human history across the globe that might point to advanced technology and the use of nuclear weapons on Earth in ancient antiquity. At one point in CHQ1K, Selen states that hers is a fallen people and that the once-great civilization of the LaMaetel was drawing to its end. Perhaps their truce with the Mazone, thus compromising their noble values, marked the beginning of that fall.] - The LaMaetel permit the Mazone to interact to varying degrees with almost all of humanity's great pre-Diluvial civilizations. These will include the mystery civilizations of Central and Southern America, the lost civilization of Mu in the Pacific Basin, the lost civilization of Atlantis in the present-day

Bahamas and central Atlantic, the lost civilization of Lemuria in the Indian Ocean, and the pre-dynastic civilization of Egypt. [CHP and SPCHa #09, "The Fearsome Plant Lifeform." It is intimated that the the Mazone were either the builders of or assisted in the building of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. It is also intimated that surviving remnants of their still-functional technology are responsible for the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, long thought to be part of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis. The so-called "underwater pyramids" off the coast of Japan are often cited as evidence of the lost civilization of Mu, which again was supposedly influenced by the Mazone. I should note in all fairness that in the original Japanese sources the LaMaetel and the Mazone never knew or came into contact with each other. Even so, they must have at some point given their advanced technology. The Harmony Gold materials developed for CHQ1K, dreadful as they may be, are currently the only source of information on this extraordinary relationship. ADDENDUM - Kei's analysis of the underwater pyramid in the Bermuda Triangle, in SPCHm Volume 1, reveals it to be "tens of thousands of years old" - which lends some weight to the date I have assigned for the end of the "war of the gods." In my interpretation, it would have been built sometime after this war. See also SPCHm Volume 2, where a direct connection is made between "ancient places" on Earth and the Mazone's involvement in Earth's ancient past.] - Rise of homo sapiens, i.e. "modern man," on Earth. [Contemporary accounts. Certain modern scholars (Stichin, et al) have suggested that homo sapiens was genetically engineered from homo habilis, which was the dominant humanoid lifeform on Earth at the time. There is circumstantial evidence to support that this was the case in the Leijiverse. Miime alludes to the possibility that this was done by the Nibelungen in the various HS materials. The technology of both the LaMaetel and the Mazone were also capable of this as well, per the various QM and SPCH materials.] c.130,000 BCE - Rise of homo neanderthalis, aka "Neanderthal Man," on Earth. [Contemporary accounts. Certain modern scholars (Alford, et al) have suggested that this interesting variant of homo sapiens was genetically engineered. There is circumstantial evidence to support that this was the case in the Leijiverse. It is a fact that the Mazone enslaved humans during their time on Earth per the various SPCH materials. Perhaps the Mazone did a little genetic engineering of their own in order to breed a more suitable ... "pack animal?" See also SPCHm Volume 2. Wotan had always found the Neanderthals intriguing because of their great strength and simple minds, and says as much in HSm Part 3, "The Valkyrie," Volume 1. He also ruefully regrets having brought about their eventual extinction.] c.95,000 BCE - Establishment of a dedicated elite warrior caste among the Mazone specializing in subterfuge and covert operations. [CHQ1K. The Mazone "civilians" who deal with Tadashi Daiba (aka "Terry") tell him that they've been a warrior people for "a thousand of your centuries." The Japanese original establishes that the Mazone have been warriors for at least two million years. It could either be a translation error or some inventive dialogue on the part of Macek and company. I'm taking it to mean the founding of an elite or covert group of Mazone warriors, much like our special ops teams of today. After all, it was a similar group of Mazone who laid that elaborate trap for Tadashi and Harlock on the Rainbow Planet.] c.70,000 BCE

- Approximate date of the dawn of Lemuria, the greatest and most enlightened of mankind's pre-history civilizations. [James Churchward, THE LOST CONTINENT OF MU. The LaMaetelians probably had direct contact with the people of Lemuria at some point in the Leijiverse if the legends, are true but this pure conjecture on my part.] c.50,000 BCE - Approximate date of the dawn of the other great pre-history civilizations of mankind: Atlantis (Atlantic Basin), pre-history Egypt, and Yu (China/Tibet). All are founded as colonies of Lemuria with "... the blessing of the gods." [Contemporary accounts. "The gods" in question may have been the Millennial Queen of LaMaetel and her people, but this is pure conjecture on my part.] c.11,500 BCE - Tiamat, the legendary fifth planet of the Sol System, is destroyed in an event that brings about the First Cataclysm on Earth. The Nibelungen colony on Tiamat manages to evacuate to Earth before the planet's destruction. The Mazone base on Mars likewise manages to evacuate before the final destruction of Tiamat. The atmosphere of Mars is ripped away and large portions of its surface are devastated by the explosion and flying rubble, rendering it a lifeless and barren world in a matter of minutes. Part of the rubble of Tiamat eventually becomes the inner asteroid belt of the Sol System as we know it today. [HSa, HSm "The Rhinegold," and contemporary accounts. The planet is never named in the various Leijiverse materials so I'm going with the name Stichin gives. The destruction of Tiamat may have been triggered by a