The Elysian Project (TEP)

SWM's suggestion
In the year 2103 CE, the ESS Pioneer of the Earthen States Fleet, left ESB Alpha Centauri with a mandate to find a habitable planet for humans. Earth scientists had predicted that the rate at which Earth's (the only inhabitable planet) natural resources and atmosphere are being depleted will leave humans with less than 1,000 years on the planet. The ESS Adventurer, the largest spaceship ever constructed by the Earthen States, was set to travel to the Pioneer's last recorded location once Earth is in its last dying moments.

Around 3211 CE, the Earthen States Government declared that the oxygen within Earth's atmosphere will no longer be breathable by 3232. The humans with the most viable genes and the most money were called into (many against their will) the colonial fleet, and eventually ended up aboard the Adventurer. On 5 July, 3319, the Adventurer left ESB Alpha Centauri with over 550,000 settlers aboard, destined for what they only saw to be the Pioneer's location. Contact with the Pioneer had been lost by 2389, and it's tracker signal stopped moving in 2501.

The crew aboard the Adventurer unfortunately had to endure hearing the demise of humanity's home world, as the last operator from Fleet Headquarters in Texas died of asphyxiation in 2345. The people aboard the Adventurer and those thought to be long lost aboard the Pioneer were the last of the human species, and the survival of humanity depended on them.

In 3730, the Adventurer arrived at the Pioneer's last recorded location; on autopilot. The system controlling the the 30-year shifts of the stasis population had failed in between the rotating shifts almost 90 years prior. The autopilot was programmed to shut down once its predetermined location was reached. This saw the Adventurer tumble uncontrollably into the planet that the Pioneer had landed on's atmosphere. The numerous alert systems awoke the entire population of 579,924 as the ship began to break apart. The Main Housing Chamber, hosting over 350,000 of the population, crashed into the temperate grasslands of what is today southwestern Hwadarak, while the Reserve Housing Chamber, hosting the remainder of the population, crashed deep in the wet rainforests of MISSK's CONTINENT.

With thousands dead and more injured, the survivors depleted most of the surviving medical supplies within the first months of their stay. The part of the ship containing literature, documentation and history about Earth sadly disintegrated as it came into the planet's atmosphere. The wreckage of the Adventurer was quickly taken apart and its parts used to establish villages and towns scattered within miles of each crash site. Most survivors cherished and guarded their culture, language and what they knew about Old Earth from stories and reading.

However, about 500 years after the crash, the last traces of old cultures washed away. Traces of old languages are still found today throughout the world, however, would not be understandable to a native speaker. The existence of the home world known as "Earth" has become a mystical story told to those who feel uncomfortably out of place. The descendants of the crew of the Pioneer tell tales of the Sky People, referring to the humans who arrived on the Adventurer. Unfortunately, nobody remembers, and everything surrounding Earth has evolved into religious dogma and speculation.

Ten thousand years after the crash, several scientists and philosophers came together and established the first standard calendar. "Before the New Calendar" (BNC) and "After the New Calendar" (ANC) were established respectively for before and after the year of that convention. By this time, the memory of any spaceships had faded from humanity's mind.

The year today is 2013 ANC. Onward from 0 ANC, humanity coincidentally evolved in roughly the same pattern that they did in the same time frame on Earth. The internet had been invented in recent decades and the touchscreen smartphone has become common only within the last ten years. Cars drive on roads and large jumbo jets ferry people from one region to another. Environmental groups are calling for a decrease in greenhouse gases which are slowly melting both of the planet's poles. The five great superpowers find themselves in a hesitant peace with demands from civil society for nuclear disarmament looming over head.

Welcome to the Elysia.