Settlement of Illuminatia
The Settlement of Illuminatia occurred as a direct result of the termination of the Lucidus mission and subsequent landing of that mission's survivors upon the surface of the newly-discovered planet of Neonisi.
Illuminatia was originally settled by the population of the three Lucidus ships, which totaled nearly 10,000 at the time of the event that led to the discovery of Illuminatia. Illuminatian civilization developed from a population of these survivors and their descendants. This population rapidly increased through a system that intentionally resulted in a very high birth rate and took advantage of an anomaly that naturally multiplied the population of Lucidus survivors. All Illuminatians are at least several generations removed from ancestors on Earth.
The continent was precipitously settled as Lucidus survivors and their descendants grew towns and cities out of camps and settlements at the original locations where Lucidus evacuation modules first landed on the continent.
Arrival on Illuminatia
The locations where Lucidus evacuation modules landed on Illuminatia directly resulted in Illuminatia's first settlements and very closely correspond to Illuminatia's largest cities today.
The majority of evacuation modules splashed-down in the oceans surrounding the Illuminatian continent and navigated to the nearest land, resulting in a much higher density of present-day urban centers along the shores. A minority of modules did parachute down onto dry land, however, resulting in land-locked settlements that were in some cases quite isolated from fellow survivors and, as a result, did not establish contact with their fellow Illuminatians for quite some time.
The landing sites of Illuminatia's newest citizens were scattered over vast distances across the impressively large Illuminatian continent. Miraculously, 100% of the Lucidus evacuees were eventually accounted for on the surface of Illuminatia, although the process of finding them all continued for many AU. Tributes to presumed-lost Lucidus comrades began to spring-up, taking the form of the naming of natural features and other landmarks.
Early discovery of survivors from nearby evacuation modules began soon after landing through use of short-distance exploration, minimal radio communication using the communication devices surviving from Lucidus, and other primitive signaling techniques involving fire and pyrotechnics.
The early discovery of other survivors from other Lucidus ships who landed in close proximity confirmed that other members of the Lucidus population survived. This increased the perceived probability that a large majority of the population survived the fiasco and also landed on the surface of Neonisi, leading to increased efforts in exploration and seeking-out of these fellow survivors. This experience, of course, was not universal among Lucidus survivors—most of the landing sites, which were more isolated than some of the coastal camps, continued for some time without any significant knowledge or hope of finding other survivors.
Original settlement
- See article: Primary settlement cities
Illuminatia's original—or "primary"—settlements are composed of cities that grew from the settlements established at the sites of the original landing locations of the Lucidus survivors. These primary settlements have a tendency to be clustered along coasts in regions where the Lucidus ships directed the evacuation modules to land. A small number of outlying original settlements survive in some more unlikely land-locked localities.
Illuminatia's highly metropolitan Randall Bay Megalopolitan Complex, anchored by the city of Adamopolis, is the island's largest example of primary settlement cities that grew the most rapidly. Close proximity allowed the original settlers to establish communication with each other and to utilize power in numbers and the efficiency of scale to engage in industry, commerce, scientific development, and invention, further accelerating exploration and population growth. As the population of a city grew past a threshold, leaders made it a strategy to split off some of the population to settle a new population center nearby, known as a secondary settlement, resulting in managed growth using a practical approach to population density.
Other regions containing high densities of primary settlement cities include the West Coast Megalopolitan Complex, anchored by the city of Rhapsody and the Anglo-Russo-Hungarian Megalopolitan Complex along the central northern coast, anchored by the city of Serenade.
Exploration and conquest
As a matter of course specified in the Lucidus mission contingency plans, camps of Lucidus survivors, as they were able, began organizing expeditions to explore the geography of their newly found planet. Most exploration was accomplished by foot, as the ships of the Lucidus mission had been outfitted with limited motorized transport. Some expedition employed nautical transport.
Early exploration was undertaken primarily for the purpose of locating other clusters of survivors and organizing the far-flung populations. Later exploration had the intention of mapping the Illuminatian continent, uncovering necessary natural resources, and locating ideal locations for future settlement. It was not uncommon, however, for these later expeditions to uncover previously uncontacted settlements of Lucidus survivors.
Multiversal duplication of population
- See article: Multiverse
Settlements of Lucidus survivors that were able to make contact with adjacent groups of survivors from other ships were at an advantage in the furtherance of their mission, as these contacts made it evident that modules from all three ships survived the evacuation event.
Likewise, the rare situations in which settlements of survivors which had previously made contact with survivors from a specific module happened across a second nearby settlement which also appeared to contain a population of survivors from that same module, while providing some bewilderment initially, also provided an advantage to understanding the space-time anomaly which occurred during the Lucidus termination event.
It is now understood that the anomaly that caused the Lucidus population to land on Illuminatia somehow effectively either duplicated the three Lucidus ships many times over, or caused other versions of the ships from other parallel universes within the multiverse to converge into the same reality. This duplication or transportation between parallel universes affected the ships, their contents, and their entire populations.
The multiversal explanation of this event has not yet been able to explain whether any given version of Lucidus survivors currently occupies the same universe as the one from which they hailed, or whether a potential occupation of a different universe might impede future communication with Earth.
It is known that the original population of nearly 10,000 Lucidus survivors arriving on Illuminatia was duplicated, contributing to a much larger acceleration of human population growth than originally orchestrated. The case for population management was further bolstered by the reality that any given Lucidus survivor or offspring thereof might encounter his or her own doppelganger or the offspring of their doppelganger, necessitating thorough documentation of identity and family lineage to reduce the possibility of excessively close inbreeding.
Unification of the settlements
The more densely-packed areas with multiple primary settlement communities enjoyed some cultural dominance early in Illuminatian history. This is especially true among those clusters of settlements which were able to network early with other settlements known to have originated from parallel universes other than the one from which the majority of other settlements in the area originated. The knowledge that some sort of multiversal space-time anomaly likely resulted in a potential exponential increase in Illuminatia's human population over original expectations positioned these colonies to accelerate their exploration, research, and general understanding of their situation.
The Lucidus plan, however, did dictate that the settlement of a new planet, despite any unexpected circumstances that may arise, should rely upon the unification of all human inhabitants on said planet under one standard cultural and political entity. This plan was realized with the eventual establishment of a continent-wide Illumination government.
Clusters of primary settlements which had formed sizeable population centers of considerable political and economic influence maintained their regional status while a new Illuminatian seat of government was decided upon. Voston was established as Illuminatia's capital within the vicinity of existing settlement on the Vostonian River in eastern Illuminatia. The inland area was chosen because it is halfway between the Randall Bay Megalopolitan Complex and the Brookeview Ludwig Megalopolitan Complex. These two areas housing two primary settlement clusters originated from two different parallel universes. The location of the new national seat of power was symbolic of the meeting of the two parallel settlement clusters in between their respective newfound homelands.
Unification propelled the Illuminatian citizenry's understanding of the anomaly that multiplied their population and the effects it would have on their population and their progress. Leaders took this as an advantage by facilitating communication and collaboration between groups of parallel individuals in different localities, in many cases combining minds to work through problems much more quickly and efficiently than individuals among the settlements would have individually. Industrial and scientific advancement was propelled and breakthroughs occurred rapidly, in areas including the understanding of Illuminatia's environment, deciphering Illuminatia's astronomical position in the universe, and re-inventing many technologies that had been taken for granted on Earth but needed to be re-engineered using available resources on Illuminatia.