Under Heaven Tech Levels

Under Heaven Technology Levels

Overview

The Under Heaven science fiction setting uses a dual Technology Level (TL) system to classify the advancement of civilizations and technologies. This system combines:

• CE TL (Cepheus Engine Technology Level) — A decimal-based system (0-15+) compatible with the Cepheus Engine RPG ruleset
• Mneme TL (MTL) — A simplified two-digit integer system used for quick reference and categorization

This dual system allows compatibility with the Cepheus Engine while providing an intuitive, human-readable format for the Mneme RPG framework. The MTL system also maps more clearly to specific historical and future technological eras.

Mneme and Cepheus Engine Technology Level Reference Table

The following table provides a comprehensive mapping between the Human Era calendar, CE Technology Levels, and Mneme Technology Levels:

Human Era (HE)	CE TL	MTL	Mneme TL (MTL)	CE descriptions & added descriptions
1 HE (10,000 BCE)	0	0	Neolithic Revolution	(Agriculture and organized society)
5,000 HE (5,000 BCE)	1	01	Bronze Age	Bronze Age
5,500 HE (500 BCE)	1.3	02	Axial Age	Iron Age
10,000 HE (0 CE)	1.7	03	Imperial Era	Medieval Era
11,500 HE (1500 CE)	2	04	Enlightenment	Renaissance
11,800 HE (1800 CE)	3	05	Industrial Revolution	Mass production allows for product standardization, bringing the germ of the industrial revolution and steam power.
11,900 HE (1900 CE)	4	5.5	Technological Revolution	Transition to the industrial revolution is complete, bringing plastics, the radio and other such inventions.
11,920 HE (1920 CE)	5	06	Age of electrical energy	Widespread electrifications, telecommunication, and internal combustion.
11,950 HE (1950 CE)	6	07	Early Atomic & Space Age	Development of fission power and more advanced computing.
12,000 HE (+2000 CE)	6.5	08	Information Age & Commercial Space	—
12,050 HE (+2050 CE)	7	09	New Space Race	Can reach orbit reliably and has telecommunications satellites.
12,100 HE (+2100 CE)	8	10	Cis Lunar Space Development	Possible to reach other worlds in the same system, although terraforming or full colonization is not within the culture's capacity.
12,200 HE (2200 CE)	8.5	11	Interplanetary Settlement and Mega Structure Age	(Planetary Colonization). The ability to build infra and mega structures in space.
12,300 HE (2300 CE)	9	12	Post Earth Dependence	Space travel is vastly safer and faster; first steps into Jump Drive technology. Intrastellar Economy can survive without earth.
12,400 HE (2400 CE)	9.5	13	Outer System Development	(Conquest of the Solar system). Stable Jump travel to Outer systems.
12,500 HE (2500 CE)	10	14	Early Interstellar Trade and Exploration Era	With the advent of Jump, nearby systems are opened up.
12,600 HE (2600 CE)	10.5	15	Interstellar Colonization	(Interstellar Colonization).
12,700 HE (2700 CE)	11	16	Self-sufficient Megastructures and Swarms	The first primitive (non-creative) artificial intelligences become possible in the form of "low autonomous" interfaces, as computers begin to model synaptic networks.

Detailed Technology Level Definitions

The following sections provide detailed breakdowns of each Technology Level, including key inventions, social developments, and technological capabilities.

TL 0: Neolithic Revolution (10,000 BCE)

This is the age of early human development when humans developed Agriculture and started organizing into larger, more sophisticated groups than tribal families. There was more rapid development of tools and materials and experimentation in systems of data transmission and preservation. This is around 10,000 BCE or 1 in the Human Era or Holecene Calendar.

Key Characteristics:

• Pastoral Nomads
• Beginning Agriculture
• Fishing Villages
• Proto-Cities
• Steles
• Poultices, Herbs
• Fermentation
• Animal Husbandry

TL 1.0/01: Bronze Age (3500 BCE)

The dawn of civilization with the first organized empires and complex societies.

Key Characteristics:

• First Empires
• Chariots
• Cities
• Bureaucracies
• Writing
• Castes
• Surgery
• Plantations
• Early Construction
• Institutional Slavery

TL 1.3/02: Axial Age (500 BCE)

A period of profound intellectual and philosophical development across multiple civilizations.

Key Characteristics:

• Schools
• Philosophy, Reflection, Meditation
• Organized Religion
• Professional Administration
• Horses
• Siege Engines and Warfare
• Water Wheels
• Political thought

TL 1.7/03: Imperial Era (200+ BCE)

The age of classical empires and the first truly global trade networks.

Key Characteristics:

• Galleys
• Professional Armies
• Imperial Administration
• Colonization
• Feudalism
• Mechanical Artillery
• Windmills
• Early Communications networks
• Construction

TL 2/04: Enlightenment (1500+)

The age of exploration, scientific revolution, and the birth of modern economic systems.

Key Characteristics:

• Ocean going vessels
• Paper
• Telescopes
• Gunpowder, cannons
• Articulated plate
• Clockwork
• Microscope
• Muskets
• Stock Market
• Joint-Stock Company, Corporations
• Republic, Democracy
• Canned food
• Economic thought

TL 3/05: Industrial Revolution (1800+)

The beginning of mechanization and mass production that transformed human society.

Key Characteristics:

• Steam Engine
• Early Electricity, Batteries
• Steam Locomotives
• Balloons and Airships
• Industrialization, Mechanization
• Public Schools
• Mass Production
• Germ Theory
• Repeating firearms
• Rifled cannons
• Iron cladded ships

TL 4/5.5: Technological Revolution (1900+)

The transition period between industrial and modern technological civilization.

Key Characteristics:

• Steam Turbines
• Internal Combustion Engines
• Electrification
• Automobiles
• Continental Railway Network
• Submarines
• Aircraft
• Antibiotics
• Heredity
• Biochemistry

TL 5/06: Technological Revolution (1920+)

The age of electrical energy, mass communication, and widespread use of engines.

Key Characteristics:

• Automatic weapons, Tanks, Combat Aircraft
• Nuclear Fission, First Nuclear Bomb
• Early Electronics
• Analog and mechanical Computers
• Radar
• Jeep, Commercial Television
• Microwave oven
• Plastics, Transistors
• Supersonic flight
• First programable computing machine
• Ballistic Missiles, Cryptography

TL 6/07: Early Atomic & Space Age (1950+)

The dawn of the space age and the nuclear era, with the first orbital missions and electronic computing.

Key Characteristics:

• Nuclear Ballistic Missiles
• Nuclear Submarines
• Orbital Rockets
• Radar
• Gas Turbines
• Solar Power
• Artificial Satellite and Satellite Communications
• Electronic Transistors
• Electronic Computers
• Enterprise Computers

TL 6.5/08: Information Age & Commercial Space (2000+)

The rise of personal computing, the internet, and the beginning of commercial space ventures.

Key Characteristics:

• Personal Computers
• Internet
• Commercial Space ventures
• Strategic Satellite Dominance
• Orbital Space Stations
• Diversification of Computing Technology
• Electric Vehicles
• Environmental Technology
• Genetically Modified Organisms for commercial sale
• Drones, Cellphones

The AI-Race: The AI race leads to Distributed Manufacturing, known as the Maker Era where smaller and leaner manufacturing companies are able to rapidly prototype and deploy technology that once required much larger companies.

TL 7/09: Space Industrialization (2050+)

The beginning of orbital manufacturing and lunar infrastructure development.

Key Characteristics:

• 0G Orbital Manufacturing
• Beginning Lunar Infrastructure
• Decoupling of Major Economies
• Decoupling on the Internet
• Early Nano-Technology
• Independent Space Infrastructure
• Early cybernetic implants and prosthetics
• Exoskeletons
• Genetic therapy
• Thorium Reactors, Commodified Micro Nuclear Reactors
• Early Fusion Reactors
• Semi-Autonomous Vehicles
• Asteroid Deflection, Capture and Early Mining
• Sky Hooks and Inertia Tethers on earth's orbits

TL 8/10: Interplanetary Settlement (2100+)

Permanent settlement of the Moon and Mars, with early artificial gravity habitats.

Key Characteristics:

• Early Space Elevators in Development
• Permanent Space Stations
• Early Artificial Gravity Stations
• Accessible Cybernetic Prosthetics
• Lunar Colonization
• Long Term Mars Space Station
• Beginning Mars Infrastructure
• Asteroid and Lunar Mining
• Manned Interplanetary missions
• Lunar Artificial Spin-Gravity Habitats
• Massive Inertia Tethers for Lunar Travel
• Exo Skeletons
• Early Repair Drones
• Low G medicine

TL 8.5/11: Post Earth Dependence (2200+)

The Jovian Age, also known as the Interplanetary Settlement and Mega System Age.

Key Characteristics:

• Advanced Habitat Technology in Dense and Hazardous Worlds
• Vacuum Airships and Habitats
• High Endurance Vessels (able to operate for decades without support)
• Prolific Space Elevators
• City Space Habitats
• Massive Inertia Tethers built around the inner solar system and Jupiter
• Accessible Commercial Interplanetary Ships
• Permanent Habitat Ships

Mega Systems: This refers to near-fully autonomous end-to-end systems. Examples include:

• Space Elevators and the autonomous systems that maintain them
• Solar Swarms — a collection of Light Sail satellites that orbit Earth, Venus, and Mars deflecting and concentrating solar radiation

TL 9/12: Outer System Colonization (2300+)

Colonization of Venus, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and Jupiter's Moons, with migration of many industries to resource-rich planetary systems.

Key Characteristics:

• Anagathics (life extension)
• Full Cybernetics, neural cybernetics
• Robotic Manufacturing
• Early practical self-replicating machines
• Space Elevators on Earth, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter
• Solar Swarms used to manage Venus and Mars solar challenges
• Early Terraforming
• Mars as the key space elevator manufacturer for the rest of the solar system
• Early Jump Drive (used to travel to the Outer Solar System)
• Colony Ships

This era ends with the Interplanetary Economy able to survive without Earth. Colonization extends to Saturn, Uranus and the farther Planetary Systems.

TL 9.5/13: Outer System Industrialization (2400+)

Stable jump travel to outer systems and early interstellar capability.

Key Characteristics:

• Stable Jump travel to Outer systems
• Early Interstellar Jump

TL 10/14: Early Interstellar Trade (2500+)

The beginning of interstellar civilization with the development of jump networks.

Key Characteristics:

• Interstellar Trade and Exploration
• Development of Interstellar Jump Networks
• Interstellar Economy
• Jump Carriers — Large vessels able to carry ships and jump to another star system, so large as to be able to jump a large portion of a space elevator
• Jump Gates — Infrastructure allowing any ship to jump to another jump gate in a different star system

TL 10.5/15: Interstellar Colonization (2600+)

Systematic colonization of interstellar systems beyond the Solar System.

Key Characteristics:

• Colonization of Interstellar Systems

TL 11/16: Self-sufficient Megastructures (2700+)

The age of fully autonomous megastructures and self-replicating systems.

Key Characteristics:

• Solar Swarms and Space Elevators automation to the extent they are self-sufficient
• Early jump gates
• This allows humans to colonize any star system, even if it doesn't have Terrestrial or Earthlike worlds

See Also

• Technology Levels and Timeline — World generation technology levels
• Under Heaven — Main setting overview
• Mneme Cepheus Engine Rules — Game rules and mechanics