The Hundred Years War brought us together as a people. Saxon and Norman. My family as well, both those that came to England and who stayed in Normandy. It forged us all into a single people. The English. We even stopped speaking French in the end. And though we lost Normandy, we became stronger. We became England, and forged ourselves an identity that few Continental peoples could ever understand. And that made all the difference in the world.
Because of the Chinese policy of giving their version of the treatments only to the rich or to colonists, their Outer Colonies can be pretty fun to visit. Lots of smart and motivated people that would have been trapped in the lower castes back in the Core Worlds go out there, get themselves a few centuries of health and vitality to use it all, and go to town. It’s the wild west out there, Chinese style. And they’ve got some real funky styles.
Since Xin Shi has no day-night cycle, there is a single planetary time. None of the vast cities and amusement parks ever sleep. They’re open twenty-four hours a day or night, in perfect sync with Chinese Mean Time, with people working and returning home according to their schedules. Tourists come and go at all hours, and the market districts are always open. It’s an exciting place to visit.
The Normans almost won the Hundred Years War. We did well in the early years. We raised the first standing armies since the fall of Rome. We researched new ways to fight, new weapons and new strategies. We advanced. But so did the French. They united as a people and drove us out of the Normandy coast that had been our home for centuries. And so England became our home in every way that mattered.
The Chinese do an interesting version of population control now. It’s nothing like the forced abortions of older centuries, but seems just as effective. In the Core Worlds, only the rich get the Chinese version of the treatments. Anyone else lives and dies in a matter of decades. If you’re poor, the only way to get the treatments is to join a colony looking for more warm bodies. That’s created some rather interesting effects on Chinese culture.
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