The discovery and celebration of the microscope when it was developed set the industrial age on a new trajectory. Chemistry, Materials Science, Medical Science, and truly, all sciences began to thrive aggressively. A new age of discovery and passion for learning blossomed on the earth. The church, in all its forms, watched quietly as science and scientists took on more and more influential roles in society.

Alongside this energy for investigating the micro-verse came advancements in the telescope, fueling Earth's passion for visiting the planets of our solar system. By 1800, the Jacobs Ladder Project began, with the first moon base acting as the first rung on the ladder humanity would use to climb into the heavens.

Shortly after establishing a presence on the moon, we were able to see the solar system more clearly. Lower gravity take-off from the moon's surface provided a cheaper means to get ourselves further out into the aether. The observatory on the moon thrived. Away from light-pollution on the Earth the Moon Observatory was the first to note the presence of moving bodies on Mars. This was they day we discovered we were not alone.

Our efforts at communication with the Martians were met with silence. The Martians seemed completely uninterested in returning communications that we directed toward the red planet. We were finally able to make it to Mars in 1812. The HMS Queen Victoria experienced a horrible crash-landing on Mars in the summer of that year. We discovered then just how benevolent and helpful the Martian people could be. They aided the surviving members and seemed to know our language perfectly. Apparently they'd not ignored our communications but saved them and used them to learn our language in preparation for our arrival. The Martians fixed the HMS Queen Victoria and sent an ambassador to Earth on the return trip.

The Martians offered us advances in technology and medical science in exchange for a peace treaty. Due to the aid and assistance the Martians had provided, Queen Victoria agreed to an alliance. Seems however, the Martians knew a bit more than they let on.

Our first sojourns to Venus were slow in coming. Even with Martian technology aiding our efforts, it was still quite difficult to pierce the thick atmosphere of Venus to discover what was below. Our explorers settled on the idea of producing massive cities that would ride balloons in the atmosphere of Venus. All seemed to go quite well mining methane and other gases from Venus until the Grand Cataclysm of 1825. Two gas collection cities accidentally collided, the collision and resulting explosion killed tens of thousands of people, and worse, as we discovered later, the two airships crash-landed in the Venusian capital city.

The Venusian had been aware of us for some time. They had very little means of understanding our language, and we had very little means of understanding theirs. The Venusian Purge of 1827 was as vile and indefensible an action as we'd ever seen. The Venusians destroyed every man, women, child, animal, and plant that rode their skies. 670,000 souls lost in a battle that lasted no more than one day.

Queen Victoria's wrath upon discovering the gross loss of life was tremendous. She ordered all quarters of the empire to begin building her a fleet. Saying "We will fight them to the last, we will fight them without tiring until the last Venusian curses the day they launched this blood-thirsty purge!" With that, the formation of the Queen's First Inter-Planetary Armada began.

Venusians, meanwhile, used the scattered remnants of the gas collection ships to begin advancing their own technology. Now having access to both Terran and Martian technologies, the Venusians' own efforts at interplanetary travel and communications advanced incredibly rapidly. In the 20 years it took for the Queen's Armada to be ready, the Venusians were quite evenly matched. Venusian Battleships began appearing as far out as Pluto, and raids on mining facilities and other resource gathering endeavors of the empire became common.

In 1847, after a vicious attack on Mars by the Venusians, war was declared openly between the Allies and Venus. That war has raged, throughout the solar-system, for 52 years. This is the Tempest in the Aether.