Technological Advancement Tiers (UW)

The Technological Advancement Tier system was designed originally by the Lehonian Infinite Empire to categorize the advancement of worldly civilizations. All life and civilizations are generally categorized into one of seven tiers. The lower the tier, the more advanced the civilziation was/is.

Tier 7: Pre-Industrial
The Pre-Industrial Tier is one of the more common and stable tiers in civilized society, represented by limited weaponry and environmental threats. Societies tend to be small and scattered, driven by subsitnence farming, foraging or hunter-gathering needs. Technology is delegated to simple hand-made tools and weapons or agrarian implements & methods. Very broad understandings of planetary and solar mechanics are not uncommon however.

Tier 6: Industrial Age
The Industrial Age is often viewed as a pinnacle of civilization. Agrarian societies can remain stable in the pre-industrial stage, but Tier 6 population strain and mechanized food production invariably create political and economic pressures very few can balance. Moving past this usually promises advancement. Some societies improve environmental and medical understanding concurrently with mechanical and transport advancement. Those that do not are frequently doomed. Three in four worlds not affiliated with a larger interplanetary union are often found in this age.

Tier 5: Atomic Age
Atomic Age civilizations usually begin focusing on clean energy production. The occasional belligerent species will use atomic energy for weapons, often resulting in mass extinctions. In-atmosphere craft are a hallmark, often leading to manned space flight, albeit in a short-scale.

Tier 4: Space Age
Tier 4 is often the final resting place for civilizations intelligent enough to break free from their cradle's surface only to fill the gulf surrounding it with war. Their comfort-focused technology can include medical advances. Tier 4 is the bare minimum age where civilizations begin establishing multi-worldly nations. The majority of worlds and multi-world civilizations would reach this tier around 5,000 BDC

Tier 3: Space-Faring Age
Tier 3 Civilizations has efficent Warp technology and navigation systems, mass drivers, data crystal storage, semi-sentient Artificial Intelligence, and asynchronous linear-induction weaponry such as Rail Cannons. Two in Three civilizations as of 109 DC are of this tier.

Tier 2: Interstellar Age
Tier 2 Civilizations have the ability to perform exceedingly accurate Warp navigation, near instantaneous communication, and man-portable application of energy manipulation. The only civilization to achieve this tier was the Lehonian Infinite Empire.

Tier 1: World Building Age
Tier 1 Civilizations have the ability to create Artificial Intelligence with full sentience and without succumbing to rampancy, fabricate super-dense materials, perform super-accurate Warp navigation, the ability to create life and to create worlds. By the time of the Lehonian Civil War, the Infinite Empire had been able to reach and control this tier. Other civilizations, such as the Terran Civilization (of Final Fantasy IX fame) and the Lunarian Civilization (of Final Fantasy IV fame) have been able to briefly attain this tier as well.

Tier 0: Trans-Sentient Age
Tier 0 is a theoretical ceiling, one that has not been achieved by any civilization as of late. It is suspected that Tier 0 civilizations are capable of interuniversal travel, accelerate the evolution of intelligent life, and is capable of highly advanced neural physics.