April, 1840 CONSTANCE BRUNDT'S DREAM. the Church's Dream Prophetess, Constance Brundt, has a dream of a Utopian Colony at the bottom of the world where Mankind would start anew in an environment of "moral and intellectual bliss." Samuel Brundt, her husband and the founder and philosopher of the Church, is so inspired by his wife's dream that he writes a new book. Entitled, NADIRIA, Life Elsewhere, it becomes a bestseller, sweeping the literary world. The concept of a Utopian Society synthesizes the fragmented and rather tangential writings and ideologies of the Church, which he and his wife have lead for the past six years. It becomes a catalyst that energizes the Church and pushes it to a new level, attracting many new followers including artistic and intellectual elite from both America and Europe.
September, 1842 SAMUEL BRUNDT TOURS THE WORLD on a lecture tour. He expounds on the necessity for a Utopian Colony, he proselytizes for his Church - and he sells his new book. On the tour he meets rich and powerful men, sympathetic to his philosophy, who discuss the idea of making the Utopian Society a reality. The catalyst for the Colony comes when Samuel Brundt meets Gaston Montpelier, the famed inventor, when he is in Paris. Suddenly, the most insurmountable logistical problem of the Colony is solved.
July, 1844 THE S.E.S.R. IS FORMED. The Society of Ethical and Spiritual Renewal, formed to finance and launch the expeditions, begins fund raising and planning. Angus Kilbourne's shipping company, Southern Star, becomes the primary financial contributor by committing to build and launch a large fleet of ships for the Colony.
November, 1845 FIRST SURVEY EXPEDITION LAUNCHED, commanded by Ronald Sutcliffe. The results are good: land is sighted several times and a beginning of a map is made. It is decided to keep the discovery of the Antarctican continent a secret to protect the integrity of the future Colony. However, several people are charged with the responsibility to thoroughly document and preserve the legacy of the Colony for historical record. One of these is Leon Offenbauer, who becomes the Colony's official historian. Leon is a small, mousey man who is incredibly meticulous and precise. He took notes at every meeting, keeps a diary, and helps maintain the Colony's inventory of supplies.
February, 1846 SECOND SURVEY EXPEDITION LANDS. The Western Hemisphere area of the continent's shore is surveyed and mapped for potential ice shelves. Based on the success of the second expedition, the Captain's shipping company starts to mass-produce large quantities of simple but rugged ships.
March, 1848 COUNCIL OF ELDERS FORMED. The groundwork is laid for a functional government. The Declaration of Social Contract is drafted, which constitutes the laws and moral code for the Colony. It becomes mandatory reading at the Church. With the church's backing, Montpelier refines the Heaven's Fire formula into several modifications: for heat, for light, and for excavation. The Council votes to support "Heaven's Fire" experiments on location in Antarctica, which were previously conducted in secret on private land owned by the Church. Madeleine gives birth to Gaston's first child while he is away on the expedition.
February, 1850 THIRD SURVEY EXPEDITION LANDS. "Heaven's Fire" experiments are performed. Several large vertical shafts are sunk, making it a wildly successful field test of the Fire. It is now full speed ahead for the Colony. Angus Kilbourne's shipping company now devotes all its resources towards rapidly producing ships for the Colony.
April, 1852 STAGING CAMP ESTABLISHED IN VENEZUELA. Constonia, a forward Staging Camp is cut deep into the rainforest of Venezuela. A steady caravan of ships supply the Camp with people and supplies of all kinds, and then the ships remain in Argentina to slowly accumulate into a large fleet. The Camp will be permanent, constantly needed for relaying personnel and supplies to the Colony. The Venezuela Camp cuts deep into the rainforest and huge stockpiles of lumber are created. The Camp also has huge warehouses for large reserves of Heaven's Fire chemicals, foodstuffs, machinery, etc. that continue to arrive from New York. Meanwhile, a lumber mill, cannery, sheep station, and machine shop are constructed to produce the supplies needed for the Colony. Animals such as sheep, chickens, geese, and cows are bred for eventual transport to the colony.
January, 1855 ENGINEERING EXPEDITION LANDS. A corps of engineers and construction workers arrive in Antarctica and begin construction. A fleet of twelve ships land and the engineers start digging tunnels. A makeshift surface town is constructed and is nicknamed "Sutville," after their leader Ronald Sutcliffe. The ships return to Argentina for resupply. Over the Central vertical tunnel a wooden structure is built to enclose the shaft. This "Shaft Hut", as it is called, provides shelter, living space, and storage space for the engineers and workers as vertical wooden structures are built inside the Shaft to act as the main Colony support framework. Every tunnel in the Colony, both vertical and horizontal, is lined with wooden structures. These tunnel structures are also insulated with a sheep's wool and goose down blend.
January, 1857 CHURCH MEMBERS EMIGRATE TO CONSTONIA. An advance group of colonists from the Church moves down to Constonia to begin planning and preparations for the emigration. The Council of Elders is temporarily running the government of Constonia. One of the Churchmembers, a Miss Priscilla Harrington, sister of Eunice Sutcliffe, becomes very involved with the Hwari. She eventually marries a tribesman according to their traditions. She remains with Antala, her new husband, and is given the Tribal name of Tamuran.
December, 1864 COLONISTS FLEE SHERMAN'S ADVANCE. Fleeing the fires of Savannah ahead of Sherman's advancing army, the remaining colonists desperately set sail for Antarctica. At the start of the war, plans to leave were accelerated. They manage to escape the sacking of the city by only three days.
March, 1865 COLONISTS ARRIVE IN VENEZUELA. They organize and finish their preparations for the next nine months. Because of their hasty departure from the US, extra time is needed to prepare for their departure to the cold continent, which has to be in the Spring. In Nadiria, the Central Core is completed along with most levels. Outer areas continue to be excavated and built. The colony is in a constant state of growth as new workers arrive to accelerate the progress.
February, 1866 COLONISTS LAND ON ANTARCTICA. While some ships return for resupply, most of the ships are converted for fishing and whaling, harbored in the wharf built by the engineers. Much needed whale oil was used to supplement Heaven's Fire as a source of fuel. The original population of the Colony is 147 souls, including the engineering and construction teams.
November, 1867 RONALD SUTCLIFFE DIES IN TRAGIC ACCIDENT. His body is enshrined in clear ice and becomes an object of veneration.
October, 1872 FIRST CURRENCY PRINTED FOR NEW ECONOMY. As new colonists arrive, a formal currency system is established to create order and stability in the Colony. The Antarctica Stock Exchange is created to promote free enterprise and encourage a vigorous work ethic amongst the new generation of children growing up in Nadiria.
December, 1875 EVIDENCE OF LOST CIVILIZATION FOUND. The ruins of an ancient city are discovered in one of the new, deeper tunnels. Some fresh-water ice melting is diverted to the lower levels to possibly confirm the existence of an ancient culture.
September, 1877 COLONY SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. Madeleine Montpelier becomes the first headmistress.
March, 1881 CONSTANCE BRUNDT DIES IN HER SLEEP. She was attempting to perform a dream technique from the deciphered wisdom discovered in the Library. She also becomes enshrined in clear ice and venerated.
July, 1883 THE GREAT FIRE ravages the colony. Seventy-nine people die in the blaze as major structural damage occurrs, crippling Nadiria. Once more, the colony focuses on survival, and it takes two years to repair all the damage.
March, 1885 CODEX CELASTRUS IS PUBLISHED. It is adopted as the "Bible" in the Colony. Filled with strange, almost alien information and bizarre sciences, most assume that it was deciphered writings from the ruins of the Lost Civilization. Strange new societies and corporations form as offshoots of the Codex. The purposes for many of these organizations are obscure. Several copies of the Codex Celastrus are shipped home to the churches in New York, London and Paris. While ostensibly for internal church use, a few editions were copied and distributed among academics and occultists. Several scandal and hoax accusations flare up in the press, but eventually die down.
February, 1887 THE DIVISION. After the disappearance of Samuel Brundt, several groups vie for power within the colony. Nadiria becomes fractured and divided. Angus Kilbourne claims leadership of Nadiria, with the support of several church leaders, claiming that Nadiria is a religious colony and that it should be under the rule of the church. The colony is split in two; the Church establishes a stricter, more fundamentalist government with Elder Kilbourne as the spiritual head. A more moderate, commercially-oriented faction is led by Emperor Jack, as he calls himself, founder of The First Natural Bank of Nadiria. Nadiria ends up physically divided by the two governments. Over a period of several years, people migrate into two hemicircles within the colony, the Church taking the West, while Emperor Jack occupies the Eastern half of the colony. Typical of Nadirians, it is a peaceful transition with several Great Families trading entire households. With so much expansion, there is plenty of room for everyone.
May, 1888 FIRST NATURAL BANK OF NADIRIA CREATES CURRENCY. The Bank, backed by the new government, prints its own money. The new currency enjoys a brief period of popularity, but then settles down to about 40% usage in the colony. Both forms of currency are interchangeable for commerce within Nadiria, but most people have preferences in which they use for purchases, based on which government they support.
March, 1896 OVERDUE SUPPLY SHIPS NEVER ARRIVE. This is mainly due to the fact that the captain's shipping company has fallen on hard times, and cannot afford to send an expedition. The Southern Star Lines was forced to bring most of its ships back to New York and sell them to pay debts, so many supplies were stockpiled and ready in Constonia, but couldn't be sent to Nadiria. The Colony rapidly initiates a rationing program on all expendible supplies. Additionally, Heaven's Fire is produced exclusively in New York to protect its secret. With The Southern Star foundering, there is no way to send the desperately needed chemicals to the Colony.
November, 1898 THE COLONY BECOMES COLD. As Heaven's Fire ingredients are dangerously low, all Fire is reserved for fresh water generation and purification. The colonists abandon the upper portions of Nadiria to conserve heat, and all heat is diverted to the Residential Level only.
August, 1899 COLONISTS VANISH. Last known record of the Colony. It is presumed that the Colony was lost, cause unknown. Various records of the Colony, including the church registry and a few personal diaries, have recurring entries that suddenly stop on August 17, 1899.
February, 1901 RESCUE MISSION FINDS COLONY EMPTY. The expedition returns to report the Colony lost. The crew reported that there were no traces of any colonist: no bodies, no recent graves, no evidence of why or how the Colonists seemed to disappear. The Colony seemed to have been abandoned in good condition. It is presumed that they marched to the sea to board ships, but all the ships except one were accounted for.
May, 1902 NADIRIA FOUNDATION CLOSES. Amid a storm of controversy and speculation, the Colony Foundation closes. The Church splits apart and the scattered groups of believers dwindle and eventually vanish altogether. Futile attempts are made to launch a mission to investigate the fate of the colonists, but sufficient funds are never raised.
January, 1921 RECOVERY EXPEDITION LAUNCHED. The International Geographic Society launched an exploratory mission to find the Lost Colony. It returns to Europe with a rediscovered Codex, some currency, and a variety of records and diaries. A presentation to the famed Explorer's Club was made, but they refused to acknowledge the discoveries because they were kept secret for so long. The entire history of the Colony is officially refuted, and a large controversy erupts.
December, 1922 CODEX REPRINTED. Based on the actual printing plates recovered from Nadiria, a small run of 500 copies of reproductions of the Codex Celastrus were printed and eventually sells out. The Parisian printer sells most of the copies in the City of Light, but many copies spread throughout Europe. Despite the efforts of the formal exploration community to ruin the reputation of Nadiria, the Lost Colony of Antarctica gains a cult following.
July, 1924 DREAM-DOLLARS BECOME THE RAGE IN PARIS. The Parisian group has a printer produce obvious reproductions of the money. A female mystic, Mme De La Rue, who was a Codex scholar and an expert dream-seeder, leads the Parisians. She writes numerous books and travels the world lecturing and teaching. She believes that the currency was influenced by the Codex and that the Elders were trying to conduct psychic/spiritual engineering on the Colony with the currency in circulation. She was the first one to coin the knickname, "Dream-Dollars".
March, 1925 INS FOUNDED. Mme De La Rue, the Parisian mystic, creates the International Nadiria Society to promote the preservation and teaching of the wisdom of the Lost Colony. She reissues the Codex and sends copies of it to each chapter of her Society.
October, 1926 DREAM-DOLLARS GAIN NOTARIETY. Dream-Dollars become popular in New York, San Francisco and New Orleans. The currency was mutating and changing as it got copied again and again. Some even tried dream seeding with all kinds of currency including US and foreign money.
April, 1932 NADIRIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOUNDED. Fund-raising begins to start collecting much of the 1921 Expedition artifacts. This is an American society that focuses on the historical preservation of the Colony as a whole, as opposed to the International Nadiria Society, which was concerned only with the mystical traditions.
June, 1953 BEATS USE DREAM-DOLLARS. There is a brief resurgence of Dream-Dollars in Beat nightclubs in Greenwich Village. The money they use is either poor quality reproductions, or crude homemade drawings that usually bear little resemblance to the originals. Dream readings become a staple at the nightclubs along with poetry, music, and performances.
July, 1967 DREAM-DOLLARS AND LSD. Dream-Dollars become very popular with the hippie drug culture, for use in dream seeding and in altered states of consciousness. Rumors circulate that the CIA is performing secret LSD tests with Dream-Dollars. They are reported to have had some degree of success in controlling the content of LSD hallucinations. No practical applications are found, however.
November, 1999 AFA COMMISSIONS NEW DREAM-DOLLARS. The Nadiria Historical Society commissions artist, Stephen Barnwell and ANTARCTICA Film Arts to restore and reissue Antarctica Dollars. The Society provided Barnwell with preserved original currency notes that came from the 1921 expedition. All the notes were in extremely poor condition and some were only partial notes, requiring some reconstruction. The currency is officially a 1999 issue to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of the Antarctica Colony. This is the first time the dollars have been reconstructed as accurately as possible from the original Antarctica currency. The Historical Society has also commissioned AFA to restore and reprint the entire Codex Celastrus. This is quite a large and scholarly task, and the work is expected to take many years.