James Cook
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
At Kealakekua Bay, a navigator who mapped more of the world than any man alive sets down his account before the morning that will end everything.
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Current period
1696 to 1786 opens onto 6 lives, 5 place stories, and 1 named historical windows.
Lives in this period
These are the clearest lives to open first when you want a person, not a date label, to lead you into the period.
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
At Kealakekua Bay, a navigator who mapped more of the world than any man alive sets down his account before the morning that will end everything.
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1780 - Vienna
Maternal myth, bodily decline, and authority resisting sentimental reduction.
In Vienna, with her body failing, an empress who held together an empire through sixteen pregnancies reflects on the cost.
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1785 - Sanssouci
Intellectual pride, bodily siege, and legend resisting simplification.
At Sanssouci, in his last year of clarity, a warrior-king reflects on what Prussia cost him and what it will become without him.
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1715 - Versailles
Ritual, bodily decline, and the separation of image from control.
Feeling control leave his body at Versailles, the Sun King writes what absolute power actually felt like from the inside.
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1724 - Saint Petersburg
State-building, incompletion, and fury at relapse.
A tsar who dragged Russia into the modern world now watches lesser men prepare to undo everything.
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1726 - Kensington
In Kensington, feeling the stone return, the mind that defined the laws of the universe reflects on the feuds, the secrecy, and the cost.
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Places inside this time
In 1696 to 1786, use the same years to move from chronology into cities, courts, islands, and regions that already carry deeper context.
Alive in this timeline around 1715 / story span 1661-1715
Connected to 1 life including Louis XIV.
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Alive in this timeline around 1724 / story span 1703-1725
Connected to 1 life including Peter the Great.
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Named windows
1 windows to step into
Early Modern
1750 to 1825
Private lives inside state collapse, military ambition, and the remaking of legitimacy.
16 lives visible here
15 place stories active in the same years
Enter this periodTime travel
1696 CE to 1786 CE
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5 place stories are visible in this time window.
Chronology
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1715 - Versailles
Place story available
Ritual, bodily decline, and the separation of image from control.
Feeling control leave his body at Versailles, the Sun King writes what absolute power actually felt like from the inside.
Alive in this timeline around 1779 / story span 1779
Connected to 1 life including James Cook.
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1696 to 1786 across the atlas
1715 - Versailles
1724 - Saint Petersburg
1726 - Kensington
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
Decades
1724 - Saint Petersburg
Place story available
State-building, incompletion, and fury at relapse.
A tsar who dragged Russia into the modern world now watches lesser men prepare to undo everything.
1726 - Kensington
In Kensington, feeling the stone return, the mind that defined the laws of the universe reflects on the feuds, the secrecy, and the cost.
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
Place story available
At Kealakekua Bay, a navigator who mapped more of the world than any man alive sets down his account before the morning that will end everything.
1780 - Vienna
Place story available
Maternal myth, bodily decline, and authority resisting sentimental reduction.
In Vienna, with her body failing, an empress who held together an empire through sixteen pregnancies reflects on the cost.
1785 - Sanssouci
Place story available
Intellectual pride, bodily siege, and legend resisting simplification.
At Sanssouci, in his last year of clarity, a warrior-king reflects on what Prussia cost him and what it will become without him.
Scapegoating, mythmaking, and a queen resisting reduction to symbol.
A later French court inheriting the splendour Louis helped define, just before collapse.
Waiting for the blade in the Conciergerie, a queen dismantles the lie that she was ever in control.
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monarchy-and-court
A contrasting life shaped by monarchy and court.
The last pharaoh of Egypt watches her kingdom dissolve, and sets down what Rome will never understand about power.
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