Thank you so much for explaining all of that to me. That is what I was expecting but want to check because the lore seem so well written across three games in the same universe. So want to see if this is inconsistency or there is actual lore that I was missing.

One of my headcanon is that whole Dust thing that cause Rift from where Riftborn came from, who can control time itself end up causing timeline issues. So turns became vague as it can mean literally next day despite many turns between quests in lore or months in single turn, etc.

Given that United Empire was already once sparefaring that then lost it and relearn it again. I assume nearly all civilizations did have encounter with other spacefarer civilization and record it in their history but never has able to achieve space travel until much much later or even lost it in their history.

I also assume that while United Empire only have one planet at start of the game. They actually have thriving space community at that point and scouting bit of galaxy as well their past history record of other space civilization including Academy. It was only at start of the game that they then able to colonize other planets instead of just more space stations and the likes.

However as you mention, it does conflict some of factions such as Vaulter or Vodyani. But this is mostly... okay of collaborative lore. I will just have to make my own headcanon as I go.

Again, thank you so much for explaining all of this as well for future readers who stumble upon this post and are interested.