"The Acolytes" is only the third FTL (faster than light) story in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History and is about the early colonization of the planet Nerthus. These two facts had led me to assume that the story was set during an early period of colonization of planetary systems close to the Solar System. This assumption was contradicted by the story itself which refers first to earlier exploration throughout the Galaxy and secondly to some much earlier days of extra-solar colonization. It is also contradicted by the hundred year gap in the Chronology between the founding of the Stellar Union and "The Acolytes." This in turn means that a great deal of history has happened that we have not been told about. There are still some inconsistencies although they are not as great as I had thought.
The Stellar Union exists for only three centuries, according to the Chronology. Even with FTL, interstellar institutions ought to last for longer than that.
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