This is the year in which Iain M. Banks places the beginning of the war between the Idirans and the Culture in his science fiction novel “Consider Phlebas.” The war ends with the Culture’s total victory over the Idiran religious fundamentalists. Total casualties amounted to 851.4 billion (±0.3%) sentient creatures, including medjel (slaves of the Idirans), sentient machines, and non-combatants, and wiped out various smaller species, including the Changers. “The war resulted in the destruction of 91,215,660 (±200) starships above interplanetary, 14,334 orbitals, 53 planets and major moons, 1 ring, and 3 spheres, as well as the significant mass loss or sequence-position alteration of 6 stars.”
