| TL | TL DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|
| -10 | Prehistoric | Before fire |
| -9 | Stone Age | Paleolithic, Ice Age |
| -8 | Bronze Age | Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Ancient Chinese |
| -7 | Iron Age | Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman |
| -6 | Middle Ages ~500-1400AD | Medieval, Medieval Fantasy |
| -5 | Renaissance ~1400-1500 | |
| -4 | Age of Sail/Exploration ~1500-1760 | Pirates, Swashbuckling |
| -3 | Industrial/Technological Revolutions ~1760-1914 | Old West 1780-1920's, Horror 1890's-1920's |
| -2 | World War I and II ~1914-1945 | Pulp 1920's-1930's |
| -1 | Atomic/Nuclear/Space Age ~1946-1970's | Atomic Age Horror 1945-1970's, Superhero Era 1940's-1970's, Espionage Era 1940's-1980's, Space Age 1960s-1980s |
| 0 | Information Age ~1970s-2020s (Now) | Modern, Modempunk, Modern Conspiracy/Horror 1990's- |
| +1 | Synthetic (Biological/Intelligence) Age ~2020-2199 | Tomorrows, Cyberpunk |
| +2 | Stellar Age ~2100+ | Conquest of the Solar System, Transhumanist, After the Apocalypse (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, Technological, Ecological) |
| +3 | Slower-Than-Light Interstellar Age | |
| +4 | Massless Faster-Than-Light (Communication) | Moving energy/information only above c |
| +5 | Mass Faster-Than-Light (Travel) | Moving energy/information and mass above c |
| +6 | Faster-Than-Light Interstellar Age | Interstellar Expansion, Post-Scarcity, Federation |
| +7 | Galactic Age | Interstellar Empires, Decadent |
| +8 | Extragalactic Age | |
| +9 | Pre-Ascendant | the Krell, Markovians, Xeelee, limited mass/energy conversion and control |
| +10 | Post-Ascendance | After the Singularity, Post-Instrumentality, total mass/energy conversion or control |
Note: From TL+2 (Stellar Age) onward, multiple technology levels become possible in a setting as different distant locations diverge in their technological capabilities and social conventions.