VS Manual: 12. History | Table of Contents |
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“In the beginning, all was NULL – or perhaps it was (void*) – we’ll never really know, so we may as well stop worrying about it and get back to obsessing over how we’d rather be fornicating.” [From “The Klk’k guide to one’s interstellar locale” 12 th ed. Ivan Kltakln tr. J. Valthorpe catalogued Andolian central distribution, 3263]
THE BEGINNINGS of the universe are especially interesting to physicists, but not to xenopologists, if only because the lack of heavier elements made most forms of life and any recognizable civilization impossible.
Somewhere between 12 and 40 million years ago the first interstellar civilization(s?) wandered out from core-ward into this area of the galaxy. At least, this is the current theory spawned from research on the records of the Ancients. No direct data concerning the existence of these beings has yet been found. Based on a passage from what appears to be a historical text found on the Uln homeworld, these predecessors of the Ancients have become known as ‘those who have only names’. This is believed to be a reference to either the homogeneity of their civilization, or to some practice of personification of each of this group’s viewpoints. Detractors to this whole area of research point to this naming scheme as further proof that what was uncovered was not a history text, and instead hold to the view that it was more likely a cheap sci-fi novel.
While there is much contention about the nature of the predecessors of the Ancients, the Ancients themselves left enough rubble strewn around the galactic arm to convince even a fairly hardened skeptic of their having dwelled in these parts. The Ancients appear to have been made up of at least two major species groups, and interacted with at least three others, albeit it is not known whether these were client species, or contemporaries from another part of the galaxy. Their reign over this region lasted until about 1 to 2 million years ago, whereupon they rapidly ceased to be present. There is a wealth of evidence that severe infighting played some part in the destruction of the Ancients, but, assuming there were victors in such a conflict, little is known of what became of them.
The best source of such evidence, however limited, is the Uln homeworld. While they are quite sensitive about the subject, the widely held belief among the major races is that the Uln are the descendants of the Ancient’s equivalents of lab monkeys. The Uln culture sprang up among the remains of a sprawling set of Ancient structures, and advanced in technology faster than their biology or social structures could adapt, leading one noted human researcher to note upon seeing them, ‘It was as if I had suddenly come across a spacecraft piloted by Homo Erectus – if they hadn’t been so ill prepared for the gifts they unintentionally received, they would have conquered the entire arm’. Fortunately for the aspirations of dominance held by other species, the Uln were decidedly unprepared. Indeed, they spent so much time blowing each other up with weapons they didn’t entirely control that it is a wonder that either they or the ruins on their planet still survive.
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