Before the Ancients?

[Trent]

You know, the universe is, as best as we can guess, some 12-14 billion years old.

The Ancients in this galaxy came and went some 300,000 years ago.

Guys, thats a lot of time for some race to have come and gone before the ancients we know of, I.E. grandfather and his scions.

Has there ever been anything done with the idea of an even more ancient than "the ancients" race in traveller?

 

[Blue Ghost]

Way ahead of ya

I've got some concepts regarding ruins and other leftovers from before Grandfather.

 

[ShapeShifter]

IMTU, before the Ancients,
there were...

THE GERIATRICS!!!!

:rofl:



"You puny, younger species get off of my lawn!"

 

[Trent]

Well, I was wondering if anything official has been done with the idea.

I could see something like this:

"Uh, Sir? We've, uh, we've managed to get a rough idea of how long that ship's been orbiting this star, assuming the star's output of helium3 nuclei has been fairly constant over the...time period, which it likely has been for the last few dozen million years, we think.."

"Well, so it's Ancient, right? About 300,000 years, like the resr of the Ancient relics we've found."

"Uh, no, sir."

"Well???"

"Well, Sir, judging from the amount of helium 3 nuclei that have accumulated on the sections of the asteroid it's on but doesn't block from sunlight and therefore from absorbing more helium 3 nuclei versus the amount of helium 3 nuclei in the sections of rock the ship covers and apparently has covered as long as it's been here..."


"How old is it already?"

"We, uh, we're pretty sure it's been on that asteroid for...at least... three million years, Sir."


"!!!"

 

[mike wightman]

Races that existed before the Ancients are actually canonical in the OTU.

Check the side bar on page 9 of the MT Referee's Manual entitled 'The First Starfarers'.

We place the age of the universe at more than fifteen billion years.
The oldest stars in Charted Space are dim red dwarfs some ten billion years old.
Intelligent life first appeared in Charted Space more than two billion years ago.
Intelligent life first began sublight travel between the stars more than a billion years ago.

Short-lived beings found sublight travel tedious and frustrating and contented
themselves with confinement to a few star systems. Longer lived races ranged far and wide using generation ships,
cold sleep, and even electronic personality transfers.

The first jump drive was an unrealized dream until only 300,000 years ago.
By a fluke of evolution, a single supergenius was born to the pastoral Droyne,
and under his leadership this ancient race travelled extensively throughout a region nearly 1000 parsecs across.

The race worked wonders throughout Charted Space and then destroyed themselves in a wide-ranging war that shattered worlds and destroyed civilizations.
Today, the Droyne live in independent communities on many separate worlds. They avoid entanglements and political disputes; they live peacefully with their neighbors;
and their hand-built jump drives are the best that can be found anywhere.

There is also a much older race called the Primordials that was introduced in the MT adventure Knightfall.

 

[Sturn]

"You puny, younger species get off of my lawn!"

Thank you, headed to yet another court date on my days off and I needed a morning laugh.

 

[Spinward Scout]

IMTU, before the Ancients,
there were...

THE GERIATRICS!!!!

:rofl:

"You puny, younger species get off of my lawn!"

You know, when my Imperium was your Imperium's age, we had to go through Jump Space uphill, both ways... Through 10 feet of snow... And we only had unrefined fuel... And...

 

[Blue Ghost]

You know, when my Imperium was your Imperium's age, we had to go through Jump Space uphill, both ways... Through 10 feet of snow... And we only had unrefined fuel... And...

Tell 'em about the time you beat an Aslan with your loose leaf notebook

 

[Spinward Scout]

Tell 'em about the time you beat an Aslan with your loose leaf notebook

Aslan? Our cat-people couldn't even stand on 2 legs. And gravitics - we had to float when we were in space. And our computers were bigger than the Jump Drive. You kids got it sooo easy.

:rofl:

Now back to your regularly scheduled Traveller discussion.

 

[otherles]

Oh...go dig up a monolith somewhere...

 

[Blue Ghost]

Oh...go dig up a monolith somewhere...

Eh? What's that sonny? You need a lift somewhere? In my day we had to hand crank start our grav belts! Had to start the night before to get a good charge going, and then... VROOOM! You yougins and your rumble seat air rafts! Ya ain't got no respect for older folks!

Why, in my day (insert something an old coot would say *HERE*).

 

[Maladominus]

You know, the universe is, as best as we can guess, some 12-14 billion years old.

The Ancients in this galaxy came and went some 300,000 years ago.

Guys, thats a lot of time for some race to have come and gone before the ancients we know of, I.E. grandfather and his scions.

Has there ever been anything done with the idea of an even more ancient than "the ancients" race in traveller?

Before the Ancients..... there were..... the Great Old Ones! Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

 

[Vargas]

Yes, there were races before the Ancients but they all long since departed beyond the rim.

 

[Trent]

What a pity that no one seems to be able to offer a serious reply to this issue...

 

[boomslang]

Yes, there were races before the Ancients but they all long since departed beyond the rim.

[Brin]
Actually, there have been half a dozen previous races of star-spanning "Ancients", but each and every time they have risen from pre-sentience only to eventually destroy themselves in a massive civil war, leaving sentience and interstellar civilization to have to arise all over again... this cyclical process takes about 1-2By each go-round...
[/Brin]

 

[rancke]

What a pity that no one seems to be able to offer a serious reply to this issue...

Mike's reply seemed perfectly serious to me.


Hans

 

[aramis]

Races that existed before the Ancients are actually canonical in the OTU.

Check the side bar on page 9 of the MT Referee's Manual entitled 'The First Starfarers'.



There is also a much older race called the Primordials that was introduced in the MT adventure Knightfall.

unfortunately, nothing more was done other than that introduction.

IMTU, there are the "precursors" who insured a range of DNA and biotic life some 4BYA... dropping mono-cellular-critters everywhere, in a great accidental seeding... and being annoyed that they were the only life they ever found... they died out by 3 BYA... at TL 25... due to a war with their nihilistic AI's.

The Droyne are one of the first to attain spaceflight from their seedlings. THe droyne also destroyed most of their artifacts.

 

[Spinward Scout]

THe droyne also destroyed most of their artifacts.

Hmmm, that's an interesting twist. Why would they destroy the artifacts? Reverse engineering? To keep them from Grandfather or Grandfather keeping them from his children? A historical revision pogrom?

 

[aramis]

Hmmm, that's an interesting twist. Why would they destroy the artifacts? Reverse engineering? To keep them from Grandfather or Grandfather keeping them from his children? A historical revision pogrom?

Mostly accidental and reverse engineering, tho' most were rendered almost inscrutable by sheer age.

 

[Trent]

In gurps traveller it said that gramps destroyed the droyne's tech bases when he found droyne colonies that had not lost all their tech during the Ancient war.