The Dark Ages of the Universe
The years after the Spitezepodic era, while a time of massive diversity and bounty on Delta Panzerus, were a truly dark time for the rest of the Universe.
The ancient Intergalactic Council, which had for the most part maintained peace and stability throughout most of the known universe, was destroyed. The organization, which had survived several massive wars and hundreds of millions of years, which had solved the mysteries of the universe, which had been so much of a pillar in the universe that it had nearly gone unnoticed- was swept away.
How did this happen?
The fact is, we do not know. What little can be gleaned follows. The Ascended, the artificially evolved and psychically adept representatives of each intelligent species, the figures who communicated over the boundless voids between the planets and stars, disappeared.
How this happened remains a mystery, and a source of much speculation. The surviving myths are our best leads. Some suggest that they became corrupt, and gradually ceased communicating in order to focus on using their godlike powers to further advance their own interests. Many suggest that their psychic perfection became so great that they all simultaneously ascended from the dimension (it is from this belief, I suspect, that our name for them comes from) Others, including me suspect that they were destroyed, by some outside force of horrific power.
This belief seems to be justified by the fact that just after the disappearance of the Ascended, most of the known universe was struck by a massive attack. With our near-omnipotent protectors, this may have been nothing, but without them, the universe was practically defenseless. The invaders' origins remain as mysterious as most events of the time, though we today know of them as the Sok, the Reapers.
NOTE: Of course, due to the either poor, or exceedingly rare, records of this time, it is possible that the Sok attack was the direct cause of the demise of the Ascended. But I cannot spend all of my time on unbased speculation. Please refer to several books in the bibliography.
The Sok flowed across space like a waxing tide, destroying all civilization that it could find, and destroying all open resistance. Once all of the former settled worlds of the universe were scoured, the Sok disappeared as inexplicably as they first appeared. Only ruins were left in their wake.
Well, not quite.
Many planets remained intact, and of those, most of them still had some amount of surviving complex life, and in an exceeding few, intelligence survived. Some hid in cryogenics chambers deep underground, tiny energy emissions hidden by the burning furnaces of the planetary interiors. Others survived in the depths of space, protected by its sheer vastness. And in a rare few planets, new intelligences evolved from the surviving animals.
Over millions of years, civilization crawled its way back up. Societies recovered their knowledge, returned into space, built empires, and continued to grow and develop. This pattern continues to this day.
I will be among the first to admit that in the eyes of the Ascended, we are less intelligent than bacteria, and more primitive than all but the crudest tool-wielders. Civilization still has a nearly-unimaginably long path of recovery before it once again approaches the miracles of the bygone age. For now, no all-powerful overarching government exists. Our races fight and squabble with one another, and technology advances with painfully ponderous steps.
Perhaps I overestimate the ways of our predecessors. Perhaps we are already near, or in excess of them. But once again, this is just speculation.
Now, the backdrop to the modern galaxy has been set. It is time for my story to begin.
Do you do that kinda stuff often?
