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[[image:oldone.jpg|thumb|right|Oh, they get even older than this.]]


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[[Old Ones]], a term popularized by [[H.P. Lovecraft]] and the Cthulhu Mythos, is a type of entity used in fantasy games for the culture that was first on the scene in creation, before the limits of recorded history in the current setting of the game.  This culture is always described as awesomely powerful, responsible for shaping entire landscapes, sinking continents beneath the waves, or giving birth to new races  An important feature of a race of Old Ones is they aren't around anymore -- or if they are, it's in some degenerate form (reduced to stone-age beasts, or secluded colony hiding from the world, or one sleeping god-like individual).


[[Old Ones]] is a term used in fantasy games for the culture that was first on the scene in creation, before the limits of recorded history in the current setting of the game.  This culture is always described as awesomely powerful, responsible for shaping entire landscapes, sinking continents beneath the waves, or giving birth to new races.  An important feature of a race of Old Ones is they aren't around anymore -- or if they are, it's in some degenerate form (reduced to stone-age beasts, or secluded colony hiding from the world, or one sleeping god-like individual).
'''"Precursors"''' is the sci-fi version of the term, but doesn't carry ''as much'' inherent connotation of malevolence, though it's still very possible (think Pacific Rim…or halo, if you know).
 
'''Precursors''' is the sci-fi version, but doesn't carry the connotation of malevolence.


== Call of Cthulhu ==
== Call of Cthulhu ==
There were many "Old Ones" in the Cthulhu Mythos, and thus the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It's most commonly used to refer to one of the following two:
There were many "Old Ones" in the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], and thus the [[Call of Cthulhu]] RPG. It's most commonly used to refer to one of the following two:


The Great Old Ones were alien beings of colossal size, and not exactly normal physics.  All the Great Old Ones have been slain or imprisoned by Elder Gods, some entombed in planets like Earth.  Some theorize that the Great Old Ones are imprisoned for the crime of practicing blasphemous black magic, and the Great Old Ones are just waiting to break out and avenge themselves.  Others theorize the Great Old Ones submitted willingly to imprisonment, as a way to sleep away the aeons "until the stars are right" and they can resume their awful practices.
The Great Old Ones were alien beings of colossal size, and not exactly normal physics.  All the Great Old Ones have been slain or imprisoned by Elder Gods, some entombed in planets like Earth.  Some theorize that the Great Old Ones are imprisoned for the crime of practicing blasphemous black magic, and the Great Old Ones are just waiting to break out and avenge themselves.  Others theorize the Great Old Ones submitted willingly to imprisonment, as a way to sleep away the aeons "until the stars are right" and they can resume their awful practices.


[[image:Gibbering_mouther.jpg|thumb|right|A shoggoth, D&D 3e style]]
[[image:Gibbering_mouther.jpg|thumb|right|A shoggoth, D&D 3e style]]
The race of Old Ones (or Elder Things) were extraterrestrials that traveled between the stars, and set up a colony on primordial Earth.  They built a city on the southern polar continent and experimented with the local biology to create a servant caste.  Their discards were tossed to the other continents (<strike>the Cambrian Explosion?</strike> The Cambrian Explosion pre-dated life on land.) and settled on their ideal lowest-class citizens: the Shoggoths, amorphous blobs of eyes and toothy mouths. The Shoggoths formed a rebellion and overthrew their masters, imprisoning them in suspended animation tombs of ice sealed with Elder Signs.
The race of Old Ones (or Elder Things) were extraterrestrials that traveled between the stars, and set up a colony on primordial Earth.  They built a city on the southern polar continent and experimented with the local biology to create a servant caste.  Their discards were tossed to the other continents (<strike>the Cambrian Explosion?</strike> <strike>The Cambrian Explosion pre-dated life on land.</strike>The Elder Things, when they spanned the globe, set up cities both underwater and on land, so, entirely possible.) and settled on their ideal lowest-class citizens: the [[Shoggoth]]s, amorphous blobs of eyes and toothy mouths. The Shoggoths formed a rebellion and overthrew their masters, [[Grimdark|killing almost every single one because the Elder Things held them in thrall with hypnosis for over 2 billion years]].
<br clear='all'>
 
== Exalted ==
In the time before time the Primordials wrenched a world from the bleeding edge of chaos and peopled it with gods, men, Dragon Kings, the People of Adamant, the Lintha, and more.
 
Then the gods and humans joined forces and made war on the Primordials, killing many of their number and trapping the rest in the body of their king, which had been turned inside-out, and cast them out beyond the confines of this world.
 
In the brass-and-bone depths of the Demon City, their demonic progeny turn wretched eyes our way, ever watchful for a crack to appear in their prison. Meanwhile, the slain titans have formed a dark mirror of our world, save that at its center is a twisted labyrinth of their congealed nightmares, and at the center of *that* is the concept of oblivion made manifest, above which hang their dead-but-dreaming tomb-bodies.


== Forgotten Realms ==
== Forgotten Realms ==
Long long time ago, a lizardman type race had a huge empire that enslaved all the "warmbloods."  It was probably the Sarrukh, mentioned in the Serpent Kingdoms splatbook.  They're supposed to be extinct now, but it would make a decent [[BBEG]].
Long long time ago, a lizardman type race had a huge empire that enslaved all the "warmbloods."  It was probably the [[Sarrukh]], mentioned in the [[Serpent Kingdoms]] [[splatbook]].  They're supposed to be extinct now, but it would make a decent [[BBEG]].
The Story of the First NeverWinter Nights explored this but made it all very confusing and disappointing.
The Story of the first [[Neverwinter Nights]] video game explored this but made it all very confusing and disappointing.


== Traveller ==
== Traveller ==
The old-ones in Traveller are called the "Ancients," and their sites can be found in any random place.  The architecture can vary wildly, from habitrail tunnels hermetically sealed and protected from a benign environment, to hollowed-out crystals hundreds of feet high with no ladders or stairs.  None of the sites have any documentation, many of them expect visitors to be able to fly or use telepathy, and all of them are empty and inert... except maybe whatever one your adventurers carelessly step into .  Each Ancient site predates the literacy of every civilization, and doesn't seem to have anything in common with other Ancient sites other than being built for inhabitants that are 1-2 metres tall.  Ancient sites make for good dungeon romps in what is otherwise a hard sci-fi campaign about making mortgage payments on your spaceship.
The old-ones in [[Traveller]] are called the "Ancients," and their sites can be found in any random place.  The architecture can vary wildly, from habitrail tunnels hermetically sealed and protected from a benign environment, to hollowed-out crystals hundreds of feet high with no ladders or stairs.  None of the sites have any documentation, many of them expect visitors to be able to fly or use telepathy, and all of them are empty and inert... except maybe whatever one your adventurers carelessly step into .  Each Ancient site predates the literacy of every civilization, and doesn't seem to have anything in common with other Ancient sites other than being built for inhabitants that are 1-2 metres tall.  Ancient sites make for good dungeon romps in what is otherwise a hard sci-fi campaign about making mortgage payments on your spaceship.


The Ancients also explain why there's so many humans in space.  The first great human empire was the Vilani empire, built by the humans that first discovered faster-than-light travel.  They were pretty surprised to find out there were other aliens around; even more surprised when they encountered another FTL space-faring empire of humans called the 'Zhodani.'  Scientists concluded sure that the two-arms & two-legs body shape was just naturally better for most environments, and stopped being surprised that everyone was "humanoid" shaped.  This all went to shit when a third race of humans showed up with FTL drive, calling themselves the 'men of Sol' ("Solomani" in Vilani), and it turned out that they came from a world where the entire ecosystem was integrated, not evolving in parallel like everywhere else.  Vilani scientists were certain this was a sign that the Solomani were an engineered race of humans made by the Ancients, what with everything fitting together like clockwork.  Instead, they discovered the opposite: the undeniable conclusion that Zhodani humans, Vilani humans, and all the other humans from minor races were "seeded" from Sol-3 and transplanted to every other world by the Ancients.  Even the biology of the lupine Vargyr major race were seeded from this 'Earth' world.  This gives the Solomani a superiority complex that makes them pretty insufferable to be around.
The Ancients also explain why there's so many humans in space.  The first great human empire was the Vilani empire, built by the humans that first discovered faster-than-light travel.  They were pretty surprised to find out there were other aliens around; even more surprised when they encountered another FTL space-faring empire of humans called the 'Zhodani.'  Scientists concluded sure that the two-arms & two-legs body shape was just naturally better for most environments, and stopped being surprised that everyone was "humanoid" shaped.  This all went to shit when a third race of humans showed up with FTL drive, calling themselves the 'men of Sol' ("Solomani" in Vilani), and it turned out that they came from a world where the entire ecosystem was integrated, not evolving in parallel like everywhere else.  Vilani scientists were certain this was a sign that the Solomani were an engineered race of humans made by the Ancients, what with everything fitting together like clockwork.  Instead, they discovered the opposite: the undeniable conclusion that Zhodani humans, Vilani humans, and all the other humans from minor races were "seeded" from Sol-3 and transplanted to every other world by the Ancients.  Even the biology of the lupine Vargyr major race were seeded from this 'Earth' world.  This gives the Solomani a superiority complex that makes them pretty insufferable to be around.


==[[Warhammer Fantasy]]==
This continues the trend of hard sci-fi ignoring 'hard biology'.
[[Image:Slaad_4.jpg|thumb|The Slann are called ''Slaad&trade;'' in Dungeons & Dragons; original characters [[OGL|do not steal]].]]
Psychic frog men from beyond the stars; they put a warp-gate at each of the poles and shifted the planet's orbit to something nicer for their amphibian biology.  All that's left of them in present day are the degenerate & decadent rulers of the [[Lizardmen]] armies, the [[Slann]].
 
In older editions of 40K and WFB, these were the same Old Ones as the Old Ones below. In fact, the newest edition of the WFB rulebook specifically mentions their big silver space-ships, suggesting that that's still the case.
 
==[[Warhammer 40,000]]==
 
The '''Old Ones''' were a race or group of races* that were among the very first races in the galaxy, if not ''the'' first race(s) in the galaxy.
 
They were incredibly potent psykers (especially since the [[Warp]] was calm back in those days), had access to the [[Webway]] (and may have built or expanded it), and had supremely advanced genetic engineering techniques. They created the [[Eldar]], Krork (likely the ancestors of modern [[Ork]]s), the earliest ape ancestors of humans, [[Jokaero]], the [[Hrud]], the Rashan, the K'nib, and many others; some of these were created solely as warrior-races, whereas many (like the human predecessors) were created merely as part of planetary ecosystems. They were also immortal, a gift they seem to have given in some form to some of their creations.
 
However, it's basically impossible to talk about them without talking about the Necrontyr, a race of short-lived creatures obsessed with technology. The Necrontyr had grown up beneath a wretched sun that poured radiation upon them, so their lives were, without exception, incredibly short (although it's not clear ''how'' short). However, they managed to scrape together a small interstellar empire, with different start systems ruled by different dynasties. However, with the First War of Secession, the empire fell into infighting, as the dynasties violently jockeyed for power.
 
The Triarch (the ruling powers of the Necrontyr) decided a war was just what the doctor ordered to keep the Necrontyr together, and so declared war on the Old Ones, claiming the casus belli of "you didn't share immortality with us poor, pitiful, mortal creatures." This was, as would be expected, a popular cause, and started the so-called [[War in Heaven]].
 
However, despite having much greater numbers and mastery of technology which matched or even exceeded that held by the Old Ones, the Necrons did not have access to the Webway, and so were constantly outmaneuvered. Soon, the Necrontyr were scattered and left with only a few coreworlds to the galactic north. With the War in Heaven collapsing, the Second War of Secession began, and the Necrontyr began to tear themselves apart again.


Before Necrontyr society collapsed entirely, however, the Necrontyr discovered the [[C'tan]], the Star Gods, leaching on some of their stars. The Necrontyr made metallic bodies for the C'tan, which barely contained their incredible power, as they were basically material universe's equivalent to the [[Chaos Gods]].
== Warhammer ==
{{Main|Old Ones (Warhammer)}}


The C'tan offered the Necrontyr a solution: living-metal bodies that were nearly indestructible. For some reason, the Necrontyr were also renamed the Necrons at this point. One of the C'tan, known as the "Burning One," also helped the newly-robotic Necrons enter the Webway using the [[Dolmen Gate]]s. With the field leveled, the Necrons were now able to take the fight to the Old Ones.
Both [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] and [[Warhammer 40,000]] feature major background events caused by Old Ones. There is some debate about whether they are both the same or different. In 40k: they were reptilian; [[War in Heaven|battled against]] the [[Necrons|Necrontyr]] and [[C'tan]]; used genetic engineering to create the [[Eldar]], [[Human|Humanity's ancestors]] (kinda, but not really since human ancestors didn’t exist back then...), and the [[Orks]]; and created the [[Webway]]. We also have them to thank for the existence of the Chaos Gods since before the War in Heaven, the Warp was known to have been a far more placid realm. Boy did that change. In short, for all intents and purposes, this effectively means that the Old Ones, Necrons, and C'tan are the progenitors of the Chaos Gods. At best, the Old Ones are equally responsible for this outcome as the other two. Though, given their penchant for warp dabbling in contrast to the absolute non-existence of the same from the Necrons and C'tan, it's perhaps more likely that the Old Ones hold a higher percentage of the blame. If nothing else, this all probably puts the Old Ones at the top of the list of architects of the greatest ever instances of [[Not As Planned]]. That's something.  


At this point, the Old Ones created many of the aforementioned warrior races, especially the Eldar and the Krork, but even these couldn't stop the Necrons. The wild misuse of the Warp had also spawned the [[Enslaver]]s (or, at least, let them enter the material universe), obliterating many of the Old Ones. Weakened, the Necrons and their C'tan allies were then able to annihilate the rest of the Old Ones, at least according to Codex: Necrons 5th Edition.
In Warhammer Fantasy, they arrived to Warhammer World from space, seeing (probably) its potential in colonisation or maybe they wanted to use it as a part of their plan to stop [[Chaos]]. They, however, were pissed off by planet's climate and used their and [[Slann]] magic to literally pull the world out of Ice Age and reshape the continents when they needed it. After that they started creation (or genetical modification, it's not exactly known) of different races to battle Chaos, although they failed every time. Every major race (with exception of [[Orcs & Goblins]] and Chaos-related species like [[Skaven]]) were created by them, and even more were genocided by Old Ones' loyal servants, [[Lizardmen]]. And then, when Old Ones desperately tried to fix [[Ogre Kingdoms|their latest failure]], Chaos Gates collapsed, [[Daemon|Daemons]] were released and they mysteriously disappeared, leaving only plaques with some of their instructions.


However, although most races aren't aware of their Old Ones heritage, they still made a great impact on the nascent races. In particular, at least according to ''[[Xenology]],'' many races, including the Eldar, have very similar gods, including a [[Khaine|bloody-handed warrior]], a [[Vaul|great smith]], a [[Isha|life-giving goddess of the harvest]], a [[[Cegorach|laughing god]], etc.  
== Warcraft ==
The World of Warcraft is decorated with sci-fi elements in its origin story, so it has both Precursors and Old Ones.


Also, in Hrud mythology (again, according to ''Xenology''), there's one last Old One named Qah that only left 500,000 years ago (i.e., long after the Necrons entered hibernation), promising to return when the Hrud reunite to fight the C'tan again. This would imply that, in fact, the Old Ones were ''not'' destroyed entirely by the Necrons, and a few hid or escaped.  
A race of godlike beings called Titans do the classic Precursor thing of "seed viable worlds with new life, then get bored and wander off thousands of years before any protagonists are born."  They even have the cliche of one Precursor turning rebellious teenager, writing bad poetry and trying to destroy all the new life that the rest of the family worked so hard to build. The minions of the emo Titan are the demons & devils you usually see in fantasy games.


And then, of course, there is there role in the Fantasy universe. If Fantasy takes place around the same time as 40k (as is occasionally implied), this would mean the Old Ones were active only 7,000 - 10,000 years ago, which also implies that they were not all destroyed.
The viable world that is the setting for the Warcraft stories is extra-special, because it has four or so creatures known as the "Old Gods" that are nasty moustache-twirling villain gods with HP Lovecraft inspired names.  The Titan Precursors tried to evict them so the world would be better for playing SimEarth with, but couldn't, so just imprisoned them under the planet's crust. Once the Titans left, the Old Gods fucked with the seeded life to corrupt it, even fucked with the dragons the titans created as janitors for the planet, and to fuck with everyone's heads to create cultists and generally make everyone miserable.


[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Races]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Latest revision as of 09:01, 22 June 2023

Oh, they get even older than this.

Old Ones, a term popularized by H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, is a type of entity used in fantasy games for the culture that was first on the scene in creation, before the limits of recorded history in the current setting of the game. This culture is always described as awesomely powerful, responsible for shaping entire landscapes, sinking continents beneath the waves, or giving birth to new races An important feature of a race of Old Ones is they aren't around anymore -- or if they are, it's in some degenerate form (reduced to stone-age beasts, or secluded colony hiding from the world, or one sleeping god-like individual).

"Precursors" is the sci-fi version of the term, but doesn't carry as much inherent connotation of malevolence, though it's still very possible (think Pacific Rim…or halo, if you know).

Call of Cthulhu[edit]

There were many "Old Ones" in the Cthulhu Mythos, and thus the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It's most commonly used to refer to one of the following two:

The Great Old Ones were alien beings of colossal size, and not exactly normal physics. All the Great Old Ones have been slain or imprisoned by Elder Gods, some entombed in planets like Earth. Some theorize that the Great Old Ones are imprisoned for the crime of practicing blasphemous black magic, and the Great Old Ones are just waiting to break out and avenge themselves. Others theorize the Great Old Ones submitted willingly to imprisonment, as a way to sleep away the aeons "until the stars are right" and they can resume their awful practices.

A shoggoth, D&D 3e style

The race of Old Ones (or Elder Things) were extraterrestrials that traveled between the stars, and set up a colony on primordial Earth. They built a city on the southern polar continent and experimented with the local biology to create a servant caste. Their discards were tossed to the other continents (the Cambrian Explosion? The Cambrian Explosion pre-dated life on land.The Elder Things, when they spanned the globe, set up cities both underwater and on land, so, entirely possible.) and settled on their ideal lowest-class citizens: the Shoggoths, amorphous blobs of eyes and toothy mouths. The Shoggoths formed a rebellion and overthrew their masters, killing almost every single one because the Elder Things held them in thrall with hypnosis for over 2 billion years.

Exalted[edit]

In the time before time the Primordials wrenched a world from the bleeding edge of chaos and peopled it with gods, men, Dragon Kings, the People of Adamant, the Lintha, and more.

Then the gods and humans joined forces and made war on the Primordials, killing many of their number and trapping the rest in the body of their king, which had been turned inside-out, and cast them out beyond the confines of this world.

In the brass-and-bone depths of the Demon City, their demonic progeny turn wretched eyes our way, ever watchful for a crack to appear in their prison. Meanwhile, the slain titans have formed a dark mirror of our world, save that at its center is a twisted labyrinth of their congealed nightmares, and at the center of *that* is the concept of oblivion made manifest, above which hang their dead-but-dreaming tomb-bodies.

Forgotten Realms[edit]

Long long time ago, a lizardman type race had a huge empire that enslaved all the "warmbloods." It was probably the Sarrukh, mentioned in the Serpent Kingdoms splatbook. They're supposed to be extinct now, but it would make a decent BBEG. The Story of the first Neverwinter Nights video game explored this but made it all very confusing and disappointing.

Traveller[edit]

The old-ones in Traveller are called the "Ancients," and their sites can be found in any random place. The architecture can vary wildly, from habitrail tunnels hermetically sealed and protected from a benign environment, to hollowed-out crystals hundreds of feet high with no ladders or stairs. None of the sites have any documentation, many of them expect visitors to be able to fly or use telepathy, and all of them are empty and inert... except maybe whatever one your adventurers carelessly step into . Each Ancient site predates the literacy of every civilization, and doesn't seem to have anything in common with other Ancient sites other than being built for inhabitants that are 1-2 metres tall. Ancient sites make for good dungeon romps in what is otherwise a hard sci-fi campaign about making mortgage payments on your spaceship.

The Ancients also explain why there's so many humans in space. The first great human empire was the Vilani empire, built by the humans that first discovered faster-than-light travel. They were pretty surprised to find out there were other aliens around; even more surprised when they encountered another FTL space-faring empire of humans called the 'Zhodani.' Scientists concluded sure that the two-arms & two-legs body shape was just naturally better for most environments, and stopped being surprised that everyone was "humanoid" shaped. This all went to shit when a third race of humans showed up with FTL drive, calling themselves the 'men of Sol' ("Solomani" in Vilani), and it turned out that they came from a world where the entire ecosystem was integrated, not evolving in parallel like everywhere else. Vilani scientists were certain this was a sign that the Solomani were an engineered race of humans made by the Ancients, what with everything fitting together like clockwork. Instead, they discovered the opposite: the undeniable conclusion that Zhodani humans, Vilani humans, and all the other humans from minor races were "seeded" from Sol-3 and transplanted to every other world by the Ancients. Even the biology of the lupine Vargyr major race were seeded from this 'Earth' world. This gives the Solomani a superiority complex that makes them pretty insufferable to be around.

This continues the trend of hard sci-fi ignoring 'hard biology'.

Warhammer[edit]

Main article: Old Ones (Warhammer)

Both Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 feature major background events caused by Old Ones. There is some debate about whether they are both the same or different. In 40k: they were reptilian; battled against the Necrontyr and C'tan; used genetic engineering to create the Eldar, Humanity's ancestors (kinda, but not really since human ancestors didn’t exist back then...), and the Orks; and created the Webway. We also have them to thank for the existence of the Chaos Gods since before the War in Heaven, the Warp was known to have been a far more placid realm. Boy did that change. In short, for all intents and purposes, this effectively means that the Old Ones, Necrons, and C'tan are the progenitors of the Chaos Gods. At best, the Old Ones are equally responsible for this outcome as the other two. Though, given their penchant for warp dabbling in contrast to the absolute non-existence of the same from the Necrons and C'tan, it's perhaps more likely that the Old Ones hold a higher percentage of the blame. If nothing else, this all probably puts the Old Ones at the top of the list of architects of the greatest ever instances of Not As Planned. That's something.

In Warhammer Fantasy, they arrived to Warhammer World from space, seeing (probably) its potential in colonisation or maybe they wanted to use it as a part of their plan to stop Chaos. They, however, were pissed off by planet's climate and used their and Slann magic to literally pull the world out of Ice Age and reshape the continents when they needed it. After that they started creation (or genetical modification, it's not exactly known) of different races to battle Chaos, although they failed every time. Every major race (with exception of Orcs & Goblins and Chaos-related species like Skaven) were created by them, and even more were genocided by Old Ones' loyal servants, Lizardmen. And then, when Old Ones desperately tried to fix their latest failure, Chaos Gates collapsed, Daemons were released and they mysteriously disappeared, leaving only plaques with some of their instructions.

Warcraft[edit]

The World of Warcraft is decorated with sci-fi elements in its origin story, so it has both Precursors and Old Ones.

A race of godlike beings called Titans do the classic Precursor thing of "seed viable worlds with new life, then get bored and wander off thousands of years before any protagonists are born." They even have the cliche of one Precursor turning rebellious teenager, writing bad poetry and trying to destroy all the new life that the rest of the family worked so hard to build. The minions of the emo Titan are the demons & devils you usually see in fantasy games.

The viable world that is the setting for the Warcraft stories is extra-special, because it has four or so creatures known as the "Old Gods" that are nasty moustache-twirling villain gods with HP Lovecraft inspired names. The Titan Precursors tried to evict them so the world would be better for playing SimEarth with, but couldn't, so just imprisoned them under the planet's crust. Once the Titans left, the Old Gods fucked with the seeded life to corrupt it, even fucked with the dragons the titans created as janitors for the planet, and to fuck with everyone's heads to create cultists and generally make everyone miserable.

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