History Main / BenevolentPrecursors

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' story "ComicBook/TheUnknownLegionnaire": Many ages ago, an advanced civilization known as the Llorn established a colony in a homeworld inhabited by a primitive but friendly intelligent alien species called Proteans. The Llorns were forced to abandon the planet when a chain of environmental disasters destroyed their city, but before leaving they made sure that their Protean friends survived the devastating climatic changes which were beginning to ravage their world by using their science to turn the Proteans into shapeshifters.

** One of the precursor civilizations that can be learned about in a given game is the Cybrex, who start out as ''very'' AbusivePrecursors that sought to wipe out all organic life some 600,000 years prior to the game's timeline, although exploring their story further via archeological sites reveals at some point they had a MyGodWhatHaveIDone epiphany and stopped fighting, retreating to their own system and letting the understandably-vengeful organic races wipe them out once they're found. This trope comes into full force if [[spoiler:[[RobotWar The Contingency[[ crisis gets out of hand by taking over about a third of the galaxy, in which case the Cybrex will come back, revealing that some of them had stayed out of the way for the past 600,000 years and are now coming back in to defend the organic races, determined not to let their past mistake repeat.]]

* The Encyclopod from the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' movie ''Into The Wild Green Yonder''. It has preserved the DNA of countless endangered and extinct species, whose descendants live in a colossal dome on its back.

* Franchise/StargateVerse:

* All of Earth's pre-ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}} superheroes to the current Franchise/DCUniverse, especially the Monitor. They fought and defeated the Anti-Monitor and sealed a single universe inside the essence of the Monitor. Then the universe was restarted twice with big bangs. None of the ComicBook/PostCrisis stories would have happened without the pre-Crisis heroes. ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis then turns this into a strange case of the BenevolentPrecursors (specifically, two of them in particular, though one of the others gets tricked/convinced into believing that what they're doing is a Good Thing) ''becoming'' the SealedEvilInACan.
* The [[Franchise/GreenLantern Guardians of the Universe]] can be this when they care to be. It's probably most fair to say that they're ''trying'' to ... they don't call themselves the "Guardians of the Universe" ironically. They're just not as good at it as they think they are. They created the Green Lantern Corps after all, which boasts perhaps the largest collection of valiant heroes in all of DC comics. Most of the time, however, they swing wildly back and forth between this, NeglectfulPrecursors and AbusivePrecursors. The fact that they're supremely arrogant in believing that they know what's best for everyone, and slightly less than perfect in predicting the consequences of their actions (and in recognizing and admitting they made a mistake soon enough for it to require less than literally superheroic effort to fix it) tends to be what keeps them from ultimately actually being this. There is a separate group of Guardians that still followed the White Light. Having spent the last billions of years in isolation guarding the prison of [[spoiler: the First Lantern]], they were not present for the failures and events that led to the Guardian Council's decision to create the Third Army and attempted to stop the Council when they arrived to free [[spoiler: the First]].
* Urk's alternate universe in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' has the local counterpart of the [[spoiler: Evrons]] teach medicine and science to the inhabitants of the Americas, leading to a confederation of hi-tech Indian tribes living in accord with nature while still capable of kicking the ass of the Viking invaders (whose technology is similar to the one of our 21st century Earth).

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* Humanity takes on this role in ''FanFic/DiariesOfAMadman'', after having created the species that populate Equestria and the rest of the world.
* The race who made the tomb in ''FanFic/TheWritingOnTheWall'' took every effort to discourage explorers from entering it, from intimidating design to... well, the writing on the wall. Sadly, Daring Do and company disregard the warnings as mere superstition, and disaster ensues. The entire story is based on the real-world quandary of [[spoiler: how to warn future civilizations away from nuclear waste disposal sites]].

* ''FanFic/TheBridge'' also has several:

* The "Firstborn" featured in Sir Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries Space Odyssey]]'' and ''Time Odyssey'' books are pretty much [[UrExample Ur examples]] for both this trope ''and'' AbusivePrecursors respectively. In ''Space Odyssey'' they are super-advanced aliens that made it their purpose to promote the development of intelligent life throughout the Galaxy. After they [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence moved on]], they left their Monoliths to continue their work in their stead.

* Most of the upgrades in ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' Samus Aran finds during her adventures have been left there by the [[BirdPeople Chozo]], who foresaw that she would be needing them in the future. With Samus's [[InterspeciesAdoption relationship with the Chozo]] taken into account, this could almost count as an overlap with GoodParents.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' reveals in the "Shadowbringers" and "Endwalker" expansions [[spoiler:that the Ancients, the denizens of the previously unsundered world of Etheirys, whose numbers include the [[AbusivePrecursors shadowy and malevolent Ascians]]. The Ascians, however, represent the minority of the Ancients, who were a race of scholars and intellectuals who always pursued to understand the nature of the universe in which they live, most of whom are overall pleasant people. Of particular note is Venat, an Ancient who previously held the title of Azem in the Convocation and grew to love the world in which she lived all the more when, as part of her duties, she ventured out and explored it. She loved the world so much that, when faced with a potential reality-ending apocalypse fueled in part by her countrymen's aversion to misery and desire for the GoodOldDays at the cost of sacrificing their brethren, she used her immense power to [[WorldSundering sunder the world]], creating the world of Hydaelyn as we know it ([[TheMultiverse plus its thirteen Reflections]]) and leaving it populated by races that were considerably weaker than herself and her people at their prime, with such finite lifespans that they would have no choice but to strive to [[MiseryBuildsCharacter overcome adversity with what little time they have to live.]]]]

The exact opposite of AbusivePrecursors: the SealedEvilInACan is clearly locked and labeled in every language they could think of, complete with handy pictures showing stupid mortals getting killed by said Sealed Evil, just to make sure the message gets through. And even if you DO manage to get through the five thousand doors locked with ThePowerOfLove and release the demon king of doom, don't worry -- they had a fail-safe in place where the seals on the one weapon capable of destroying it would be unlocked at the same time. Sure, these guys died out millennia ago, [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture but at least they did their best to keep us from following them to the grave.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The [[Franchise/GreenLantern Guardians of the Universe]] can be this when they care to be. It's probably most fair to say that they're ''trying'' to ... they don't call themselves the "Guardians of the Universe" ironically. They're just not as good at it as they think they are. They created the Green Lantern Corps after all, which boasts perhaps the largest collection of valiant heroes in all of DC comics. Most of the time, however, they swing wildly back and forth between this, NeglectfulPrecursors and AbusivePrecursors. The fact that they're supremely arrogant in believing that they know what's best for everyone, and slightly less than perfect in predicting the consequences of their actions (and in recognizing and admitting they made a mistake soon enough for it to require less than literally superheroic effort to fix it) tends to be what keeps them from ultimately actually being this.
** There is a separate group of Guardians that still followed the White Light. Having spent the last billions of years in isolation guarding the prison of [[spoiler: the First Lantern]], they were not present for the failures and events that led to the Guardian Council's decision to create the Third Army and attempted to stop the Council when they arrived to free [[spoiler: the First]].

* In Creator/DavidBrin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series Galactic dogmas rarely agree, but all oxygen-breathers concur that the Progenitors were awesome, they invented Uplift and true civilization, they obviously had a supernatural origin of some kind, and everyone should revere them. For millions of years, the Great Library has taught this version of history.
** Humanity, horrified by the standard Galactic treatment of client races, has a desire to be this for its own clients. They give chimps and dolphins an almost unheard-of level of autonomy and involve them in the world government, refuse to impose any kind of indentured servitude on them, and begin seeking alien clients with an eye to protecting them from more hostile species.

* The Ancients in the Franchise/StargateVerse are the poster boys for NeglectfulPrecursors, but season nine of ''Series/StargateSG1'' reveals they've been active on their own plane of existence hiding the humans of the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies from their {{evil counterpart}}s the Ori. At least until the SGC [[NiceJobBreakingItHero goes and screws that up]]. The Ancients also allow the younger races to use their gate network as much as they want, despite that technically being a kind of interference.
** Meanwhile the Asgard, while unable to wipe out the Goa'uld due to their ForeverWar with the Replicators, place a couple dozen planets in the Milky Way under military protection, and soon ally with the Tau'ri and gradually introduce their technology to them. Also, ''unlike'' the Ancients, they always cleaned up their own mess or made ''sure'' not to cause a mess in the first place. The Ancients are responsible for creating ''two'' races (well, one of them are machines) that pose a galactic threat, and left their technology lying around just about everywhere waiting to be used (or abused) by anyone who could. The Asgard were very cautious in giving out their technology, but not because of arrogance about not sharing with primitive people, like the Tollans were, but out of genuine caution for the safety of both parties involved. Despite this they [[spoiler:provided Earth with their extremely powerful shielding technology and eventually shared ''all'' their knowledge with them... before committing mass suicide to make sure their left-over technology would ''not'' fall into the wrong hands.]]

** The Preservers, who transported endangered cultures to pristine worlds.
*** In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', the Preservers are [[spoiler: the same, and after the Breen/Deferi story arc, back out and mingling]] with their descendants.

* The Forerunners from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. Yes, they did use the titular superweapons to destroy all life in the galaxy in order to stop [[TheVirus the Flood]], but they really did try ''everything'' else first (getting to the point where obliterating Flood-infested worlds from orbit was a ''first'' resort, and their tactics got progressively ''more'' destructive from there); the Flood was just too much for them. After they fired the Halo Array, they even repopulated the galaxy with all the lifeforms they had indexed so that the galaxy wouldn't be devoid of sentient life. They also left AI custodians, technological relics, and warnings (particularly about the Halos and the Flood) for their successors -- it's just that said [=AIs=] tended to go nuts, while the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]] gladly gathered the relics but ignored the warnings.
** The ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' terminals deconstruct aspects of this trope by noting that Forerunner rule made their client species far too weak and dependent on their masters, which left them easy prey for the Flood.

* The Precursors in ''VideoGame/StarControlII'', with some things. That bomb of theirs is labeled clearly enough for both the Utwig and the human scientists to figure out what it is. Their starship factory is user-friendly, and a certain other artifact is well-shielded.
** The Taalo leave behind a device that prevents evil alien mind control. This is instrumental in saving the galaxy.
* Enigmatic Observers[=/=][[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant Benevolent Interventionists]] in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' are Fallen Empires with the Xenophile ethic. Effectively their entire foreign policy statement is VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Engage in too much slavery or genocide, and ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes they will come knocking]]''.

[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800&page=559#comment-13960 Per discussion]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision: Us, hopefully, with regard to our own SealedEvilInACan, nuclear waste. The US Department of Energy has been researching [[http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/ how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood]].\\
However, even if post-apocalyptic scavengers do decode the message ''and'' learn the hard way that it's telling the truth, they might stubbornly take the lethal radiation for a curse we placed to guard fabulous riches and all indications to the contrary as deception. Hence the opposing argument for burying waste in out-of-the-way locations with ''no'' warnings.
** They might even intentionally dig it up in order to use nuclear waste as a dirty bomb.
* Also TruthInTelevision: Those people with stable, loving families could consider their parents or ancestors this, with the evidence of them raising new generations in stable environments so that they can improve
* The concept of a Bracewell probe combines this with RecursiveCreators: a self-replicating space probe that will [[TechnologyUplift Uplift]] any pre-space age society it encounters.
[[/folder]]

* The concept of a Bracewell probe combines this with {{Von Neumann Machine}}s. A self-replicating space probe that will [[TechnologyUplift Uplift]] any pre-space age society it encounters.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' two-parter "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", the MonsterOfTheWeek -- heavily implied to be Satan -- is [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan chained far, far underground]] on a planet orbiting a black hole. Should he ever be released, the planet will go spiraling into the black hole, killing The Beast. All we know about the people who defeated him is that they were called "Disciples of the Light".]]

** The unnamed ancient humanoids from "The Chase" seeded planets with their DNA, thus being responsible for all humanoid life. They also encoded a map in this DNA that led not to a superweapon or a species of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, but to a recorded message expressing the hope that their "descendants" would cooperate with each other to discover the message. Leads to a rather epic guilt trip for Picard and (apparently) the Romulan commander.

A subtrope of {{Precursors}}. If they're neither helpful to the present civilization or outright evil, they may just be NeglectfulPrecursors.

* Asgard took this role in ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', and they do their best to help, and keep things like Surtur locked away. However, they now to take a much more hands off approach, after a horrible disaster better known as Atlantis...

** The Paradise Ponies were from the Age of Myths, but continued to act as protectors during the Age of Wonders that followed them, due to being immortal thanks to the Rainbow of Light.

** The ancient civilizations on Terra were fully aware the [[BigBad Bagan]] would break free of his imprisonment 100,000 years into their future. So rather than squander the last magic left on Terra in preserving themselves or trying to flee the planet, they used it all up creating the "Guardian Beasts" and sealed them away on a timer so the moment Bagan returned, there would be an army of super charged {{Kaiju}} ready to go up against him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' story ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/505788/this-message-is-a-warning This Message is a Warning]]'' the builders of the [[spoiler:underground nuclear waste disposal facility]] made their best to discourage anyone from coming near to it, surrounding it with spikes and monoliths placed in such a way they just makes one feel ill, and if someone still manages to arrive and get inside the structure they decorated it with faces showing fear and horror to convey to ''not'' go inside, up to the location of the final seal where they wrote down exactly what the structure was built to contain, where to find the instructions to cure the contaminant, ''and'' a back-up for the instructions in case the original was lost (as it had been). It had worked well enough that the Buffalos just ''knew'' to stay away as it was "bad medicine", and many civilization that had been stubborn enough to dig in the site and get all the way to the writings just translated them in their own language and left... And once she becomes involved and discovers what was happening after the Ponies opened one of the [[spoiler:waste storage chambers]] by being able to read the original builders' writings Twilight Sparkle not only has the place resealed but, knowing it's now her turn to warn future generations, has the warning and the cure translated and written ''outside'' the area in multiple places.

* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''Film/TheFifthElement''. They set up a [[AncientTradition secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when UsefulNotes/WorldWarI threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down by Mangalore warriors flying illegal starfighters supplied by Mr. Zorg. But even then, they had been clever enough to anticipate it, and hid [[spoiler:four out of five of]] the Elements somewhere else instead.

* The Elder Gods in the ''Literature/TitusCrow'' series by Creator/BrianLumley are the GoodCounterpart to the Cthulhu Mythos' Great Old Ones. They influence lesser species to become better while also arming them with weapons against their evil kin. Their leader Kthanid, is actually Cthulhu's brother (!!).

* ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'': The Xeelee, despite being the ostensible [[DesignatedVillain bad guys]] are actually quite nice, leaving humanity and other lower races alone while busy fighting a universe-spanning war against their rivals the Photino Birds. When humanity has conquered every other race in the galaxy, they finally get it in their heads to [[BullyingADragon attack the Xeelee]] themselves, who do fight back, but only half-heartedly, and eventually decide to let mankind have the Milky Way. This isn't good enough for them, however, and they decide to spread out and attack the Xeelee in other galaxies, including launching a few assaults on their Ring megastructure. Eventually, a million years later, the Xeelee finally decide to deal with humanity, not by wiping them out, but by constructing a nice little environment for them and sealing them inside it, allowing them to continue their lives, at least until the universe starts to become uninhabitable due to the actions of the Photino Birds. At which point, the Xeelee provide the remaining humans with one of their own ships to escape the universe through the Ring, and even create a new planet with an environment tailored specifically for them to thrive in the new universe.

** The Time Lords themselves swing between this and NeglectfulPrecursors. They generally [[AlienNonInterferenceClause do not interfere with other races]] due to things going badly in the past and the moral complexities of time travel. However, they generally prevented abuses of time travel, fixed messes caused by abuses and would sometimes intervene to stop a dire threat or right a particularly terrible wrong. This is a more enlightened state compared to their ancient history where they were AbusivePrecursors who abused their time travel capabilities.

* In ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'', we learn more about the Morphin' Masters, a group of beings mentioned by [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Zordon]] ''once''. They are a group of beings who helped The Knights of Rafkon battle the Sporix, transforming the survivors into the first Dino Fury team. As well, they were behind the [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Dino Gems]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge Energems]] and the [[Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel Ninja Nexus Prism]]. They also watch over the various teams during their fight against evil. [[spoiler:It's suggested that they might be behind [[Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers Steel]] [[BackFromTheDead reviving]] and [[BecomeARealBoy turning flesh and blood]]]]. Eventually, the later half of the season sheds some light on this: [[spoiler:They ''were'' benevolent, during the Cretaceous, but then their enemies started hunting them down, and they went into hiding, except the Green Master, who kept interfering. This nearly gets her sealed away by the other Morphin' Masters, until they come to the conclusion she was right.]]

** Meanwhile the Asgard, while unable to wipe out the Goa'uld due to their ForeverWar with the Replicators, place a couple dozen planets in the Milky Way under military protection, and soon ally with the Tau'ri and gradually introduce their technology to them. Also, ''unlike'' the Ancients, they always cleaned up their own mess, or made ''sure'' not to cause a mess in the first place. The Ancients are responsible for creating ''two'' races (well, one of them are machines) that pose a galactic threat, and left their technology lying around just about everywhere waiting to be used (or abused) by anyone who could. The Asgard were very cautious in giving out their technology, but not because of arrogance about not sharing with primitive people, like the Tollans were, but out of genuine caution for the safety of both parties involved. Despite this they [[spoiler:provided Earth with their extremely powerful shielding technology and eventually shared ''all'' their knowledge with them... before committing mass-suicide to make sure their left-over technology would ''not'' fall into the wrong hands.]]

** The unnamed ancient humanoids from "The Chase" who seeded planets with their DNA, thus being responsible for all humanoid life. They also encoded a map in this DNA that led not to a superweapon, or a species of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, but to a recorded message expressing the hope that their "descendants" would cooperate with each other to discover the message. Leads to a rather epic guilt trip for Picard and (apparently) the Romulan commander.

* The Jjaro of ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'' and ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''. After the Jjaro's disappearance, [[spoiler: they either returned from hiding to help, or left an automated system to help the player defeat an {{Eldritch Abomination}} and save the universe.]]
* The ancient Lucier in ''VideoGame/{{Seventh Dragon}}'' sacrificed their entire species to save the Earth from being consumed by the first dragons to return to harvest the life they seeded on it. The resurrected Lucier of ''7th Dragon 2020-II'' and ''7th Dragon'' also prove instrumental to defeating the Dragon invasions of their times, but in the original they're no longer Precursors, as Eden doesn't retain any knowledge or remnant of the past as far back as Atlantis' peak.

** Players themselves can also roleplay as examples through the "Precursor" playthrough. Turn off all starting empires except Marauders and Fallen Empires, max out the number of primitives, and max out the time until the [[FinalBoss Endgame Crisis]] (while also maximizing out its power when it does arrive). Take [[TheCavalry Defender of the Galaxy]], form a [[TheAlliance Federation]], uplift primitives and take them under your wing. And then when the apocalypse comes, the peoples of the galaxy will meet the darkness head on, ready to beat it back... [[BigGood because of you]].

* Implied in ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders''. Halfway through the series the protagonists discover that all four planets in the Cluster have World Engines hidden within their cores, allowing these worlds to travel through space. The [=AIs=] governing these engines react to the presence of the [[AntiMatter Null Matter]] associated with the [[PlanetEater world-devouring]] [[MechanicalAbomination Beast Planet]], and will accept the commands of anyone who discovers the World Engine without any need for authentication. Every planet that the heroes come across after leaving the Cluster also has a World Engine. ''Someone'' clearly recognized that the Beast Planet was a threat to all life in the galaxy and wanted to make sure that inhabited worlds could escape it.

However, even if post-apocalyptic scavengers do decode the message ''and'' learn the hard way that it's telling the truth, they might stubbornly take the lethal radiation for a curse we placed to guard fabulous riches, and all indications to the contrary as deception. Hence the opposing argument for burying waste in out-of-the-way locations with ''no'' warnings.
** They might even intentionally dig it up in order to use nuclear waste into a dirty bomb.