History Main / PreCursors

* The Mondoshawans in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' based on their representation apply to this trope aswell, at least to a certain degree.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower She-Ra]]'' has the First Ones, who integrated the planet of Etheria with their technology.

* The Pillar Men from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' follow most of the criteria for this trope. They were a highly evolved humanoid species that lived in Mexico tens of thousands of years ago, created the [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Stone Masks]], [[AbusivePrecursors fed on humans]], and all but four of them were wiped out when [[EvenEvilHasStandards they disagreed]] with [[AGodAmI the direction]] that [[BigBad Kars]] wanted to take their people. The four survivors ended up [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in stone pillars]] for thousands of years, until they were awakened by ThoseWackyNazis.

It may also happen that [[HumanitysWake Earth Humans are Precursors and their incredibly human descendants try to rediscover their heritage]], or conversely, if Earth Humans are the only descendants. If Humans are the Precursors, that's AdvancedAncientHumans. If everyone's ''scared'' of them, that's HumansAreCthulhu. If they pick on their descendants, that's AbusivePrecursors; if they couldn't care less about anyone else, it's NeglectfulPrecursors; if they help their descendants, it's BenevolentPrecursors. If there's one or more race that played Precursors to the Precursors, then they're RecursivePrecursors. Any and all of these are susceptible to AwakeningTheSleepingGiant. If they gave their tech or it's being used by another race, it's LowCultureHighTech. Very often, their most powerful technology will [[SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology appear deceptively primitive and/or ceremonial]]. If everyone gets into an argument over their leftover toys, you have an ArchaeologicalArmsRace on your hands.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has the Sheikah Tribe, who had extremely advanced technology 10,000 years before the game's date. Remnants of it include what appear to be computers (including a handheld tablet with networking capabilities and apps ("runes") that can affect the material world around it), autonomous laser-spewing {{Spider Mech}}s, melee weapons made of HardLight, and four HumongousMecha known as the "Divine Beasts". This LostTechnology is crucial to defeating the latest version of Ganon that's attacked Hyrule. Unusually for this trope, the Sheikah are still around and thriving; they are only on the same roughly medieval level of tech as every other race in Hyrule; this is because [[spoiler:they deliberately abandoned their technology after being banished from Hyrule thousands of years ago]], though a handful of Sheikah are working to recover their lost knowledge.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has the Sheikah Tribe, who had extremely advanced technology 10,000 years before the game's date. Remnants of it include what appear to be computers (including a handheld tablet with networking capabilities and apps ("runes") that can affect the material world around it), autonomous laser-spewing {{Spider Mech}}s, melee weapons made of HardLight, and four HumongousMecha known as the "Divine Beasts". This LostTechnology is crucial to defeating the latest version of Ganon that's attacked Hyrule. However, the current-day Sheikah are on the same roughly medieval level of tech as every other race in Hyrule; this is because [[spoiler:they deliberately abandoned their technology after being banished from Hyrule thousands of years ago]], though a handful of Sheikah are working to recover their lost knowledge.

* Appropriately for a series where ancient ruins are one of the most populous level types, the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series is jam-packed with different precursors, most notably the ''Echidnas'' whose ancient weapons/relics/monsters set the stage for most of the world-threatening terror of the games. Interestingly enough, although absolutely all of them are shown to have possessed and/or utilized the [[{{MacGuffin}} Chaos Emeralds]] at some point, none of them claim responsibility for creating any of the Emeralds.\\

In ''Chronicles'' one of a races trapped inside the [[AnotherDimension Twilight Cage]] is referred to as the Precursors.

It may also happen that [[HumanitysWake Earth Humans are Precursors and their incredibly human descendants try to rediscover their heritage]], or conversely, if Earth Humans are the only descendants. If Humans are the Precursors, that's AdvancedAncientHumans. If everyone's ''scared'' of them, that's HumansAreCthulhu. If they pick on their descendants, that's AbusivePrecursors; if they couldn't care less about anyone else, it's NeglectfulPrecursors; if they help their descendants, it's BenevolentPrecursors. If there's one or more race that played {{Precursors}} to the {{Precursors}}, then they're RecursivePrecursors. Any and all of these are susceptible to AwakeningTheSleepingGiant. If they gave their tech or it's being used by another race, it's LowCultureHighTech. Very often, their most powerful technology will [[SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology appear deceptively primitive and/or ceremonial]]. If everyone gets into an argument over their leftover toys, you have an ArchaeologicalArmsRace on your hands.

* In the ''{{VideoGame/Seventh Dragon}}'' franchise, the Lucier played this role, originally. A highly advanced race whose technology seems almost magical to modern humans, they were at their peak when humans were *just* transitioning from the Paleolithic to Neolithic. This is also when they ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the first Draconic invasion of Earth, saving humanity and the rest of the biosphere. They're revived via cloning in ''7th Dragon 2020-II'' and given their own nation for their participation in thwarting that invasion, and by the original ''7th Dragon'', which takes place so far AfterTheEnd that trope no longer applies -- hinted at originally, confirmed later -- they're just known as one of the races of Eden, as the Earth of that time is known to its inhabitants.

* In the ''{{VideoGame/Seventh Dragon}}'' franchise, the Lucier played this role, originally. A highly advanced race whose technology seems almost magical to modern humans, they were at their peak when humans were *just* transitioning from the Paleolithic to Neolithic. This is also when they ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the first Draconic invasion of Earth, saving humanity and the rest of the biosphere. They're revived via cloning in ‘’7th Dragon 2020-II’’ and given their own nation for their participation in thwarting that invasion, and by the original ‘’7th Dragon‘’, which takes place so far AfterTheEnd that trope no longer applies -- hinted at originally, confirmed later -- they're just known as one of the races of Eden, as the Earth of that time is known to its inhabitants.

%%* In the ''{{VideoGame/}}'' franchise, the Lucier played this role, originally. A highly advanced race whose technology seems almost magical to modern humans, they were at their peak when humans were *just* transitioning from the Paleolithic to Neolithic. This is also when they ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the first Draconic invasion of Earth, saving humanity and the rest of the biosphere. They're revived via cloning in ‘’7th Dragon 2020-II’’ and given their own nation for their participation in thwarting that invasion, and by the original ‘’7th Dragon‘’, which takes place so far AfterTheEnd that trope no longer applies -- hinted at originally, confirmed later -- they're just known as one of the races of Eden, as the Earth of that time is known to its inhabitants.

** In the MetaOrigin of ''TabletopGames/GURPSSupers: IST'', beings called the Seeders (who may or may not be the same as ''GURPS Space'''s Precursors) travelled the galaxy millennia ago, tweaking the genes of varous species to give them potential for intelligence and a unique superpower. HumansAreSpecial because this went wrong, and instead of evolving so we all had the same power, we evolved to have the ''possibility'' of developing all kinds of powers.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'': GURPS Space]'' includes Precursors as a potential element a Game Master might want to weave into his game world.

* In the ''{{VideoGame/}}'' franchise, the Lucier played this role, originally. A highly advanced race whose technology seems almost magical to modern humans, they were at their peak when humans were *just* transitioning from the Paleolithic to Neolithic. This is also when they ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the first Draconic invasion of Earth, saving humanity and the rest of the biosphere. They're revived via cloning in ‘’7th Dragon 2020-II’’ and given their own nation for their participation in thwarting that invasion, and by the original ‘’7th Dragon‘’, which takes place so far AfterTheEnd that trope no longer applies -- hinted at originally, confirmed later -- they're just known as one of the races of Eden, as the Earth of that time is known to its inhabitants.

* In the ''{{VideoGame/Seventh Dragon}}'' franchise, the Lucier played this role, originally. A highly advanced race whose technology seems almost magical to modern humans, they were at their peak when humans were *just* transitioning from the Paleolithic to Neolithic. This is also when they ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the first Draconic invasion of Earth, saving humanity and the rest of the biosphere. They're revived via cloning in 7th Dragon 2020-II and given their own nation for their participation in thwarting that invasion, and by the original 7th Dragon, which takes place so far AfterTheEnd that trope no longer applies -- hinted at originally, confirmed later -- they're just known as one of the races of Eden, as the Earth of that time is known to its inhabitants.

* In the 7th Dragon franchise, the Lucier played this role, originally. A highly advanced race whose technology seems almost magical to modern humans, they were at their peak when humans were *just* transitioning from the Paleolithic to Neolithic. This is also when they ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the first Draconic invasion of Earth, saving humanity and the rest of the biosphere. They're revived via cloning in 7th Dragon 2020-II and given their own nation for their participation in thwarting that invasion, and by the original 7th Dragon, which takes place so far AfterTheEnd that trope no longer applies -- hinted at originally, confirmed later -- they're just known as one of the races of Eden, as the Earth of that time is known to its inhabitants.

[[/folder]],

[[folder:Fanworks]]

** ''FanFic/DominusMundiTheKingOfKings'': The Altantean Empire also serves as the precursor to all the modern civilizations.

* The Ancients of Piers Anthony's Literature/{{Cluster}} series and the demons of the Literature/{{Xanth}} novels, amongst them, of course, Xanth himself.
* There was a (unfortunately) short-lived collection of short stories, branded with the name Creator/IsaacAsimov and entitled Asimov's Universe, which was notable for featuring space-faring humans alongside five other non-humanoid races. (One was something like sentient bacon.) A recurring motif were the ruins and remnants left behind of an earlier, seventh space-faring species that had since vanished.
* The Elderlings in Creator/RobinHobb's ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings''.
* The Martians in the Literature/TakeshiKovacs books. Note: not actually from Mars; it just happened to be the first planet on which humans found their stuff.
* In David Brin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe, every intelligent race in the galaxy was Uplifted (engineered to sentience and given access to the Great Library) by a previous one, save the first. The Progenitors (self-evolved, now extinct) are [[GodGuise considered the next thing to gods]]. A race's clout in the galactic hierarchy is in part determined by how close they are to having been created directly by the Progenitors. Then along come the Humans, who have reached the stars alone, with no patron race and a complete fossil record that indicates they evolved naturally. It's practically heretical! It doesn't help matters (from the galactic standpoint) that humans have already Uplifted chimps and dolphins, too.\\

* It is common in WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfiction to speculate about some sort of precursors. Frequent culprits are a long since destroyed dragon civilization, a civilization full of alicorns, and humans.
** [[Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall The Writing On The Wall]] features AdventurerArchaeologist Daring Do and a team of workers excavating an AncientTomb built with extremely advanced masonry, far in advance of even what ponies could do in the present -- but the building has been dated back thousands of years before ponies first built buildings out of stone. Surrounded by metallic spikes to keep out intruders (which are, alas, easily circumvented by someone with wings) and with a room full of writing in dozens of long-lost languages, Daring Do naturally assumes that all of the rigmarole is meant to dissuade would be grave robbers. She's absolutely right. [[spoiler: Too bad that the building isn't a tomb, but a [[http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/ nuclear waste storage facility]] built by humans, and the attempts at dissuading future people from breaking into the place was for their own good.]]
* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', there are several:
** The Centaur Empire, which was once the biggest and most advanced Empire in it's heyday [[spoiler:and predated Ponykind as a sapient species]]. Sadly, Lord Tirek is the SoleSurvivor of the Empire [[spoiler:because [[PrecursorKillers he destroyed it]]]], and he is most certainly an {{Abusive Precursor|s}}. The Empire as a whole may count as BenevolentPrecursors to a degree, as they [[spoiler:treated the then nonsapient Ponies fairly well.]]
** The Age of Myths was this to the Age of Wonders, being all of G1. The Paradise Estate Ponies in particular count as BenevolentPrecursors, as they actively defended Ponyland from any threats that may come up, including defeating Grogar every five hundred years if they couldn't keep him locked up.
** The Age of Wonders was this to the current age [[spoiler:being the My Little Pony Tales society, until it was destroyed by a Class 2 Apocalypse]]. To a degree qualifies as BenevolentPrecursors, as some of them genuinely DID try to make the future brighter for the civilization to succeed them. [[spoiler:Also count as BenevolentPrecursors to the Lost Age, which they used their wish spell to create.]]
* The Gray of [[FanFic/HiddenFrontier Star Trek: Hidden Frontier]] are [[spoiler:set up to be precursors of some kind, but it turns out they're actually artificial life forms built by actual precursors, of whom Siroc, the BigBad, is the last one left.]]

* ''FanFic/MegaManRecut'' has the Vannu'bi, an ancient civilization that existed on a small remote island and were apparently destroyed by a volcanic eruption. They may have been AbusivePrecursors, since their architecture describes them as constantly warring with other civilizations and making deals with an EldritchAbomination.
* In ''FanFic/KingOfKingsRulingOverRulers'' (a Franchise/HarryPotter fanfic), the Atlantean Empire served as this to all the civilizations after the Great Cataclysm.
* In the Franchise/HarryPotter fanfic FanFic/DominusMundiTheKingOfKings (which is a reboot of the above fanfic), the Altantean Empire also serves as the precursor to all the modern civilizations.

* In ''VideoGame/TheBastardOfKosigan'', a ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' community module series, the precursor race were early humans who lived on Atlantis, but after the natural disaster that resulted in its sinking split into the 'control' faction and the 'free will' faction. The 'control' faction, led by Gabriel, eventually won the ensuing war with the 'free will' faction, led by Elisa Than (read Satan, though she wasn't actually that bad). Their war was primarily fought by using their advanced technology to mimic deities and create religions among lesser humans, so the 'control' faction are the 'angels' of modern Catholicism (the game is set in approximately 1300, but with magic and monsters and such (the King of France has standing pacts with several red dragons)) while the 'freedom' faction became the 'demons'. Ironically, Jesus was actually manipulated by the 'demons' (and you even get to meet the 'demon' commonly known as St. John), and the 'angels' created the Catholic church to subvert his message.

** What allows them to escape being considered [[NeglectfulPrecursors neglectful]] is that they sent a contingency against "inter-egg wars" - the Spear of Longinus, which can best be described as some sort of control rod which deactivates the egg it is attached to. Both Eggs had a Spear but Lilith's was lost on impact; Adam was the first to find Earth, but upon Lilith's unexpected landing, his Spear activated and sealed him; so, technically, everything worked just as expected. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It's not their fault the Lilim decided to yank Adam's Spear]].
*** There's a definite potential for the FAR to be AbusivePrecursors though. For all they supposedly didn't want the two eggs to mix, the warning they left behind [[IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou contained explicit instructions on how to go about doing it in such a way as to become a nigh-omnipotent cosmic being.]]

** [[Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall The Writing On The Wall]] features AdventurerArchaeologist Daring Do and a team of workers excavating an AncientTomb built with extremely advanced masonry, far in advance of even what ponies could do in the present - but the building has been dated back thousands of years before ponies first built buildings out of stone. Surrounded by metallic spikes to keep out intruders (which are, alas, easily circumvented by someone with wings) and with a room full of writing in dozens of long-lost languages, Daring Do naturally assumes that all of the rigmarole is meant to dissuade would be grave robbers. She's absolutely right. [[spoiler: Too bad that the building isn't a tomb, but a [[http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/ nuclear waste storage facility]] built by humans, and the attempts at dissuading future people from breaking into the place was for their own good.]]

* In ''Literature/CommonwealthSaga'', the Planters are an apparently long gone race who seeded a planet with "plants" strange combinations of organic and machine which come in ground, aquatic and orbital varieties. The humans who discovered the planet are secretly studying them - non-invasively, in case the Planters come back and are displeased that the humans have damaged their creation.
* Played with in the world of ''Literature/ThePrinceOfThorns'', with the beings referred to as "the builders", who created incredible works of technology and then disappeared. It becomes increasingly apparent that the world is ''not'' your average MedievalEuropeanFantasy, but is actually AfterTheEnd - "the builders" were us, before we nuked each other and lost most of our knowledge.

* The ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'' is littered with Precursor artifacts; there's considerable evidence that the eldrae homeworld itself - a BigDumbObject rather than a planet - is one. There's not much indication of what happened to them, and some eldrae are a bit disturbed that they're apparently the oldest of the extant young sophont species.

These may or may not be the same race, and the two collapses may be parts of the same event. The 7th edition Warhammer core book and Lizardman book hint heavily at this, and the 40k Necron book suggests using Lizardman models to represent the last refugees of the Old Ones.\\

The ''Warhammer'' world (un)officially used to be an isolated world in the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]] of ''40k'', but had been drifting from that idea for a while before WordOfGod revealed them to be separate but parallel 'verses (similar to the split between Warhammer Fantasy and Blood Bowl), sometime around '98. Of course, the references noted above are not the only hints: the Amazons of Warhammer have weapons left over from the Old Ones which bear a startling resemblance to wargear from 40k, not to mention Chaos champions with chainswords, and the second half of each volume of the in-universe ''Liber Chaotica''

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': The ancient elves serve as this setting's precursors, despite the fact that their descendants are still alive and kicking. Much of the magic that made ancient Tevinter so powerful is implied to have been stolen and reverse engineered from elven artifacts, and modern Dalish elves spend most of their time combing through ruins for scraps of history left behind by their ancestors. Interestingly enough, even though they were once immortal and capable of incredible feats of magic (such as creating entirely new species, physically walking in the Fade, and [[spoiler:constructing the Veil between the waking and dreaming worlds]]), [[FantasticRacism ancient elves don't inspire any of the awe that usually accompanies this trope from their human successors]] - [[EnslavedElves probably because their descendants are now scrubbing floors]]. Another reason is that the other races have their ''own'' precursor civilizations to look up to; the setting in general is deep into a dark age that they're only just starting to crawl out of, and everyone is lucky if they can ''use'' things like the Imperial Highway and Deep Roads, much less make more.

* In the ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', ''we''[[note]]Or, at least, we when we reach the late 2060s[[/note]] are the Precursors (or simply "The Old Ones", as is the title we are remembered by). The game is set in a PostApocalyptic future - somewhere around the late-31st century - where humanity has been reduced to [[FuturePrimitive primitive tribes comparable to the stone age]]. What exactly happened to us is one of the two great mysteries the game's story is centered around (the other being why half the planet's wildlife now consists mainly of cybernetic animals).

** [[spoiler:In the Refusal ending, the contemporary major races fill this role - Shepard and everyone s/he cares about get killed or worse, but the records you leave behind prove vital in a future cycle, allowing ''them'' to defeat the Reapers.]]
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', there's a series of ruins called "vaults" spread across the habitable worlds of Andromeda's Heleus cluster featuring blindingly advanced technology and tended to by strange synthetic constructs that Peebee dubs "Remnants". We know from the get-go that these were left behind by an earlier civilization for some unknown purpose; it's only late in the game that we learn [[spoiler: they're the creations of a hyper-advanced race called the Jardann. The Jardann also created most of Andromeda's wildlife out of a test tube along with the angara, which explains why the angara don't remember their origins or most of their history]]. The story goes that [[spoiler: the Jardann left behind their technology, including the vaults (which are essentially giant terraforming machines that can be manipulated to alter the environments of entire planets) for the angara to discover and use as they colonized the cluster]]. Whether or not they [[spoiler: intended to make their presence known to the angara is unknown, because they aborted the project and fled Heleus centuries ago after the Scourge - a giant superweapon - detonated with the force of a large supernova and destroyed the environments of the garden worlds the Jardann had created]]. They weren't around to see that the Scourge, while a destructive and possibly permanent presence in Heleus, was not fatal to the angara and they continue to survive on multiple worlds despite the hostile invasion of the Kett. Interestingly, [[spoiler:the Jardann were still in Heleus while the Andromeda Initiative arks were in flight, so all the events of the original trilogy take place centuries prior to the release of the Scourge]].

* The Ancients from ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon'' qualify, having made many, many technological breakthroughs, most notably [[spoiler:the many, many Towers, the drones to control them, the dragons to protect them, the monsters the Towers create to sustain the environment (or so Craymen claims), and Sestren to tie it all together]]. And then they conveniently vanished, leaving virtually nobody who understands any of the crap they left lying around, just that it's powerful and needs to be reclaimed. Of course, [[spoiler:the Towers keeping the environment in its status quo means removing any factor that could be a detriment. Including humans, should they overpopulate. Thus, the Ancients are ''kind of'' the reason the series takes place in a CrapsackWorld]]. It's never really stated what the true nature of all of the above is, really, just that it's bad and you have to stop it ([[spoiler:which you ultimately do in ''Saga'', leaving it on a somewhat triumphant note - and then in ''Orta'', it's implied that the consequences to the environment afterwards [[NiceJobBreakingItHero were hardly worth the effort]]]]).

** You can become a Precursor - [[BenevolentPrecursors benevolent]] or [[AbusivePrecursors otherwise]] - when you come across pre-space flight or pre-sapient species on other planets in the galaxy. You can establish an observation post over a world, enlighten the natives until they're ready to leave their home system, and keep them as a protectorate, perhaps to be integrated into your multicultural empire. Alternatively, you can crush their primitive armies with your invasion force and purge the planet of its original inhabitants, or {{Uplift|edAnimal}} a species just so you can use your mastery of genetic engineering to make them a [[HappinessInSlavery docile]], [[SapientEatSapient delicious]] SlaveRace.

** Also fitting this, yet to a less extent, are the ancient Night Elves: They were ruling the whole super continent, fought off any competing race and had access to unlimited magic - until they attracted the Burning Legion, which resulted in the Sundering, destroying most of their race, a huge part of the continent, and all of their magic-based civilization. Their ruins are still everywhere to be found and, of course, contain most powerful artifacts.
** Even before the Night Elves were the trolls who, while being less advanced than most other races, built gigantic cities and temples that were abandoned after the Night Elf takeover. Modern trolls live in these ruins today, worshipping their ancientry, but unable to achieve their greatness - the ancient trolls are their own race's Precursors.

* On Filgaia, the world from ''VideoGame/WildArms,'' a race of {{Precursors}} left behind a vast array of LostTechnology. [[spoiler:In the anime series ''Twilight Venom'' it was revealed that the precursors were from Earth, but left due to the annoyance of RandomEncounters]].
* The Steltek, from ''VideoGame/WingCommanderPrivateer'', were Precursors of the [[NeglectfulPrecursors neglectful]] variety, though they did make an effort to clean up after themselves once made aware of the problem.
* The Ancients in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series built the games jumpgate network and currently exist as [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence a gestalt consciousness who have surrendered their individuality to become in effect a single entity]]. They use another precursor race, the [[MechanicalLifeform Sohnen]], as an intermediary to the young races. Their objectives are to preserve intelligent life throughout the universe, retard the heat death of the universe, and to become [[JustForFun/AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit Type VI on the Kardashev scale]], a civilization one that uses the energy of several universes and can alter the physical laws of universes. Basically, gods.

* The ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' appears to have at least two Precursor races - the Telemap, whale-like beings that explored the Universe through AstralProjection, followed by the humanoid Isokist, who did so in person and colonized several galaxies before they began [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow experimenting with the dimensions outside our Universe]], which quickly led to them being nearly annihilated by [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]]. Somewhere along the way, one Isokist MadScientist created the Scourge - a sentient [[ApocalypseHow Ultimate Weapon]] in the form of a female Isokist - as a last-ditch defense against the invaders. The rest is hidden in the mists of time, but it is known that the Scourge survived, until eight billion years later it merged with a human teenager, becoming the character of Tennyo.
* The Drylon from ''Literature/BeyondTheImpossible''. They disappeared five billion years ago but they left behind technology so powerful that the gods will do anything to put their hands on it.
--> Five billion years ago, the Drylon disappeared. The legend goes that the Drylon waged war against the universe and lost. They lost so bad that hardly anybody remembers them.

* The French series ''Once Upon a Time... Space'' (the sci-fi and prevalently entertaining installment of the ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'' educational series) has ''at least'' two of these races. The two confirmed races were at war with each other, with one composed by [[HumanAliens human lookalikes]] (some of which landed on a primitive planet inhabitated by other HumanAliens and [[ETGaveUsWiFi taught them better science]] before [[NukeEm nuking them]] [[DisproportionateRetribution for attacking them in order to steal their technology]]) and the other implied to have normal-sized starships capable to [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up a planet]] (the asteroid belt is believed having been one such planet, where this race believed some of their enemies had taken refuge). The inhabitants of {{Atlantis}} are a subgroup of another race of HumanAliens, known for having interbred with Earth humans (with Psi's PsychicPowers implied to be the result of descending from them) and who are possibly connected to the first group, and a fourth, who actually appear, is a SufficientlyAdvancedAliens that may be the same who sent the Atlanteans on Earth and have some connection to Psi. The protagonist themselves become this from time to time, acting as teachers to less developed species.

*** There's a definite potential for the FAR to be AbusivePrecursors though. For all they supposedly didn't want the two eggs to mix, the warning they left behind [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing contained explicit instructions on how to go about doing it in such a way as to become a nigh-omnipotent cosmic being.]]