History Main / PreCursors

* Ultimately subverted in ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'' at no surprise to the viewer but the Precursors who created all the lost technology used in the games come from Eden, another name for Earth. Which makes us the Precursors and the people in the game merely our descendents.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' universe, the Forerunners are very much a precursor race, who believed that they held the "Mantle of Responsibility" for all life in the galaxy. All that's left of them are artifacts such as the titular "Halo" rings. [[spoiler:They purposely destroyed themselves activating the rings as a last resort to prevent a traveling parasite called "The Flood" from consuming all life in the galaxy, but not before leaving measures for the reseeding of life afterwards.]] Oddly, humans seem to have a unique connection to them -- much of Forerunner technology, including the Halos, can only be utilized by humans, and the major Forerunner installation on Earth is located in East Africa, right next to the area where modern humans are believed to have first evolved (since Forerunners were contemporaries of OriginalMan).

* Any ancient state ended up either as this or a VestigialEmpire. The best examples would be the six "cradles of civilization" where writing, urbanization, and features of modern society first developed independently of older civilizations: [[{{Mayincatec}} Mesoamerica]], the central Andes, AncientEgypt, Mesopotamia, [[SimSimSalabim the Indus River Valley]], and China.

* [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novels are practically littered with Precursors, numerous advanced civilizations that existed in aeons past until they variously died off, [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Sublimed]], or just plain mysteriously disappeared. These Precursors are the SufficientlyAdvancedAliens ''of'' SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, since most of Banks' protagonists themselves belong to a civilization that can casually travel across the galaxy, build gigantic habitats in space, and ''use the fabric of the Universe itself as a weapon'' -- and ''they'' are occasionally awed by the Precursors.

* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': Several ancient empires rose and fell over the history of local space, impacting its development to various degrees. They are discussed in the side blog [[https://www.well-of-souls.com/outsider/precursors.html at some length]].
** The earliest know civilization was active sixteen million years ago, and is known only from a large number of worlds bearing extensive cratering and having undergone mass extinctions at that time. Modern scholars believe this to be the testament of a devastating war between otherwise unknown powers, but nothing's known for sure.
** The Fenrias civilization arose long after these conflicts, but still over a million years back. It spread through local space and either subjugated or ignored the primitive ancestors of the modern sapient species. The Fenrias split into multiple factions early on and warred extensively against each other, eventually diverging into numerous distinct breeds. Two modern-day species, the Delrias and Morat, are descended from Fenrias populations that survived the fall of their empires.
** The Dreiman were small -- lapdog-sized -- but highly advanced aliens that arrived about a million years in the past from outside of local space and quickly wiped out the Fenrias nations, although a few fringe groups held on on the edges of their territory. They rarely settled planets and mostly remained in orbital stations, but engaged in extensive planetary and biological engineering -- they seeded and terraformed multiple worlds, many of which remain habitable into the present, and seemingly uplifted many of the local pre-sapient species.
** Around 500,000 years back, the Dreiman suddenly vanished and the remnant Fenrias nations all collapsed, to be replaced by the Soia. They were more advanced than the Dreiman and, like them, seem to have come from outside known space. They traveled in massive and heavily armed artificial moons that they used to enforce their rule and created numerous genetically engineered species, referred to as the Soia-Liron species; most were hyper-efficient food plants and animals, which are still found on multiple worlds, but at least five sapient species are known from Soia sites and may also have been created in this manner -- the ancestors of the modern Barsam, Neridi and Loroi and two now-extinct species. The Soia are thus believed to have been a multi-species civilization, although whether these species were naturally occurring ones from a single world, artificially created or a mix of both, as well as whether any of these were the "true" Soia, isn't really clear. The Soia empire collapsed 275,000 years ago, seemingly in a devastating conflict that subjected every settled planet to devastating orbital bombardment and caused every sapient species to regress to the stone ages -- galactic civilization is technically still climbing out of this dark age.

** Around 500,000 years back, the Dreiman suddenly vanished and the remnant Fenrias nations all collapsed, to be replaced by the Soia. They were more advanced than the Dreiman and, like them, seem to have come from outside known space. They traveled in massive and heavily armed artificial moons that they used to enforce their rule and created numerous genetically engineered species, referred to as the Soia-Liron species; most were hyper-efficient food plants and animals, which are still found on multiple worlds, but at least five sapient species are known from Soia sites and may also have been created in this manner -- the ancestors of the modern Barsam, Neridi and Loroi and two now-extinct species. The Soia are thus believed to have been a multi-species civilization, although whether these species were naturally occurring ones from a single world, artificially created or a mix of both, as well as whether any of these were the "true" Soia, isn't really clear. The Soia empire collapsed 275,000 years ago, seemingly in a devastating conflict that subjected every settled planet to devastating orbital bombardment and caused every sapient species to regress to the stone ages -- galactic civilization is technically still climbing out of these dark age.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' (both fantasy and ''[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 40k]]'') has the Old Ones, who created most sapient races. In ''Fantasy'' they just left, never to return, when the polar warp gats collapsed and let Chaos into the world, but in ''40k'' their backstory is given out in more detail. Apparently they had a massive, galaxy-shaking war with another old race, the Necrontyr (which later became the robotic Necrons), and created many races to help them fight. They (as well as most life in the galaxy) were nearly wiped out in the aftermath of the war, when the psychic disturbance caused by the massive amount of warp-fueled power used by them and the races they created caused the reality to tear apart and horrible creatures to spill through.\\\
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 distinct settings, sometime around '98.

* Ancient Phoenician-influenced Sardinia could count. They had iron weapons, conquered Italy and southern France, and had huge stone fortresses long before the Middle Sges. The end of the Sardinian civilization also coincides with an eruption of Vesuvius, plus the geography and political state of the island could match the description.

* ''The Psalms of Isaak'' has three levels of this, each filling a different precursor niche. Earliest were the [[SpaceElves Younger Gods]], who were so far in the past little of their works remain, but generally come off as BenevolentPrecursors. They were followed by the Weeping Czars, NeglectfulPrecursors who are mainly remembered for bringing the ''third'' group down on the world. That would be the [[SorcerousOverlord Wizard Kings]], very much AbusivePrecursors, though they still have worshippers in the present day of the series. The last Wizard King, Xhum Y'Zir, used a spell called the [[UnholyNuke Seven Cacaphonic Deaths]] to devastate most of the world to avenge [[DisproportionateRetribution his dead sons]], giving rise to the contemporary civilizations. The Younger Gods themselves were descended from the Elder Gods, who are hardly ever mentioned and so far into the past that they're little more than a mythical footnote, but are implied to be modern humans, or maybe our direct descendants (though EarthAllAlong is averted- the books are set in what is eventually revealed to be a LostColony, not Earth).

* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' have this in the form of the "Preservers" in Freedom City.

%%* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': The Ancients.
%%* ''TabletopGame/TheFantasyTrip'': The Mnoren.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' (both fantasy and ''[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 40k]]'') has the Old Ones, who created most sapient races. In ''Fantasy'' they just left, never to return, when the polar warp gats collapsed and let Chaos into the world, but in ''40k'' their backstory is given out in more detail. Apparently they had a massive, galaxy-shaking war with another old race, the Necrontyr (which later became the robotic Necrons), and created many races to help them fight. They (as well as most life in the galaxy) were nearly wiped out in the aftermath of the war, when the psychic disturbance caused by the massive amount of warp-fueled power used by them and the races they created caused the reality to tear apart and horrible creatures to spill through.\\\
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 distinct settings, sometime around '98.
%%* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The Thran.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Spacemaster}}'' has the Sianetic Harbingers, a long dead (?) race of beings that seeded the Galaxy with humanoid life. They were powerful telepaths and had a level of technology that dwarfs modern Terran equipment. Their artifacts and ruins are both desired and feared. Also, in the ''Privateers'' campaign setting, the "Architects" seeded life on many planets 4 billion years ago and guided the evolution of the seven major races until quite recently, then disappeared. Very little is known about them in-universe.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' does this several times with its [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas First Age]], [[AdventureTowns Second Age]], and [[EarthAllAlong possibly]] the [[CrapsackWorld Sixth]] [[TabletopGame/OldWorldofDarkness Age]]. It even has [[DinosaursAreDragons 0th Age]] and [[EldritchAbomination 1st Age]] civilizations that few inhabitants are aware of.
* ''TabletopGame/TheSplinter'': The history of the Realm stretches back 100,000,000,000 years and includes potentially ''thousands'' of precursor species/civilizations. This results in a tremendous range of (some very bizarre) SchizoTech that can be scavenged by players.

* ''TabletopGame/AtlantisTheSecondAge'': The world is destined to be dominated by seven different species over its existence. Humans are the fifth of these races, making the Jinn, Ophidians, Lemurians, and Atlanteans all Precursor races, and making humanity fated to be itself a Precursor for two future species. Somewhat unusually, none of the old Precursors have gone extinct yet, but their numbers and powers have been greatly diminished. The Atlanteans are still trying to cling on to their power, but humans are already in the process of taking over.
* ''TabletopGame/RaceForTheGalaxy'': The Alien Overlords were apparently a very advanced species and the dominant civilization in the Milky Way at some point in the past, but have now vanished. They did leave behind many artifacts, including some very advanced technology. They also seem to have uplifted and genetically engineered several servitor races. Since the backstory in ''Race for the Galaxy'' is told only in the sketchiest fashion, however, very little is known about the Overlords.
* ''TabletopGame/CosmicEncounter'': The backstory has a universe-scale version of this to explain the game's [[MassiveRaceSelection huge number of alien races]].

* ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'': As Precursors are a stock feature of superhero comics, ''Champions'' features the idea from time to time. For example, ''Kingdom of Champions'' introduced the "Progenitors" in this role.

* In ''Webcomic/JackDavidHopkins'', a FurryWebcomic, the furries that currently live on Earth are the descendants of furries created in a lab by humans, making humans the Precursors. They were wiped out in a war started by the first furry, Jack. The furry version of the United States government knows about furrykind's origins, and is (probably wisely) [[GovernmentConspiracy keeping it a secret]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Unity}}'', the creatures living in the ship are all distant descendants of Earth life. Humans built the ship, but disappeared long ago.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', [[spoiler: universes are created by sessions of Sburb. And the trolls created ''ours''.]]
* In ''Webcomic/ImpureBlood'', they are the Ancients. Roan is a HalfHumanHybrid descendent. [[http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue3/ib069.html The Watchers think they are evil.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Iothera}}'', the ancient Seb attained spaceflight, then apparently vanished.
-->'''Cassandra:''' We still don't really know who the Seb were — or how they built the Red Towers — or why they were on the moons — or even what all the stuff they left behind ''does''.
* ''Webcomic/{{Harbourmaster}}'' has the Qohathoth, who were tormented by the loneliness of being the only sapient lifeform in the galaxy. Although their quest to find other species to befriend (the [[TheSocialDarwinist Yogzarthu]] didn't want friendship) led them to journey into other dimensions before humans could become spacefarers, they terraformed many other planets to be Earth-like in hopes of sparing humanity that same pain. Ironically, they made the terraformed planets ''too'' paradisial; nothing was subjected to the kind of pressures that would select for sapience, until a comet strike altered Tethys's climate, allowing the entomorphs to evolve to sapience.

* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' has the [[TheGhost Old Flesh]] and, to a certain extent, the Parliament of the Old Flesh. Apparently, at the beginning of all things, all of existence contained the Old Flesh, and nothing else. At some point, the Old Flesh became infected, and as that infection devoured the Old Flesh, it gave rise to all other concepts in the Range. The Parliament are the remains of the Old Flesh itself[[note]]One in-universe book that the Eye Slob finds tells this tale using the metaphor of a 'cake' to describe the Flesh, and refers to the Parliament as the 'crumbs' of that cake[[/note]], and they seek to use their own infection to eliminate all concepts that arose from the Old Flesh (i.e. '[[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ literally everything]]') and re-create it in the form of the New Flesh.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': There's a scattering of ruins from extinct civilizations, but not as much as one would expect considering Fermi's Paradox. The oldest race around, the Gatekeepers, are only a million years old. Quite old, to be sure, but young compared to the galaxy. As Petey put it, "If it's this easy to be immortal, where are all the adults?" [[spoiler:They were all wiped out due to a variety of reasons over the eons, top of the list being the long-gun, a weapon that can fire anywhere in the galaxy from anywhere in the galaxy as long as you have targeting coordinates. The few survivors of these eras went completely off the grid, hiding their stars in massive superstructures or constructing spaceships the size of planets and running dark. The reason the Gatekeepers were still around (though they hid the bulk of their people in {{Dyson Sphere}}s) was as part of a plan to halt this cycle by restricting galactic travel to a PortalNetwork instead of receiverless {{teleportation}}, in the hopes that this would prevent the rise of the long-gun. It worked for a while, and the current galactic civilization has lasted longer than most previous ones, but eventually the Gatekeeper stranglehold was broken and things continued on the same path as before. It eventually turned out that many, perhaps even most, of them weren't wiped out at all; all civilizations reach a point where immortality is easy and it's just safer in the long term to move your entire civilization into gas-giant sized spaceships and go dark beyond the galactic rim. Once the galaxy figured out how to detect them they discovered that there's so many of those ships that by conservative estimates surviving precursors outnumber what they had thought was the population of the galaxy by ''fifteen orders of magnitude'']].

* ''Webcomic/Aurora2019'' has the Ancients, magically inert master architects who lived on the surface while humans and elves lived in caves to avoid the elemental winds. Even though they could not directly manipulate the elements they used tools to do so. However, their continent-spanning civilization tore itself apart in civil war. Today, the only traces of them are ruins, semi-fuctional war machines, and traces of their blood in humans and elves.

* 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.
* ''Literature/BeyondTheImpossible'': The Drylon 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.''

* ''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.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower She-Ra]]'' has the First Ones[[note]]Heavily implied to be AncientAstronauts from Eternia[[/note]], who integrated the planet of Etheria with their technology.
* In ''WesternAnimation/CadillacsAndDinosaurs'', humans of 21th century are refered as the Ancients and '''are''' the Precursors. [[BadFuture In the far future]], mankind has regress greatly in terms of technology and must now coexist with dinosaurs.

** The story includes a second set of precursors in the ancient predecessor of Athens (in another location in Greece which no longer exists), which embodied all of the traits of Plato's ideal state. After the war between the two ended in victory for Athens, it was also destroyed in the same calamity as Atlantis. Oddly enough no-one ever seems to believe that this culture was real, even though it gets much more focus in the story and the claims about it are much more modest.
* Medieval and Renaissance Europeans often thought of the Roman Empire this way, perceiving Rome as a great, civilized and intellectually superior culture they strived to emulate. The ruins of Roman buildings and infrastructure still dot the countryside to the modern day, and many European towns and cities were built among the ruins of Roman settlements -- which, in many cases, were much larger than their Medieval successors and more comparable in size to their modern iterations. The Greeks were held in a similar sort of awe, and Greek and Roman writings were held as a sort of final authority in scientific matters: suggesting that modern people could equal or ''surpass'' the Greeks and Romans -- "the Ancients", as they were known -- in art or science was seen as ridiculous. {{Adventurer Archaeologist}}s in Central Asia often thought of the various Silk Road Civilizations this way, too. Similarly, the early Iron Age civilizations of Greece, Anatolia and Mesopotamia which emerged after the Bronze Age collapse and subsequent "Dark Ages" viewed their predecessors as such, most notably the awe in which the Hellenic Greeks held the Mycenaeans.

* The mysterious Bronze Age Indus civilization reached levels of technology, health and urbanism not reached again until the Middle Ages (in India) or later. For just a bit of perspective, the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro had a better sewage system than nearby Karachi does today.
* Ancient Phoenician-influenced Sardinia could count. They had iron weapons, conquered Italy and southern France, and had huge stone fortresses long before the middle ages. The end of the Sardinian civilization also coincides with an eruption of Vesuvius, plus the geography and political state of the island could match the description.
* Any ancient state ended up either as this or a VestigialEmpire. The best examples would be the six "cradles of civilization" where writing, urbanization and features of modern society first developed independently of older civilizations: [[{{Mayincatec}} Mesoamerica]], the central Andes, AncientEgypt, Mesopotamia, [[SimSimSalabim the Indus River Valley]] and China.

* Theosophy features Atlantis (Precursor to Egypt and Mayan culture), Hyperborea (North Pole, precursor of europeans and asians), and Lemuria (precursor to the african cultures and the lower castes of india). Later authors like David Icke and Drunvalo Melchizedek added aliens to the mix.

* In the ''Manga/SoulHunter'' manga, five aliens, The First People, came to Earth millions of years ago after their home planet self-destructed. All but [[SealedEvilInACan one]] merged with the earth and its life forms to spread their blood, leaving behind the first seven paopei (magical weapons used in the series) from which all others would be copied.

* In ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', the lost civilization of [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Al Hazard/Alhazred]], whose artifacts and technologies were considered [[LostTechnology Lost Logia]] even back in the era of [[TheEmpire Ancient Belka]].

* The as-of-yet unnamed Ancient Kingdom in ''Manga/OnePiece'' fits this bill. Dating back from the Void Century, they were incredibly powerful, but later fell to the alliance which later became the World Government. Nonetheless, they left their Phoneglyphs all over the world, chronicling the events of the Void Century, which has become Nico Robin's goal.
* 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 [[PrecursorKillers wiped out]] when [[EvenEvilHasStandards they disagreed]] with [[GodhoodSeeker 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.

* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** The Celestials have influenced many planets, including Earth, where they created multiple races of superhumans and placed the initial spark in human DNA which would later mutate into the [[ComicBook/XMen X-Gene]]. They also test races and civilisations according to their standards to see who are worthy. They normally appear as skyscraper-sized mechanical giants, but these are actually suits of armour concealing their unknown true forms. Unfortunately, "capable of killing a Celestial" would eventually become [[TheWorfEffect something of a yardstick to show off how strong a new character or weapon is]].
** In addition, there are also the Elders of the Universe, a loose associations of beings who all are The LastOfTheirKind, and who hail from the first intelligent races to develop in the universe. They are less active, though, since they are all obsessed with one narrow hobby which apparently is the only thing that keeps them from dying of sheer boredom. The Grandmaster may be interested in the gaming and gambling habits of various lesser races, for instance, but couldn't care less about any aspects of their culture that has nothing to do with his obsession with games.
** There is also the race know as the Watchers, who ''started'' to do something similar, but got cold feet when early interference with a much more primitive race led to horrible wars. They have sworn to not interfere with their nigh godlike powers, only record what happens. (The Watcher appointed to Earth is a juvenile delinquent who breaks this rule regularly, but surreptitiously, so as to not get in trouble with his kind.)

* There's also the Old Gods, precursors of Jack Kirby's Fourth World beings. They are actually older than the DC Universe, and are said to have caused the destruction of the one before.
* The Merk in ''Nexus'' are or were a race of extremely psychically gifted and technologically advanced aliens who left the galaxy and, apparently, their bodies, behind. One of them remained behind, however, and empowered the eponymous hero.

* It is hinted that [[PhysicalGod Dr. Manhattan]] will [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence go on to do this]] [[spoiler: after the events of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' somewhere else in the universe, or in another one of his own creation]].

* The Mondoshawans in ''Film/TheFifthElement''- based on their representation- apply to this trope as well, at least to a certain degree.
* ''Film/{{Alien}}'' has the barely-featured Space Jockey's species, which the ExpandedUniverse claims is responsible for the creation of both humanity and the Xenomorphs. ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' clears this up a bit: the "Engineers", as they are called, apparently seeded life on Earth in prehistoric times. Whether this was done by just one Engineer or a collective is not clarified; the characters think it was all of them. They also intervened in some [[AncientAstronauts ancient cultures]], leaving clues in bas-relief and cave-painting form, pointing to a planet in a certain star system, about 34 LY from Earth. [[spoiler: The movie makes it clear that about 2000 years ago, they changed their mind about us for some reason and decided to exterminate humanity; the planet in question was one of their outposts, from where ships carrying biological weapons (much like the Xenomorphs) were to be [[AbusivePrecursors sent to cleanse the Earth of life]]. The only thing that saved us was the fact that the monsters escaped captivity and killed the Engineers at the outpost. All except one...]]
** The implication is there that they did indeed create the Xenomorphs as the perfect biological nuke. [[spoiler: ''Film/AlienCovenant'' debunks that implication by revealing the who and why of the Xenomorph's creation.]]

* ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'' has a twist on this in its final act, in that [[spoiler: humans have become extinct and are now viewed as an ancient and wise precursor race by the robots who have inherited the planet]].

* Creator/HPLovecraft loved this trope and his works arguably served as an early TropeCodifier. See for example "Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu", "Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime" and ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness''. In ''At the Mountains of Madness'' [[spoiler:the Elder Things colonized the Earth two billion years ago and sowed the seeds of all advanced life on the planet]]. The Mi-Go of "Literature/TheWhispererInDarkness" may precede the existence of the universe itself. Lovecraft usually concentrated more on the ''lore'' of his Precursors rather than their physical objects. In his work, the Precursors sometimes remain on Earth, hidden, in outer space, or in a space adjacent to our cosmos, ready to return at any time. The "Franchise/CthulhuMythos" codified by his friend and admirer Creator/AugustDerleth builds on this. (Lovecraft himself did not use the term "Cthulhu mythos".)
* Andy [=McDermott=]'s action-adventure novels. The first is called ''The Hunt for Atlantis'' and is centered around, oddly enough, a hunt for Atlantis. As the series goes on, other mythical items are 'explained' as advanced technology stemming from the Atlanteans. [[spoiler:As the series goes on even further, the characters stumble across the Garden of Eden, which is the final resting place of a pre-human civilisztion which was driven to extinction by their human slaves, who stole certain technologies and fled. The Atlanteans are then revealed to have been the result of cross-breeding between those prehumans and the humans, causing the reader to re-evaluate the "it came from Atlantis" explanation.]]
%%* ''Literature/{{Cluster}}'': The Ancients.
%%* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'': The demons.

%%* ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'': The Elderlings.
%%* ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'': The Martians -- they're not actually from Mars; it just happened to be the first planet on which humans found their stuff.%%That's nice, but how are they an example?
* ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'': 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.\\
\\
In the second novel set in the Uplift Universe, ''Startide Rising,'' [[spoiler:the first dolphin-captained Earth ship discovers what is assumed to be a fleet of the fabled Progenitors, and must try to return to Earth while being hounded by bickering alien battle fleets after the transmission of their findings is intercepted; the most active (and warlike) of the alien races/alliances are not happy that the wolfling Humans might have the key to the fate of the Progenitors (which could prove most or all of their belief systems wrong]]. The idea that [[spoiler:humans may be the descendants or direct product of the Progenitors]] is also examined.
* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/MorgaineCycle'' the Qhal left behind a PortalNetwork of {{Cool Gate}}s, which they themselves copied from [[RecursivePrecursors a still older alien species]]. The humans who discovered this, rather than copying it like the Qhal did, are systematically ''destroying'' the network left behind by the Qhal. That's because the Gates can be used for TimeTravel, and any TemporalParadox caused by the Gates will trigger a TimeCrash which will destroy civilization on each planet with a Gate. Such a TimeCrash is precisely what wiped out the Qhal, leaving behind their Gates for humans to discover.
* Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' series has humanity and its allies expanding into a significantly used universe, with a wide variety of species at various stages of development from primitive to superadvanced to completely extinct. Several of these, most notably the Xunca, the Tar-Aiym, and the Hur'rikku, had a profound impact on the earlier history of the galaxy and left numerous [[{{Phlebotinum}} artifacts]] [[NeglectfulPrecursors lying around]] after they variously departed. The Xunca are actually still around, but they packed up and moved to a different galaxy to avoid an encroaching EldritchAbomination that the modern day protagonists now have to deal with.
* In Creator/LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle's novel ''Literature/{{Footfall}}'', the aliens who invade Earth are actually at a caveman level of social development; the Forerunners left carved blocks on their planet which detail everything from simple metallurgy through advanced laser weapons and Bussard ramscoops. As a result, there are many technological paths they never even thought of.
* In Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' universe, there are ''two'' sets of precursors. First there were the Thrintun (AKA "Slavers"), who seeded the galaxy with the ingredients of life so it would grow and evolve into unique delicacies for them to eat (being hypnotic slavers, they were defeated by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tnuctip Tnuctipun]] in the inevitable TurnedAgainstTheirMasters, and they [[OmnicidalManiac took all sentient life with them]]. Talk about [[AbusivePrecursors bad parenting]]). Then there were the Pak, a race of more recent aliens with three life stages (child, breeder, Protector) only sentient in the third stage, and programmed to be homicidal to anything that could conceivably threaten their descendants (mutations were not recognized). Earth was a LostColony of them who couldn't advance to Protector stage when their supply of tree-of-life root ran out due to a lack of thallium in Earth's soil. They left behind lost colonies and random apelike animals all over, including [[spoiler:the Literature/{{Ringworld}}, which they had built and abandoned]].
* Creator/AndreNorton
** She wrote a lot of space opera novels featuring relics of various lost civilizations, collectively called "Forerunners". She was one of the early developers of the abandoned-gateway-between-worlds idea that the ''[[Franchise/StargateVerse Stargate]]'' films and TV series are based on; one of her Forerunner cultures left behind such a network, which younger species, including humans, have started to explore.
** In her ''Literature/WitchWorld'' fantasy novels, humans migrated to High Hallack centuries ago only to find that the Old Ones had been there before them; these NeglectfulPrecursors left behind quite a few ruins and dangerous artifacts.
* Frederik Pohl's ''Literature/HeecheeSaga'' set many of the standards for this trope. Humanity has stumbled on an space station abandoned by the local Precursors, the Heechee, and try to use the FasterThanLightTravel spacecraft left behind to search for alien artifacts to reverse-engineer. The destinations are pre-programmed and can only be accessed randomly, making exploration a dangerous crapshoot. Some of the survivors return rich; many return dead, if they return at all.

* In Creator/CharlesSheffield's Heritage Universe novels, the Builders left behind artifacts the size of ''planets'' -- e.g. Cocoon, the first such artifact discovered by humans, was so named because that's what it looks like if you're far enough away from the planet it surrounds. A whole discipline of {{Adventurer Archaeologist}}s exists to study Builder artifacts.
* In the Strugatsky Brothers' ''Literature/NoonUniverse'' series, the Wanderers may or may not be still active, but they fit this trope closely enough because the humans only ever find the traces of their continued and enigmatic work. They seem to be "progressing" the other civilisations, but their activities often enough utterly screw over local civilisations, though it [[OmniscientMoralityLicense might be for their ultimate good in some way anyway]].
* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' has several.
** Some elven kingdoms are precursors to the people of Middle-Earth.
** Númenor and Arnor. Even though Gondor still exists and so Númenórean civilization is not completely gone. However, it is [[VestigialEmpire much reduced]], occupying only a small southern corner of Middle-earth. Its northern counterpart Arnor is almost entirely gone, existing only as the Shire and Bree.
** From the perspective of the modern day, the Elves of Tolkien's [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Middle-Earth]] are a Precursor race. Humans did not descend from them, but they've been in the world longer than anyone and have ''really'' long-lasting artifacts. Gandalf, Thorin, and Bilbo's swords in ''Literature/TheHobbit'' are all artifacts from Gondolin, a city that was destroyed roughly 6,000 years before the events of the book. Not only are they unrusted and sharp, their [[PowerGlows orc proximity alert]] is still active.
** Downplayed, since they never actually ''did'' anything until much later, but dwarves are technically the oldest mortal race in Arda, having been created by Mahal (the dwarven name for Aulë) and granted souls by Eru long before the elves or humans awakened.
** And then there are the Woses, who are implied to be the original humans who built the first civilisations in middle earth.
* In David R. Witanowski's [[Literature/TheReynardCycle Reynard Circle]] three major civilizations have come and gone by the time period of the novels. (Possibly more than three if the fan theory that the series is set long AfterTheEnd is ever confirmed.)
** The golden skinned Telchines, a matriarchal culture that coexisted with [[OurGiantsAreBigger Giants]]. The castle of Maleperduys was built by them. Their rule came to an end rather abruptly due to...
** ...the Demons, who enslaved the world in seven days. They created the Chimera, built functional ''robots'', and would have ruled for an eternity were it not for their apparent inability to get along with each other. A civil war (implied to be nuclear) weakened them to the point that the last of them was slain by the founder of the Kingdom of...
** Aquilia, a kingdom that eventually splintered into several dozen countries after the last member of the royal family drowned at sea a thousand years prior to the beginning of the saga. They built some truly impressive structures using the technology of the Demons, but seemingly forgot how to use it as the years went by (either that, or the technology stopped working and they had no idea how to fix it.) Duke Nobel claims to be a direct descendant of the royal family, but it's unclear if this is just part of his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity public relations policy]].
* The Valheru in Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar]]'' series.

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's novel ''Literature/{{Strata}}'', the {{Precursors}} built the titular strata machines reverse-engineered by humans for building planets, and other techology that humans didn't already develop themselves. These planet-building (and terraforming) precursors, called "Spindles" due to their great height, had their own set, called "Rollers" who didn't make celestial bodies, but megastructures (their ship is 500,000 miles long). These guys were preceeded by "Paleotechs", whom destroyed stars to make heavy elements (and pretty nebuli). These, in turn, had "[=ChThons=]", {{Space Whale}}s who exhaled hydrogen and kindled suns. Every precursor race had some kind of celestial artwork, which they made for no other reason than a hobby, and then they went extinct, all the way back to [[spoiler: the universe being created by a multiverse-spanning MegaCorp. This is, in fact, mostly a lie; the MegaCorp was the only real one, and they just wanted their creation (really only a few tens of thousands of years old) to have a bit of backstory.]].

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight" Olivia thinks a god had been there in [[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy times she dreamed of]], even though absent now.
-->''"The nameless, forgotten ones. Who knows? They have gone back into the still waters of the lakes, the quiet hearts of the hills, the gulfs beyond the stars. Gods are no more stable than men."''
* The Arisians feature predominantly in the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series. As well being the ancestors of all species (save [[BigBad one]]), they devise a multi-eon spanning plan leading to the birth of the Children of the Lens. These five psychic superpeople will not only be able to help vanquish the enemy (a race of malevolent being hailing from another space-time continuum), but will grow in power to become greater then the Arisians themselves.
* Subverted in the Literature/{{Hainish}} books and stories by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin. The "Hain" are precursors who created humanoid life forms on many worlds (including earth), but they are still around and still a dominant species in interstellar society.
* The ancient race that created the warp drive in ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass'' by Creator/JohnRingo and Creator/TravisSTaylor after the first book. They also created a space station that can control the output of an entire star. Why? [[MundaneMadeAwesome A systemwide concert venue!]]
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''[[Literature/SpiralArm The January Dancer]]'', "the folk of sand and iron."

* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' has several features that are attributed to Precursor-like races. The two most prominent are the Rakata and the Celestials:
** The Rakata, who debut in ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', created the first modern hyperdrives, built a vast empire (though it had relatively few planets since their dark side-powered hyperdrives could only travel to worlds with a large Force presence) and created a massive orbital factory called the Star Forge which could build enough material to supply their entire empire.
** The Celestials lived much further in the past, circa 200,000-50,000 BBY. They created Centerpoint Station (a giant repulsor beam that created the Corellian system and is so advanced that a 25,000-year-old Galactic civilization cannot replicate or even understand how it works!) as well as the Hyperspace Triangle that bisects the galaxy (which makes galactic civilization possible), the Maw Cluster of black holes, the hyperspace anomaly that seals off the Unkown Regions and much more. The Rakata and most of the other "younger" precursor races started out as vassals of the Celestials. The Celestials were created by the EU's then-head writer Troy Denning in his novel ''The Joiner King'', and they play a key role in the backstory of Denning's MythArc that stretched from the ''Literature/DarkNestTrilogy'' to ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi''; Denning also [[ArcWelding arc welded]] them to existing elements of TheVerse such as the aforementioned Centerpoint, which debuted in ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy'' a decade earlier. Only in the very last book of ''Fate of the Jedi'' is their true identity revealed as [[spoiler: [[AnthropomorphicPersonification the Family of Mortis]], as seen in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'']].

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/BetweenPlanets'' we have the First Empire which originated on the Fifth Planet and which became the asteroid belt. Its ruins could be found on Mars and Venus and beneath the oceans of Earth. Don Harvey's parents were doing archaeological work in ruins on Mars while Don was at BoardingSchool on Earth. While its technology was not immediately viable, records left behind contained hints to a new physics that through difficult research led to 20 g spaceships and artificial gravity. The story gave the example of reading a treatise on modern electronics being written in Sanskrit poetry being lucid in comparison.
* The Dolbrians In SA Swann's Literature/TerranConfederacy universe terraformed an unknown but large number of worlds, several of which still have star maps and/or megalithic artifacts on them. The [[ScienceMarchesOn Face on Mars]] is one such artifact. They vanished from the galaxy millions of years ago, for unknown reasons.

* 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.
* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', the Imass were what has become known as one of the Four Founding Races (together with their potentially RecursivePrecursors the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Jaghut]], the AbusivePrecursors known as the Forkrul Assail and the NeglectfulPrecursors, the [[LizardFolk K'Chain Che'Malle]]). Having been a hunter-gatherer society, they haven't left any advanced technology behind and besides, the ''[[DemBones T'lan]]'' Imass are still around anyway. Quite literally, the Imass were also the precursors of humans, preceding and in some places co-existing with them much like the Neanderthals did in the real world.
* 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.
* The first ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novel mentions that another sentient race, the Keosamas, existed before the Olydrians, the race that all {{Player Character}}s incarnate. Keosamas reached a high level of progress in terms of magic due to the fact that Olydri was much more hostile at the time, so they HadToBeSharp. Suriving Keosamas can be found in a legendary underwater settlement near Piratas Island.
* ''Literature/TheShatteredSea'' takes place in a Norse FantasyCounterpartCulture within a Medieval fantasy setting, which has been built on the ashes of a previous Elven civilization, which built with materials that cannot be replicated and had strange magical devices. However, it's heavily implied throughout and more or less revealed that the setting is EarthAllAlong (it's actually not a FantasyCounterpartCulture- it's actually ''in'' Scandinavia), the Elves are modern/slightly futuristic humans, and Elf Magic is just technology.
* In "[[http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm A Colder War]]" by Creator/CharlesStross, Stephen Jay Gould is presenting some recent paleozoic fossils and artifacts to members of a top-secret government agency that, unknown to him, deals in [[spoiler:{{Eldritch Abomination}}s straight out of Creator/HPLovecraft]], and has been trying to keep this stuff secret from the public. When he shows them a fossil of [[spoiler: one of the "Old Ones" from ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'']], the protagonist thinks "he's found a Predecessor, god help him."
* In ''{{Literature/Kane}}'' the last of "elder races" like the Scylredi and the Krelran, still live in degenerate forms, having forgotten their former greatness. Kane also meets Dwassllir, the last king of giants, in "Two Suns Setting".
* ''Literature/TheGam3'': The Game was created by the Predecessors and the Lords of Life as the culmination of their galaxy-spanning genocidal war. The Predecessors are still around, and are the strongest individual players in the game. The Lords of Life have barely been mentioned beyond their name.
* In the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' series, the Eldren dotted the continent with vast constructions of [[MadeOfIndestructium utterly indestructible]] Elderglass, far beyond the capabilities of human alchemy or magic to duplicate or alter. The entire species disappeared millennia before the beginning of the series for no known reason. [[spoiler:The Bondsmagi of Karthain believe that Eldren magic drew the attention of something terrible from beyond the stars, and take great pains to disperse their own magic to keep it from happening again.]]
* There are two examples in ''TheLicaniusTrilogy''. The Builders were first, and they created magnificent cities, buildings and engineering marvels before causing their own destruction. The Shalis were second, and they mastered the use of Essence and passed down their knowledge to humans before going extinct at the hands of the Venerate.
* In ''Literature/TheExpanse'', [[spoiler:a precursor race once had a huge empire, and tried to colonize Earth by sending a thing which can change living beings to build a portal.]]
* In the ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' series, a million years ago the Barkonids settled the galaxy as their planet was shot out of it. New colonies weren't given a lot of technology to prevent them from becoming decadent, which let most of them to become low tech. Over 50,000 years age the 'First Mankind', the Lemurians, settled the galaxy again, but they were wiped away in an interstellar war and fled to Andromeda galaxy. Then at least 20,000 thousand years ago we get the Akonids, who spread out but become really isolationist after a colonial war of independence with the Arkonids, who are currently becoming decadent, the next step will probably be humanity.
* ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' had the Daskins, a race mentioned in myths and legends of most galactic races. According to some, they once ruled the galaxy and had advanced to the point where it's impossible for modern races to figure out how the remains of their tech work. They may be able to copy some of it, especially their OrganicTechnology, though. The rumors also say they had VoluntaryShapeshifting and PsychicPowers. They also built a PortalNetwork through the galaxy that even reaches as far as the Magellanic Clouds, with entrance points located in gas giants, including Jupiter (the Great Red Spot). At some point, some speculate that they have realized that they became AbusivePrecursors and left the galaxy, leaving behind their creations, known as the Lords of Emptiness, as temporary stewards, until another race was worthy of taking up the mantle. There are indications that humanity is being groomed for the role.
* ''Literature/TheSisterVerseAndTheTalonsOfRuin'' has the Crest, who created the Dreadlands and most of its infrastructure before they were annihilated by the Lord in White and its darklings.
* The ''{{Literature/Shannara}}'' Series has an interesting take on this; as the series is set in the future, it's our current civilisation which is the precursor civilisation.
* ''Literature/RoguesOfTheRepublic:'' The "ancients" colonized the continent thousands of years ago, bringing with them incredible {{Magitek}} and all manner of servants, including all the human races, elves, and dwarves. Most modern civilizations are built on the scraps of technology they left behind, and even though none of it is operating perfectly, it is still capable of incredible things. They left the world in order to [[spoiler:protect it from the Glimmering Folk. As long as the ancients are gone, the Glimmering Folk cannot step foot on the world or any other connected to it]].
* The Grey Folk of Christopher Paolini's ''Literature/TheInheritanceCycle''. They were the original speakers of the [[LanguageOfMagic Ancient Language]], but lived in a time when the language wasn't connected to magic at all; instead, one cast spells by thinking about what one wanted to happen. However, this method was prone to interference by intrusive thoughts. Speaking one's intent aloud was helpful, and so was common practise, but wasn't foolproof. [[note]]As [[OldMaster Oromis]] puts it: "If you said 'burn that door' and by chance looked at me and thought of me..."[[/note]] Eventually, one of the Grey Folk became distracted and [[GoneHorriblyWrong accidentally cast a spell]] that [[ApocalypseHow devastated the whole world.]] Horrified, the surviving Grey Folk cast a spell that bound their language to magic, allowing the act of speaking one's intent aloud to override such distracted thoughts and maintain the spell's intended structure, creating magic as it's known today. The surviving Grey Folk were insufficient in numbers to maintain a population, so they're stated to have interbred with the 'younger races' and eventually disappeared.
* In ''Literature/NexusNine'' the main character ''is'' a Precursor, of sorts, a fusion of an uplifted cat in the Tri-Galactic Navy and a millennia-old memory chip implanted in her brain. Unfortunately, TheFogOfAges has set in and she doesn't recall the chip's origins, just that the [[HumanitysWake humans]] most uplifts revere as "The First Ones" were actually preceded by an eras-old octopus civilization and it came through a [[PortalNetwork Nexus pathway]] at some point.
* ''Literature/{{Semiosis}}'': The human colonists on Pax move into an abandoned city built by aliens who had arrive on the planet before them and then disappeared. The aliens are named "Glassmakers", as much of their architecture features ornate glass domes, windows, and ornaments. A century later, the colonists' descendants meet a group of living Glassmakers, who rejected mutualism with Pax's sapient PlantAliens and adopted a nomadic existence.

** The Rakata, who debut in ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', created the first modern hyperdrives, built a vast empire (though it had relatively few planets since their dark side-powered hyperdrives could only travel to worlds with a large Force presence) and created a massive orbital factory called the Star Forge which could build enough materiel to supply their entire empire.

** Númenor and Arnor. Even though Gondor still exists and so Númenórean civilization is not completely gone.However, it is [[VestigialEmpire much reduced]], occupying only a small southern corner of Middle-earth. Its northern counterpart Arnor is almost entirely gone, existing only as the Shire and Bree.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' (both fantasy and ''[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 40k]]'') has the Old Ones, who created most sapient races. In ''Fantasy'' they just left, never to return, when the polar warp gats collapsed and let Chaos into the world, but in ''40k'' their backstory is given out in more detail. Apparently they had a massive, galaxy-shaking war with another old race, the Necrontyr (which later became the robotic Necrons), and created many races to help them fight. They (as well as most life in the galaxy) were nearly wiped out in the aftermath of the war, when the psychic disturbance caused by the massive amount of warp-fueled power used by them and the races they created caused the reality to tear apart and horrible creatures to spill through.\\
\\
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.\\
\\

* ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' has the Ancient Civilisation, a race of arthropods that had a really bad taste in Gods. Initially worshopping the "Moon", they then went on to worship [[EldritchAbomination Them]], who gave them shadow magic. This eventually turned the whole race into the Shadow Monsters that haunt the insane. Almost all of their technology is [[CastFromSanity]].

* ''VideoGame/Don'tStarve'' has the Ancient Civilisation, a race of arthropods that had a really bad taste in Gods. Initially worshopping the "Moon", they then went on to worship some [[EldritchAbomination]]s, who gave them shadow magic. This eventually turned the whole race into the Shadow Monsters that haunt the insane. Almost all of their technology is [[CastFromSanity].

* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, the race of giant Celestials have influenced many planets, including Earth. They wear strange suits of armor, giving the impression that they are mechanical, but that's not the case. They also test races and civilisations according to their standards to see who are worthy. In addition, there are also the Elders of the Universe, a loose associations of beings who all are The LastOfTheirKind, and who hail from the first intelligent races to develop in the universe. They are less active, though, since they are all obsessed with one narrow hobby which apparently is the only thing that keeps them from dying of sheer boredom. The Grandmaster may be interested in the gaming and gambling habits of various lesser races, for instance, but couldn't care less about any aspects of their culture that has nothing to do with his obsession with games.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2932 SCP-2932]] also reveals that humans and bigfoots are NotSoDifferent. [[spoiler: Not only did the Bigfoots have their own facilities for containing anomalous objects, but they also overthrew [[RecursivePrecursors the ones that came before them.]]]]

* The Eldeen in the ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' series.

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'': The premise of the series' MetaPlot is that an advanced CrystalSpiresAndTogas civilization preceded our own, but was devastated by an apocalyptic event 75,000 years ago. This civilization was ruled by the Isu, a long-lived, hyperintelligent species that regarded humans as inferiors at best and slaves at worst, enforcing their rule with MindControl technology. AfterTheEnd, dying of underpopulation, they seeded the world with artifacts programmed to FlingALightIntoTheFuture so that humans in the 21st century could save themselves from a recurrence of the same catastrophe. They also created HalfHumanHybrids in an attempt to pass on their "sixth sense" of "knowledge", which was only partially successful, but resulted in a line of humans who were able to interact with their artifacts and use their powers. Our concepts of gods, in this world, are distorted remembrances of the Isu.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', the Eridians fill this role. They had created an incredibly advanced civilization on the wasteland planet Pandora, but it all mysteriously vanished millenia before the game's events. Remnants of their civilization are all over the place, and simple artifacts of their technology hold immense power. But by far the most legendary aspect of their legacy is The Vault, a container for... something, no one really knows what, that is the most sought after power on Pandora. The Vault is revealed to be [[spoiler:the TailorMadePrison for [[SealedEvilInACan The Destroyer]], an EldritchAbomination which nearly wiped out the Eridians. They sacrificed everything to contain The Destroyer within The Vault, leaving "Guardians" to ensure that no idiot would open the vault and cause the apocalypse. It doesn't work... [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu but the player(s) handle the Destroyer just fine]], and the [[{{VideoGame/Borderlands2}} sequel]] shows them being set to keep doing that to the other nasties in any others of the Eridians' vaults.]] It's noted that the various corporations' interest in Pandora is due to alien relics being found on a different planet nearby, so either the Eridians were space-faring, or there is more than one Precursor civilization. ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' has [[spoiler:its protagonists open an Eridian vault that houses a chest within it, [[AmbiguousEnding but them opening the chest is only shown to have made them suddenly disappear]].]]

** Around 500,000 years back, the Dreiman suddenly vanished and the remnant Fenrias nations all collapsed, to be replaced by the Soia. They were more advanced than the Dreiman and, like them, seem to have come from outside known space. They traveled in massive and heavily armed artificial moons that they used to enforce their rule and created numerous genetically engineered species, referred to as the Soia-Liron species; most were hyper-efficient food plants and animals, which are still found on multiple worlds, but at least five sapient species are known from Soia sites and may also have been created in this manner -- the ancestors of the modern Barsam, Neridi and Loroi and two now-extinct species. The Soia are thus believed to have been a multi-species civilization, although whether these species were naturally occurring ones from a single world, artificially created or a mix of both, as well as wether any of these were the "true" Soia, isn't really clear. The Soia empire collapsed 275,000 years ago, seemingly in a devastating conflict that subjected every settled planet to devastating orbital bombardment and caused every sapient species to regress to the stone ages -- galactic civilization is technically still climbing out of these dark age.

* ''Webcomic/{{Drive}}'': The Sill were the most advanced race the galaxy has ever known and the only one to ever reach a type 2 Kardashev civilization. They ruled the galaxy for over 20,000 years undisputed, they played crucial roles in the history of almost every species they encountered and their technology reached levels that modern societies can barely dream of. All that's left of them now are some impressive ruins and some slowly dying monks.

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'': The premise of the series' MetaPlot is that an advanced CrystalSpiresAndTogas civilization preceded our own, but was devastated by an apocalyptic event 75,000 years ago. This civilization was ruled by The Ones Who Came Before, a long-lived, hyperintelligent species that regarded humans as inferiors at best and slaves at worst, enforcing their rule with MindControl technology. AfterTheEnd, dying of underpopulation, they seeded the world with artifacts programmed to FlingALightIntoTheFuture so that humans in the 21st century could save themselves from a recurrence of the same catastrophe. They also created HalfHumanHybrids in an attempt to pass on their "sixth sense" of "knowledge", which was only partially successful, but resulted in a line of humans who were able to interact with their artifacts and use their powers. Our concepts of gods, in this world, are distorted remembrances of The Ones Who Came Before.

* Much of the plot of ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' is fixing the mistakes of the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Precursor Race]], who infected much of planet 4546B with a bacteria, that was devastating their race, and implied to have driven it to extinction, entirely accidentally when setting up a research station there, to find a cure. It's up to you to finish what they weren't able to, to save your life.

Compare/contrast with SufficientlyAdvanced, SpaceElves, TheFairFolk, EldritchAbomination.

Predecessors now leave behind nothing but [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis tantalizing ruins]] and rare, sometimes incomprehensible [[LostTechnology artifacts]] and [[PointlessDoomsdayDevice dangerous weapons]]. Just why, no one knows. Perhaps they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, succumbed to decadence or were wiped out by [[{{Gotterdammerung}} a disaster or war]], or maybe they just relocated ''en masse'' to ''somewhere else'' where they haven't been found yet.

* 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 [[PrecursorKillers 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.

* In ''Literature/TheDarkSideOfTheSun'', the {{Precursors}} called "Jokers" were known only for the mark they made on the universe of building [[AGodAmI blatantly impossible things]] for no known reason but [[GreatGazoo the lulz]].

** The gate network itself was created by one such race, named (creatively) the Ancients, though they later are discovered to have called themselves the Anquietas (formerly the Alterans, later the Lanteans after the planet on which Atlantis resided). They eventually [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]] and adopted a strict [[AlienNonInterferenceClause non-interference policy]] on the lower planes. The other side of that coin is the Ori, also ascended Alterans but [[AGodAmI with a very different policy]]; they are eventually revealed to have driven the Ancients from their home galaxy to the Milky Way.

** [[spoiler: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/SCP-4001 SCP-4001]] is a massive [[GeniusLoci sentient]] library that chronicles the lives of every human being that has ''ever'' existed, numbering at least 120 billion in total and with new ones created every minute; the oldest ones stretch back 75,000 years. Burning a book or tearing out the first pages results in the person it's about being [[{{Retgone}} erased from existence.]] [[spoiler: Beneath the floorboards is a huge layer of ash, the last remnant of the ancient ''Homo nobilis'' civilization after they wiped themselves out in a nuclear war 70,000-80,000 years ago. The library asked the last Watcher to burn the entire collection of books so that the damage could be undone, which resulted in them being wiped from reality]]