History Precursors / Literature

* ''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.\\\

* ''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.

* In ''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.

* ''Literature/AColderWar'' 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/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.
* In ''Literature/{{Contact}}'' and the movie based on it, an unknown ancient race of aliens built the "cosmic subway system" of wormhole transportation used to bring a single human to meet the successor aliens who inherited the system.
* [[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 {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s ''of'' {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s, 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.
* In ''Literature/TheDarkSideOfTheSun'', the Precursors called "Jokers" were known only for the mark they made on the universe of building blatantly impossible things for no known reason but [[GreatGazoo the lulz]].
* 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.
* 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. The fact that something was able to wipe out a civilisation as advanced as they were is a constant source of worry through the series.]]
* 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 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.]]
* 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.
* 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.
* Every known non-human race in Andrey Livadny's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series can be considered a precursor, as four of them are at least 3 millions of years old, while several others are ''billions'' of years old. Humanity is the youngest known race, even though their technology level means they are strong enough to kick everyone else's backsides should the need arise. It helps that most of those races have long ago passed the peak of the civilization. In fact, two of them spent several million years as slaves, degrading their technology to the point where they forgot about their former greatness. Ironically, the race that is actually known as the Precursors (or Forerunners, as there is no official translation to English) are non-sentient proto-lifeforms which have been created by an [[EnergyBeings energy being]] (supposedly, the first being to ever gain sentience in the universe) to serve as seeds for its copies. The Precursors contained within themselves the first ever DNA molecule. The unintended side effect of this was the creation of all known organic life in the galaxy.
* 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.
* 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.
* The ancient race that created the warp drive in ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass'' 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 "Literature/IronShadowsInTheMoon", Olivia thinks a god had been there in [[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy times she dreamed of]], even though absent now.

* In the ''Literature/KaneSeries'', 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".
* 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]].

* 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.
* There are two examples in ''Literature/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.

* 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".)
* 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.
* Steve Perry's ''Literature/MatadorSeries'' had the Zonn, a race that died out thousands of years before humanity achieved FTL. They didn't leave behind much other than interesting ruins on a number of worlds.

* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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]].

** 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.
* 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.
* 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 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 Valheru in Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar]]'' series.

* 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/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.

* 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.

** And then there are the Woses, who are implied to be the original humans who built the first civilisations in middle earth.

* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''Literature/SpiralArm: The January Dancer'', "the folk of sand and iron."
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel]] "The Devil's Heart" the Iconians are confirmed to be precursors to the [=DiWahn=], Dynasian, and Ikkabar as a fair number of Iconians escaped to what were then Iconian outposts during the bombardment of Iconian 200,000 years ago. Over the centuries their descendants developed their own cultures and [[LanguageDrift languages]]. While the Ikkabar - with the exception of a SoleSurvivor - died out by the 24th century, both the [=DiWahn=] and Dynasians continued to exist well in the 2360s. [[note]] Of course, the depiction of the Iconians in the novel was very different than how they would be depicted in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''.[[/note]]
* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' has several features that are attributed to Precursor-like races. The two most prominent are the Rakata and the Celestials:

** 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'']].
* The Quyans from ''Literature/TheStoneDanceOfTheChameleon'', whose civilization preceded that of the Chosen. [[spoiler:They are later revealed to actually be still around, as the Chosen's slaves called "sartlar".]]
* 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.]].

* 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.

* ''Literature/DungeonEngineer'': "Precursor ruins and artifacts" are mentioned as things that exist, in chapter seven.

* 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.
* ''Literature/BookOfTheAncestor'' the planet Abeth has the precursor race of the Missing. Little is known about them by today's humans, but they are said to have AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence by getting rid of their inner demons (which still remain, mostly trapped in ice).

* 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."''
* In the Carl Sagan novel ''Literature/{{Contact}}'' and the movie based on it, an unknown ancient race of aliens built the "cosmic subway system" of wormhole transportation used to bring a single human to meet the successor aliens who inherited the system.

* Every known non-human race in Andrey Livadny's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series can be considered a precursor, as four of them are at least 3 millions of years old, while several others are ''billions'' of years old. Humanity is the youngest known race, even though their technology level means they are strong enough to kick everyone else's backsides should the need arise. It helps that most of those races have long ago passed the peak of the civilization. In fact, two of them spent several million years as slaves, degrading their technology to the point where they forgot about their former greatness.\\
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Ironically, the race that is actually known as the Precursors (or Forerunners, as there is no official translation to English) are non-sentient proto-lifeforms which have been created by an [[EnergyBeings energy being]] (supposedly, the first being to ever gain sentience in the universe) to serve as seeds for its copies. The Precursors contained within themselves the first ever DNA molecule. The unintended side effect of this was the creation of all known organic life in the galaxy.

* 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!]]

* Sergey Lukyanenko's ''Literature/ALordFromPlanetEarth'' series features the Seeders, mysterious ancient beings who have left highly-advanced artifacts, some of which are {{Black Box}}es, while others are understood and adapted fairly well. They have also left mysterious spherical temples on every inhabited world (except Earth). It is eventually revealed that the Seeders are [[spoiler:humans from the future, who have seeded their past with humanoid races and advanced technology to create an army to fight an extragalactic enemy (Earth was left undisturbed to avoid messing with history)]].

* 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.
* 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.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/TheShipWho Searched'', where there's extensive archaeological interest in a long-vanished alien species dubbed the Salomon-Kildaire Entities ([[OnlyKnownByInitials almost exclusively called the EsKays]]), which had outposts or settlements on various lifeless, airless planets and whose homeworld was unknown. There's not a lot reputably attributed to them. The book's protagonists eventually find caches on a ''non'' airless world that contain [[PlanetLooters artifacts from across the galaxy and multiple different civilizations]] that includes [=EsKay=] items but who made the caches is unknown. Nonetheless, part of the AndTheAdventureContinues ending is the protagonists being assigned to use this new evidence to take a party of scientist to that mysterious homeworld.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel]] "The Devil's Heart" the Iconians are confirmed to be precursors to the DiWahn, Dynasian, and Ikkabar as a fair number of Iconians escaped to what were then Iconian outposts during the bombardment of Iconian 200,000 years ago. Over the centuries their descendants developed their own cultures and [[LanguageDrift languages]]. While the Ikkabar - with the exception of a SoleSurvivor - died out by the 24th century, both the DiWahn and Dynasians continued to exist well in the 2360s. [[note]] Of course, the depiction of the Iconians in the novel was very different than how they would be depicted in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''.[[/note]]

* 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".

* 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/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.]]

* ''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.\\
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%%* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'': The demons.