Carnivorous Space Elves AKA The Guardians

[Louis Calvert]

Guardian First Contact in the Formadine Rift?

Hawking's Gap

Delta Mission: The trip and deployment of "artefacts" by "handling bods", who aren't the ship's crew, went without any problems. Crew presumed to have gotten home safely…
https://canonn.science/codex/hawkins-gap-delta-site/

Gamma Mission: Crew had no idea who paid them for the mission "credits are credits". Beacons were dropped off and setup by the crew, though one of the Beacons they deployed accidentally switched on and "started squawking some weird code before it got switched off. We were told we hadn’t heard anything." No other problems aside from inside job "accidents" on the ship to presumably shut people up from talking. Crew presumed to have gotten home safely…
https://canonn.science/codex/hawkins-gap-gamma-site/

Beta Mission: Captain went missing for weeks. Unknown cargo was dropped off without any problems - again, some third-party security was aboard to prevent anyone seeing what the cargo was. Crew presumed to have gotten home safely…
https://canonn.science/codex/hawkins-gap-beta-site/

Alpha Mission: Cargo "looks like satellites" - again, very well guarded from the crew. Mission goes according to plan without any odd problems cropping up. However, it seems communication of the Formadine Rift fleet's demise has swiftly turned into ghost stories for those in the Hawking's Gap fleet.
https://canonn.science/codex/hawkins-gap-alpha-site/

The Conflux

Delta Mission: Crew was prepared with extra FSD parts for a long haul. They seemed to have run into problems by trying to jump while in the presence of a neutron star, and burned out their FSD beyond what their repairs could manage.
https://canonn.science/codex/conflux-delta-site/

Gamma Mission: Mission went without a hitch. Crew behaved, asked no questions, and dropped off the beacons they needed to.
https://canonn.science/codex/conflux-gamma-site/

Beta Mission: Mission went according to plan as the logs don't display any distress. There were odd sightings of lights in the Witch-space clouds, and then of lights following the ship, but the crew inevitably cannot explain what they saw. Note: could have been initially Thargoids following them if that is the case, since the earlier logs seem to mention interdiction in Witch-space.
https://canonn.science/codex/conflux-beta-site/

Alpha Mission: Crew made safe passage to their destination without any problems. No problems mentioned with any third-party security. Long range beacons were dropped off at earth-like worlds.
https://canonn.science/codex/conflux-alpha-site/

Formadine Rift Hypothesis

Both the Conflux and Hawking's Gap had a much easier time than that of the ships that headed toward the Formadine Rift. In fact, no vessels that travelled to the Formadine Rift survived; it seems, from the logs acquired.

The Hawking's Gap fleet and that of the Conflux could have been sent after the Formadine Rift expedition ended in complete disaster in the loss of all ships - or; if communication via long-range wasn't a problem, then someone leaked information that quickly swirled into rumours, in which those rumours quickly spread to the other two fleets heading in different directions.

Either way, one thing is for certain: the Formadine Rift was a complete disaster, and as such a lot of it is permit locked by the Pilots Federation.

When large areas of the Conflux and Hawking's Gap aren't treated this way with permit restricted regions, it can only mean one thing: something is out in the Formadine Rift, and I don't think it is the Thargoids.

And now I bring you these chilling tidbits...

Frequent FSD Malfunctions, Strange Signals, Space Madness, Sirens, Voices...

Out of three of the fleets in the Formadine Rift, two of them experienced consistent problems with their FSDs – one was completely destroyed and was little more than a debris field, and the other abandoned – both right next to Earth-like worlds.

This immediately raises suspicion. The human ships could have inadvertently alerted someone to their presence by setting up the probes and turning them on – especially next to these Earth-like worlds.

I hypothesize that those Earth-like worlds could be harboring Guardians.

What supports this, you wonder?

In the Alpha Mission (https://canonn.science/codex/formidine-rift-alpha-site/), one of the crew describes a “Siren song”, with the urge to join them. Whilst this could be space madness, Ram Tah does highlight that the music of the Guardians are more like songs because they lacked musical instruments:

Biology 15) “A human observer might find the Guardians' visual art severe and lacking in emotion, but the same could not be said of their music. They didn't use musical instruments, so strictly speaking it's singing, although I think they might have used their bodies for rhythm and percussion. I've extracted audio from the data you have collected and have listened to, for want of a better term, their “songs”. The range of their voices is something to be admired. And it's so rich with emotion – many pieces are so haunting, it breaks the heart to listen them.”

And in this entry, below:

Language 6) “This data packet indicates that the guardians used two different forms of communication with the same - or at the very least similar - language constructs, its slow but fascinating work, using this data I believe I can establish a rudimentary understanding of the oldest two forms - verbal communication. Like us, they had a vocal language, and the range of sounds appears to be similar to that used in human vocalisation.”

The same crewman in the Alpha Mission did describe that he or she thought they had heard some “weird voices” whilst travelling through Witch-space. They couldn’t understand the weird voices that they thought they had heard, but they could tell it was intelligible to them to ascertain the voices as a language, even if they didn’t understand it – and this is important.

Thargoids do not share the vocalization of a human (if anything, we’d think their noises sound like Whales to the human ear), but Ram Tah’s logs does indeed support that the Guardians did have a similar vocal range to us – therefore, could it be entirely possible that the crew did hear Guardian communications through Witch-space?

The crewman described, a bit later, that it was a “siren song”, and that they “are calling to me”. This may not have been the intent on the Guardians part (if it is indeed the Guardians), and not Space Madness – it may be that they picked up on a faster than light signal from somewhere whilst on their journey through Witch-space.

A siren’s song is described in ancient folklore as beautiful to some, yet haunting to others, and is used as a weapon by these mythical creatures to attract sailors to their ultimate doom crashing against the rocks. Ram Tah himself described the Guardians’ songs as rich with emotion, with many pieces very haunting, and it broke his heart to listen to them – their songs, especially so many of them, triggered his emotions very easily – personally, it would take a considerably beautiful, heart-felt song to get me to that point.

Now, what would the Guardian songs do to a crew who had been growing paranoid with every passing month because of rumours or weird Witch-space phenomena out in complete darkness with hardly any stars?
It would have the potential to make one of them, or all of them, snap.

This ship seemingly never made it, despite the FSD working better than the other two expeditions. It is likely they were near a hidden Guardian bubble, but weren’t close enough to an Earth-like unlike the other two missions, Beta and Delta.

During the Beta Mission (https://canonn.science/codex/formidine-rift-beta-site/), the crew described “a signal” that caught all of them off-guard and generated much concern. Over a month later after hearing this unknown signal, the tried to hyper-jump, but were immediately forced back into real-space. After almost a month trying to repair the FSD, they had to give up and decided to leave for a nearby Earth-like world…

Could it be possible that the ship itself was hacked by this signal? Yes, and it could explain the sudden FSD malfunction that destroyed their only means of leaving the same system with the Earth-like present. It is also entirely possible that the Earth-like they stumbled upon was also inhabited…

This is, potentially, growing evidence that whatever is in the Formadine Rift is blatantly trying to prevent the knowledge of their existence from getting out.

One way to do this would be to sabotage a space-faring vessel’s FSD via a signal source – and once the crew had gotten too close to one of the Guardians’’ Earth-like worlds, they would have prevented them from escaping.

Could the Beta Mission crew have made First Contact upon settling on this Earth-like, which, by the way, was conveniently scrubbed from the records right at the end of the logs. This, I don’t think, was interfered with by anything human; since it is more likely a human would have deleted all log entries, especially if they worked under the shadowy Dynasty Project.

The third and final entry that we have from the Formadine Rift is the Delta Mission (https://canonn.science/codex/formidine-rift-delta-site/).

For the most part, there was nothing unusual – no odd signals noted by the crew, nor any FSD power failures unlike the previous two.

However, unlike the other two, the Sidewinder and the “Support Ship” (Megaship? Since Anacondas cannot launch Sidewinders), experienced repeated power outages.

During a routine operation (dropping off a beacon), the Support Ship was seemingly destroyed, and all that was left was a debris field. It took the Sidewinder pilot three weeks to get over the trauma before the next entry in the log was written…

Several things may have happened to the Support Ship; it could have suffered a catastrophic failure of some kind, or it could have been an inside job – or, even more disturbing, an extra-terrestrial attack.

We can only speculate at this point, though it is more likely to be an inside job, since the Zurara Megaship had personnel aboard that took drugs to turn them into psychopaths to ensure no survivors - and they ensured they destroyed the main reactor to complete their mission.

It could be possible that, due to the unique nature of the Delta Mission, that the power outages were part of a larger problem unforeseen by the crew. If the “Support Ship” has a similar secret agents working against them during their mission, just like the Megaship Zurara, then destroying the main reactor while the ship was experiencing power failures from an external source could have caused the ship to explode accidentally, thus leaving a debris field.

I say external source, because both the Sidewinder and Support Ship during the Delta Mission experienced the same power outages multiple times over the course of two months – even when the Sidewinder was on an away mission.

Just like the Beta Mission, the human vessels were in the vicinity of an Earth-like…

With all these co-incidences, I strongly suspect that the Guardians may have made First Contact with the human survivors of these missions into the Formadine Rift – if they do indeed still exist and are not some other extra-terrestrial.

It could make sense, however…

The star density in the Formadine Rift is extremely limited compared to other areas in the galaxy. Out of the three expeditions, the Formadine Rift is the most black and barren – it is secluded extremely well, and to reach any Earth-like worlds would take an extremely good jump drive to make those trips.

If the Guardians still do exist, then perhaps, like us, they needed a backup plan, too. If that is the case, then it is funny how both the Humans and Guardians would see the Formadine Rift as an excellent hiding ground on the edge of the galaxy in the event of the Thargoids over-running our home world space.

If this is the case, then perhaps the Thargoids jump capability is restricted to much shorter jumps than that of what truly mechanical technology can achieve… Could this be why, if the Guardians do now live in the Formadine Rift, that they chose that region of space, because the space between stars is just too great for the Thargoids to make with their bio-mechanical technology?

For now, I can only walk away with this conclusion…

The Guardians could later become known as “The Sirens” – aptly named for their haunting and highly emotional songs...

I like it! One thing to alter, the Dynasty expeditions were before we had FSD. They were using the old class 2b hyperdrive and Stardreamer tech. That's why it took them six months to get out there.

It's also before the invention of AFMUs and back then ships needed maintenance on a regular basis or things would break down, that's why them having to take spare parts along is significant.

Other than that, nicely crafted theory

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

I like it! One thing to alter, the Dynasty expeditions were before we had FSD. They were using the old class 2b hyperdrive and Stardreamer tech. That's why it took them six months to get out there.

It's also before the invention of AFMUs and back then ships needed maintenance on a regular basis or things would break down, that's why them having to take spare parts along is significant.

Other than that, nicely crafted theory

Aaaaah, cool man, I'll edit it and correct it shortly

 

[Redan]

Guys, I have to say the work you have all been putting into this thread is just outstanding.

Thank you all very much. I love reading this thread.

 

[Valorin]

That's some elaborate theorycrafting! Awesome!
Some criticism on the pictures: I miss the long and thin limbs and I think the eyes should be smaller and darker. The logs found in the Obelisks say their home planet had a lower gravity than earth and the sun was much brighter, which lead to black eyes and an overall thinner body shape. Faces should be much smaller according to logs and those big eyes doesn't seem to fit at all.

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

That's some elaborate theorycrafting! Awesome!
Some criticism on the pictures: I miss the long and thin limbs and I think the eyes should be smaller and darker. The logs found in the Obelisks say their home planet had a lower gravity than earth and the sun was much brighter, which lead to black eyes and an overall thinner body shape. Faces should be much smaller according to logs and those big eyes doesn't seem to fit at all.

The sketches were done when I only had 1/3 of the data back when we only had 1 location to scan some obelisks

I should get round to doing a new sketch so it is more up to do, but you are right

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

I like it! One thing to alter, the Dynasty expeditions were before we had FSD. They were using the old class 2b hyperdrive and Stardreamer tech. That's why it took them six months to get out there.

It's also before the invention of AFMUs and back then ships needed maintenance on a regular basis or things would break down, that's why them having to take spare parts along is significant.

Other than that, nicely crafted theory

Okay, original post on first page has been updated

Guys, I have to say the work you have all been putting into this thread is just outstanding.

Thank you all very much. I love reading this thread.

A pleasure

 

[Louis Calvert]

Ah damn. I feel another Rift Expedition coming on. Last time I was there I only went as far as the Zazura, I'd quite like to see about that permit locked area right on the rim.

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

Ah damn. I feel another Rift Expedition coming on. Last time I was there I only went as far as the Zazura, I'd quite like to see about that permit locked area right on the rim.

Could be worthwhile to see if there are also any brain trees near there... tempted to go out looking myself lol

 

[Rubbernuke]

Just some tin foil powered observations / theorycrafting:

Did the Exiles take refuge on Earth? Earths jungles would be a perfect home for them, and humans of the time would have been small nomadic tribes (again familiar to them socially- like the short story Encounter in the Dawn).

Could they be the foundation of the Atlantean myth?

Did the red demon like appearance become a racial memory used in human religion? The Guardians struggles do sound quite similar (thinking of the book Childhoods End). An Exile (due to Earths lower gravity) would be inhumanly strong.

Is humanity being moulded to take revenge on the Thargoids? A lot of cues in EDs artwork (clothes, computer screens) look similar to Guardian Ruin art cues. Have we been manipulated into becoming a living weapon of sorts?

If we are becoming weapons, who is guiding us: the AI, or the Exiles?

...and with that I shall retire to my tinfoil cave.

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

Just some tin foil powered observations / theorycrafting:

Did the Exiles take refuge on Earth? Earths jungles would be a perfect home for them, and humans of the time would have been small nomadic tribes (again familiar to them socially- like the short story Encounter in the Dawn).

Could they be the foundation of the Atlantean myth?

Did the red demon like appearance become a racial memory used in human religion? The Guardians struggles do sound quite similar (thinking of the book Childhoods End). An Exile (due to Earths lower gravity) would be inhumanly strong.

Is humanity being moulded to take revenge on the Thargoids? A lot of cues in EDs artwork (clothes, computer screens) look similar to Guardian Ruin art cues. Have we been manipulated into becoming a living weapon of sorts?

If we are becoming weapons, who is guiding us: the AI, or the Exiles?

...and with that I shall retire to my tinfoil cave.

I like this a lot

Who would have thought that we humans could be their bio-weapons... And the mythological aspect and religious aspect does have some merit there.

That's some creative thinking mate, I like it

 

[Louis Calvert]

Just some tin foil powered observations / theorycrafting:

Did the Exiles take refuge on Earth? Earths jungles would be a perfect home for them, and humans of the time would have been small nomadic tribes (again familiar to them socially- like the short story Encounter in the Dawn).

Could they be the foundation of the Atlantean myth?

Did the red demon like appearance become a racial memory used in human religion? The Guardians struggles do sound quite similar (thinking of the book Childhoods End). An Exile (due to Earths lower gravity) would be inhumanly strong.

Is humanity being moulded to take revenge on the Thargoids? A lot of cues in EDs artwork (clothes, computer screens) look similar to Guardian Ruin art cues. Have we been manipulated into becoming a living weapon of sorts?

If we are becoming weapons, who is guiding us: the AI, or the Exiles?

...and with that I shall retire to my tinfoil cave.

I like this a lot

Who would have thought that we humans could be their bio-weapons... And the mythological aspect and religious aspect does have some merit there.

That's some creative thinking mate, I like it

Yep just what I was going to say. Great ideas! Love the red demon concept.

 

[Louis Calvert]

I have a (maybe) new idea for you.

The location of the Guardian Homeworld.

I'm going to hide most of this in a spoiler because it's long.


What we know from Ram Tah's translations:

Spoiler

1) The Guardians evolved on a warm Earth-like world, in a jungle-like environment.
2) They evolved as nomadic tribal hunters in groups of maybe 30 or so
3) They are basically humanoid, eating the same stuff, breathing the same stuff, two sexes, etc.
4) In their early history there was a climate shift that made their homeworld much colder, and they were forced to develop better tools and technologies to adapt.
5) They developed agriculture and stone buildings. This ended their tribal period, but they maintained trade and travel between settlements.
6) Despite developing more and more advanced technology, they retained a deep respect for their surroundings.
7) They had burial rituals and considered respect for the dead important.
8) The Guardians writing is pictographic, using symbols to represent words and ideas rather than letters to spell out words.
9) They really like geometric shapes.

Sources:

(Beta 2)Almost from the dawn of their civilization they possessed a strong spiritual sense - one that reflected their close connection to the natural world. Even when they'd developed industrial-scale machinery, they maintained a balance with the world around them. Their ongoing love of hunting presumably played a significant part in this.

(Alpha 6) Their biochemistry was very similar to our own. They had blood in the same fashion as us, and it fulfilled exactly the same role as it does for us. Beyond this, they share a similar genetic structure, with DNA and RNA their core building blocks. Although a full analysis has not yet been conducted, this might be evidence of a common ancestor, but also of a branching in their genetic history. This is an astounding discovery!

(Alpha 7) They had two distinct genders and reproduced sexually.

(Aplha 12) The imperative of the kill was retained even as their society advanced. Food killed in the hunt was a delicacy.

(Aplha 17) Barring any local biological threats, we could easily live on their worlds - they wouldn't even need terraforming.

(Aplpha 19) This data shows that they preferred warmer worlds than we do, and don't appear to have been well suited to colder climates. Fragments of their history reveal that they experienced changes in climate in their early history, and it was that - rather than conflict - that prompted their technological development. They had thick skins but lacked a fatty layer, which I think reduced their ability to function in cold temperatures.

(Gamma 1) We know they evolved as pack hunters with tribal groups of 20 to 30 individuals. They lived in jungle regions similar to those found on Earth, and preferred very hot and humid climates.

(Gamma 2) This data is remarkable and covers the early history of the Guardians. They were highly intelligent, and developed sophisticated and effective hunting strategies that quickly saw them become the apex predator in their biomes. Their agility allowed them to take advantage of varied terrain and so avoid predation themselves. I was surprised to learn they were nomadic rather than territorial, but this appears to have been motivated by a desire to mix with other groups and increase genetic diversity rather than a lack of prey. The Guardians developed their core vocal and gestural methods of communication quite early, although it wasn't until they developed tools that they were able to record such communication.

(Gamma 3) Their early art appears to be concerned more with recording practical activity than with personal expression, so maybe this practicality was a factor. Their earliest records tell of a great upheaval caused by climate change, and although the exact cause isn't recorded, there are references to a dimming of the sun. Whatever the cause, the effect was a drop in global temperature. Having evolved to operate in a tropical environment, the Guardians were unsuited to the suddenly colder climate. But their intelligence allowed them to adapt better than other creatures in their ecology by building primitive shelters from plants.

Delta 19) The data contained in this obelisk talks about the history of the Guardians' language. They started to transcribe their signs in pictorial form very early in their development - something akin to the cave paintings from humanity's early history

Things Ram Tah doesn't make clear:

Spoiler

His descriptions of Guardians - He doesn't indicate if it's how they ended up or how they started. He does talk a lot about how they (pretty much from the start of their technological revolution) started modifying themselves and altering things using bio-engineering. He does frequently make reference to how the oldest files are corrupted though.

It's safe to assume that the majority of the available data is basically the end-stage of their history, and therefore (much like ours) it's probably a collection of basically revisionist history. We also know that effectively the Religious order that developed late in the Guardian history pretty much guided the main part of their culture.

Given this, we don't know exactly what the Guardians looked like before they started developing technology, those early descriptions were very much about the society.

This for example: "5) This data offers more details about the physical appearance of the Guardians. Most remarkable are their limbs. Their forelimbs had a serrated edge and were no doubt used as killing implements during the pack-hunting period. They had two more more joints in their arms than we do, facilitating complex articulation and the use of sophisticated sign language. The skeleton was flexible yet resilient and their muscles were long, thin and ropey. They had two hands, each with four digits."

Is this how they were originally or how they modified themselves to be? It suggests this is how they were originally, but even given this and the flexible bones, I think my later speculation still holds up.

The Homeworld.

Deep Breath. I have and ideas as to where the homeworld might be, and it links quite well with quite a lot of other things.

Spoiler

This world has a history in which a golbal ice age started around 2million years ago and lasted almost as long, and that Ice age altered pretty much all life on the surface.

The Glaciers rolled over the face of the planet for over a million years, and literally scoured it clean...

Earth:
(Source) "The Pleistocene (often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's most recent period of repeated glaciations.

The modern continents were essentially at their present positions during the Pleistocene.

Pleistocene climate was marked by repeated glacial cycles in which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places. It is estimated that, at maximum glacial extent, 30% of the Earth's surface was covered by ice. In addition, a zone of permafrost stretched southward from the edge of the glacial sheet, a few hundred kilometres in North America, and several hundred in Eurasia. The mean annual temperature at the edge of the ice was -6 °C (21 °F); at the edge of the permafrost, 0 °C (32 °F).

The evolution of anatomically modern humans took place during the Pleistocene. In the beginning of the Pleistocene Paranthropus species are still present, as well as early human ancestors, but during the lower Palaeolithic they disappeared, and the only hominin species found in fossilic records is Homo erectus for much of the Pleistocene."

"A small African ape living around 6 Ma was the last animal whose descendants would include both modern humans and their closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Only two branches of its family tree have surviving descendants. Very soon after the split, for reasons that are still unclear, apes in one branch developed the ability to walk upright. Brain size increased rapidly, and by 2 Ma, the first animals classified in the genus Homo had appeared."

It's important to remember that the Ice Age wasn't a sudden thing, it wasn't like one day it started snowing and didn't stop. It would have been a slow altering of temperature over thousands of years. This means that the Guardians may well have evolved in the hot jungles of the early Pleistocene. There had been an explosion of animal life across earth after the last great extinction and it's entirely possible that this is the rich, warn, hunting grounds that the Guardians reached sentience in.

Where are all the Guardian Ruins then?

Spoiler

Scientists think that if Humanity died out tomorrow all significant signs of our habitation of the Earth would be erased in less than 25,000 years. (Source) And there's actually been many similar ideas put forward. Essentially, little would remain after even a few thousand years, let alone 2 million.

We also know that the Guardians lived much more ecologically than us, even assuming a devastating war using radioactives, it's very likely that their total impact on the planet would be significantly less than ours has been. Since they heavily used bio-engineering when they reached technological dominance then it's possible they never really used things like fossil fuels, plastics and heavy metals which leave fossil record traces.

We haven't found any Guardian skeletons on Earth because the majority of their civilisation was gone before the ice age set in. We have only discovered a handful of scattered human remains from that era, so it's unlikely we would have discovered remains of a species that was already pretty much extinct by then. Added to that, we know Guardians practised grave rituals, so that may have included cremation or other forms of internment that means it's unlikely we'll find bodies.

What fits this idea with Guardians?

Spoiler

The Guardians evolved from another branch of life on Earth. They would still share most of the same things as us: Most (similar mass animals) on Earth have two sexes, eyes like ours, share a huge chunk of our DNA, have blood, etc. etc. in short, almost any mammal would tick all the same boxes in Ram Tah's research. The Guardians may actually have been the previous form of sentient life on Earth, evolved entirely naturally 2 million years before us. They may even be some close relative in terms of being a primate type (like monkeys).

Imagine a situation where a technologically advanced species were just about to destroy themselves. They're sheltering in the last of their domes in their cities on the homeworld:

Gamma 17) According to this data, the Guardians' homeworld served as a power-base for this new religious order, which eventually succeeded in ostracizing or exiling all of its opponents.
Gamma 18) The war was ostensibly fought between the people of the homeworld and the colonies.

The shield domes fell and they were almost all destroyed, but it's unlikely all of them died, spread over the Earth in various bunkers etc. Irradiated, the survivors did their best to survive on the homeworld for as long as possible and passed their legacy on to a new generation.

If there were survivors from the Guardians civil war, they may well have lived on Earth for generations until ultimately dying out. Let's assume they realised they'd made a huge mess of it, and being socially responsible (As we know they were) decided their time was done. But, they may have even helped and guided our own very early ancestors, showed them how to use tools. Maybe it's even possible that the last act of the Guardians was to genetically tweak early hominids to give them a propensity towards evolving larger brains. Sort of shepherding a new sentient race into the light and hoping they'd do it better.

I favour the idea that Guardians and very early human ancestors lived side-by side for a while, consider:

We know that our ancestors:

1) Practice burial rituals (we've found graves and grave goods of early hominids)
2) were nomadic tribal hunters living in small communities
3) When the ice-age ended and things warmed up we eventually settled down and started making more permanent buildings
4) use sign language and vocal communication
5) like geometric shapes
6) tended to build small settlements and trade and travel between them.
7) we have lost our ability to digest raw meat, but that was relative recently in our evolution, our ancestors could still eat it
8) Early humanity (and still many humans today) had great respect for the animals they hunted and nature
9) Most of our earliest written languages were representative, using marks which later became pictograms representing words and ideas.

This all sounds very familiar... If you compare this to the Guardians early history, it's exceptionally similar.

Also consider:

1) Our legends of "Ancient races with astounding technology destroyed in caclysms" - Atlantis, Lemuria, etc.
2) Our myths about odd-looking "gods" teaching humanity - pretty much worldwide.
3) Commonalities in some of our earliest myths and creation stories, things like a great flood happening in most, a tiny number of survivors having to restart civilisation.
4) Our myths about "teacher" beings that helped out and told us truths about the world.
5) Our ideas that the stars were home to the gods (shared by many mythologies).
6) Common beliefs in magic, including the ability to shape shift, levitate, fly, and other things that might have a technological basis (misunderstandings of genetic engineering etc.).

These might be hugely distorted early history records of the last of the Guardians passing on what they knew, knowing they were done for but not wanting to die out entirely.

(NOTE: FYI - I don't believe IRL in Ancient astronauts or anything like that, this is just relating to the fictional world of Elite Dangerous, so please don't point out all the things wrong with Ancient Astronaut Theory or any of that, I know and I agree!).

What about space? There would be some stuff in space?

Spoiler

There aren't any Guardian relics anywhere in space other than on some airless planets. Given that, and 2millions years of time, it's possible that any relics left floating in space have been pulled into gravity wells and are now gone.

Also remember there was an 'alien' artefact found on Mars (source: one of the visitors beacons in Sol), it's been kept in secret since its discovery, but that might well have been some relic of the Guardians.

Since the Guardians were very ecological, it's also possible that (unlike us) they didn't like littering. We know that when they decided to go into space they basically turned the collected skills of the whole civilisation to the idea and built three giant arks and went to set up new colonies. Ram Tah didn't really suggest much in the way of launching probes to nearby worlds, it seems more of a leap than the baby steps we took.

And so. to Conclude:

(read this if you just want the super-short version).

Spoiler

The Earth is the homeworld of the Guardians. They evolved approx 2 million years ago in the Pleistocene era at the start of the Ice Age that lasted from around 2.5mill BC to around 11,000BC.

They evolved from one of the many and diverse animals to emerge from the last great extinction event. They grew to sentience in the warm jungles of the Early Pleistocene and lived a nomadic hunter lifestyle. As the Earth cooled into the start of the ice age (A process taking thousands of years) they began to struggle, as did many forms of life, and they eventually learned to use tools to make shelters, and that lead to a rapid increase in technological sophistication.

They lived harmoniously with the Earth, built ecologically and mastered genetic engineering early on. They ultimately went into the stars, then had a civil war. This period of their history probably only took around 2-3 thousand years. Ram Tah notes they advanced very rapidly.

The faction that stayed on Earth was basically against all the colony worlds in the civil war, and was eventually defeated. The few remaining Guardians either tweaked the genetics of the next most intelligent creature on Earth (early hominids) to help them achieve true sentience, or they just hoped that eventually the hominids would evolve on their own. The last of the Guardians on Earth continues for a long time, maybe thousands more years before finally dying out, during which time they shepherded they early hominids towards civilisation.

This accounts for why so many things in our early culture and society resemble things in the Guardian early life and culture, and why we're so similar genetically to them, live on the same types of worlds, eat the same foods, etc. We have a rich mythology that involved odd-looking bipedal creatures telling us secrets and helping humans (and in some cases hindering us). We have a number of myths about long-lost technologically advanced cultures.

We've never found any Guardian relics on earth because after 2million years there wouldn't be anything left - after 25-50,000 years even Human civilisation as it is now would vanish completely from the Earth. Given that the Guardians always favoured more ecological solutions, it's entirely possible they never used materials that would stay in the fossil record (i.e. everything they used was biodegradable). We haven't found any Guardian skeletons on Earth because the majority of their civilisation was gone before the ice age set in. We have only discovered a handful of scattered human remains from that era, so it's unlikely we would have discovered remains of a species that was already pretty much extinct by then. Added to that, we know Guardians practised grave rituals, so that may have included cremation or other forms of internment that means it's unlikely we'll find bodies.

 

[Urazz]

Interesting idea that Earth is the Guardian's homeworld as well as ours. But what about Mars? Could it have been their home world instead and that a natural disaster or war wiped them out there and changed Mars to what it is for us right now in the present day in real life?

 

[Louis Calvert]

Interesting idea that Earth is the Guardian's homeworld as well as ours. But what about Mars? Could it have been their home world instead and that a natural disaster or war wiped them out there and changed Mars to what it is for us right now in the present day in real life?

It's an interesting idea, but the last time (we think) mars had liquid water and anything like an atmosphere was about 3.8 Billion Years ago, so it's too long ago to fit the timeline. Added to that issues with the lack of magetoshpere and things, it's unlikely Mars developed complex life sadly, even assuming some local panspermia, the probability that Guardians and Humans are so closely related in so many ways seems unlikely unless they're from the same world.

I do love the idea of Guardians on Mars though, proper red-skinned Martians!

 

[Lori Jameson]

I like this a lot

Who would have thought that we humans could be their bio-weapons... And the mythological aspect and religious aspect does have some merit there.

That's some creative thinking mate, I like it

On that note, is the legend of Raxxla a story of the exploited Guardian homeworld? If so, my theory of Shintara (Founders World) in Shinrarta Dezhra being Raxxla combined with the INRA theory in the OP fits together well. The Elite Federation of Pilots (the governing sub-group of the PF comprised entirety of elite pilots (AKA The Club)) could possibly be taking advice (or orders) from the AI's or Exiles.

'A Door that is also the Key'

Information is both the doorway to knowledge and the key to understanding.
The Pilots Federation holds a monopoly on information (ship/station sys, Galmap/Galnet, fines/bounties, etc.).

I'm starting to think my research into Raxxla/Founders World is tied right into the Guardians...

Then again the Guardian homeworld is probably not Founders World but, in the Regor sector being all secretive. Time will tell.

 

[Yure]

Interesting take. What is funny about this is that in Nemorenesis it talks about the Sylph. An alien entity that has lived with us humans on Earth and uses our bodies as its hosts.

 

[Rubbernuke]

It would be highly ironic if we the players were Guardian AI being hustled by the Pilots Federation. It makes sense in that we don't die like hired NPCs, AI being 'banned' (is that human made AI though?).

It would be as if we are the Guardians looking after humanity.

 

[CMDR Dreamstate]

It would be highly ironic if we the players were Guardian AI being hustled by the Pilots Federation. It makes sense in that we don't die like hired NPCs, AI being 'banned' (is that human made AI though?).

It would be as if we are the Guardians looking after humanity.

We could all be INRA androids that fought the Thargoids 150 years ago and now the pilots federation have released us back into the world

 

[Rubbernuke]

I mean, why is it that you have robotics advertised right in front of us when we land? Is it because those robots are us?

In fact, think about what is advertised to us over and over:

Guns

Ships

Leaders and superpower propaganda

Androids

Caine Massey 'looking down on worlds'

We never see our organic selves ever. When we 'die' only our ship is destroyed, yet other pilots are murdered or assaulted and die (like NPC crew).

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I have a (maybe) new idea for you.

The location of the Guardian Homeworld.

I'm going to hide most of this in a spoiler because it's long.


What we know from Ram Tah's translations:

Spoiler

1) The Guardians evolved on a warm Earth-like world, in a jungle-like environment.
2) They evolved as nomadic tribal hunters in groups of maybe 30 or so
3) They are basically humanoid, eating the same stuff, breathing the same stuff, two sexes, etc.
4) In their early history there was a climate shift that made their homeworld much colder, and they were forced to develop better tools and technologies to adapt.
5) They developed agriculture and stone buildings. This ended their tribal period, but they maintained trade and travel between settlements.
6) Despite developing more and more advanced technology, they retained a deep respect for their surroundings.
7) They had burial rituals and considered respect for the dead important.
8) The Guardians writing is pictographic, using symbols to represent words and ideas rather than letters to spell out words.
9) They really like geometric shapes.

Sources:

(Beta 2)Almost from the dawn of their civilization they possessed a strong spiritual sense - one that reflected their close connection to the natural world. Even when they'd developed industrial-scale machinery, they maintained a balance with the world around them. Their ongoing love of hunting presumably played a significant part in this.

(Alpha 6) Their biochemistry was very similar to our own. They had blood in the same fashion as us, and it fulfilled exactly the same role as it does for us. Beyond this, they share a similar genetic structure, with DNA and RNA their core building blocks. Although a full analysis has not yet been conducted, this might be evidence of a common ancestor, but also of a branching in their genetic history. This is an astounding discovery!

(Alpha 7) They had two distinct genders and reproduced sexually.

(Aplha 12) The imperative of the kill was retained even as their society advanced. Food killed in the hunt was a delicacy.

(Aplha 17) Barring any local biological threats, we could easily live on their worlds - they wouldn't even need terraforming.

(Aplpha 19) This data shows that they preferred warmer worlds than we do, and don't appear to have been well suited to colder climates. Fragments of their history reveal that they experienced changes in climate in their early history, and it was that - rather than conflict - that prompted their technological development. They had thick skins but lacked a fatty layer, which I think reduced their ability to function in cold temperatures.

(Gamma 1) We know they evolved as pack hunters with tribal groups of 20 to 30 individuals. They lived in jungle regions similar to those found on Earth, and preferred very hot and humid climates.

(Gamma 2) This data is remarkable and covers the early history of the Guardians. They were highly intelligent, and developed sophisticated and effective hunting strategies that quickly saw them become the apex predator in their biomes. Their agility allowed them to take advantage of varied terrain and so avoid predation themselves. I was surprised to learn they were nomadic rather than territorial, but this appears to have been motivated by a desire to mix with other groups and increase genetic diversity rather than a lack of prey. The Guardians developed their core vocal and gestural methods of communication quite early, although it wasn't until they developed tools that they were able to record such communication.

(Gamma 3) Their early art appears to be concerned more with recording practical activity than with personal expression, so maybe this practicality was a factor. Their earliest records tell of a great upheaval caused by climate change, and although the exact cause isn't recorded, there are references to a dimming of the sun. Whatever the cause, the effect was a drop in global temperature. Having evolved to operate in a tropical environment, the Guardians were unsuited to the suddenly colder climate. But their intelligence allowed them to adapt better than other creatures in their ecology by building primitive shelters from plants.

Delta 19) The data contained in this obelisk talks about the history of the Guardians' language. They started to transcribe their signs in pictorial form very early in their development - something akin to the cave paintings from humanity's early history

Things Ram Tah doesn't make clear:

Spoiler

His descriptions of Guardians - He doesn't indicate if it's how they ended up or how they started. He does talk a lot about how they (pretty much from the start of their technological revolution) started modifying themselves and altering things using bio-engineering. He does frequently make reference to how the oldest files are corrupted though.

It's safe to assume that the majority of the available data is basically the end-stage of their history, and therefore (much like ours) it's probably a collection of basically revisionist history. We also know that effectively the Religious order that developed late in the Guardian history pretty much guided the main part of their culture.

Given this, we don't know exactly what the Guardians looked like before they started developing technology, those early descriptions were very much about the society.

This for example: "5) This data offers more details about the physical appearance of the Guardians. Most remarkable are their limbs. Their forelimbs had a serrated edge and were no doubt used as killing implements during the pack-hunting period. They had two more more joints in their arms than we do, facilitating complex articulation and the use of sophisticated sign language. The skeleton was flexible yet resilient and their muscles were long, thin and ropey. They had two hands, each with four digits."

Is this how they were originally or how they modified themselves to be? It suggests this is how they were originally, but even given this and the flexible bones, I think my later speculation still holds up.

The Homeworld.

Deep Breath. I have and ideas as to where the homeworld might be, and it links quite well with quite a lot of other things.

Spoiler

This world has a history in which a golbal ice age started around 2million years ago and lasted almost as long, and that Ice age altered pretty much all life on the surface.

The Glaciers rolled over the face of the planet for over a million years, and literally scoured it clean...

Earth:
(Source) "The Pleistocene (often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's most recent period of repeated glaciations.

The modern continents were essentially at their present positions during the Pleistocene.

Pleistocene climate was marked by repeated glacial cycles in which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places. It is estimated that, at maximum glacial extent, 30% of the Earth's surface was covered by ice. In addition, a zone of permafrost stretched southward from the edge of the glacial sheet, a few hundred kilometres in North America, and several hundred in Eurasia. The mean annual temperature at the edge of the ice was -6 °C (21 °F); at the edge of the permafrost, 0 °C (32 °F).

The evolution of anatomically modern humans took place during the Pleistocene. In the beginning of the Pleistocene Paranthropus species are still present, as well as early human ancestors, but during the lower Palaeolithic they disappeared, and the only hominin species found in fossilic records is Homo erectus for much of the Pleistocene."

"A small African ape living around 6 Ma was the last animal whose descendants would include both modern humans and their closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Only two branches of its family tree have surviving descendants. Very soon after the split, for reasons that are still unclear, apes in one branch developed the ability to walk upright. Brain size increased rapidly, and by 2 Ma, the first animals classified in the genus Homo had appeared."

It's important to remember that the Ice Age wasn't a sudden thing, it wasn't like one day it started snowing and didn't stop. It would have been a slow altering of temperature over thousands of years. This means that the Guardians may well have evolved in the hot jungles of the early Pleistocene. There had been an explosion of animal life across earth after the last great extinction and it's entirely possible that this is the rich, warn, hunting grounds that the Guardians reached sentience in.

Where are all the Guardian Ruins then?

Spoiler

Scientists think that if Humanity died out tomorrow all significant signs of our habitation of the Earth would be erased in less than 25,000 years. (Source) And there's actually been many similar ideas put forward. Essentially, little would remain after even a few thousand years, let alone 2 million.

We also know that the Guardians lived much more ecologically than us, even assuming a devastating war using radioactives, it's very likely that their total impact on the planet would be significantly less than ours has been. Since they heavily used bio-engineering when they reached technological dominance then it's possible they never really used things like fossil fuels, plastics and heavy metals which leave fossil record traces.

We haven't found any Guardian skeletons on Earth because the majority of their civilisation was gone before the ice age set in. We have only discovered a handful of scattered human remains from that era, so it's unlikely we would have discovered remains of a species that was already pretty much extinct by then. Added to that, we know Guardians practised grave rituals, so that may have included cremation or other forms of internment that means it's unlikely we'll find bodies.

What fits this idea with Guardians?

Spoiler

The Guardians evolved from another branch of life on Earth. They would still share most of the same things as us: Most (similar mass animals) on Earth have two sexes, eyes like ours, share a huge chunk of our DNA, have blood, etc. etc. in short, almost any mammal would tick all the same boxes in Ram Tah's research. The Guardians may actually have been the previous form of sentient life on Earth, evolved entirely naturally 2 million years before us. They may even be some close relative in terms of being a primate type (like monkeys).

Imagine a situation where a technologically advanced species were just about to destroy themselves. They're sheltering in the last of their domes in their cities on the homeworld:

Gamma 17) According to this data, the Guardians' homeworld served as a power-base for this new religious order, which eventually succeeded in ostracizing or exiling all of its opponents.
Gamma 18) The war was ostensibly fought between the people of the homeworld and the colonies.

The shield domes fell and they were almost all destroyed, but it's unlikely all of them died, spread over the Earth in various bunkers etc. Irradiated, the survivors did their best to survive on the homeworld for as long as possible and passed their legacy on to a new generation.

If there were survivors from the Guardians civil war, they may well have lived on Earth for generations until ultimately dying out. Let's assume they realised they'd made a huge mess of it, and being socially responsible (As we know they were) decided their time was done. But, they may have even helped and guided our own very early ancestors, showed them how to use tools. Maybe it's even possible that the last act of the Guardians was to genetically tweak early hominids to give them a propensity towards evolving larger brains. Sort of shepherding a new sentient race into the light and hoping they'd do it better.

I favour the idea that Guardians and very early human ancestors lived side-by side for a while, consider:

We know that our ancestors:

1) Practice burial rituals (we've found graves and grave goods of early hominids)
2) were nomadic tribal hunters living in small communities
3) When the ice-age ended and things warmed up we eventually settled down and started making more permanent buildings
4) use sign language and vocal communication
5) like geometric shapes
6) tended to build small settlements and trade and travel between them.
7) we have lost our ability to digest raw meat, but that was relative recently in our evolution, our ancestors could still eat it
8) Early humanity (and still many humans today) had great respect for the animals they hunted and nature
9) Most of our earliest written languages were representative, using marks which later became pictograms representing words and ideas.

This all sounds very familiar... If you compare this to the Guardians early history, it's exceptionally similar.

Also consider:

1) Our legends of "Ancient races with astounding technology destroyed in caclysms" - Atlantis, Lemuria, etc.
2) Our myths about odd-looking "gods" teaching humanity - pretty much worldwide.
3) Commonalities in some of our earliest myths and creation stories, things like a great flood happening in most, a tiny number of survivors having to restart civilisation.
4) Our myths about "teacher" beings that helped out and told us truths about the world.
5) Our ideas that the stars were home to the gods (shared by many mythologies).
6) Common beliefs in magic, including the ability to shape shift, levitate, fly, and other things that might have a technological basis (misunderstandings of genetic engineering etc.).

These might be hugely distorted early history records of the last of the Guardians passing on what they knew, knowing they were done for but not wanting to die out entirely.

(NOTE: FYI - I don't believe IRL in Ancient astronauts or anything like that, this is just relating to the fictional world of Elite Dangerous, so please don't point out all the things wrong with Ancient Astronaut Theory or any of that, I know and I agree!).

What about space? There would be some stuff in space?

Spoiler

There aren't any Guardian relics anywhere in space other than on some airless planets. Given that, and 2millions years of time, it's possible that any relics left floating in space have been pulled into gravity wells and are now gone.

Also remember there was an 'alien' artefact found on Mars (source: one of the visitors beacons in Sol), it's been kept in secret since its discovery, but that might well have been some relic of the Guardians.

Since the Guardians were very ecological, it's also possible that (unlike us) they didn't like littering. We know that when they decided to go into space they basically turned the collected skills of the whole civilisation to the idea and built three giant arks and went to set up new colonies. Ram Tah didn't really suggest much in the way of launching probes to nearby worlds, it seems more of a leap than the baby steps we took.

And so. to Conclude:

(read this if you just want the super-short version).

Spoiler

The Earth is the homeworld of the Guardians. They evolved approx 2 million years ago in the Pleistocene era at the start of the Ice Age that lasted from around 2.5mill BC to around 11,000BC.

They evolved from one of the many and diverse animals to emerge from the last great extinction event. They grew to sentience in the warm jungles of the Early Pleistocene and lived a nomadic hunter lifestyle. As the Earth cooled into the start of the ice age (A process taking thousands of years) they began to struggle, as did many forms of life, and they eventually learned to use tools to make shelters, and that lead to a rapid increase in technological sophistication.

They lived harmoniously with the Earth, built ecologically and mastered genetic engineering early on. They ultimately went into the stars, then had a civil war. This period of their history probably only took around 2-3 thousand years. Ram Tah notes they advanced very rapidly.

The faction that stayed on Earth was basically against all the colony worlds in the civil war, and was eventually defeated. The few remaining Guardians either tweaked the genetics of the next most intelligent creature on Earth (early hominids) to help them achieve true sentience, or they just hoped that eventually the hominids would evolve on their own. The last of the Guardians on Earth continues for a long time, maybe thousands more years before finally dying out, during which time they shepherded they early hominids towards civilisation.

This accounts for why so many things in our early culture and society resemble things in the Guardian early life and culture, and why we're so similar genetically to them, live on the same types of worlds, eat the same foods, etc. We have a rich mythology that involved odd-looking bipedal creatures telling us secrets and helping humans (and in some cases hindering us). We have a number of myths about long-lost technologically advanced cultures.

We've never found any Guardian relics on earth because after 2million years there wouldn't be anything left - after 25-50,000 years even Human civilisation as it is now would vanish completely from the Earth. Given that the Guardians always favoured more ecological solutions, it's entirely possible they never used materials that would stay in the fossil record (i.e. everything they used was biodegradable). We haven't found any Guardian skeletons on Earth because the majority of their civilisation was gone before the ice age set in. We have only discovered a handful of scattered human remains from that era, so it's unlikely we would have discovered remains of a species that was already pretty much extinct by then. Added to that, we know Guardians practised grave rituals, so that may have included cremation or other forms of internment that means it's unlikely we'll find bodies.

I like that part of the idea, that something similar to humans should have the same origins.
However, a major advanced civilization like that must have transformed their environment no matter how ecological they were, so should be able to trace their effect underground.

Not only that: why there would be no fossils?