'''''Beware! This page contains Spoilers! Read ahead at your own risk!'''''
'''''Beware! This page contains Spoilers! Read ahead at your own risk!'''''
'''Ancient Races''', commonly known as '''Spoiler Races''' refer to the three unique [[NPR]]'s: Precursors, Invaders and Star Swarm. Each can be individually toggled on/off during game setup, if toggled instance of them can be created each time a new [[system]] is generated.
'''Ancient Races''', commonly known as '''Spoiler Races''' refer to the unique [[NPR]]'s:
{{Spoiler|
'''Precursors:''' Robotic fleets left behind after their creators were wiped out by the Invaders. They guard ruins, jump gates, and caches, are technologically advanced, and will attack all non‑Precursor life. Their dispersed fleets could not stop the second Invader incursion, but inflicted heavy losses before being destroyed.
Beware, these races aren't too keen on [[diplomacy]]. Before you start exploring too much territory, make sure you build up a decent sized military fleet, or you might encounter a lot of ''fun''.
'''Invaders:''' Extra‑galactic attackers entering via Stable Wormholes. This is their third and largest incursion. They are extremely advanced, always hostile, and tend to explore aggressively, which can slow the game. They previously destroyed the Precursors after two major conflicts.
==Precursors==
'''Star Swarm:''' Biological spaceborne creatures consisting of Queens, Soldiers, and Workers. They reproduce rapidly, mine asteroids, consume wrecks, and can overwhelm systems with numbers. Soldiers are the combat ships; Workers gather resources; Queens produce new units.
The robotic Precursor ships standing silent vigil over the remains of their creator's long-dead civilization, defeated by the [[#Invaders|Invaders]]. All that remains are few isolated groups of robotic ships that guard the ruins of defeated foes waiting for new instructions that never arrive. Their mission is simply to eliminate all non-Precursor life.
The Precursors, an advanced but relatively peaceful race, were attacked on sight during the Invaders' invasion. Fortunately for the Precursors, this initial incursion was relatively small and the Precursors managed to fight them off with heavy losses. This caused a radical change in the outlook of the Precursors and they become extremely militant, focusing all their efforts on ensuring they were never threatened again. To this end, the Precursors built fleets of robot ships with a mission to wipe out all civilizations that showed any sign of being a threat. However, all their preparation came to nought when the second Invader incursion arrived via a Stable Wormhole in the Precursor home system. The widely dispersed Precursor robot fleets could not intervene in time and the Invaders wiped out the Precursors. The fleets of Precursor ships were left without central control and either remained in orbit over the [[ruins]] of their last victims or were trapped in systems without access to jump-capable ships. The Precursors didn't go down without a fight and inflicted massive losses on the Invaders, who called off their invasion.
'''Aether Raiders:''' Stealth‑focused raiders using cloaking and thermal reduction. Lower tech than other Ancient Races but capable of ambushing civilian shipping and slipping through defenses.
The precursors did have a [[Jump Gate]] network and some of those jump gates remain. Precursors robotic ships guard some of the alien [[ruins]] and occasionally random encounters with small Precursor ships maybe created in non-ruin system. They have no real populations, although they may have small listening posts and weapon caches in the system. Although few in number and they don't have any survey ships for exploration, they are likely to be higher tech than your own Empire at game start and any starting NPRs. You will need to overwhelm, outsmart or simply avoid them until you are ready. Leave this selected as Precursors provide valuable combat experience. Rather than a complete Empire similar to your own (which is what NPRs will be).
'''Rakhas:''' Ground‑only ancient race defending valuable planets with powerful ground forces. They do not build ships and only threaten players who approach their worlds.
==Invaders==
'''Known System Limits (C# only):''' C# allows delaying the appearance of mobile Ancient Races until the player has explored a certain number of systems (defaults: 10 for Swarm/Raiders, 20 for Invaders), giving new empires time to establish themselves.
The menacing extra-galactic Invaders, which threaten to bring their extremely advanced technology to bear in a massive galactic purge. They arrive in our galaxy via Stable Wormholes that they generate from their home galaxy.
This is their third incursion into our galaxy. During the first, they encountered the Precursors and attacked them on sight. This initial incursion was relatively small and the Precursors managed to fight them off with heavy losses. The second Invader incursion arrived via a Stable Wormhole in the Precursor home system. The widely dispersed Precursor robot fleets could not intervene in time and the Invaders wiped out the Precursors. However, the Precursors didn't go down without a fight and inflicted massive losses on the Invaders, who called off their invasion. Now the Invaders have built up their forces again and are about to launch their third and largest incursion.
'''Notes:''' Exact Ancient Race tech values are documented on the forums • Invaders were inspired by the Andromedans from Star Fleet Battles • Additional lore references are available on the Aurora forums • “Rakhâs” is the Khuzdul word for “Orcs” in Tolkien’s Middle‑Earth.
:Tip: Invaders are always hostile, very high tech and extremely dangerous. For a starting game, its best to disable them so leave that box unchecked. Also beware Invaders tend to explore a lot, causing the game to become [[Game Slowdown|slower]].
}}
==Star Swarm==
The biological Star Swarm species of living ships that reproduce in space. Individually they are weak, but can be very dangerous in numbers infest any system in their way. They are not identified in any distinctive fashion, but the telltale groups of 750-ton FACs using meson weaponry are usually unique to the Swarm in any given playthrough.
There are 3 types of Swarm. Queen, Soldiers and Workers. The Soldiers are the only real warships of the swarm. The workers mine asteroids/comets for minerals that are used by the Queen to create eggs that hatch to create new members of the swarm. The eggs appear on the map as wrecks of what they going to hatch into; this is the only time you will see a Swarm wreck. Destroyed Swarm ships do not leave wrecks. Once a Swarm is discovered it will continue to mine the resources of system and and the Queen will continue to create more soldiers and workers.
The Swarm will also consume wrecks for raw materials, so messages indicating that wrecks have disappeared from sensors is a good indicator that the Swarm is operating in a given system.
:Tip: Star Swarm can be very challenging, its recommended to turn them off until you feel you've got a handle on military operations.
==Aether Raiders ([[CSharp|C#]] only)==
Aether raiders are a somewhat lower threat than the other three races above, with a lower starting technology level. Their focus is largely on stealth, with cloaking devices and thermal signature reduction being important parts of their designs. They are not especially difficult to beat, if you can find them, but they can easily sneak around your systems and threaten undefended civilian ships.
==Rakhas ([[CSharp|C#]] only)==
Rakhas are a ground-only ancient race in the C# version of the game. They tend to have colonies on highly valuable planets, and protect them with strong ground forces. They do not build ships, however, so they will not threaten you unless you get within [[beam weapon]] range of their planet.
==Known System Limits ([[CSharp|C#]] only)==
Due to the high threat level of the mobile races(Star Swarm, Invaders, and Aether Raiders), C# adds an option at game start to prevent their appearance until you have discovered a certain number of systems. This will allow the player to establish themselves as a multi-system empire before running into these enemies, which reduces their early-game threat. Default settings are 10 systems known for Swarm and Raiders and 20 for Invaders, but players who are not comfortable with combat may wish to increase these values substantially.
==Notes==
* Exact values for ancient race technology points (in C# v2.0.0 or later) are described [https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12523.msg154574#msg154574 here].
* The Invaders were inspired by the Andromedans from Star Fleet Battles.[http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=3853.msg37316#msg37316]
* Precursors and Invaders backstory Reference [http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=2502.msg25438#msg25438].
* Rakhâs is the word for "Orcs" in Khuzdul, the secret Dwarven language of JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth books.
[[Category:content]]
[[Category:content]]
Latest revision as of 18:22, 23 September 2026
This article contains information relevant to both the C# and VB6 versions of Aurora.
Where differences exist, they are noted in the appropriate sections.
Planet of pure evil. Stay away.
Beware! This page contains Spoilers! Read ahead at your own risk!
Ancient Races, commonly known as Spoiler Races refer to the unique NPR's:
Spoiler Information
Precursors: Robotic fleets left behind after their creators were wiped out by the Invaders. They guard ruins, jump gates, and caches, are technologically advanced, and will attack all non‑Precursor life. Their dispersed fleets could not stop the second Invader incursion, but inflicted heavy losses before being destroyed.
Invaders: Extra‑galactic attackers entering via Stable Wormholes. This is their third and largest incursion. They are extremely advanced, always hostile, and tend to explore aggressively, which can slow the game. They previously destroyed the Precursors after two major conflicts.
Star Swarm: Biological spaceborne creatures consisting of Queens, Soldiers, and Workers. They reproduce rapidly, mine asteroids, consume wrecks, and can overwhelm systems with numbers. Soldiers are the combat ships; Workers gather resources; Queens produce new units.
Aether Raiders: Stealth‑focused raiders using cloaking and thermal reduction. Lower tech than other Ancient Races but capable of ambushing civilian shipping and slipping through defenses.
Rakhas: Ground‑only ancient race defending valuable planets with powerful ground forces. They do not build ships and only threaten players who approach their worlds.
Known System Limits (C# only): C# allows delaying the appearance of mobile Ancient Races until the player has explored a certain number of systems (defaults: 10 for Swarm/Raiders, 20 for Invaders), giving new empires time to establish themselves.
Notes: Exact Ancient Race tech values are documented on the forums • Invaders were inspired by the Andromedans from Star Fleet Battles • Additional lore references are available on the Aurora forums • “Rakhâs” is the Khuzdul word for “Orcs” in Tolkien’s Middle‑Earth.
