7 Most Powerful ELDER RACES in Science Fiction
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2024
- The Covenant, the Protoss, the Eldar; it's alien races like these that get all the attention in science fiction, after all, there's a lot of information and content out there on them. However, it's not often that anyone talks about the ancient creator races that came before these different races. These precursor races are often the most powerful of all. From Warhammer 40K to Halo, today we take a look at some of the most epic of these races.
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Pleasantly surprised by how many mentions the Xeelee (and the photino birds) has gotten, as I thought Stephen Baxter was a pretty fringe writer. Granted, he's not the best to write compelling characters, but his ideas and concepts! Hell yes.
My the scope of what my brain can conceive was forever altered by reading Ring.
Loved hoe trilogy
the big bang rifle
I plan to read the xeelee series.
This is exactly the information I came here in an attempt to remember. Xeelee. Photino birds. I was searching for "neutrino fish". And for some reason I was thinking they and the photino birds were from an Alastair Reynolds novel. I've only read 'Timelike Infinity' and it was a long time ago.
Slight correction. The Webway does not "lead" to the Warp. It was literally built by the Old Ones to avoid exactly that. The Webway is between the Materium and Immaterium(Warp). It allows to travel great distances, avoiding the need to slip into the Warp to do that. It is explicitly warded to contain the breaching of the Warp.
Wait warhammer 40k travels faster by going into hell? Oh my god they have the same logic as Minecraft lmfao
The Photino Birds from the Xeelee Sequence really belong on this list.
The photino birds can solo all the other settings without even noticing.
@@zeehero7280 downstreamers would like to have a word with you
The Alterans WERE the first iteration of humans who then ascended. They had corporeal form. They seeded the galaxies with human life (humans were found on at least 3 galaxies) before becoming ethereal beings, the last being the Lanteans. The Ori also had corporeal form before ascending.
they are one of most HFY things ever
Haha, it's funny how Star Wars, as usual, has the weakest Lore. Wow.
You can't even call them Gate Builders, their version of Gates is pretty much a Cheat.
BUT YOU KNOW WHO WAS A GATE-BUILDER?!
THE ELIATROPES!
ever heard of the Downstreamers?....
not rooting for that collection of [Flowers], but just a thought.
Ah you were able to put into words what needed to be corrected! Kudos!
@@patrikmodrovsky1842 what does “HFY” mean?
Babylon 5 is a forgotten but great franchise kinda like the the elder races in Science Fiction.
Loved the first ones and Lorien
The Vorlons and Shadows were fantastic.
There was a clip of Vorlons and Shadows. Must have been a reason he chose not to include them.
@@simonwillis1529 shit, even in this video they teased B5, but didn't deliver. i mean wtf?
I was just thinking the same thing!
Leviathan's while somewhat powerful aren't exactly smart.
Leviathan #1: "Hey our tiny servants keep building AI that end up killing them off, how do we stop this?"
Leviathan #2: "Build an AI?"
Leviathan #1: "...I like that plan let's do that! There is no way this idea can backfire on us and every race to come!"
They share that with the Old Ones in 40K
Old one#1: Hey, we're getting slaughtered by the C'tan, we need a way to fight back
Old One#2: Well, what if we created a new race of our own, one that can warp the fabric of reality itself, lives to fight, is nigh unkillable and can weaponize literally anything?
Old One#1: Cool, lets do that... Uh, should we put in any safeguards or an off-switch?
Old One#2: Nah, we got this... *(Proceeds to create Orks)*
@@weldonwin the idea of an off-switch button is even dumber than Death Star's exhaust port.
@@khai96x because overheating is something you want to have, riiight?
@@weldonwin Maybe there is an off-switch, there's just not a single old-one left to push the button, therefore no one knows it's here
@@weldonwin No, Old Ones designed Orks as foot soldiers and Eldar as their officer/support units, only the work was left somewhat unfinished.
Leviathans were like Rakata, primitives given ability to enslave others rather so rather than improve their own civilization they just kept doing things the old way.
When they started talking of Old Ones I expected the Lovecraft’s ones, which surely deserved a place in this list.
Exactly what I thought. I think they honestly predate the universe itself with the way Lovecraft introduced their lore to literature.
They're more of a horror mythos rather than sci fi so I can understand them not being on the list. They are gods, in the literal sense, and not an alien species.
@@lucasriley874 - Lovecraft was writing before science fiction had gelled as a distinct genre. Even so, the various beings were described as coming from space, and science played a very important part: reference the Hounds of Tindalos, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Color Out of Space, and At the Mountains of Madness, just to name a very few. Later writers such as Robert Bloch deliberately incorporated SF tropes into their stories set in the Cthulhu mythos.
Yeah, and then you have the elder things which are essentially just incredibly intelligent aliens fighting them, the great race of yith, and the mi-go
Dude, they're NOT on here?! That's crap for a sci-fi channel guys, come on. Still gonna watch.
Warhammer's Old Ones:
The shitty, neglectful grandparents of all that is life.
They also made the Tyranids as a weapon.
@@donaldtenney3595 thought that was the orks they made
@@TheRealTerranMarine They made the Eldari, Ork(Krork) and many minor races that have either died or become little more than footnotes. There is evidence that insinuates that the Tyranid were made by them as well but there is no proof that I know of.
@@donaldtenney3595
The Tyranids come from a different galaxy.
Haha, it's funny how Star Wars, as usual, has the weakest Lore. Wow.
You can't even call them Gate Builders, their version of Gates is pretty much a Cheat.
BUT YOU KNOW WHO WAS A GATE-BUILDER?!
THE ELIATROPES!
I am surprised that the Time Lords did not make the list, maybe they will be on another list if you guys feel like making a sequel list to this one. The reason they should have been on the list, is because they literally invented physics and banished magic from the universe. They also invented black holes and perfected time travel among other amazing achievements.
Not quite. They didn’t invent physics. Watch the Ingame guy who does the Time Lords. They didn’t even invent time travel Rasillon stole it from guys who came back to destroy the Tome Lords before they could become Time Lords. So basically all their knowledge is stolen knowledge
MATHHEW TOMPKINS Rassilon himself established physics as we know it, he created these laws using the eye of harmony he created and the Time Lords did banish magic. I did say that the Time Lords perfected time travel not create it. Before the Time Lords created the eye of harmony, magic was the dominant force in the universe and the universe itself was a chaotic place to live in the dark times. Then the Time Lords re-wrote the universe to force it to obey the laws of physics they created and with that magic was gone. The Time Lords also by existing allow for the crossing of universes, without them around it is nearly impossible to do. The Time Lords before they created the laws of non-interference were a species that tried to uplift the lower races and found that they destroyed themselves when they did, also they stole individuals from time to fight for their amusement in the death zone until they abolished that practice also. I consider the Time Lords an elder race because of how old their civilization is. There are a multitude of other races, like the desciples of light, that could be on the list. The Time Lords also eliminated any race that was a threat to them and the wider universe's development.
@@MrLupis26 I thought Omega created the Eye of Harmony when he solved the Unparalleled Schism.
@@MrLupis26 The Time Lords did not invent black hole they harnessed them. How could the Disciples of the Light use a black hole against the Beast if they had yet to be invented, didn't the Doctor say the language on the wall in The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit was so old the Tardis could not translate it. Also the Time Lords did not banish magic because Lady Peinforte used magic to time travel in Silver Nemesis.
Motorhawk2 the 10th Doctor in the Satan Pit episode said “Gravity shamvity my people practically invented black holes, well in fact they did” the disciples of light probably used one once they were invented as it would serve as a perfect prison. It is entirely possible that they beat The Beast after the universe The Doctor lives in was created. What happens in the Silver Nemesis could be construed as psychic abilities. The books of Doctor Who all say that the Time Lords removed magic as a fundamental force of the universe and replaced it with the laws of physics that Rassilon invented. Lady Peinforte was from an age were such psychic powered would be seen as magic.
Edit: just did some checking, The 7th Doctor says that the incarnation of evil Fenric helped Peinforte to time travel and it was not her by herself.
Missing the Xeelee from Xeelee sequence. Those bastards are the embodiment of OP. I mean, you have to be pretty high tier to fight a conflict that spans the entire universe and multiple timelines against dark matter lifeforms that outnumber you a few million to one for a few billion years.
I. I need to read this
Xeelee sequence by Baxter is just amazing hard sci-fi
These lists are always slanted it says something like "7 Most Powerful ELDER RACES in Science Fiction" when they mean in film/series/games ..its a joke like you said wheres the Xeelee or The Arisians from the lensmen series hell or The Eddorrians who were from a different universe in those books
Xeelee from Stephen Baxter's books operate at a scale most scifi can't comprehend.
That's the first comb-over for a beard I've ever seen
Gravemind: "We are the last of those who gave you breath and form, millions of years ago. We are the last of those your kind defied and ruthlessly destroyed. We are the last Precursors. And now we are Legion."
@Lord Admiral Spire It's from Halo Silentium, it seems. Cryptum has a similar version, but Silentium is where it's quoted like that.
@Lord Admiral Spire The Gravemind was saying that to a Forerunner main character, not a human.
I want them to make a game or further build on the story about the war between the corrupted Mendicant Bias and Offensive Bias the last war mind of the forerunners....the odds Offensive Bias faced were insane.
@Lord Admiral Spire Haha, it's funny how Star Wars, as usual, has the weakest Lore. Wow.
You can't even call them Gate Builders, their version of Gates is pretty much a Cheat.
BUT YOU KNOW WHO WAS A GATE-BUILDER?!
THE ELIATROPES!
Haha, it's funny how Star Wars, as usual, has the weakest Lore. Wow.
You can't even call them Gate Builders, their version of Gates is pretty much a Cheat.
BUT YOU KNOW WHO WAS A GATE-BUILDER?!
THE ELIATROPES!
"Before the birth of Jimmy Carter"? Wow, you're starting with the really old ones.
try Betty White
“... even if it is the Necrons, who could probably defeat Superman.”
I’ll allow this.
Uh...Vorlons? Shadows? Time Lords? so many others. Also in Stargate, the Ancients were essentially Humans version 1 and they eventually ascended to a higher plane, they did not start out that way.
Definitely Time Lords
He mentions them in their first name: Alterans
Most of these aren't that outrageously powerful. A Vorlon planet-killer is just a bigger badder version of stuff puny humans were using. By comparison the Xeelee civilization spanned the universe and created machines built from galaxies...and somehow got forgotten from this list.
@@j.f.fisher5318 the Asgard could collapse entire solar systems in on themselves and travel the void between galaxies in less then a day... And the Alterans could reshape and destroy entire galaxies at their choosing.
And time lords restructured every single sapient race that ever was or will be.
@@romabeg1236 Time Lords ain't ancient, they stole their tech from another race, that little girl/boy that was killed over and over again. Well at least to the new lore the BBC have made. So that makes them more a kind to the humans in Halo, the simply found tech from others.
You show Volorn and Shadows at the start and not mention them!
how funny I just made the same comment JMS started the whole ancient race as far as as I know
Lorien: "that's cute"
@@richardtrue2758 It goes back much farther than that, even ST had ancient races of different sorts, including one who's credited with spreading humanoid life around the galaxy (ie, giving them an excuse for humans with slightly different forehead ridges being so common). But other scifi had used this trope in books for much much longer than even that. B5 did make it an even more important plot point, but he also got a lot of inspiration from tolkiens work (where older races passing into history is a mayor theme).
@@richardtrue2758 Even Greek and Norse mythology have powerful ancient races, commonly regarded as gods, like the Titans or the Asgardians.
@Zerebrat Eightyseven its Lorien, The First One.
The Xeelee can beat this whole list combined at the same time without noticing before they even realize.
Precursors from halo could, and would kick their asses
@@AsrielDreemurYT653 Not even a close fight imo, the Precursors haven't shown capabilities even close to the Xeelee and I think even the Time lords of dr who would easily wipe out the Precursors or the Humans from Xeeleverse could as well. Precursors aren't weak and overpowered compared to many sci fi worlds but the I haven't seen a sci fi race that stacks up to the Xeelee.
@@slickinfinity.crypto8028 there is multiple stages of precursor life (I don’t think basement dwelling is one of them) but at one point they were THE most powerful creatures in the galaxy, and came from a expansionistic race, and by that philosophy, they might have taken over others as well,
@@slickinfinity.crypto8028 you’re correct about the xeelee’s abilities, but outside of canon there are bullshit statistics that sw legends can’t ever hope to top
Well we could also ask why the Q from Star Trek wasn't there, as they are basically gods. Given that they can snap a finger and remove a race from time is quiet a power to have.
Xeelee from novel Vacuume Diagrams. Survived end of prior Universe. Spent billions of years creating Great Attractor. Humans spent five million years fighting them, but accomplished little on scale Xeelee worked at; Xeelee were in every major galaxy in Universe vs Humans only explored a few galaxies in this novel.
Rakata was a nice choice for Star Wars, but the Celestials are even more significant in the shaping of the Star Wars universe, which is to be expected given they created it. Supernatural Encounters: The Trial and Transformation of Arhul Hetrophon is by far the best piece of literature covering the ancient and esoteric elements of Star Wars and covers the Celestials, their creation and seeding of the universe, the Firstborn races (some of whom still persist to the movie eras, such as the Gree), how the Ones of Mortis came to be, and tons more.
There’s the theory that the Old Ones created the Tyranids.
General idea being that some surviving Old Ones who fled the galaxy created the Tyranids as a great reset button. Whether or not the Nids are doing as their creators intended or an uncontrollable beast that has long since snapped its leash.
"Amon has whispered of this from the stars, he told me of his return, he told me of ruin, extinction, the end of all things."
Expected to see both the Xelee/Photino Birds and the Downstreamers on this list. Very surprised to not see them here, as they blow everyone on the videos list out of the water with ease.
I was surprised as well, they make everyone else on this list look like insects
@@robertkerecz7467 not really. Precursors could put up a good fight.
@@somegeek153 did you really just say the down streamers are "not really" in the top two? Lmao the precursors are nothing next to them and died to the forerunners. Gimme a break
@@robertkerecz7467 the precursors only died to the forerunners because the didn't fight back. All they did was run, didn't even activate any shields. And yet the flood ( which are corrupted and much weaker versions of the precursor ) wiped out the foreruners. So yes they can give the xeelee a hard time, maybe not the dowmstreamers but xeelee yes.
@@somegeek153 the downstreamers created an infinite multiverse and can with just a thought create a material capable of withstanding a 1000 big bangs and crunches a second, not even in the same ballpark, star system or universe in terms of power
*screams in Xeelee*
I thought my beard grew all weird just going sideways... I'll never complain about it again 🙏🙏
Sadly, I think it is styled that way 🙄.......on purpose!
@@knewhunter1 the mind boggles. 🤔🤔
Haha, it's funny how Star Wars, as usual, has the weakest Lore. Wow.
You can't even call them Gate Builders, their version of Gates is pretty much a Cheat.
BUT YOU KNOW WHO WAS A GATE-BUILDER?!
THE ELIATROPES!
You missed the "Q" from star trek
The Progenitors
The Q are timeless so may not qualify as ancient.
A better choice from Star Trek would be the Preservers who are probably the same race from The Next Generation episode The Chase.
@@ShawnCadieux1984 but the very nature of the Q means that their origins can actually be in the far future. We just don't know.
Yes,he showed the humans how to insult each other properly and and how to use sarcasm effectively!LOL
@@ShawnCadieux1984 The point is that the Q do not abide by the laws of time and space. They can also exist outside of reality itself, somehow, and can break the 4th wall.
I'm glad that you included the Leviathans, the Precursors, and the Alterans. But I do want to point out that the Ascended Alterans were the ones who had the non-interference policy and very strongly adhered to it. Mortal Alterans are the first iteration of humans, being smarter and physically similar but advanced enough to have their tech work with specific genetic markers. And they also made a superweapon that could both create and destroy life across the galaxy. But it does make them a bit arrogant and stupid sometimes, like that they asked for Atlantis back and got wiped out almost immediately after.
I know it would be basically impossible to show images but the Xeelee are probably stronger than every race on this list. Only the Precursors would really stand a chance
Exactly. Hard to compare though since they are from a hard scifi universe.
@@j.f.fisher5318 to be completely honest not even the Precursors could do much to them. The Xeelee are after all the origin of the term Xeelee stomp.
In books, you have H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones (the monster Cthulhu and his various associates) and the super-race that imprisoned them, the two fighting races in E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen Series, and Ixtl in A.E. van Vogt's VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE (only nearby -- within several billion light-years -- survivor of his evil super-race from a previous Universe). These are only a very few of such beings in a great many good sci-fi books over the decades...
You forgot to mention that the Halo rings were designed to target the neural pathways of the conscious mind, this destroyed nearly all Precursor tech in the galaxy when they were activated, the domain itself was massively damaged, this is actually what led to the events of Halo 4
Lorien from Babylon 5 who was literally the first sentient being in the galaxy and is billions of years old. The Tide Pod comment was golden.
Sure he's awesome. But has he built a Dyson sphere? Controlled all energy production in a galaxy? Controlled all energy in every galaxy? The really grandiose scifi races are way beyond what B5 was going for. B5 is great scifi at a very human scale.
Is nobody gonna comment on this guys beard??? literally the only thing I can focus on. Am I crazy or is it weird af to brush your beard sideways
I knew the Infinity Gates are Star Wars versions of the Stargate network from Stargate.
except you don't need a ship to put an infinity gate on a planet
Look up the Iskalloni. They're the Star Wars version of The Borg.
Who built them?
@@donaldtenney3595 the kwa
For every rule there is an exception. How about a list of alien lifeforms that might not actually be that bad to encounter? Of the top of my head, I can think of the Asgard from Stargate, who gave us a database of their knowledge and technology before comitting mass suicide, or the fire lizards of Pern who seem eager to bond with a human giving them food, saved the colony and with some genetic engineering became actual, intelligent dragons with psychic powers that continually risked their lives to keep saving the colony.
If I remember right, didn't we bring them to Pern or were they indigenous? Also you might want to add a spoiler warning. That revaluation changes the genre of the series from fantasy to sci-fi.
Haha, it's funny how Star Wars, as usual, has the weakest Lore. Wow.
You can't even call them Gate Builders, their version of Gates is pretty much a Cheat.
BUT YOU KNOW WHO WAS A GATE-BUILDER?!
THE ELIATROPES!
I guess maybe the one thing in the 40K universe that is fine to encounter would be the Jokero, and possibly the Watchers in the Dark.
@@kazaklichborn3923 they were indigenous.
Like the Vulcan.
As much as some may hate the Duchy of Terra books they do have a pretty badass Precursor race that manages to wipe themselves out in the most spectacular way possible, and drag most of the younger races alive at the time down with them.
They had a fancy instant teleportation FTL system that they wanted to expand the operational range of, so they set out to change the laws of physics to make that work, and then managed to change the laws of physics so much that the cyborg implants that they were all using stopped working (because the things they were made of went from being superconducting materials to being not conductive at all, in the new set of rules) and they all died horribly.
Still, not even the Old Ones managed to fuck up **that** badly.
Good job guys. Keep these videos coming!
You missed the Iconians from Star trek and the ancienct races of Babylon 5. Also what about the Celestials from Star wars?
Contrary to popular belief, the Iconians barely had much of a presence in the Star Trek franchise, yet seem to be a popular concept enough that they were a key plot point in Star Trek Online. If anything, the Progenitors are more the "ancient, god-like race" than the Iconians were, because they literally seeded the entire galaxy and dictated the evolution of countless races, but even then we barely know anything about them.
Going by Star Trek Online lore, the Iconians were basically to the Progenitors as the Forerunners were to the Precursors in the Halo franchise, being that the were created as a slave race, then overthrew their masters and conquered the galaxy.... though the Iconians actually pale in comparison to the Forerunners in terms of technology.
As for the Celestials (aka. "The Ones" or the "Force Bearers"), even LESS about them is known than the Rakata, and much of the information that's known of them that exists is from the accounts of the very few alien species that still exist that were around back when they existed. Heck, we know more about the Precursors from Halo than we do the Celestials from Star Wars.
British Ben was supposed to do Star Trek but he died.
@@GenerationFilms Please is this real? He died? I tried to Google that but I can't find much about it. Forgive me if I am out of the loop on this.
TECHNICALLY the Iconians aren't the ancient race in Trek. The Preservers are. They created the Iconians.
@@stratometal I think it's a joke British Ben does other things for the channel I don't know what he does maybe manage the web stuff
Vajira from Macross Frontier. So coordinated they can attack all worlds with humanoid life within 24 hours. Have quantum beam cannons for weapons and can go to FTL independently from the smallest unit to the largest hive commander.
Ayee~ a fellow man of culture.
@@paxvesania2008 don't you mean Deculture?
@@barrybend7189 what about Protoculture?
@@noneedtoknow07 the Protoculture are not really that old in Macross. They are about 50000 years. The Vajira evolved for a lot longer and settled more worlds than even them.
You forgot the part where the precursors came back as corrupted beings in an attempt to have their revenge on the forerunners.
And then the Halo array had to be built to hold them off.
DC Comics:
The Guardians of the Universe.
One of the first sentient races in the DCU existing for billions of years.
They have vast psionic abilities with tech beyond our understanding and are able to control matter and energy.
Creators of the Green Lantern rings and power batteries using the green willpower of the emotional spectrum generated by all of the sentient beings of the universe.
Meh, how strong are they really when a human with discount jade bling can kill you?
@@AlucardNoir or when there is an entire race that are damned near gods if they happen to choose to live in a solar system with a yellow sun. Except they are all dumb and none of them choose to do it.
@@cgi2002 The least they could have done is buy a yellow sunlamp!
Markovians from the Well World series. Star Trek had the race of the Squire of Gothos and the race of the Progenitors and the Organians, you could make a case for Lovecraft's Old Ones as well. The Yamato franchise has the Iskandarians - who fit most of the criteria of your list.
Space Battleship Yamato is severely underrated.
It’s possible the Squire of Gothos may have been a Q.
@@chrisstout8451 A child q.
In the Star Trek universe, one race that could be included are The Preservers who seeded humanoid life throughout the galaxy. This explains why there are so many humanoid races, although not necessarily every one in Trek.
The Q, the Voth, the Organians, the Iconians. Star Trek was never lacking in ancient powerful races.
@@Doublebarreledsimian the t'kon empire
The Elders from Expeditionary Force, a galaxy spanning civilisation that has disappeared as far as we know, leaving behind sentient AIs that themselves have unimaginable power. These beings created a shield around the milky way galaxy to prevent whatever they fear from coming in. Their technology can move planets and stars across the galaxy practically instantaneously. Would recommend reading.
The Elders from the ExForce book series by Craig Alanson. Among their many works, they created a galactic shield array to isolate the Milky Way from any threats as well as a series of potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of wormhole jump gates to facilitate interstellar travel.
Ayyyy hell yeah
The Arisians and the Eddorians of the Lensman series written by E. E. Doc. Smith.
YES!
Possibly the first truly ancient 'god-like' aliens in sci-fi.
This list is awful...its not the most powerful Elder races in science fiction not even close,its like it was put together by someone who might have played a video game or watched a TV show but has NEVER even read a science fiction book, i could name a dozen SF races more powerful than the ones mentioned here Arisians and the Eddorians being two of them..
God I remember reading The Lensmen all those years ago. Think I will dig them out.
@@wildfire160 Agreed. This list was compiled by a pack of illiterates.
*George Lucas to to Baby Yoda:* "But I Am Your Father!"
"Uncle Disney will now take care of you"
"You will always be my baby."
Daddy Lucie has milkie for the baby
Grandfather holding his ugly step son's child
My new cash cow. Now go out there being cute and make me some $.
Love those kind of videos, lore elder races are my jams
The Xeelee are laughing at your pitiful list, not even one example of accidently moving a galaxy as a side effect of their plans.
And the photino birds is laughing at your mention of this pitiful Xeelee.
@@Tonius126 the downstreamers are just vibing they dont care
@@Tonius126 the the Great Green Arkleseizure just sneezed everyone out of his nose, by Zarqoun
It's been a while since I read the sequence, but were not the Xeelee created within the first nano-moments of the big bang? If not THE most powerful, than at least the Eldest.
Or creating two Infinite Universe's one of which's only purpose is a Heat sink. As a gift
I don't recall the Precursors wanting to kill the Forerunners, I think the Forerunners where just butt hurt.
That’s true actually in fact the primordial the last precursor told the forerunners when they interrogated him that the precursors were so shocked they didn’t fight back they were just massacred by the forerunners. No wonder the precursors choose humanity as their successors.
The Forerunners might be lying about that but I'm too dumb to know because I've been devolved.
He did say 'According to the Forerunners', so it's implied that the statement from the Forerunners was biased and they might be trying to justify their actions. Also, still doubt Precursors are completely gone.
@@Abrxas01 They are not. The flood are Precursors once they consume enough biomass
@@commissarklink6060 They are corrupted precursors, that doesn't mean ALL of them were destroyed or corrupted. Completely wiping out a race that can evolve a devolve practically at will and have done so repeatedly would be extremely difficult
Even though you didn't include them in the actual list, thank you for at least including Babylon 5's Vorlons and Shadows in the intro clip.
B5 is great but the first ones don't make the list.
How about the Markovians, from the Wellworld series? They realized they were dying off from boredom, so they recreated their universe ( and themselves), try to evolve in a different direction from their own stagnation.
Back when the frogs created the webway, the warp wasn't full of the armies of chaos. Back then it really was the sea of potential energy that Magnus originally believed it was, that's why building the webway, while not easy, would have been SIGNIFICANTLY less impossible than it is in m41.
The very ancient races from the Babylon 5 series universe, the main two of the SHadows, and then the Vorlons.
To the first ones we are like ants. But if the first ones met the Xeelee they would be like ants.
Once again you ignore written sf, despite saying "in science fiction". Where are the Arisians and Eddorans?
Here here. I agree. Why no mention of the lens man series?
glas glas because, unfortunately, most people have forgotten it. It’s been out of print except in limited runs for decades, and the Smith estate bungled its chance at getting it turned into a movie ages ago, and forced the anime adaptation that DID get made to get sealed away in a vault because it “lost them” that chance.
I couldn't find my copy of "Galactic Patrol" so ordered a "new" used one thru Amazon.
It's beat up as hell, but
IT'S A FIRST EDITION.
Sometimes life is good.
Oh! I haven't thought of those in a long, long time!
Well said. Looked for this comment prior to watching video. :D
there are so many SCI-FI movies with alien races that at this point when we finally meet the aliens i won't be surprised if one of the species is exactly the same as one of the species in some of the tv-series
Make a compilation of horror elder races. Loved the vid. I would love to see the lovecraft goes in that one!
Really did drop the ball leaving out the B5 races. Lorean a creature of pure energy and thought first sentient individual in the galaxy. The Vorlons from what we know a species that's mostly energy highly telepathic and telekinetic so much so that they could manipulate matter and energy around them. The clash between two individuals nearly tore the station apart. The Shadows evolving into something of insectoid perfection partial energy and yet able to rip just about anything apart in physical combat able to bend light and energy around them for a near perfect sensory cloak (blocks ultraviolet and infrared as well) add in incredibly telepathic them selves and ships that will give you nightmares.
Vorlons & Shadows (Babylon 5)
First Ones
Lorien really, he was the first or you could say Lorien's race.
@@stevieboymkii True, but there's far too little information regarding their species, technology, and civilization to discuss on.
They aren't even Kardishev 2 civilizations. There are scifi civilizations that require extending the Kardishev scale to 4.
@@j.f.fisher5318 there are always silly levels that sci-fi goes to. It's all a bit of non serious fun in the end.
You missed the Heechee from the Gateway series, the reptilian Cylons, the Krell, the 2001 Monolith builders, Star Trek’s Iconians and Preservers, the Berzerker creators, the Thrintun who had the Slaver Empire, and the Overlords from Childhoods End.
Not leaving till ive read all the comments. So much info I swear im just reading and googling races. Great video my G, loved it all the way
What about the "Firstborn", the ones who created the monoliths in the "2001 Space Odyssey" novels/films? Not even an honorable mention?
Too OP :P
Even I forgot about them.
@@piotrd.4850 LOL Now that's saying something. If you're "too OP" for a video about the most powerful elder races...damn...
Classic Star Trek had a number of super powerful races, like The Organians, The Metrons, and the Preservers. Star Trek TNG and DS9 had The Q and The Prophets (The wormhole aliens) of Bajor. Many of the races that were mentioned in this video, however, seemed to be derived from H.P. Lovecraft's super powerful alien/other dimensional beings. Although you could classify Lovecraft now as Horror, as some other commentators have said below, they were said to be super advanced races and creatures of incredible power that warped reality. Anyway, just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.
That goatee comb over is something.
Just Subbed love the content!!!!
Welcome aboard!
Check our the Elders from the book series Expeditionary Forces. They could move planets and suns across the galaxy. They created a force field around the entire galaxy. The created a wormhole network in space that is sort of similar to Stargate. They created super-advanced AIs that exist outside of normal space and can manipulate the laws of physics. They have some thing called a power tap that reminds me of ZPMs from Stargate. Not a ton more is known yet. The series is on-going.
PS - everytime I watch video like this and see Stargate mentioned my heart sings.
Absolutely love that series!
So, this is what I wrote in advance, in case they weren't on the list
"The Alterans from Stargate (Also known as The Ancients, Gatebuilders, The Ancestors or Lanteans)"
Then I watched the rest of the video and was happy they were.
"Glorious are the Ori, who didst lead us to salvation, who did fight the evil that would doom us to mortal sin. Did they defeat the old spirits and cast them out? And now, with the strength of our will, they do call upon us to prevail against the corruption of all unbelievers."
FINALLY! Love for Stargate is finally coming into fruition! Generation Films, thank you, from a humble Gater!
@Rob Max As do I.
Lots of The Expanse and Halo in your videos... I love this.
Funny how the Ring Builders were followed by the Gate Builders/Alterans.
Honorable mention, the Asgard or collectively the Four Great Races. 👍
COOL! Also prefer Stargate ancient species! Plus love Allan talks about the Rakatan at 8:12.
You know Stargate probably got its Ancient race idea from Macross as the Ancients and Wraith are very similar to the Protoculture and Varutia from Macross.
Also the Iconians I think deserved a mention. They transported an entire Dyson sphere from the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way in minutes and in the war between the entire Milky Way and the Iconians, only one Iconian was killed.
I know there wouldn't be a whole lot of pictures, but you missed the first Elder Race - the Arisians from the Lensman saga! They challenged each other by guessing where hairs would fall from a haircut across the galaxy.
I was surprised to see that you didn't include any of the races/civilizations from the Star Trek universe. Though in thinking about it I could come up with quite a decent list just from Star Trek alone so I guess it kind of makes sense, hey there is a thought, you guys should do a spin off of this video of powerful and/or dangerous and/or advanced races/civilizations from just the Star Trek universe. Just a thought I had as I was writing this, I still think it would be pretty cool and entertaining though. Anyway, love the video and your channel keep doing what you do these are really fun to watch.
12:45 and Ben is saying and finally. Theres 3 minutes left and you arent talking anout Babylon 5s Vorlons nor is thete even apparently an honorable mentions. You make me sad guys.
Even in the B5 universe the Vorlons aint the top dog though...
Hopefully they will do a second one!!
@@wildfire160 Most tend to forget that the Shadows were traveling in Hyperspace A Million Years before the Vorlons, or that the Walkers open Third Space before space flight and eventually Hyperspace- By the time of B5 the Shadows were already using the next level of Hyperspace engines that allowed them to Phase In and Out.( I'm more Interested in that Ancient Race in The Legend Of the Rangers).
Two things! {...corrections!!!"
Its the O"riye, not orie!
Second the Alerans/ancients were humanoids to begin with that ascended to a higher plain of existence! not the other way around! I can tell you guys aren't Stargate fans!
right it kinda disappointing me
They aren't fans of much it seems, they even pronounced Amon from starcraft horribly wrong
@@PureBrawler that triggered me I admit. Thought he was ending a prayer.
It's pronounced Ori
It's a good thing the Krell aren't around any more. The lack of a mention would have killed them.
Granted not a movie/game or tv-series title but the Creators in Terry Pratchett's Strata universe are the ultimate Elders
It's always the same franchises. B5 rarely gets a look in. The First Ones were mysterious and incredibly powerful. And Lorien's race, being the oldest race in the galaxy, is fascinating (especially since Lorien is stated to be the first being to achieve sentience). Also, the Ancients/Ori in Stargate started off as physical beings (on the planet Celestis) but learnt to ascend and shed their physical bodies.
Great thing about Shadows and Volron was that none of them were clear cut heroes & villains ... both had darkly indifferent aspect to them.
I don't think we ever really got a great look at the capabilities of the Shadows or Vorlons in B5. I mean, it seemed they had their own ships, which were granted pretty powerful, but there really wasn't any indication of how'd they'd measure up to the real heavy hitters.
@@taragnor what real heavy hitters are you referring to?
B5 was human scale. Humans argued with the first ones and told them to leave the galaxy. There are races in scifi that use galaxies as bullets in their wars, specifically the Xeelee.
@@j.f.fisher5318 Would still point to Star Trek where some of the real OP races could be found, ones where a simply thought could kill of a whole race down to the every single one of them in a smaller time than a second on a galaxy wide scale. And lets not forget the Q's, where a small civil war causes stars to turn into supernovas around the univers.
None of the First Ones in B5 departed because of a climactic event. They chose to go beyond the rim, leaving the Vorlons and the Shadows to watch over the younger races.
Been waiting for someone one to do this.
Thank you for the Ork reference. It's my favorite aspect and what initially drew me into 40K.
Semper WAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH.
Xeelee - Xeelee Sequence
Golden Tribe - Heroic Age
But are the Xeelee precursors or successors standing on their own shoulders?
@@robertmartinu8803 Hard to tell, because they existed since almost the big bang.
GO IRON TRIBE!
@@robertmartinu8803 yes
Gabbleduck from the polity novels?
It seems that there is some confusion regarding the Alterans of Stargate:
There is a difference between the Alterans before and after ascension, and there is a difference between the Ori and their followers.
Alterans used to be highly advanced humanoids and then, long ago, most of them ascended to a higher level of existence. It is only after their ascension that they decided to not intervene (as being ascended gives immense power and "all the knowledge of the universe"), unlike the Ori who decided to become "gods" after their ascension.
Ascension is not something exclusive to the Alterans though, all sentient beings can "technically" ascend.
Ascended beings and Alterans have to be viewed as two different things, the former are godlike entities who exist on another plane, the latter are technologically advanced humans who eventually ascended.
he also called the goa'uld relatives of the humans rather than the parasite snakes they are, and mispronounced ori
@@thecrossroadgathering4042 Yeah...kinda feeling like this dude doesn't know what he's talking about...
It has been a long time since I worked my way through all of the SG IP. I was under the impression that the Alteran are the "founding" species that both the Ori and the Lantean came from. That at some point many ten's of millions of years ago there was an insurmountable difference of opinions and the Alteran split into two factions.
One of those groups ultimately became the Ori, in their original and home galaxy, of an unknown name. I do not remember seeing anything that mentioned if they ascended as Alteran and took the name Ori after ascension, or if after the split some millions of years later they took the name Ori and began working on ascension.
The other group that became the Lantean left the Alteran home galaxy for the Milky Way, then Pegasus, then lastly (mostly) to Earth after their troubles in Pegasus. The remaining "un-ascended" Lantean lived on Earth until death or going into the freezer chest for a plot point here or there. FWIW, if someone new is here, the Ancient and the Lantean are the same.
Tangentially, the thing that kind of always bothered me about the franchise is the timelines of these races. You're telling me that you can at a whim move between galaxies, and you mostly stay in one place for 10's of millions of years? Also, despite the amazing technology, the pacing of discovery and development seems off given the timeline.
Anyway, that is my interpretation, let me know if I am missing something.
Dude, good one.
This was pretty good. I am glad you limited it to popular games and movies. Thanks.
I'm surprised the Q from the star trek isnt here
This video had in its intro the Vorlons and the Shadows from Babylon 5 but then did not feature them in the list. Their assembled fleets of warships at the battle of Corianna 6 would have put to the sword the assembled fleet of warships that Captain Sheridan had cobbled together.
But they are just operating fleets. That's small potatoes by the standards of the really grandiose scifi races like the Xeelee whose civilization spanned the universe and they created another univers as a heat sink to delay the heat-death of this universe and attached one end of wormholes to relativistic ships and flew them around at close to the speed of light (it is a hard scifi universe so physics matters) to create permanent routes for travel through time so they could advance their technology, then take it back in time to teach their earlier selves how to use it as the basis for the next round of scientific advances, and then repeated that process indefinitely.
The Xel Naga are pretty old too and powerful too like the fact they are not native to the star craft universe and actively traveled between universes creating universes so they would eventually evolve godlike beings to replace them.
You missed what is likely the FIRST of the ancient sci-fi races: The Arisians and Eddorians from the book "Triplanetary", first book of the "Lensman" series by E. E, Doc Smith. Check them out. I think you might like them.
The precursers in halo were so powerful that even when reduced to dust they managed to "corrupt" all life into a single hyper intelligent hivemind and by extent were only able to be stoped by eradicating all life in the universe not to kill them but to starve them.
*the flood has joined the chat*
*master chief has joined the chat*
*the flood has left the chat*
The only way to win is to lose when you're facing the flood
Time Lords could defeat everyone on this list out at the same time and be home in time for yesterdays dinner.
Alex Mason time lords can't defeat a stairway incapable species.
Thats the issue with doctor who. Inconsistent writting means one episodes mutiversal threat is a joke in another
Why can no one on RUclips pronounce "Harbinger" correctly?
Har-Binge-Ur
Awesome thank you... 🙂😀
Yaskoydray (“Grandfather” in Oynprith) - Traveller: Vorlons, Shadows, The Hand, Thirdspace aliens and the First Ones - Babylon 5: The prophets - Star Trek DS9 and Q
With the Alterans, you forgot that they are also the ancestor of all human civilizations. The pure energy forms didn't come until later in their evolution.
The Rakatans also turned Tatooine into the hellhole we know and love. The natives of Tatooine, the ancestors of the Jawas and the Tuskens, were a star-faring race that was conquered by the Rakatans. At some point, they rose up but were brutally suppressed by orbits bombardment that glassed the entire planet. The natives survived by hiding in caves. Centuries later, the glass broke down into sand, and the descendants of the survivors (now evolved into two species) left the caves and became nomads. The story of their downfall was passed down through oral tradition
The Consu from Old Man's War. Unclear if they actually count as an Elder Race since they are still a going concern in the series, but they are so far advanced technologically that it's not even a contest. They've Dyson-sphered their sun, and have defensive technologies so advanced that they can literally ignore opponents if they choose. They only reason lesser races are allowed to fight them is because the Consu believe that those battles help lead the lesser races towards enlightenment, so the Consu fight lesser races with whatever weapons the lesser race has, but do so only after extensive rituals are completed, preventing battle from starting with their super advanced tech.
My favorite of the Elder races would be the Aldenata from John Ringo's Posleen War series. The Aldenata were an enlightened space faring culture that met and uplifted several other species. Being peaceful and enlightened and arrogant, the Aledenata messed with the species they uplifted by making them more compatible with the galactic norm, including making them pacifists (either through social manipulation or genetic adaption). One of their genetic modifications goes wrong when adapting an intelligent reptilians species into colonists they allow them to have aggressive traits for purposes of claiming dangerous territories. One thing leads to another and the lizard species called the Posleen begin eating all of the other member races because none of the others can effectively fight back. The Aldenata, embarrassed and ashamed basically just leave the galaxy in frustration, leaving the galactic federation looking for someone capable of fighting back. Enter humanity.
Vorlons, Shadows and the other First Ones from Babylon 5. You showed there ships in the
intro but never mentioned them
Also: Third Space Aliens and Walkers of Sigma 957...
None is even a Kardishev 2 civilization, let alone Kardishev 3, and there are scifi races that would require a 4th level like the Xeelee.
@@piotrd.4850 I know.....The Shadows (actual name is over 10k letters long or that many syllables, I think :) and Vorlons...awesome races. B5 remains ones of my favorite Sci-fi franchises. Very underrated (and there is proof that that Star Trek producers were aware of B5 BEFORE DS9 went into production; Strazynzy(sic) could have sued them but he decided not to as he felt it would be too damaging to them all...but DS9, and I am a fan, is a ripoff of B5 and not the other way around as some die hard Trekkies claim)
Uh, the Precursors evolving into the Flood is massive part of their history.
Not really, when you think about it hard enough.
It's more like, uh, an extremely evil and violent hangover-Precursor style.
You mean devolved into a joke
@@DCPTF2 Eh, it's a joke that was really creepy and evil enough to make people violate their own beliefs willingly.
*devolving
@@DCPTF2 The Flood can literally defeat 90% of all other factions in science fiction from multiple different franchises with a single spore to start. They are most definitely not a joke.
Since Generation Tech did the entire Rakatan empire segment I'm guessing you guys are partners of sorts. I dig it.
This list is a dang good list!