Xenoarchaeology

The field of Xenoarchaeology has come a long way since humanity's first contact with alien flora and fauna on Concord Minor. Since the discovery of the remnants of a fallen alien civilization on Victoria II in 1888, Xenoarchaeologists have found similar evidence on every world humanity has colonized. Although it was first thought that all archaeological findings were of the same cultural group or species, the discovery of carbon dating in 1901 has helped humanity contextualize the appearances of these alien beings and prove that they did not exist at the same time. It has since been discovered that mankind has actually encountered the remnants of four separate civilizations: Referred to in the scientific community as the Gatekeepers, Oberites, Antonovians, and Tétrans.

Humanity's colonization of Concord Minor sparked a mass immigration of scientists, curious survivalists, and nobility. Initially, the explorers were strictly controlled by the US and Imperial governments, with scientists and fortune-seekers alike having to be pre-approved before being able to survey the alien celestial bodies. This structured approach to exploration and documentation was short-lived, as after the discovery that Concord Minor was perfectly suitable for life, the priority to colonize far outweighed the priority to accurately survey it. Unfortunately, these early scientists and explorers of Concord Minor failed to find any material evidence for a sapient alien lifeform before the unearthing of the Oberites by British explorers of the Victoria system. This discovery truly jump-started the Age of Explorers. What was at first the discovery of rather careful scientists who wished to study and preserve these early signs of intelligent alien life that predated humanity, this early movement quickly devolved into a cacophony of treasure hunters and conspiracy theorists.

The Xenology Movement, as it came to be known, started in 1890 with the establishment of the Society of Xenology and Exploration. This ‘society’ of so-called Xenoarchaeologists began establishing lodges aboard every nation's colonial aether station to use as a staging ground for exploration. The establishment of these lodges was highly controversial, as their existence violated a myriad of international treaties. However, the membership of the early Society was composed largely of elites from across the globe, including many world leaders, who themselves wanted the chance to discover and possess alien artifacts. Despite the cavalcade of lawsuits, protests, and outrage the public around the globe felt towards the establishment of the Society, the early discoveries made by the Society's first expeditions captured the public's imagination enough for the early protests to begin to die down within a few years. Vocal members of Academia continued to strongly oppose the Society and its lodges until the Society's dissolution in 1910.

Although most academics strongly opposed the society due to their wanton destruction and acquisition of priceless alien artifacts, some sought to reform the organization to meet with academic standards of what true Xenoarchaeology should be. As such, in 1895, the Society of Xenoarchaeology was established to set standards on how artifacts should be excavated, documented, and preserved. Although initially hostile to the idea of a rival ‘Society’ of academics, the Society of Xenology and Exploration did begin to implement the ideas of the Society of Xenoarchaeology, and even began extending honorary membership to some more prominent scholars by the early 1900s. By that time, however, the initial 10 years of the lodges’ activities across the habitable worlds had already caused extreme damage to many of the known archaeological sights, slowing down humanity's understanding of Xenoarchaeology by decades.

The Society of Xenology and Exploration largely collapsed in 1910 with Lord Protector Rhodes’ official disbandment of the Victoria system’s lodge, and official banning of unsanctioned exploration of the colonial system. The British members of the Society of Xenology and Exploration mostly retired after this, with more well-off members taking up residency in other countries to continue their expeditions. Despite the efforts by some to keep it alive, the move to disband the Society by the British government was seen by other nations as a weakening of the Society's grip on the politics of aether exploration, with many of the world's nations quickly following suit to disband the lodges aboard their own stations. By 1911, there were no more Xenologist lodges, and by extension, no more open expeditions. The more academically minded Society of Xenoarchaeology could no longer collaborate internationally, as nations became more isolated with their academic findings. Xenoarchaeological study stagnated as a result, as without the international collaboration of scholars, research became much slower. Despite this, many academics at the time still communicated in a limited capacity, and the tradition of the international sharing of academic findings would resurface with the establishment of Versailles University over a decade later, which would become a sanctuary for many academics who felt more committed to the pursuit of knowledge than their personal national allegiances.

When it was finally established years after the Age of Explorers, Versailles University became the epicenter of a new era of Xenoarchaeological study. Building on the methodology of the Society of Xenoarchaeology, and the many discoveries of the brave, and often foolish, Society of Xenology and Exploration, VU established the Department of Xeno-Studies which has since become the absolute authority on humanity's understanding of the long departed alien species of the colony worlds. By the time of the Great War, the academic community at VU had made several discoveries concerning a few potential alien civilizations that existed long before humanity. Through the efforts of these scholars, the language, culture, society, and philosophy of these alien races have begun to be uncovered, sparking a renewed public interest in the more mysterious elements of humanity's colonial worlds.

For the remainder of our lecture, I will be giving you a brief overview of the current understanding of our place in Aetherial History. We will cover the four accepted civilizations discovered or otherwise theorized by our experts associated with the department. The presentation will follow a simple chronology to best represent the development of differing technologies and cultural achievements to the present. With that said, let us start at the beginning.

The Gatekeepers are only a hypothesized civilization, as there is little to no evidence of their existence aside from a group of dedicated researchers here at Versailles University. First proposed by physicist Albert Einstein, the Gatekeepers are a theoretical alien civilization that is responsible for the creation of what he dubs the “Jump Lanes,” which humanity happened to stumble upon when they constructed the first Jump Gate. According to Einstein, today's Gates are merely facsimiles of the originals once used by Gatekeepers, as their current use merely piggybacks off the work of this long-extinct civilization. Rather than creating our own paths through the aether, Einstein suggested that we are punching our way into existing pathways, long since charted by these Gatekeepers. After publishing his findings and an extensive mathematical ‘proof’ defending his findings, Einstein has certainly raised some eyebrows among the Xenoarchaeological community at large. It also unfortunately garnered much ridicule from his fellow physicists, as his descriptions of non-Newtonian physics is admittedly far-fetched to most. Despite this, Einstein has in recent years been working to prove the legitimacy of the Gatekeeper theory with the help of fellow scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Werner Heisenberg, who both found his theories quite compelling.

Another unlikely (and largely undesirable) supporter of this theory has been the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whose members have claimed to have direct encounters with these so-called Gatekeepers, and have poured money into further research into the phenomenon. I will mention now that we at VU do not claim to have any insider knowledge of the Order’s activities, nor support them financially as an institution… Anyways, one of the more prominent members of the order, one Aleister Crowley, claimed to have discovered the remnants of an alien spacecraft once piloted by the precursor race here on Germinal, and discovered methods of direct communication with the Gatekeepers. In his writings on the manner, he explained they were space-traveling nomads hell-bent on mapping the entire universe, and created the gates out of convenience to expedite their travels across the stars.

This tale was obviously rejected by most as the ravings of a madman, but the few who believed him poured excessive resources into his studies. He and a select few followers on October 1st, 1936 boarded his vessel, the B.A.S. Wings of Horus, entering the jump lane to the Victoria system. The vessel and its crew never came out on the other side, and have been missing ever since. A Golden Dawn spokesperson after the incident explained that Crowley’s intent was to drift to the edge of the lane once inside, hoping to commune with the Gatekeepers there. The dangers of such a maneuver are well recorded, but still to this day the understanding of what happens to a vessel that drifts out of lane in transit is unknown.

For this reason, I will advise all students to please review the university’s research guidelines on field expeditions and proper ship protocol. With that out of the way, let us continue.

Unlike the Gatekeepers, whose only evidence exists in theoretical physics and within the occult, the rest of the alien civilizations studied by the Department of Xeno-Studies have much harder evidence for their existence. Unbeknownst to the British explorers at the time, the first alien civilization to actually be discovered was that of the Oberites. Named after Oberon from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Oberites were a race of aliens who lived 2 to 5 million years ago. The name was coined by T. C. Lethbridge during his exploration of the planet, as the mushroom forest he found himself lost in reminded him of the story. Although there is no written record left by the Oberites, Xenoarchaeologists have managed to prove their existence due to the huge temple-like structures the aliens left deep in the sea of spores on Victoria II, as well as the wealth of alien artifacts therein.

From the evidence they have procured, Xenoarchaeologists theorize that the Oberites were deeply religious and sought to become one with the natural world. Based on our department’s engineers have been able to examine, it seems as if their society was focused on bioengineering, though not necessarily for agrarian purposes. Before his disappearance after the October Revolution, Communist scientist Vsevolod Savich made a startling discovery based on data from Ledyanoy Shar. The edible mold species that grows in abundance on the cave walls of the planet are genetically very similar to the mushrooms found in the Victoria System. As a result, Savich theorized that the Oberites had potentially lived in the Nikolovsk System as well. Ten years later, his theory resurfaced after the same technology many Russian armed forces use for their ablation beams was compared to some of the technology from the Oberites and confirmed to be of similar make. What complicates this finding however is that these proto-ablation beams, according to design differences and obvious inconsistencies in chronology, were clearly the work of a different alien civilization, referred to as the Antonovians. Perhaps in time we will uncover the secret to this connection.

One of the most controversial aspects of the Oberites in the field of Xenoarchaeology is the mostly pseudo-scientific evidence of the aliens' connection to the mycological network present in the Victoria System. A number of well-known scientists, some of which associated with this very institution, have reported having hallucinations while exploring the spore clouds of the mushrooms, talking to people who were not there. Others have reported deceased colleagues coming back from the dead, puppeted by mossy strings, only to issue a warning to leave the temple and let the dead rest. Although these descriptions are mostly regarded by scientists to be exaggerations or falsehoods, nearly all accounts of people traveling through the spore clouds report an uneasy feeling of being watched, regardless of whether the explorers are wearing protective rebreathers or not.

Medical professionals and mycologists theorize that these effects are due to exposure to highly hallucinogenic mushrooms that are prevalent throughout the Victoria System, whose spores are said to cause minor hallucinations if absorbed through the skin, but even this does not account for the numerous bizarre occurrences that are said to take place on expeditions into Oberite ruins.

As alluded to before with the Oberites, another of these theorized civilizations is referred to as the Antonovians. Of the cultures studied and in some part accepted here at VU, the Antonovians are the most recent discovery. Based on carbon dating, they are theorized to have existed around 2.1 to 1.7 million years ago. Unlike the Oberites, the Antonovians kept very strict written records, and from what has been translated by Xenoarchaeologists and on-site linguists, had an extremely robust bureaucracy. Most of what is known about the Antonovians has been discovered within crashed asteroids from the debris cloud surrounding Ledyanoy Shar. Unlike the other alien civilizations, it seemed the Antonovians were far more militaristic, with a number of alien weapons being harvested and reverse-engineered for use in the Russian military. The remnants of the species seem to only be found on or around Ledyanoy Shar, and as a result the Russian Corporations there unfortunately have a monopoly over the acquisition of their tech. To the dismay of the Xenoarchaeologists studying the Antonovians, decoding their language has proved quite difficult, as the civilization was incredibly diverse, hosting thousands of different cultural groups, each with their own unique language. As a result, most of what has been translated is fragmented, even when the contents can be logically inferred. This, in combination with the corporations’ tight control over access to the system has made the study of the rise and fall of the Antonovians extremely difficult for researchers.

As the last species covered today, the Tétrans are the closest chronologically to humanity, appearing only 1.2 to 0.5 million years ago. The term Tétrans is the commonly accepted term for this civilization, but they were originally dubbed the Onogoro by the Japanese archaeologist Ogawa Takuji and his son Yukawa Hideki, who originally discovered the first depiction of the species after stumbling upon a statue while exploring Ebisu. This discovery, however, coincided with the discovery of similar depictions of the Tétrans in the Germinal system by Sir George Darwin, who coined the more popular term. As a result, the species is referred to as Onogoro by Japanese scholars, while Western Xenoarchaeologists tend to refer to the species as Tétrans. In academic works, you often see the two names combined with a slash as Tétrans/Onogoro to avoid confusion between international readers.

Regardless of naming conventions, Ogawa’s discovery of the Onogoro was monumental, as it was the first surviving physical depiction of an sentient alien being. Since the statues' discovery, many partial images and carvings of the Tétrans have been found on all of the colonial worlds, each being mostly consistent in form. The Tétrans/Onogoro have extremely slender bodies, arms, and legs, with a very large oval-shaped head, two large almond eyes, and two slits for their nose. Such appearances are quite different from those of humans, but regardless, they appeared to have been bipedal, with no hair or ears to speak of. Due to the craftsmanship on both the Ogawa and Darwin samples, we have since confirmed that earlier relics from the Age of Explorers were in fact that of the Tétrans/Onogoro. Artifacts of this species seem moderately well-preserved, possibly in part due to climate manipulation on many of the worlds they inhabited. Unlike the Antonovians, their language stays pretty consistent between texts that have been found. As a result, Xenoarchaeologists have built an extensive dictionary of simple terms, though almost all of their writing remains simply untranslatable, as it often refers to ideas or concepts far beyond current scientific understanding. One thing that is clear about the Onogoro is that they lived in a near-perfect society with all of the needs of their citizens being met by automation. With this knowledge, scholars remain puzzled by the sudden decline of the Tétrans species, as everything about their society that we know of indicates extreme stability. As the language becomes less opaque, scientists hope to learn more from this species so that one day humanity can become more like them.

As my graduate assistant is flagging me from the back of the room, I believe that is all the time we have before the next presentation. I hope this has been helpful in preparing you for your studies, and I am sure you all will prove to be the best and brightest humanity has to offer.