Originator Empire

The Originator Empire is a long-defunct precursor faction, known for its unparalleled technological and biological advancements. It once presided over vast portions of the Milky Way Galaxy, thus shaping much of its early history and laying the foundations for many of the civilizations that exist across it in the 29th century. The legacy of the Originator species itself endures in the scattered ruins, artifacts, and myths that their former regime left behind.

A prime example of this is the Milky Way's ancient warp gate network that spans across all quadrants; it is speculated that the Gateway Sector was once a central part of their nation when it was in its heyday, which would explain why the majority of the warp gates in the galaxy are located there.

The government of the Originator Empire was (and still is within its remnants) an authoritarian meritocratic oligarchy, where the most talented scientists and/or scholars have near-absolute power over its citizens. While resulting in vast technological and academic progress, ethics are not taken into consideration whatsoever in this model, and because of that fact, the Empire's history can be largely defined by a long list of very heinous and underhanded acts, with most of its efforts in this regard ultimately being used to further its dominance over the Milky Way as a whole and the extermination of other civilizations and cultures.

Originator starships are not given prefixes.

Society and Philosophy:

Because it lays in ruins and surviving Originators rarely speak with anyone outside their species, virtually nothing is known about what life was like for the average individual within the Empire's territory, however, what is known - based solely on what they are willing to tell others - is that by ~ 72,000 BCE, their society had become obsessed with genetic engineering to the point of trying to create the "perfect" lifeform, with all of the regime's top talents spending most of their time attempting to make new sentient species they believed would surpass all others, including themselves, in strength, intelligence, and adaptability.

It's estimated that the dogged pursuit of this "evolutionary pinnacle" resulted in the seeding of multiple civilizations that are currently thriving, with the Cobaltians, in particular, claiming that it is very likely their genetic construction was created in a highly advanced xenobiology lab around ~ 47,000 BCE, though it is still unconfirmed as to whether or not the Originators are directly responsible for this.

What can be confirmed from both direct statements by imperial scientists and archival evidence from the Hyperion Federation though is that the Originators are directly responsible for the creation of The Aether and Spectre of the Stars, meaning that the Hyperionites most assuredly owe their existence to them.

Hyperionite Rebellion:

The Spectre's creation in roughly ~ 41,000 BCE dramatically altered the course of the Empire's experimentation efforts; what normally took tens of thousands of years to achieve viable results now could be done in mere thousands, meaning the entire process of engineering and evolving a species from start to finish was doable in a fraction of the time thanks to the aid it gave with its hyperintelligence. In the wake of this, much of the interest that was given to earlier iterations of "perfect" species was abandoned, and virtually all seeded planets in the outside galaxy were neglected in favor of working inside the Aether, where the Spectre was positioned.

The Spectre's usefulness to the Empire quickly granted it ample trust among its top scientists, who permitted it to create its own organism from scratch without any oversight. This resulted in the creation of the Suon species, which the Originators were so impressed by, that it completely changed their perceptions of what they considered as "perfection," resulting in the Spectre's new creation being selected as inheritors to the Aether and domination over the other seeded civilizations that now existed within it.

However, knowing that the Suons would only be used as servants to aid in Originator dominance over the outside galaxy, the Spectre assisted both them and the other Hyperionites in open rebellion around ~ 23,000 BCE, resulting in a war between creator and master which soon proved that the Empire's own spawn had now surpassed it as intended, albeit not in the fashion its leaders had hoped.

Downfall:

The Hyperionite Rebellion resulted in a military defeat for the Originators, and cut off their access to both the Aether and all of the projects they had worked on inside it.

Such a colossal failure led to a complete collapse of any direction or purpose inside the Empire's government, and with the results of its foremost ambitions seemingly gone forever, infighting became rampant, leading to a civil war that nearly destroyed the entire Originator species and reduced the Empire's territory down to a mere handful of systems in the galaxy's Core Zone, with most of its other worlds being either completely destroyed or reduced to ruins by ~ 16,000 BCE.

Thankfully, the vast majority of seeded planets were overlooked in the Empire's internal discord, meaning most of the species that were created by the Originators in the outer galaxy were able to survive this apocalypse untouched.

29th Century Status:

Sadly, despite their decline, the Originators still remain a powerful threat to the rest of the galaxy, as the few remaining members of their kind are determined to restore the Empire to its former glory as well as realize the dreams of their forefathers by any means necessary, even if it means resorting to war, enslavement, and genocide.

Main Story Importance:

• In the first season of Project: Avalon's Main Story, Captain Eric Crossman and the S.G.A. Washington as well as its crew find themselves fighting against the Originator Empire's remnants with aid from the Hyperionites, making the precursors one of two main antagonist factions alongside the Interstellar Collective.

• In the Season 1 Epilogue, an Originator Monolith Cube is used by Slage to destroy Genesis One and nearly destroy Arianrhod in 2819 CE, however, he is stopped and the cube is destroyed by the S.G.A. Washington and its crew, as well as a combined G.A.F. - H.F. - D.C.E. fleet before it can do any damage to the planet itself.

• Though not likely to play as big of a role, the Originators are set to make appearances as enemies of the S.G.A. Washington and its allies in subsequent seasons.