Vanished

Summary

The Vanished are the ancient spacefaring people whose true name was the Luminari, remembered in the present age through relics, records, and lingering forms of stored power. `Vanished` is the later historical name that took hold after the war in which they effectively disappeared from the galaxy. ^{*1 *2}

Culture

The Vanished repeatedly intervened in the development and survival of other peoples and worlds, though not always in ways free of ethical ambiguity. Their presence lingers through records, ruins, relics, and the long shadow of choices that continued shaping later worlds even after they were gone. ^*1

What survives of their society shows a civilization with many specialized roles, from bodyguards and commandos to surgeons, scouts, and spies. Their later war programs also produced anti-Others fire disciplines such as the Pyromancers and Flameborn. Even so, the surviving evidence preserves institutions, interventions, and emergency measures much more clearly than the texture of ordinary Vanished life. ^{*3 *4 *5 *6 *7 *8 *9 *10 *11 *12 *1 *13}

Reach

Before the war with the Others shattered their civilization, the Vanished were spread across multiple gate-connected systems and had effectively united the inhabited worlds of the galaxy. Their disappearance left that older order broken, but not erased. ^{*1 *14}

They left behind artifacts, stations, research posts, and hidden records on worlds such as Orbos, Thespara, and Berkav. They also left behind the Phantom Epoch, the Voice, and other training and survival systems that continue to shape the present age long after the civilization that built them is gone. ^{*1 *15 *16}

Relations

The Vanished fought a devastating war with the Others that broke their late defensive response and pushed them toward increasingly desperate measures. At the same time, they guided or influenced humans, Slinks, and the Gralloks across multiple worlds, which is why so much of the present setting still lives in their shadow even after their disappearance. ^{*1 *16 *17}