A moderate desert world with rivers and some vegetation marks Arconia as a somewhat desolate but not entirely inhospitable world. The interesting conundrum though, is where are the Arconians and why did they leave thousands of large jade monoliths on the planet's surface... and seemingly nothing else? The monoliths themselves are mysterious, scans cannot penetrate them and every attempt to move, cut, or destroy a monument has failed... the equipment always malfunctioning before success could be achieved.

Even more disconcerting, is that if one touches such a monolith, one hear's a voice in their mind speaking strange expressions in a mournful tone. The most common utterance recorded has been "We are Arconian, look upon us and be haunted by our remembrance".

Archaeologists have proposed that Arconia may not be the homeworld of this race, but indeed, a planet they dedicated as their own memorial as their civilization crumbled around them during the Sundering.

On a lifeless world now known as "Sepulchre" ornate ruins of a civilization of lizard-like bipeds were found not on the surface of the planet, but instead, nearly fifty kilometers beneath. Discovered by a Terran mining concern, it turns out that the dense deposits of rare and valuable materials they were looking for, were actually the remains of a single large underground city.

Exploring the city has proven difficult as there is no entry and the planet's location is fairly remote. While none have physically entered the city, much has been learned by deep scans which have revealed a technologically advanced society and several hundred thousands of remarkably well preserved corpses.

Remote access to the city's computer system has been attempted and rudimentary data about the species has been gathered, including language translation, but little else due to a seemingly unbeatable cyber security system. Scholars believe that these "Cochiesee Tribes" were an advanced society that attempted to secure their survival during the Sundering by hiding in this vast vault. It would appear that their efforts were in vain and that their citizenry died... silently locked away within their self-imposed tomb.

Other, more romantic scientists, have suggested that perhaps the Cochiesee are actually in a state of deep stasis and that they could one day be revived to life... if anyone could get down to them, that is.

No direct record exists of the Dru-Nali, even the name, is gleaned from the records of other races... especially those of the Proximar. The word "Dru" roughly translates to "Forest" and the word "Nali" to "Demons" and in rare cases as "Symbiotes".

From the records archaeologists are led to believe that the Dru-Nali were less a singular species, but instead, a massive, multi-planet network of symbiotic organisms. Massive planet wide forests served as both environment and as network for transporting resources, information, and generated the overall intelligence of the "empire" whilst vast assortments of other species formed an ecosystem that both was serviced by and served the needs of the forest.

If the Proximar records are taken at face value, they considered the Dru-Nali to be a very powerful civilization... and they considered it all "of one mind". They noted, that the Dru-Nali allowed any civilization to traverse their space, but that any trespassing on their planets was responded to with genocidal retribution. Indeed, the most complete account of the Dru-Nali is a story about a small freighter crash landing on one of their worlds and this leading to the "cleansing" of all life on the freighter's planet of origin.

The most common description of the Dru-Nali is of their massive black and white trees (theorized to be used to control planetary heating) and their most common "Nali"... a semi-intelligent, eyeless, insect like, biped that fiercely patrolled all of their territory. There is no mention of Dru-Nali space vessels, but presumably they must have had a fleet of ships... otherwise how did they spread to dozens of worlds?

Orbiting the gas giant of "Tanya's World" is a small and barely habitable moon. On this moon researchers discovered the remnants of a crashed star-ship and from this wreckage came the discovery of the presumed extinct owners... the Nyryloth.

While the ship's systems were aged and distorted beyond recognition the archeaologists found evidence of a rudimentary campsite nearby and partially intact Nyryloth corpse. The corpse proved far more informative than any of the other artifacts as it clearly showed that the Nyryloth (or at least some of them) were heavily modified cybernetic organisms.

Shaped very similarly to a Terran octopus the mechanical exoskeleton of the Nyryloth was clearly capable of operating numerous tools simultaneously and allowed the creature to operate in zero gravity, this has led some to presume that the Nyryloth were an aquatic species, but there is no certain evidence of this and the organic components of the creature have long disintegrated within the mechanical shell.

Another interesting discovery at the site, was that the Nyryloth crash survivor had taken to writing on the various stone formations surrounding the ship. Translation has proved difficult but researchers are certain that one marking reads as "I [expletive] hate the Cochiesee! Here I'll prove that they are [expletive] inferior!" and is then followed by a remarkable series of mathematical equations that researchers are still struggling to comprehend.

Not much else is known about the Nyryloth but many scholars presume that during the Sundering they were likely opponents to the Cochiesee Tribes.

The planet Ordu hosts the vast remains of a once populous bipedal species. Unlike most ruins from the First Epoch, these remains are numerous and thankfully quite informative about their once proud owners. From the available records found on the planet, the Ordu were a spiritual people who dedicated much of their lives to introspection, and had only achieved interstellar capability within the past few hundreds of cycles. Their records often speak of the many other spacefaring races around them in terms of awe and fear, in particular, they seemed extremely afraid of a race that they would only refer to as "the Unseen Masters".

The average Ordu citizen maintained a pastoral life and it seems clear that if the Ordu ever colonized other planets, that these were very few in number. Archaeologists are still arguing over how the Ordu went extinct, there is evidence to suggest that several of their cities had at one point or another been bombarded from orbit and there is also evidence of widespread and rapid climate change. Some argue that this is evidence of possible invasion, others, that perhaps fleeting conflicts existed, but that some systemic ecological disaster doomed the Ordu.

Ordu records are quite replete with observations about their weather patterns and various rituals they performed "for good fortune" but lack any substantive explanation of why their planet continually grew warmer, or why their biosphere collapsed.

Several worlds host ruins of small and medium outposts that once belonged to a civilization known as the Proximar Elitariat. In addition, debris of what was once clearly spacecraft and orbital facilities has also been found. These remnants have provided archaeologists with some fairly detailed information regarding the Proximar.

For example, scholars know the Proximar were technologically equivalent to any of today's great interstellar powers, and that they maintained a sizable empire, a large military apparatus, and that their governance was a strict meritocracy.

Furthermore, recently acquired data from Proximar wreckage has revealed the cause of their civilization's demise: total and unceasing war. According to this data, several civilizations during the early centuries of The Sundering had allied with each other and formed four, possibly five, distinct military alliances, and that war eventually broke out between all of them. Apparently the Proximar were allied with several races of superior technological capacity and that they were utilized as the "rank and file" soldiery of their alliance. In this role the Proximar excelled, to the point where their enemy resorted to using tailored bio-weapons to exterminate them.

The data clearly indicates that the Proximar were engaged in this brutal total war for centuries and that eventually their enemies gained the upper hand, eliminated the Proximar homeworld (exactly how is unclear) and then hunted the remaining Proximar into extinction.

Known only from surviving records from the Proximar Elitariat, the Xindregli were noted as one of the Proximar's most insidious and powerful enemies. The Xindregli were a race of parasites who would graft themselves violently into the back of nearly any lifeform and integrate themselves into their victim's nervous system. Once so integrated the Xindregli maintained perfect control over their host's body and possessed all the information and skills the host once had.

This remarkable trait allowed the virulent Xindregli to acquire their enemies' technological and tactical secrets with alarming ease. Even more terrifying, is that the Xindregli were clearly telepathic with each other and that their eldest members possessed significant telepathic and even telekinetic capabilities that they often weaponized.

The Proximar believed that the Xindregli were a sadistic race and had to be exterminated at any cost, lest they eventually overrun all other sentient life in the galaxy. Thankfully, it seems that the Proximar or another race were successful, as no evidence of the Xindregli exists beyond these fearful accounts.