Guardian

Ancient Ruins of the Guardians

The Guardians are an extinct alien humanoid species. Their ruins were first discovered in the Synuefe XR-H D11-102 system on October 27, 3302 by CMDR XDeath. Engineer Ram Tah subsequently requested data scanned from the ruins for further study, and on January 10, 3303, he began providing a decryption program for the data to all Commanders who docked at a station in the Meene system. The decrypted data from the ruins provided significant insights into the history and culture of the Guardians. They're a Type II civilization.

History

The Guardians evolved as intelligent pack hunters that eventually organized themselves into clans. Technological development varied between each clan, creating inequality and conflict. Conflicts were initially resolved through personal combat between individual clan champions, but the clans later started using numbers to overwhelm their opponents, which gave rise to conventional warfare. Weapons development accelerated accordingly, and biological weapons became the Guardians' weapons of choice, leading to an arms race focused on making new biological agents and countermeasures.

The catalyst for the advent of modern Guardian society was a major conflict: a small number of clans from the northern region of the main continent of the Guardians' homeworld banded together and fought a swift war of global conquest. This brought the entire Guardian species under the northern clans' leadership, from which the rules and balance that governed spacefaring Guardian society were established.

Ancient Relic Monolith

Computers were developed and commonly used by Guardians for generations, and later linked together by an interstellar communication and computing system called the monolith network. Combined with the later innovations of artificial intelligence and neural implants, the monolith network became the heart of the Guardians' society and triggered an "age of information".

The Guardians went extinct 1 to 2 million years ago and people are discovering the exact reasons why that happened.

Culture

From a young age the Guardians were raised communally with shared values of co-operation and social responsibility. Laws were based not on individual rights but on the responsibility of the individual to the community, and each Guardian enforced and followed these laws. There was expectation for everyone to take part in the scientific, cultural and administrative tasks, and it seemed that they gained great satisfaction from these collaborative practices. They had a rich cultural life with evidence of art, interactive theatre, and music all forming part of their social duties. Architecture was inspired by geometry, and used to illustrate relations between the Guardians and the world around them. They felt a spiritual connection to the environment, and a collective responsibility to maintain it. These spiritual traditions eventually formed the basis of their religion, together with rejection of the development of neural implants and artificial intelligence.

Biology

Procreation was a matter of personal choice in Guardian society, but all Guardians were required to become a parent at least once in their lives in order to ensure the continuation of their genetic line. The gestation period for Guardians was lengthy to allow substantial development of the young prior to birth, and infants were effectively helpless for a period after delivery.

There is evidence of a genetic break corresponding with the geographical north-south divide of clans on the Guardians' homeworld. The northern clans are thought to have suffered greater hardship early on, possibly leading to a stronger breed, which allowed them to conquer the southern clans. Members of the northern clans also had a redder skin pigmentation, suggesting a racial element to the genetic division.

Language

The formal basis for the Guardians' communication behaviors was visual rather than verbal, a distinction that arose very early in their development.

The Guardians' written language consisted of glyphs that evolved from a form of sign language that the Guardians developed while hunting to communicate stealthily.

It is believed the Guardians spoke with accents as there are regional variations in the sounds of their words.

Technology

The Guardians had the capacity for sophisticated flight technology, but also possessed an ecologically-conscious philosophy that precluded widespread usage of technologies they viewed as damaging for the environment. This led the Guardians to rely on less-advanced machines such as dirigibles, and refrain from pursuing the manufacture of rockets, which had been deemed harmful. When the Guardians first attempted space travel, they instead used large electromagnetic launchers to catapult ships into space. Pilots and passengers rode in breathable gel cocoons that helped them withstand the extreme G-forces experienced at launch, and doubled as hibernation pods during long journeys. Before they developed faster-than-light technology, the Guardians constructed three large arks for their first interstellar colonies, similar to the generation ships employed by humans.

The monolith network that the Guardians later created for interstellar communications was used for practically all of their society's communication, regardless of importance. The network was designed with very few restrictions, in keeping with the Guardians' predilection for sharing knowledge. There was no evidence that separate networks were used for military of administrative communication, as humans developed. This meant Guardian society was extremely open, but this made it significantly more vulnerable when social divisions arose.

Ancient Ruins

Ancient Ruins in Prai Hypoo GF-E c10

A long time ago, the Guardians built many structures on airless worlds. These are known as Ancient Ruins. All sites hold data packages which can be decrypted to reveal information about the Guardians' biology, history, culture, language, and technology.

Weapon Tech

Beyond Guardian weapon art 2

The story of the Guardians continues in Elite Dangerous: Beyond. There will be global and personal narratives. New Guardian based technology and weapons can be unlocked.

See Also

• Ancient Ruins

External Links

• Canonn - The Guardians Data Entry Library

Videos

The Guardians Recap - Elite Dangerous - ESRB Teen

Elite Dangerous - Epic History of The Guardians

Gallery

Ancient Ruins of the Guardians

Ancient Ruins and an SRV

Ancient Ruins in Prai Hypoo GF-E c10

Guardians Ancient Relic Monolith

Guardians Active Obelisk

Beyond Guardian weapon art 1

Beyond Guardian weapon art 2

Beyond Guardian weapon art 3