Ardaithian

Overview
'Ardaithian' is a term that comes from the Anzol and is used to refer to a race of technologically advanced beings whose artifacts and technology were left behind after they mysteriously disappeared millennia ago. It is unknown at what point in history they disappeared, and no record of them exists in any recorded history to corroborate their existence besides their relics.

Ardaithian Relics
These relics are scattered across the known systems. They range from tiny trinkets to the large facilities, like those on Tethys, and are even entire orbital stations like VI-01 orbiting the gas-giant Vintus. It is rumored that the jalek homeworld Murtos has an entire Ardaithian city somewhere on the planet, though reports are conflicting about whether this is true.

The vast majority of these relics can only be accessed by beings with an innate ability to harness the different threads of magic. This has proved difficult for researchers, since those with that innate ability are hard to come by. Even then, these few people have varying degrees of success accessing and using the Ardaithian technology, leaving entire facilities and items unexplored.

The Gates
The countries of Erathis had created a joint task force dedicated to researching the Gates found scattered across the planet. After the discovery of a map mural in an Ardaithian facility on an island in the country Parvella, they wanted to learn more about them. Each Gate was located in the center of a room or cave, and was paired with two murals in the same space. The Gates are two cylindrical pillars topped with a triangular stone with a symbol carved into it, and each pillar has four semi-sphere indentions. The first mural is a line with two humanoid figures on each side, and the second is a series of eight circles that correspond with the eight worlds connected by the Gates.

Orbital Station Archon and Rheol
Two of the Gates used during First Contact brought researchers to Ardaithian orbital stations over two separate gas giant planets, Dius and Vintus. During the first few years of the Interplanetary Alliance, the Draj and Anzol helped the other races achieve spaceflight. This allowed the IPA to send larger research teams and equipment to study the orbital stations. This research led to the creation of the IPA's own orbital stations, like Hightower Station above Erathis.

Archon, located in a small asteroid belt around the gas giant Vintus, yielded the lions share of the research between the two orbital stations. It was determined to be both a research station and an archive of sorts, as it was connected to satellite stations in Vintus' atmosphere. Unfortunately a great deal of the archives are locked away behind access points and is inaccessible to researchers. A small research colony, Orbital Station Jester, was established in a nearby asteroid that was excavated and turned into its own orbital station.

Rheol is a strange orbital station. Instead of orbiting the planet Dius, it stays put directly above the planet's north pole. The only research yielded from this facility was architectural. Rheol is relatively small, and holds no obvious archive or system information. It's the subject of many conspiracy theories, many of which stem from the population of an IPA-established orbital station, Cardiff Station.

Site BC-16
The Behlum Federation created this research site for the Unified Erathis Government on Behlum after lobbying by a team of Ardaithian researchers Dr. Carol Scott, Rian Faros, and Dr. Lacy Valeri. The facility was located in a mountain in the Vetai Province, and was of special interest by Dr. Valeri for a mural in the back chamber of the facility and for Dr. Scott because of a large circular room that was inaccessible. After a few weeks, there was a personnel change and security team SG-07 was sent on the A.S. Shenandoah, which lead to the Shenandoah Incident.

After a series of events, SG-07 was able to access the back chambers of the facility and discovered a cavern dedicated to housing large, genetically-modified creatures and an ancient being that called itself Prime, the 'first of the Ymir.' After escaping and saving BC-16 from a Norisian Covenant attack, SG-07 was able to access the large dome-shaped room and it turned out to be a star-map room called a Cartographer. BC-16 was then reclassified as a military research site by the Behlum Federation, hoping to keep the genetic research capabilities out of the wrong hands and to secure the Cartographer.

The Cartographers
The Cartographers are voice-activated, dome-shaped map rooms that contain information about the known systems. By speaking the name of a world, the map shifts to center on the planet and indicates an approximate location of the planet's Cartographer and its activation status.

It's unknown what other information is held within the Cartographers, but the Republic Space Alliance believes that bringing each Cartographer online will unlock a map or a way to get to a ninth world. The ninth world is part of the Norisian Covenant's mythology, and contains an artifact called Vesmir. Whether this artifact is actually super-weapon is currently unknown.

Local Religion to the Norisian Covenant
The predecessor of the Covenant was a religion created by the Jalek who worshipped the Ardaithians. The Covenant's founding principles are the core beliefs of this unnamed religion, and the Jalek had worshipped the Ardaithians for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. Their homeworld Murtos is a treasure trove of artifacts and facilities, reportedly more so than Tethys, and industrial and technological advancement skyrocketed when they learned how to use them. At the time of First Contact, the Jalek were decades ahead in advancement than even the Draj.

Shortly after the Norisian Covenant was officially founded, it dedicated an entire sect of their leadership, called Seekers, to finding those with the ability to access the technology. Their entire belief system is centered around the Ardaithians, and finding who they call the Vidar, those that can access the 'holy' relics, is essential. The Vidar are thus considered near-holy beings of utmost dignity in the Norisian Covenant. A current Seeker, Raygo Oristin, found an extremely viable candidate for membership in the Vidar. The predecessor to the Republic Space Alliance (RSA), called the Interplanetary Alliance (IPA), dispatched the starship A.S. Vici on a black-op extraction mission led by Ardaithian expert Special Agent Justina Halstead to extract this candidate. During the mission, Halstead and Special Agent Jeff Aldefer discovered four other candidates and included them in the extraction process. Unfortunately, one of the candidates was killed before they could escape, but the four rescued individuals were brought to Hightower Station above Erathis for debriefing.

Creation of the First Alliance
When the dust finally settled after First Contact, the different civilizations connected by the Gates shared what they knew about the Ardaithians and their relics. Each planet had taken to researching or revering the relics, and each planet had varying types of facilities. The Draj and Anzol were the farthest ahead in technological advancement, but Erathis was a point of special interest: it was the only planet with a Gate to every other world. Erathis was eventually appointed the de facto 'capital' of the IPA for this reason.

Over the decades, much time and effort was put into researching and adopting the Ardaithian technology to try and combat the highly advanced Norisian Covenant. The IPA was successful and was able to turn the tide of the first war with the Norisian Covenant, and pushed them back to Murtos. This led to a few years of peace, which was used to establish the first orbital stations around the known systems.