The Ancients

"The Ancients" is the general term used to describe all species that had developed an have long since gone extinct before current records were established. They cover a wide variety of races and civilizations, and are difficult to research due to the time-scales involved. Ruins and artifacts of these civilizations are found in numerous locations throughout the galaxy, and for many of them, the concrete reasons for their disappearances and extinctions are unknown.
Many distinct civilizations have been identified, and they shall be listed below. Most names are merely descriptors, as the original names of the ancient species are unknown.

• Chozo - A bird-like race with great and powerful battle-hardened technologies, of which some lucky few (of which are one of the only sources of much of the pertaining research) seem to have harnessed over the course of history. Found in many locations within the gamma edge worlds. Possible ancestor of the Avians.
• Forerunners - Creators of numerous ancient superstructures that have since fallen to disarray. Had once had contact with the Necross, which is the possible extinction point of the species. It is unknown how far they spread.
• Cultivators - Panspermic originators for some forms of life in the Galaxy, and the possible terraformer of many planets that should have been uninhabitable based on goldilocks calculations. It is unknown how many life forms owe their origins to them.
• Delikai - Hypothesized originator of many strange artifacts, of which many cause mutation and insanity in any self-proclaiming sapient species. Possible origin of the Necross.
• Collectors - An ancient race that seemed to organize and categorize every object around them, leading to massive gaps in space, and correspondingly massive catalogs of data about the collected items. Sadly, many archives of such data are too large to reasonably understand, and it is unknown what happened to the original items, whether they were merely moved, or possibly destroyed.

There is evidence of many other smaller civilizations, but for brevity they shall not be named.