Isu

"We simply came… before."

- Minerva, a representative of the First Civilization (Those Who Came Before).

Those Who Came Before, also known as the First Civilization, were an ancient and advanced species of humanoid beings on Earth who created the Pieces of Eden, as well as the human race itself. Exactly who they were, where they came from and when they disappeared is largely unknown.

With early humans unable to comprehend the First Civilization for what they truly were, they were looked upon as gods.

After a catastrophe that destroyed a majority of both populations, those who came before and humans worked together to rebuild. Those who came before knew there would be another great catastrophe and so worked to preserve the human race. Although they started as an adversarial race they eventually saw the goodness of humans.

In Assassin's Creed III, one of their members, Juno is the primary antagonist to Desmond. She was imprisoned in the Grand Temple by Minerva and Jupiter for her crimes against her own kind and humanity.

Trivia

 * Those Who Came Before are directly based on the gods of Greco-Roman mythologies as Minerva, Juno and Jupiter (who are the equivalents of Athena, Hera and Zeus of the Greek mythology respectively) are the three major gods form the Capitoline Triad of the Roman pantheon.