The Old Ones, or "Them" are the main overarching antagonists of Aground.
Biography[]
The Old Ones started as a squid-like species living in the watery depths of their old homeworld where magic was highly sought after. They soon learned more advanced techniques from the Draconian Teachers from The Depths of the Seuden system, whose mission was to freely teach magic to other beings in the galaxy. As time passed, they raised the dragons, turned them into ships, distanced themselves, and embarked a path of empowered isolation.
The Old Ones eventually became a highly advanced alien species who mastered both magic and technology to cement their power in the universe. To craft their ships, they gained the trust of wyrms which they evolved into dragons, but soon betrayed them and forced them to undergo reluctant evolutions into biomechanical space vessels of high power. They also abandoned the dragons on their old home planet once they outlived their usefulness. Just one bomber was able to fight a whole fleet of Earth ships before it was finally destroyed. Eventually, humanity began to advance themselves, both in technology and magic courtesy of The Alchemist. Ten years before the start of the game's events, he and a team of Earth explorers were searching distant planets to colonize as part of the "Unoiks Project" since Earth was recuperating from World War 3 and needing new resources to flourish again, particularly exotic matter. They found the homeworld of the Old Ones, which they called Unoiks 428c and studied what they could. This caused the Old Ones to view them as a potential threat to their power. To prevent humanity from becoming such, they launched a bombardment against Earth, forcing humanity to evacuate it forever and nearly lose enough numbers to face possible extinction, with presumably only a few hundred humans still being alive to this day.
While some humans escaped on a functioning colony ship far away from the eyes of the Old Ones, some of the survivors crash-landed and scattered on Unoiks 428c, where the game starts. As the player grows stronger and acquires better equipment, he/she eventually faces the Old Ones in their ships as they bombard the planet forcing the survivors to hide again. Afterwards, the player arrives on the new Dragon HQ homeworld of the Old Ones. There, the player kills the Final Boss, leader of the Old Ones, and neutralizes their threat for good.
Alternatively, the player may choose to complete the hybrid path, creating illusions of fleets of ships on both sides to dupe the leaders of them and humanity to agree to a peace treaty. Reluctantly, they will agree and hostilities between the two races will cease for good.
According to the Draconian Teacher, they were always eager to learn more about the magic offered by the Teachers, but they became more distant the more they learned. He also believes that deep down, they are afraid since they can only wield small amounts of magic on their own and can only achieve power through others, hence the ulterior reason they enslaved the dragons. The Draconian Teacher also theorized that the Old Ones attacked humanity because they sensed the possibility that humans could wield even more magic than they could.
This seems to be confirmed by The Exiled, an individual Old One who is not affiliated with the main Old One faction and uses they/them pronouns, who explains that the Old Ones knew they were reaching their limits and did not want to be surpassed by any other being. They mention that if any being ever did become a threat or knew too much, they were either enslaved or exterminated, as was the case when the dragons showed more potential than them and when the Alchemist dug away at the secrets of Unoiks 428c. According to the Sea Witch, another magic user who followed a path of immortality similar to "The Old One" on Eastern Island, there is no worse crime in the eyes of the Old Ones than stealing their magic secrets. Indeed, By this time, "The Old One" has sent a signal to the other Old Ones, exposing the humans. In response, the Old Ones sent a bomber to wipe out the human survivors on Unoiks 428c at last.
Personality[]
The Old Ones are by and large evolved, arrogant, and genocidal space monsters who desire absolute domination of all other life forms and to remain the singular most supreme species in the universe. Although they didn't initially desire to betray the dragons, they realized they had more potential than they did since the Old Ones are almost nothing inside their magical shells and already at the height of their own advancement, and feared the dragons could become a threat, so they treated them like slaves and forcibly evolved them into ships to make them easier to control and exploit. They initially thought little of humanity as their technology and knowledge of magic was nowhere near their own, especially when humanity was already facing another near-extinction aftermath of World War III. But the fact that humanity was capable of FTL travel at all was a slight warning sign for them, so they sent the Exiled to Mars to watch over humanity and report any further developments. The Alchemist's discoveries of magic and his own magical advancement was the last straw for the Old Ones, hence their declaration of war against all humanity.
One particular Old One, found on Eastern Island in the game, broke off from the rest of her kind and found the secret to immortality, but remained just as arrogant and tries to kill the player instead of willingly sharing her secrets of magic. After her death by either the player or the Alchemist, the latter case at the cost of his life, she sends a signal to the rest of her kind indicating that most of humanity's remnants are on Unoiks 428c. Soon, the Old Ones start The Bombardment in a bid to wipe the known remnants of humanity from the universe once and for all.
Another Old One, The Exiled, became thoroughly disillusioned with the practices of their kind and was banished to Mars where they hijacked old Earth frequencies and took a liking to Earth entertainment programs, even adopting common earth speech patterns. Initially, they were supposed to report to their superiors if humanity ever posed a threat to their power or could learn more about magic than them and humanity would have already qualified for destruction if the Exiled had reported to them during World War III, during which humanity had developed much in FTL space travel research. Having already "[broken] a few rules" thousands of years prior the the events of the main game, they refused to report humanity, which bought some time for slight post-World War III recovery until the Alchemist discovered their old homeworld. This blew the Exiled's cover and they were dubbed a traitor to the rest of them. If the player meets the Exiled, they will grant some quests that guide the player to the spirit world and later face the final boss. They will also explain the Old Ones' primary motives and goals if the player talks to them some more. According to them, the Old One on Eastern Island never grew up, size or maturity-wise as a consequence to her immortality.
The Old Ones hatch from eggs and the Nursery Crab oversees their growth on the Enemy HQ. If the player chooses to kill the Nursery Crab, the Old Ones will ironically be doomed to extinction themselves.
If the player successfully defeats the Final Boss's second phase and has not yet killed the Nursery Crab, the Final Boss will request the player allow the Nursery Crab and eggs to live, claiming they are but babies and pose no threat, highlighting a degree of hypocrisy since the Old Ones were trying to exterminate the human race and were on the brink of total success.
If the Nursery Crab is dead before meeting the Final Boss, the latter will scold the player for killing it and the "innocent" hatchlings, to which the player retorts that the Old Ones already killed every single youth on Earth in their attack. The Final Boss brushes this off and notes that Humanity survived that attack somehow while arrogantly claiming that the Old Ones will continue as long as it is alive.
After the Hybrid Path update to aground, there is an option for the player to initiate an alternative resolution with the Old Ones. This involves creating a holographic fleet to hoodwink both humanity and the Final Boss to negotiate a peace treaty ending all hostilities between the two species for the time being. If this ending is achieved, the Final Boss will agree to the treaty and will no longer attack the player if he/she approaches it. The nursery crab will also be immune to damage if it is still alive. The Final Boss is skeptical to the player's insistence of peace as an "idealist" conclusion and admits to not having seen through the holograph trick until after the treaty is signed. It also believes the treaty will not last long, but it will agree to not attack humanity again as long as the treaty is in effect.
Gallery[]
