This atttempts to try and piece together the fragments which form the history of the Peripheries. In collating these fragments it was found that more questions were raised than answered and in some cases evidence for mutually exclusive events have been unearthed. Maybe with greater digging somebody will be able to solve the mystery although I suspect that in decades to come xeno-archeologists will be as baffled as myself.
Of Architects and Dewiek
It is commonly accepted that the biggest influence on the development of the Peripheries has been the enigmatic race known only as the Architects. What is commonly known about them is that they are some form of sentient species capable of moving through space. This has placed them in the category of sentient ship although this is presumably a misnomer or ambiguous at best.
The greatest source of information regarding the Architects comes from the Dewiek accounts detailing the war between these two races. As such it is almost certain that some form of bias will exist regarding the description of the Architects as little more than domineering planet killers intent on the eradication of the Dewiek and its great nation.
The facts are that the Architects did indeed unleash some plague at the height of the Dewiek power, reducing them to a few isolated star systems on the edge of the Peripheries for more than half a millennia. It is also known that they systematically wiped out the remains of the Dewiek warfleet, leaving hulks drifting in space or broken on the ice fields of airless moons.
Yet despite being capable of near total genocide, the Architects have left some of the greatest feats of civil engineering known. The ringworld of Acrux was truly a marvel; at least it was according to salvaged works of the Dewiek prior to its fragmentation during the war. Now sections of the ring are slowly drifting apart and at least one section is close to falling into the star.
Dyson, is still pretty much off limits to explorers but if rumours of naked singularities and artificial wormholes are to be believed leaves Acrux as a poor forerunner.
So why did the Architects, a race of space dwelling sentient starships build worlds? What possible use could they have?
Then there is the question of Janth, reputedly the centre of the Dewiek nation of old. This world is populated by many different species. Even today radiation levels are such that the civilisation present on the world is a poor second to that which once existed.
The presence of so many species is curious. It appears reasonable that they are the descendents of those brought to the world by the Dewiek during their days are great explorers. Yet despite this, very few worlds with indigenous populations have any technology utilised by the Dewiek. This hints at darker designs for the sentient life taken to the central worlds of the nation. Were they willing colonists or could they have in fact been slaves to the single dominant star system spanning species. Could this have been the ground for the war between the Architects and the Dewiek? This would certainly seem to cast a very different image to the Architects than that ascribed to them by the Dewiek.
What happened
to the Architects?
The rediscovery of the Dewiek Home Periphery, the origin of their species shattered the illusion that the Dewiek suffered a Pyrrhic victory over the Architects, destroying them as they themselves succumbed to the disease. They were in fact almost entirely wiped out and only the closing of the stargate into the Pocket Periphery prevented their total destruction.
This raises the question as to whatever happened to the Architects. Rumours persist that they are still wandering through the outer edges of systems in the cold darks of space beyond the stable range of ISR fields around stars.
Stargates
While there are hints of truly ancient works and artefacts such as the artificial mind spanning the space between worlds, having listened to echoes on the ether for millions of years, or the sentient ocean capable of replicating objects, the oldest confirmed and commonly used artefacts are the stargates.
These are now believed to have been built by a species that existed even before the Architects although there is no forthcoming indication as to whom they may have been.
Maybe at one time there were more stargates, maybe all connected to each other, maybe there are still some out there waiting to be discovered. If this is the case maybe all it requires is knowledge of a specific system and it is possible to visit original system of the creators of the stargate. Who could imagine what wonders lay in wait?
