Firstborn

"Was their cruelty just a vile scrimmage [...], or did they yearn for something more?"

- "Dagu'syr - Myth or a Warning?" by Sóu Qadósh

The Firstborn, known to Serans as Dagu’syr (Fatebearers), were an ancient precursor race inhabiting Maerlandayr Galaxy around 10 billion years ago. Their civilization was among the earliest to appear in the Galaxy and the most influential in its history. Nowadays, they are remembered for their agressive expansion and destructive nature, which eventually led them to a conflict with Paragon, the soul of Maerlandayr; and eventually their extinction.

Nowadays, Dagu’syr are suspected to have been obsessed with finding other civilizations alike theirs, but ultimately failed and crushed many smaller ones in the process. Similarly to Paragon, who the Firstborn have seriously wounded in the Battle of the Cindered Lair, they have been an object of religious worship ever since the discovery of Chronicons, ancient extraorbital structures constructed by Dagŭ’šyr themselves.

Ilsivists, united in the Covenant of the Hidden, despise Firstborn for their cruelty and recklessness, as opposed to the Progenists, who admire them for their victorious strife against an opressive soul of the galaxy. However, according to historical facts, only the former are right in their beliefs.

Origins
The homeworld of the Firstborn is not mentioned in any of the decoded entries from Chronicons. Why it is not mentioned is ambiguous as well - some theories imply that Dagu'syr did not want the civilizations to come to desecrate it; some believe that it was the Hidden who erased all mentions of it they could find. Therefore, neither the name nor even an approximated location of their home are known.

Dagu’syr were quick to become a spacefaring civilization. Their rapid expansion, fueled by an irresistible drive to find other living beings in the Galaxy turned out to be destructive - it is very possible, even implied, that the Firstborn have encountered lesser civilizations and crushed them. There is no clear reason for their aggressiveness, nor is it explained in Chronicon entries. Their ruthless conquests have led to the establishment of an expansive empire and to the inevitable conflict with the galactic soul of Maerlandayr, Paragon.

The cruelty of Dagu’syr gained the attention of Paragon, who begun slowing down their expansion in ambiguous ways. Eventually, the Firstborn have caught wind of the soul's interference and sought for a countermeasure. Not long after the Firstborn have gathered their forces and challenged Paragon at the Heart of Maerlandayr, in the Galaxy's core. The Heart was destroyed, Paragon only wounded, not killed, and the Firstborn were victorious. In spite of this, without a strong soul, the Galaxy begun to fade.

Extinction
Following the Battle of the Cindered Lair, life in all corners of Maerlandayr decayed rapidly. This turn of events was very worrying for the Firstborn, who later on fell into disarray and their empire collapsed entirely. Some Dagu'syr, who pondered on the reason of this state of things, begun to view their conflict with Paragon in an entirely different light and searched for a way to save the Galaxy. They called themselves The Enlightened and embarked to sow life in the Galaxy anew. Today, they are remembered as The Hidden.

The Firstborn have eventually become the prey for the cosmic forces, turning from a highly sophisticated civilization to marauder bands and petty planetary kingdoms. Numerous diseases have swept through their population, dwindling it considerably. The Enlightened endured for much longer than the contemporary Dagu'syr, who vanished completely just a few decades before the mysterious disappearance of the former. It is not known what happened to the Enlightened; only that they were successful in their efforts and have managed to reverse the course of events for the better, laying ground for a multitude of species to emerge in the future.