Self-destruction of galaxy three's prediscovery civilization
(As a record of the historical truth this is quite suspect, given the poor quality of data from that early era, but even propaganda can contain a kernel of truth. It does explain why uplift stops where it does.)
How sentience originally began in Galaxy three, and most especially whether it originated independently of the Progenitors guiding wisdom, is a matter of dispute among the great ideological alliances, but since the Galactic archive contains no record of the historical truth, it is clear that our most wise ancestors considered the full explanation to be beyond the limited understanding of main-sequence species.
The Galactic histories do demonstrate one truth; deprived of the Progenitor's wise counsel, without even the limited consolation of the Galactic library, the prediscovery Galaxy 3 civilization followed the natural course for all those so deprived, and utterly perished at great cost, incidentally demonstrating the perils of divergence from the hallowed Traditions left to us by the revered Progenitors. It is said that once the Progenitors had no concept of war, but when Galaxy three was discovered it was immediately evident that it had been deliberately damaged by a sapient agency. The galaxy's central black hole had deliberately been fed with ten million stars, till it was once more the quasar it had been in its youth. Now its jets were bright enough to vaporize planets across a million light-years, as it slowly spun the galaxy was being scoured of all life.
But that was only the final, uncompleted stage of what clearly had been a campaign to cleanse Galaxy 3
of all life. There were no white dwarfs left, every single one had been forced over the Chandrasekhar's limit
so they went supernova, sterilizing most of the planets not yet vaporized by the quasar in the process, but
everywhere there was evidence of the civilization destroyed by these disaster, a civilization that had
clearly once rivaled the Progenitor's own in sophistication. On the dead worlds the Progenitors found many
ruins, more drifted in deep space, and a few fragments were found near the supernovae, where the white dwarfs
once had been.
From these ruins the progenitors pieced together the story of the self-destruction of galaxy
three. From whatever obscure beginnings, the cycle of uplift had begun in Galaxy 3. Clients were
uplifted by patrons, who in their growing wisdom eventually retired. But when there were still only a
very few retired species, they grew impatient for company. Rather than waiting for their late clients, who
were now the senior patrons of Galaxy 3, to attain wisdom by the same slow and unsure way as they themselves
had, they decided they would immediately uplift all sapience in the Galaxy straight to the Retired order. The
patrons were forced to put aside their ancient enmities and submit themselves to the teachings of the
Retired. For a time, this seemed to be working, but even the unfathomable wisdom of the Retired has
limits, when not guided by the legacy of the progenitors. The
former patrons had fully mastered Retired technology, but they lacked the wisdom only experience can
teach. Bereft of the wisdom of the Progenitors, unlike the Retired of the 5 galaxies, the former patrons had
not learnt the futility of violence. Once they were full members of the Retired order they resumed
their old feuds. The original Retired attempted to stop them, but since there had been many more patrons
(because it takes much longer for the retired population to reach equilibrium levels) they found themselves
powerless to do anything but hide. The ex-patrons went to war, mass uplifting entire biospheres to provide
suitable troops, in much the same way as Organics created the Machine races during the first Oxygen-Hydrogen
war. They soon took to destroying biospheres to deprive their rivals of resources. The war raged for several
megayears until finally one alliance was victorious, though badly damaged. This alliance then constructed the
quasar with the intent of destroying all potential rivals for all time.
It is presumed the Progenitors brought justice to the victorious alliance.
Since this time it has been decreed that Uplift shall always stop when a species reaches the main sequence. Uplift is essential for pre-sapients to become mature patrons, but at all other stages it is not merely unnecessary, it is positively harmful. (Many humans consider this special status for uplift to sapience philosophically absurd.)
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