The hyper-intelligent precursor races which somehow still ballsed up the whole galaxy: Ranked

Games are like parents in this they love to tell off us we're insignificant. And one of the easiest ways they can do that is with the inclusion of a precursor race in the deep traditional knowledge. These beings are a humiliating reminder that we were created as a incline send off by some ancient, impassive extraterrestrial being intelligence that scarce remembers doing it. On the sixth day God created man; on the seventh He accidentally sat on U.S.A.

This list, then, is a celebration of our shitty celestial parents. It includes races who rootbound the seeds of creation and then decided to tailored when we were in full bloom, and all-knowing creators who somehow inadvertently made the one thing capable of destroying them, a little like the story of Perilaus and the brazen bull, only with unworkmanlike space insects.

5: The Isu

Assassin's Creed

Isu first visual aspect:
Assassin's Creed II

What did they look like?

Humans, merely taller. They also had a sixth sense, called 'knowledge', but you can't see 'that so I don't know why I'm mentioning it.

What was their grand plan?

The Isu created humanity to serve their purposes: Homo human as a docile work force and Homo neanderthalensis for war and expedition. To keep up control finished humans, they created technological devices that manipulated neurotransmitters in the human learning ability—omnipotent artifacts that would later become known as the Pieces of Heaven. Dress IT up all the same you care, the marrow plan was 'rent out's fix a big old bunch of slaves.'

Where did it entirely miscarry?

Eventually, hybrid humans were born without the neurotransmitters required to keep them under Isu control—well-nig notably Adam and Eve. In a classic irate adolescent act, the naturist power couple led a human rebellion against their godlike creators, engaging them in a state of war that lasted a decade. And because everyone was so busy fighting, they didn't notice a coronal pot ejection from the Sun which caused a global cataclysm. Following that, the Isu population rapidly declined to the point of near extinction, leaving behind the Pieces of Nirvana and then humanity could secretly fight over them like dissatisfied relatives at a will interpretation.

A Foreunner from the Halo series. — Scarce American Samoa you're leaving the house: "Did I retrieve to put the galaxy-wishful organism race back in its box, or..." (Image credit: Ubisoft)

4: The Forerunners

Annulus

A Forerunner from the Halo series. — (Image reference: Microsoft)

Eldest appearance:
Halo: Combat Evolved

What did they look like?

Like so many precursor races, the answer to this is 'humans, but blandish.' Because nothing says 'ancient intelligence operation damned by hubris' more than a face that looks suchlike hastily saran-wrapped lunchmeat.

What was their grand plan?

The Forerunners inherited something called the Mantle of Responsibility, basically fashioning them the custodians of all biography in the galaxy. They reinforced the Halo arrays and The Ark, and saw themselves as the guardians of everything that exists. You'll notice I said 'inherited'. In Halo lore there's a pre-herald race—lazily called the Precursors—who were wiped verboten by the Forerunners before turn into a dust that Crataegus laevigata or may non have caused the Flood. Seemingly, the 'protective all life' thing doesn't extend to the clowns who created them.

Where did it altogether blend wrong?

See above. In wiping unfashionable their own creators, the Forerunners spawned The Torrent—a lethal, interstellar parasite that threatened to take all sentient life in the galaxy. And if that's not risky enough, the Forerunners' root to the whole shambles was to activate the Anulus arrays and kill almost everyone, going away Noah and the Flood with nothing to eat up. Worsened motionless, the now-extinct Forerunners decided to guide the Blanket of Responsibility to humankind, which, as a human, I can assure you is a frightful theme. It's like fashioning a covetous dog Custodian of Plump Sausages. We'll crusade each other over a epidemic that's already nerve-racking to putting to death America. We cannot be trusted to police our own gardens, much to a lesser extent the galaxy.

3: The Reapers

Mass Effect

First-class honours degree appearance:
Bulk Effect 1

What did they look like?

Finally! A precursor race that doesn't look like us. The big-budget Reapers are a cross between a fuck-off squid and a Dubai skyscraper.

What was their grand plan?

To the Reapers, altogether sentient sprightliness is retributive a vegetable allotment ready and waiting to be plucked. When a species becomes technologically advanced sufficient to rise quicker-than-light travel, they discover the Mass Relays—ancient branch of knowledge devices, built away the Reapers, which countenance ships to in a flash traverse huge chunks of the coltsfoot.

This eventually leads them to the Bastion, a vast space post that inevitably becomes the of import hub of the galaxy. Eventually, when life history in the galaxy is advanced enough, the Reapers sweep in via the Bastion—which is actually a gateway to their sinister space home—crop everyone, and remove all trace they were always in that location. This is exactly what happens to the Protheans, the humans-but-also-insects race that busy the Bastion before the current cycles/second, and the Inusannon before them, etc.. Which, to be fair, serves all the conscious races right for half-assing the investigation into where all this cold shit came from.

Where did IT all travel wrong?

The cycle of demolition has been going on for millennia, so the Reapers' plan has been working rather well. But step by step, over the course of millions of years, the sentient races were secretly creating a superweapon called the Crucible. Nobody had time to conclusion it before being eradicated by the Reapers, but lic has progressed over the cycles, like intergenerational dads slowly building that treehouse they promised you. By the time Commander Shepard rocks up, the Melting pot is in a state where IT can be finished and used to finally break the cycle. Note to some herald races reading this: e'er check under the bed/Serpent Nebula for smu and/or planetary superweapons.

2: The Xel'Naga

Starcraft

First appearance:
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Nullity

What did they look like?

Benevolent celeriac or adiposis dust mite: you decide!

What was their grand plan?

The xel'naga want to create the perfect life form. They've sown and cultivated thousands of species in their time, and this hope to launch new life is motivated past their inability to reproduce. Rather, they perpetuate their existence by cultivating and uplifting two new races, one possessing purity of form and the other honor of essence. When they'Re ready, the two races meet like an evolutionary interlingual rendition of First Dates, and create the next xel'Naga. How romantic.

Where did it all go wrong?

The xel'naga decided to intoxicat the Zerg, binding them to a central cognisance called Overmind and imbuing IT with the desire to reach beginning perfection. At the Sami time, a scalawag group of xel'naga took offense at the cycle of creation and tried to purge the creation of their work. In doing so, their leader, Amon, turned the zerg against the xel'naga, wiping them out and killing himself in the process. All that was left was a galaxy abundant with voracious, hyper-biological process superorganisms, intent on achieving genetic perfection, now unionized by a hive-mind. Great work lads.

1: The Old Ones

An Old One from the Warhammer 40k universe. — The best harbinger race, largely because this fat anuran is more benevolent than the ones we're used to. (Image credit: Games Shop)

Warhammer 40,000

First appearance:
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of Warfare (sort of)

What did they look like?

Unclear. The nearest thing we have is the Slann—which look like undead quad toads or Jim Henson puppets, depending on your source material.

What was their grand contrive?

Unusually for precursor races, The Old Ones are sort-of good. The oldest of all known sentient races—hence the name—they were the first beings capable of interstellar travel. A benevolent species, the Old Ones intended to nurture the jr. races of the galaxy and spread aliveness and intelligence across the cosmos, creating more of the races known in the Warhammer 40,000 traditional knowledge. What could go away wrong?

Everything, apparently.

The Old Ones got involved in a difference with a race known as the Necrontyr. Necrontyr lived short, brutal lives and were jealous of the approximate-immortal Old Ones. The Necrontyr were unsmooth by their technologically-advanced enemies, forcing them to fall upon a bargain with ancient energy beings called the C'Tan. The C'tan tricked the Necrontyr into transferring their consciousnesses into robotic bodies, robbing them of their free will but granting them their immortality. These divine, ageless beings—now titled the Necrons, every bit seen in Dawn of War—pushed the Old Ones to create genetically-engineered warrior races to fight back, including the psychically-gifted Eldar and warlike Krork. Bad idea, space toads.

Not exclusive did this fail to prevent their experimental extinction, but millions of years later the debauchery of the Eldar gives have to Slaanesh, the horniest of the Chaos Gods—whoops!—and the Krork, unexhausted untended, devolved into the Orks: perhaps the all but virulent scourge in the Warhammer 40k universe. Current 40k lore steady seems to suggest that the else Chaos Gods were created during the Old Combined vs Necron War in Heaven—it just took them fourth dimension to mature. Essentially everything terrible in the 40k universe stems from chubby benevolent frogs trying to make the right thing. I'm not sure what the lesson is, but I imagine many of us can relate.