The Guardian-Thargoid War was a conflict fought between the Guardians and the Thargoids that occurred millions of years ago. It was instigated by the Thargoids, who had seeded a region of space with Thargoid Barnacles and returned thousands of years later to find the Guardians had unknowingly expanded into it. A hyper-territorial species, the Thargoids attacked the Guardians and rejected all diplomatic overtures, but the Guardians eventually responded to their onslaught with highly-sophisticated, autonomous war machines. Unwilling to invest more resources into an unexpectedly costly campaign, the Thargoids cut their losses and ceded the territory. Despite winning the conflict, however, the development of the war machines created a rift in Guardian society that would later prove their undoing.
Background[]
For countless years, the Thargoids had followed a simple strategy to expand their civilisation: seed a region of space with Thargoid Barnacles, then return much later to harvest the resulting Meta-Alloys, which were used to the fabrication of their ships and structures. To the Thargoids, seeding an area signified that it was claimed as part of their territory, and any incursions into their territory were treated as intolerable threats to the species. When the Guardians developed space travel and expanded into this seeded region which surrounded their homeworld while the Thargoids were elsewhere, they were unaware of their transgression.[1][2]
Events[]
Thousands of years after the seeding, the Thargoids arrived to discover the Guardians had occupied their claim. Viewing any other spacefaring civilisation, especially one that had entered their territory, as an existential threat, the Thargoids immediately launched an attack to eradicate the Guardians. The Guardians were caught completely off-guard and were forced to make a partial retreat, but did not see their aggressors the same way their aggressors saw them, and restrained their military response while attempting to decipher the Thargoids' language in the hopes that peace could be negotiated. While the Guardians eventually succeeded in breaking down the communication barrier, the Thargoids rejected any offer of deescalation and continued their assault, forcing the Guardians to step up their war effort.[1][2]
In time, the Guardians completely replaced their soldiers, which were having little success against Thargoid forces, with autonomous war machines that proved far more effective. As the conflict wore on, both sides engineered their technology to recognise and react with hostility to any objects created by their enemies, a characteristic which persisted millions of years afterwards. The Guardians eventually gained the upper hand, as they were able to steadily replenish their war machines while the Thargoids had not prepared for a protracted campaign. Ultimately, the Thargoids retreated from the contested region in the face of unsustainable losses and did not return, ceding victory and the territory to the Guardians.[1][2]
Impact[]
Knowledge of the Guardian-Thargoid War is derived from data pulled from Guardian Codices. Consequently, it is not known how the Thargoids were impacted by their defeat. The conflict had significant ramifications for the Guardians, however, as the sudden advent of the war machines facilitiated the development of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies which reshaped Guardian society. It was not long before this period of rapid change split the Guardians into two ideological factions, those who supported technological advancement and those who desired a return to the traditional worship of nature, and set the stage for the Second Guardian Civil War.[1][2]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Canonn Research: Guardians Codex
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Elite Dangerous Knowledge Base > The Guardians > War with the Thargoids