The Old Makers were a people who lived in the Plux Galaxy about 10,000 years ago. Nobody knows what they looked like. Their buildings are huge and made of carved stone and metal.
The Old Makers fought the Vhal. They could not destroy them. Instead they drove them out of the galaxy and sealed them behind the Rim Gates.
The Old Makers built seven giant stone rings at the edge of the galaxy. The gates hold the Vhal outside. Nobody alive knows how they work. The Order learned that a light kept burning on each gate helps hold the seal.
After the war, the Old Makers vanished. Some people think they died. Some think they left the galaxy. Some think they became the star spirits that Pact-Bound talk to. Nobody knows.
Old Maker ruins are on many worlds. Oldmark is covered in them. Every faction digs there.
Ruins often hold machines that still work.
Some rooms are sealed and need a key, a rune or a trick to open.
Some ruins are guarded by old machines or traps.
The first helm was rebuilt from Old Maker ruins in year 1. The ruins of Oldmark still hold helm secrets. Whoever learns them could build faster or stronger ships. This is one reason the war may start on Oldmark.
Carved stone tablets with runes nobody can fully read.
Small machines that still move.
Maps that show the seven Rim Gates.
Crystal that holds far more aether than mined crystal.