Kathol (species)

"Very ancient, and even more so, powerful. But then, I suppose they all were, weren't they? The Kathol, the Celestials, the Kwa, even the Rakata. The Ancients walked the stars countless thousands of years ago, and yet it truly makes one wonder what they all had that we simply... don't."

- Unidentified member of the Historical Council

The Kathol, also known as the Ancients or Old Ones, were an ancient Force wielding race of aliens who lived on the planet of their namesake, Kathol. Inhabiting the galaxy for eons and forging an interstellar empire known as the Kathol Realm circa 2,000,000 BBY, it was known that Kathol were one of several ancient civilizations in contact with the Celestials, although it was unknown if the relationship was subservient, such as the Kwa and Gree, antagonistic, such as the Rakata, or simply co-existent, such as the Xaxax.

Overview
The Kathol were the original inhabitants of the Kathol sector, and were said to have expanded their empire's reach to over one hundred star systems. Very little was known about the Kathol to the galaxy for most of galactic history, due in part to the manner in which the Kathol preserved information. Considered to be one of the oldest species and civilizations the galaxy had ever known, the Kathol were best known by the works left behind by them. Considered wonders by galactic standards, the Kathol were believed to have been the first species to create artificial intelligences, are were equally known for leaving behind technological engineering of both organic and inorganic nature. One of the most famed creations of the Kathol was the semi-organic device known as the Codex.

After the adherents of the Void of Animus returned to the realspace galaxy, investigation into the Kathol resumed, although did not bear fruitage until over a decade prior to the outbreak of the Extant War, due to the Logos status of Force-enabled Savelle Ulesari. The Kathol were universally Force-sensitive and telepathic, and certain members were designated as reservoirs of their species' collective memories, experiences and histories, thus negating any written chronicles for the rest of the galaxy to gleam from. At one point, it was said that the Kathol's collective knowledge was so incredible, a thousand of the galaxy's greatest minds could neither contain nor comprehend it all.

Arguably the most dreaded of the Kathol's inventions was the Atercor, a superweapon capable of utterly annihilating whole worlds, stars, and theoretically entire star systems. The existence of the Atercor later caused speculation in the archeological galactic community, and particularly the followers of the Void of Animus, that the relationship between the Kathol and Celestials was not entirely benevolent. In addition, the dimensional-bending power systems also strongly suggest that the Kathol both had knowledge and at least minimal access to the Otherspace galaxy, from which they extracted protomatter.

In addition to technological prowess, the Kathol were among the few species in galactic history known to have had the ability to engineer fully sapient lifeforms, including the Maoi and the Charr Ontee, who later evolved into the dreaded Charon, and gave rise to the Charon Dominion.

It was unknown what caused the Kathol to disappear from the galactic scene. It was speculated by some of the xenoarcheological community that the rise of the Rakatan Infinite Empire ultimately drove the Kathol into extinction. It was alternatively speculated that the Kathol fled to Otherspace in order to flee the conquering Infinite Empire, where they seeded the races of the Otherspace galaxy before eventually falling into extinction themselves there as well. This was theorized to also provide an attempted explanation of the presence of the Atercor on Nyx, the moon of Erebus. Regardless of the manner in which it happened, the Kathol were believed to have completely vanished from the galactic scene at some point between 35,000 BBY and 30,000 BBY.

The Charon Dominion were known to have, in some capacity, considered themselves to be the legacy or progeny of the Kathol.