Old Ones

The Old Ones are a precursor species that used to inhabit much of the known world. Little is definitively known about the Old Ones, but many accept that the Old Ones were the source of many arcane artifacts. However, this is largely speculation, and the only thing that is certain about the Old Ones is that while they were around sometime in the far past, they either went extinct or vanished.

Religious Beings
The oldest theory pertaining to the Old Ones and what are believed to be their artifacts is the belief that the Old Ones were/are deities and spirits that hold religious and spiritual power over the world in some way. These beliefs were partially responsible for the traditional understanding of 'Arcana' as a way to try and replicate the power of Old Ones artifacts. In modern times, the belief that the Old Ones were purely spiritual or religious beings has began to fade in favor of more secular theories.

Advanced Predecessors
The leading modern theory about the Old Ones is that they were merely the first species to attain sentience and establish a civilization for itself. Theorists point to the existence of several different sentient species in modern times as evidence that sentience has begun to arise en mass as a favorable trait in various species. Theories about how the Old Ones vanished or went extinct vary within this community, ranging from ideas about ancient natural disasters to the Old Ones abandoning the Earth to settle elsewhere. Often times, possible explanations for why the Old Ones are no longer present are somewhat political in nature, as many use the disappearance of the Old Ones as comparison for modern social trends.

Secular Creators
This somewhat popular theory blends religious and secular notions and posits that the many civilized species that currently exist were created by the Old Ones through scientific and/or arcanic means. Those that believe in this theory point out how the narrow range of species that have achieved sentience could potentially indicate that the Old Ones chose to 'enlighten' these particular species for a specific purpose. What that purpose is, nobody knows for sure, but there are many ideas. Some believe that the sentient species were chosen either as possible labor classes, to be used for entertainment, or for religious purposes. Believers in the Secular Creator Theory also have varying ideas about why the Old Ones vanished, with some believing that the Old Ones still exist somewhere observing the civilizations of the known world, or that the Old Ones might have suffered a disaster caused by their own advanced technology.

Ancient Aliens
Some people believe that the Old Ones weren't native to the Earth, and that they came from somewhere in space to settle on the Earth. Believers in this theory point out how this could easily explain why the Old Ones vanished, as they could have simply abandoned the Earth if it become dangerous to remain, or they might have decided to leave once the sentient species of the Earth began to develop their own civilizations. In the scientific communities of the known world, this theory is not taken very seriously; however this theory has inspired many works of speculative fiction that explore the possible traits of these alien Old Ones.

Old One Denial
Perhaps the most fringe theory about the Old Ones is that they never existed at all. The few people that take this theory seriously believe that what have been labelled as Old Ones remains or artifacts are either misidentified artifacts and remains of other beings, or that Old Ones artifacts and remains were fabricated to try and attain political and/or religious power. Outside of the fringe few who believe this theory, nobody takes this theory seriously.