A Fermi Stance
“The Starfall Arc is old, its history a tale of fourteen billion years. A tale, moreover, littered with elder races, ancient Powers, and primordial civilizations godlike in their power – very few of which, and none of the oldest of which, remain extant in the present day. We know the galaxy to be rich in life, to go on generating new life, and to have been so for many eons before the modern era. And yet the civilizations of the ancient past that could have colonized the entire Arc a million times over have all fallen and disappeared long before reaching such an apex.”
“What may we learn from this seeming paradox?”
“Clearly, that the power of the gods is not enough.”
– Darkness and Silence: The Empty Past,
Surana Ellestrion-ith-Ellestrion