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What was the first alien race humanity came across? I it would probably have been eldar or orks but I dont know.

There was an Alien race on Terra IIRC, but that was during the Unification Wars. I don't think it's documented anywhere, but I would place my bet on Orkz of some description.

+ 1 to

Orks are almost everywhere and mentioned in the background of the Predator as encounterd when humanity moved to the stars.

Reasonably sure that the first alien race humanity as a whole encountered would be orks. I think that individual members of the species might have met other races first, but I have no source for that. (Specifically, I am thinking that I can't rightly recall when the Cabal recruited John Grammaticus.)

Wasn't there a race of aliens that had taken over parts of the solar system?

I'm not up to date on what has been retconned and such, but in the Spacehulk PS1 game story, it seems to show the Genestealers were the first?

I don't think so. Humanity encountered other alien races long before Tyranids.

I am sure that other alien races existed when Mankind has gone into space ( it is stated after all on Lexicanum [ don't remember what millennium ] that Humanity forged alliance with few alien races ) that maybe became extinct during the Fall of the Eldar or by some other means.

iproxtaco wrote:There was an Alien race on Terra IIRC, but that was during the Unification Wars.

The unification wars were about 15-20 thousand years after humanity settled the galaxy.

Well, according to some fluff the C'Tan/Necronder futzed with da hummies to make dem sum blanks/pariahs fairly early on.

IIRC, the rogue trader book says that Orks were the first aliens Mankind met, "they looked hard at each other and did not like what they saw" or some such, the exact quote eludes me for now.

RT doesn't specify which was the first. Only that when humanity took for the stars for the first time other civilizations were encountered and the first alien wars began.

Anyway, of the "big ones" surely orks were the first humanity came across.

It could be the Eldar, seeing as they would have still had a sizable empire at the time.

Orks are a strong possibility but at the time the Eldar had the power to keep their numbers down.

The first xenos race encountered my Humanity as it reached the stars is no doubt extinct and long-forgotten.

Think about it:

Any first-contact race would have to be located fairly close to Earth, yet not be strong enough (or violent enough) to wipe Mankind out before the rise of the Emperor on Earth. This rules out the Pre-Fall Eldar, who at that time were ALL Dark Eldar (strong enough to kill us all, and with the kind of attitude that would make them want to) and the Orks (who, at the time, were located more towards the center of the Galaxy, if memory serves).

So assuming Humanity wasn't as rabidly xenophobic as the Imperium (a safe bet) they might trade with these mystery aliens, who are presumably of roughly equal power level. Maybe wars broke out way back then, I don't know. But for the most part, they would exist at least up until Mankind's Empire fell apart due to warp storm interference. Maybe they continued to exist after that. During the warp storms, its possible whoever they were got used as prophylactics in a Pre-Fall Eldar orgy (while Earth went unnoticed). Or maybe the encroaching Orks found them and krumped them. One thing is certain, though... If they survived the Eldar (and the Fall) and the Orks hadn't gotten to them yet, then the Great Crusade would definately have genocided the living heck out of them as soon as the warp storms ended and the Big E went on his road trip to find the primarchs. Because if there's one thing the Imperium of Man hasn't gotten wrong about the Emperor, it's the Big E's hatred of all things xenos.

So yeah, whoever Humanity's first contact race was, they are undoubtedly long extinct. Most probably at Humanity's hands. And it's doubtful that anyone in the Administratum could tell you who they were, given the state of recordkeeping in the 41st Millenium...

The eldar seemed to be more focused on the region that is now the eye of terror. The more far flung craftworlds/maiden worlds were created around the time of the fall. So i very much doubt it was the eldar.

I think the orks were without doubt the first to fight humanity but otherwise it is unknown.

I think it was the goa'uld

But honestly, I would think that it was probably the eldar, since they had a large empire at one point.

squidhills wrote:Any first-contact race would have to be located fairly close to Earth, yet not be strong enough (or violent enough) to wipe Mankind out before the rise of the Emperor on Earth. This rules out the Pre-Fall Eldar, who at that time were ALL Dark Eldar (strong enough to kill us all, and with the kind of attitude that would make them want to)

Not 'ALL' eldar at the time were akin to dark eldar, their whole back story makes this clear.

The Eldar empire was not a 'burn all the xenos' empire, it was clearly described as a trade based empire, that is why craftworld existed in the first place.

Those eldar that lived a dark eldar style lifestle lived a life of luxury at the heart of the eldar empire well away from Terra.

Also humanity was completely different when it first expanded outwards, it was nothing like the IoM, it was more open to trade with xeno and wasn't a single united force.

Whatever the race was, they are likely long extinct.


thousands of alien empires were exterminated by the Great Crusade, thousands more were likely exterminated by mankind when they first set out. Not all would have had to have been with war either, Human diseases could totally destroy alien empires from within. its another reason to fear the alien, alien diseases are far more of a threat then any weapon they can wield(unless its a Bioweapon)

BluntmanDC wrote:Not 'ALL' eldar at the time were akin to dark eldar, their whole back story makes this clear.

The Eldar empire was not a 'burn all the xenos' empire, it was clearly described as a trade based empire, that is why craftworld existed in the first place.

Those eldar that lived a dark eldar style lifestle lived a life of luxury at the heart of the eldar empire well away from Terra.

Also humanity was completely different when it first expanded outwards, it was nothing like the IoM, it was more open to trade with xeno and wasn't a single united force.

I wasn't aware that they were so balanced, as a race. I must admit, my own knowledge of Eldar fluff gets a bit spotty after 2nd Edition. I was under the impression (thanks to what I've picked up about the DE) that the Craftworld Eldar were looked down on by the planet-based Eldar as being needlessly conservative and restrained, whereas the rest were all rampant hedonists. Plus, the Dark Eldar didn't seem to alter their lifestyles that much after the fall. OK, now they torture people to appease Slaanesh and get their jollies, instead of just torturing them to get their jollies. I didn't know the Craftworlds were originally trade vessels; my understanding was that they were exodus ships fleeing the Eye by the only Eldar who didn't get their souls rent asunder.

Well, hey... thanks for filling me in. Don't have a lot of Eldar (Dark or otherwise) players in my neck of the woods, so anymore the only knowledge I have about them is outdated 2nd edition stuff, and what I pick up from my IG, SM, and CSM Codexes... and they might be a little biased.

The Craftworlds have grown since the fall.

they were much smaller then they were when originally built, but, as more and more refugees came aboard the Craftworlds, they expanded and built new sections bit by bit. eventually becoming the planet sized vessels they are today.

At the very center of a craftworld, you can still find the remains of the original ship.

First contact:

The Old Ones (who designed humanity)


The Nightbringer (who instilled the fear of death in all races except the Orks, back when Humans were comical tree-beasts)

Both of these might be considered pre-human though, so likely the Orks, as they are all over the galaxy

It is strange but if Nightbringer was dormant for 65 millions of years how did he manage to embed the fear of death to a species that was to be evolved 55 or 60 miliions of years in the future?

Same token with the Old Ones. If they incepted the human being in roughly the same times as Nightbringer was eating life for breakfast it means they had a big BIG BIG pool of patience...

This part of the story simply doesn't mesh with actual history.

I thought the ogryns, ratlings and squats were some of the first alien races they came across becaus they unified with them.

Spartan 117 wrote:I thought the ogryns, ratlings and squats were some of the first alien races they came across becaus they unified with them.

No, Ogryns, Ratlings, and Squats are Abhumans.

Humans that have mutated over time and adapted to their surroundings.



Remember kids, if you do steroids, someday in 10,000 years your descendents will be Ogryns. massively muscled, but utterly stupid, lumps of flesh.

Ah ya thats right. Thats how the fluff goes

Raulmichile wrote:It is strange but if Nightbringer was dormant for 65 millions of years how did he manage to embed the fear of death to a species that was to be evolved 55 or 60 miliions of years in the future?

Same token with the Old Ones. If they incepted the human being in roughly the same times as Nightbringer was eating life for breakfast it means they had a big BIG BIG pool of patience...

This part of the story simply doesn't mesh with actual history.

The Nighbringer imprinted its image on not just life, but proto-life as well, so the fear of death carried on through evolution.

Same thing with the Old Ones, they seeded planets with the seeds of life/evolution/whatever, that eventually evolved into humanity. The Eldar and the Orkz had this occur before humanity, that is all.

The eldar, being arrogant jerks, probably were'nt that interested in humanity untill the great crusade, and I'm pretty sure that the eldar empire was centered where the EOT is now, seeing as the Greenskins spread like a rash in a brothel, I would imagine that probability states that mankind met the orks before the eldar.

Of course, there's nothing to stop other alien races being closer, but that's a hypothesis, we don't know if these mysterious other xenos were nearby or not as GW has never said.

Daemons. The shamans/voodoo doctors/gurus/etc. that merged to form the Emperor knew what was out there.

As the Empeor beat the living crap out of the Void Dragon during the Middle Ages, the C'tan make for a good runner-up.

Pan-fo.

*Skips away lightly*

the C'tan and deamons don't really count.


humanity as a whole wasn't cognisant of their existance(or nature) so we can't really call it an encounter.

and Daemons are Daemons, not Xenos.



the only things that would qualify would be aliens encountered by human colony ships as they spread accross the galaxy.