The X Universe has a very detail rich environment and back story.
I'll try to sum up the story as good as I can but wont try to make everything 100% accurate since it would get way too complicated then. I also have to point out that the X Universe story is based on the various games and multiple novels. I lack a bit knowledge here and there for the fact that Ive only read one of the novels and did not play X3 Terran Conflict and only a part of X3 Albion Prelude.
I'll try to fill the gaps with information I have read about on the web.
You should consider this thread a major spoiler.
You also will notice that I will focus most deeply on the events of the original game and its addon (X Beyond the Frontier + Xtension) for the simple fact that I have good knowledge about it and because they describe the X universe and the most important characters.
I also would like to point out that I will tell the story of the X Universe in two parts.
The "Small storyline" (I simply call it this way) and the "Big storyline". Why I make a difference between and call them this way will get clear when you read about it.
So lets get started.
The "small storyline".
In the early 21st century (around 2030) mankind started to experiment with some kind of jump technology that allows travel across large distances with the use of jumpgates. The first successful jump connection was build between Earth and Mars which allowed to colonize the planet. This technology eventually allowed mankind to colonize the solar system.
Plans however were to reach the stars and so two large jumpgates were build. One to operate in the solar system and one to be shipped to Alpha Centauri.
This unmanned travel was supposed to take roughtly 75 years.
Decaded before the Alpha Centauri gate was supposed to reach its destination, scientists checked the functionality of the Sol gate and did experiments.
To their surprise did the Sol gate lock on the Alpha Centauri system eventhough there was no gate yet.
The conclusion was that they either locked on a natural black hole or that somebody else must have build a jumpgate in that system.
It turned out that Alpha Centauri did not only have one jumpgate of alien origin. It had multiple gates leading to other systems but other than that there was no trace of an alien race to be found.
Earth started to launch an expedition into the new space by sending one ship (the "Winterblossom") under the command of Captain Rene Farnham. The ship discovered many new worlds, many systems and also planets which in theory could sustain life. However, during the whole expedition the Winterblossom never found the builders of these alien jumpgates, nor did they find any other intelligent life.
The absense of living beings in all these systems was a huge disappointment.
Eventually mankind decided to bring life to these worlds.
Most of the planets in theory could support life but had to be terraformed to allow human colonisation.
Scientists came up with the idea to create AI controlled Terraformer ships with the ability to self replicate. These ships would move from planet to planet, terraform them, collect resources and create new Terraformer ships which move to the next planets.
A good idea which went terribly wrong.
During a software update something went wrong and the code of the Terraformer AI changed.
Their new directive was to terraform ALL planets including those which already contain life.
The human colonies beyond the Sol gate were all destroyed and all tries to stop the Terraformers failed.
Conventional tactics failed and soon the Terraformer fleet destroyed the Mars colony and started to terraform earth.
Billions died.
In desperation the leader of the Human fleet (Nathan R. Gunne) directly attacked the Terraformer fleet with all available ships. The Terraformers took the bait and now focused to attack the human ships which now moved away from earth. The Dragonfyre (Gunne`s flag ship) and the rest of the fleet moved through the Sol gate and the Terraformers followed them. At the other side Gunne`s fleet destroyed the Jumpgate so the Terraformers could never return to Sol.
Earth remained in a kind of shock for a very long time.
Billions have died, all major cities were destroyed, mankind lost access to the gate network, all human colonies no longer exist and Nathan R. Gunne sacrificed the entire fleet to save Earth. It took more than seven centuries to recover from this incident.
On Earth it was assumed that Nathan R. Gunne and every man and woman of the fleet have died on the other side of the gate.
The following centuries were dominated by fear. Fear of whats out there.
Mankind never tried to establish a new Jumpgate connection to another system. Too big was the risk that the Terraformers could return.
About 700 years later (2905AD) the USC (United Space Command) detects a large energy spike close to Jupiter and something that looks like a damaged ship.
A rescue operation is started. The crew of the salvage ship dies short after getting close to the stranded ship.
The last thing they get to see were the heavy damages on the ship and the logo that was on the hulls of the old Terraformer ships.
Eventually a 2nd team was sent to the Terraformer ship. This time all of its energy was depleted and so it was brought to earth.
This single ship managed to jump into Sol without the use of a Jumpgate.
The existence of Jumpdrive which do not require gates was a direct threat to mankind and isolation no longer was an option.
The damages of the Terraformer ship indicated that the jumpdrive was in a very early experimental stage. It was instable and exploded.
Scientists were sure they would replicate and improve this jump technology to build an own jump drive that would allow ships to move between the stars without gates and therefore have a tactical advantage over the Terraformers (IF the jumpdrive is actually working).
(this is btw. the point where the story of the first X game starts)
The new experimental jump drive was tested multiple times on an old unmanned ship (the "Getsu Fune") in close Earth orbit. Only short jumps were done but the results looked promising enough to do a first manned jump.
Since the Getsu Fune was a pretty old ship (+130 years old) the scientists decided to do the final jump test with a somewhat more advanced ship: the X shuttle.
The X shuttle could do its inner system jump and if something would go wrong with the jumpdrive the shuttle could return to Earth with its adv. Matter/Antimatter engines (at least that was the idea behind it).
There were two possible test pilots, Captain Kyle William Brannan and Major Elena Kho.
Both were close friends and worked together for many years.
In the end Brennan was chosen to fly the X Shuttle.
To sum it up, the test went wrong.
He started the jumpdrive and soon heavy vibrations almost ripped his hip appart. In the last second he managed to eject the jumpdrive but it was too late.
The X shuttle disappeared but never reached the destination point.
Scientists analized the data of this incident and managed to find out what went wrong in the following weeks.
Elena volunteered to pilot the Getsu Fune and repeat the jump test, hoping to find Brennan somewhere between the stars.
The USC agreed on this rescue operation.
When Elena activated the Jumpdrive of the Getsu Fune there was no option to eject the drive. The ship was not build for that. The drive was inside.
The ship started to shake again and vanished.
---
The X shuttle appeared in a distant system with heavy damages... barely holding together.
After dealing with the most urgent technical problems his communication display had an incoming call.
A lizard was talking to him in a language that he couldnt instantly identify but sounded familiar.
It took Brennan some time to realize that it was a strange from of neo-japanese, the old trading language from Earth.
Strange enough that there was a talking lizard, even more strange that this lizard knew a language from Earth.
This creature introduced (him)self as Commander of the Teladi Phoenix and offered help in exchange of "profit".
Brennan found out that the Teladi for some reason thinks the X shuttle is an Argon ship and Brennan an Argon pilot.
The Teladi Captain arranged that the X shuttle gets repaired and refueled (for free). Why is not known at this point but Brennan assumed they would do this to take a closer look at the jumpdrive, which was absolutely ok for him because he ejected that damn thing. There was no technology the Teladi could steal.
Brennan launched from the Teladi Phoenix and decided to find out why the Teladi thinks that he is an Argon.
Very soon after that Brennan gets attacked by black fighters. The M/AM engine of the X shuttle however allows him to get a good distance to the attackers in no go. He passes multiple Jumpgates and notices that each time the distance to the attackers is getting bigger. He also notices that soon he will run out of fuel again if he does not slow down.
The arrival of Brennan in Teladi space was noticed by pretty much all species in that region. The Teladi which only have profit in mind, the black fighters which turn out to be Xenon (an evolved version of the old Terraformers), the tribal race of the Split, the religios fanatics of the Paranids, the peace loving Boron and of course also the Argons.
Brennan soon arrives in Split territory where he receives a warning from a Boron ship and the advice to take course through Paranid space to reach Argon Prime. The Boron ship instantly gets destroyed by a Split destroyer.
Brennan follows the Borons advice.
Meanwhile the Getsu Fune arrives in Teladi Space.
Elena checks her star maps to verify her position. It is a system that belongs to the old gate network that Rene Farnham discovered centuries ago. But it is teeming with life. How could that be? The systems discovered back then were dead.
The authorities of a nearby Teladi trading station iditify her as "Goner" and "Argon". Elena who has asian origin has less difficulties to understand the old neo-japanese language which seems to be comonly spoken.
She is allowed to dock her ship and despite her lack of local money (credits) she visits the station.
On her way to the dock administration he comes by a Teladi shop which had something strange to sell. A guitar. On the back of the guitar she finds the name of the original owner. Frank DeVries, crewman of the Dragonfyre, the ship that was under command of Nathan R. Gunne, 700 years ago. Elena started to understand what that means.
It means that the terran fleet which saved Earth was not destroyed. They defeated or escaped the Terraformer fleet, stranded beyond the gate, settled somewhere and survived all the time. The Argons are humans, cut off from Earth for centuries.
Elena wanted the guitar at all costs and the Teladi sensed big profits because she (all Teladi are females) thought the guitar was some kind of art. Elena corrected the Teladi and played a song showing her that it was just an intrument that can create art.
A human guy, an Argon heard that song and remembered it from his childhood. He asked Elena if she would play it for him in full length on his ship and in return he would help her to get this guitar.
She agreed, and later it turned out that this Argon was an info broker searching for information that is worth to sell (music included).
He kept his word and bought Elena the old guitar. Elena meanwhile had an idea how to get money. Her ship had a database of old star maps created by Rene Farnham and she compared it with the public data of the station. The maps were different, the locations and connections between the gates have changed. Many systems and gates discovered by Farnham were unknown to the people today.
Elena removed the location of the Sol system and every evidence of Earth from the database and contacted the friendly info broker. He looked at the data and couldnt believe his eyes. These maps were worth more than he ever could earn in his entire life. He made a deal with Elena. He transfered 100.000 credits to her and promised to reward her with 50% of the profits he would make in future.
Elena now was able to pay the docking fee, refuel her ship and search for the Argon homeworld.
On her travel towards Boron space (a different path than Brennan took) Elena encounted a weird ship which seem to follow her.
She confronted the captain of that ship who turned out to be a young Teladi named Nopileos.
Nopileos was not a typical Teladi.
Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV was the grandchild of the leader of the Teladi Union and her (female Teladi) ship had the very untypical name "Nyana's Fortune" -> which is a reference to Nyana Gunne, granddaughter of Nathan R. Gunne.
Unlike other Teladi, Nopileos didnt care much for profit. Nopileos wanted adventures and thats exactly what she got.
Before meeting Elena, Nopileos and her sister discovered an abbandoned Boron station. At that time Nopileos also heard a rumor about an extreme rich Nividium asteroid and manipulated the autotrader of her sister to keep the nividium market in view. That rumor in the end turned out to be true and the Nividium market almost collapsed while the autotrader did his job... buying here, selling there. Within hours Nopileos made 18 billion credits profit and all of a sudden was the richest Teladi alive.
Unfortunatly for Nopileos did this violate a few rules of the Teladi Union. Especially the fact that the did not inform Teladi authorities about the Boron station and the minor fact that in panic Nopileos donated the 18 billion credits to Boron orphans.
He had to face the the Teladi leader (and the same time her grandmother) for justification. To Nopileos surprise the CEO of the Teladi Union was highly amused. Another not so typical Teladi, who thought that the Teladi would be more than just profit lizards.
But there had to be a punishment for the violated rules and so Nopileos was told to fly to the Boron homeworld in order to resolve a few things there. Nopileos was told to get his new ship the other day and start his journey as soon as possible.
Nopileos expected to get an old shuttle or small trading ship but was speechless when she saw what the Teladi leader had in mind. The new CEO yacht, the best ship the Teladi ever produced. A strange punishment. 
In the end Nopileos and Elena Kho met and become good friends. Together they fly into Argon space and try to find Brennan.
Another important charactor for the story at this point is a Split captain called Cho t'Nnt (I believe thats no spelling mistake).
That Split started to hunt Brennan at the moment the energy signature of his jumpdrive was detected. It was Cho t'Nnts destroyer which destroyed the Boron ship earlier but the X shuttle is always a bit too fast for Cho.
Cho had an unfortunate encounter with Nopileos shotly after Nopileos got the "Nyanas Fortune".
Lets switch back to Brennans part of the story (I have to switch between the characters a bit since the story of X Beyond the Frontier and Xtension happen at the same time).
Brennans arrival did also was noticed by the Argon intelligence.
Ban Danna led the operation that was meant to guide Brennan to Argon Prime. The plan was to involve the Boron and Paranids to secure the X shuttle and its pilot. The Boron did their job and guided Brennan into the right direction.
The Paranids had enough ships in range to find Brennan and defend him if neccessary.
Brennan who still had Xenon ships chasing him (and of course the Split Cho t'Nnt) eventually reached Paranid space and was asked to dock one of the large Paranid battleships. Ban Danna welcomed him and explained the situation.
The Paranids had own plans with the X shuttle and Ban Danna knew that.
Meanwhile Cho t'Nnt also reached the Paranid fleet and met Brennan for the first time aboard the Paranid ship.
Argons, Paranids and Split didnt trust each other but claimed to work together.
In the end the fleets were about to escort Brennan to Argon Prime but Ban Danna was sure that the Paranids would never let him arrive there.
With the help of a Goner a risky plan was proposed to Brennan without that the other species noticed it.
When back in space Brennan flew into the corona of the nearby sun. Due to this speed he was able to dive into it and out again without the shields collapsing. No other ship could follow him.
Behind the star the Argons have, as part of the plan, placed a ship about the size of the X shuttle, with a Matter/Antimatter engine which exploded while Brennan flew to the close jumpgate where a Goner freigther was waiting to pick him up.
All the Paranids and Split noticed was the matter/antimatter explosion leaving them believe that the X shuttle was destroyed. For them Brennan was dead. For the Argons the X shuttle was parked and hidden inside a freighter on the way to the Goner Temple and then to Argon Prime.
On the way to Argon Prime Brennan met a young female Goner named Ninu Gardna and fell in love with her.
After his arrival on Argon Prime and the following meet and greet with the government he met a person he knew for years. Elena Kho.
In the meantime Nopileos ship was boarded for a brief time by a mysterious race called the Sohnen. They delivered a message to him and left again. "The Xenon must not be destroyed".
Brennan and Elena were called to a meeting with some Argon militaries and senators.
The Argons expected that the Xenon meanwhile know that the X shuttle was not destroyed and prepare a massive attack on Argon space.
The solution would be to strike against the Xenon before that could happen. But that would require the support of the other races.
Elena was sent to Split homeworld to negotiate with them while Brennan was sent on a suicide mission deep into Xenon territory. His X shuttle was the only ship fast enough to fly through the Xenon defenses and destroy the reproduction facilities with an antimatter bomb. That would weaken the Xenon.
Ninu Gardna meanwhile had to return to the freighter (the "Aladna Hill") to get the next job done.
Cho t'Nnt found out that the X shuttle was not destroyed and the Argons tricked him. He also found out which freighter transported the X shuttle, the Aladna Hill.
He attacked the freighter and took prisoners, which he brought to the Split homeworld to torture them in order to get information about the current location of the X shuttle.
Brennan meanwhile did his suicide mission while Elena Kho and Ban Danna met with the Split patriarch.
Before leaving to her mission Elena reveiled to Nopileos that she knows where Ianamus Zura is located, the lost homeworld of the Teladi (the only place where male Teladi might still exist).
Nopileos made the mistake not to pass this information to the Teladi Union. Her ship computer however submitted the info without direct permission. That got Nopileos in trouble and she had to get that information from Elena now.
Elenas talks with the Split patriarch didnt run well. She was imprisoned and found out that Ninu was held prisoner aswell.
Brennans mission went well and he survived but soon after that he got contacted by the Split which showed him the tortured Ninu.
Brennan knew that this was a trap but he had no choice, he had to fly to the Split homeworld.
He landed and activated the timed ship self destruction, knowing that the antimatter engine would destroy half the planet if he would not deactivate this timer before the 6 hours were over.
Cho finally took Brennon as prisoner but the X shuttle was transmitting the countdown on all frequencies.
The Split had no other choice than to let their prisoners go or risk the destruction of their homeworld.
All prisoners fled from the Split planet but Cho chased them and opened fire.
Before he could destroy the X Shuttle and Argon ship with Elena aboard, a Teladi ship appeared, set collision course and rammed Cho. Nopileos sacrificed his ship to rescue Elena.
The Nyanas Fortune was destroyed and Nopileos considered dead.
Ban Danna, Brennan, Elena and Ninu returned to Argon Prime.
The alliance defeated the Xenon, at least for the time being.
The jumpdrive from the damaged Getsu Fune was build into the X shuttle.
Brennan actived the jump and disappeared just to reappear at the same location a few seconds later. The jumpdrive failed.
Nopileos survived and crashed on the Split planet where he was rescued one year later by Brennan and Elena.
In the following years Brennan creates his own company, the TerraCorp. Driven by his wish to return home Brennan tries everything to get the engine running again and find alternative ways back to earth.
The Xenon for the first time develop consciousness.
Split and Paranids ally and want to destroy all Xenon. Brennan and Elena try to prevent that after being contacted by the Xenon. They deactivate the jumpgate leading to the Xenon and in return the Xenon stop their attacks on the galactic community.
Ninu for some unknown reason leaves Brennan and also the Goners and joins a pirate group far away. Her son Julian is the main character in X2 and X3. He will search for his father, Kyle William Brennan, who went lost deep inside Xenon space.
Julian mets Saya Kho, Elenas daughter.
Elena meanwhile leads the TerraCorp, which grew to one of the biggest existing companies (big enough to have an own private fleet).
At that time Argon ships get attacked by a new species, the Khaak. The Khaak are an insectoid species living in a distant area of space.
It turned out that the Khaak were originally provoked by the Paranids (when mining Nividium right above the Khaak homeworld) but soon started to attack all other species, because they were not able to see a difference between the different species.
The Khaak developed their own jump technology and were able to attack wherever they wanted.
Ban Danna contacts Julian and guides him and Saya through a series of missions, trying to find out where the Khaak are coming from.
Julian discovers information about where his father went and follows this path until he finds out that Kyle was taken prisoner by the Khaak.
The Khaak have build a planet destroyer.
Ban Danna, Julian, Saya and Bret (a friend of Julian) try to rescue Kyle with the support of the Argon military.
They eventually manage to destroy the generators of the Khaak ship, beam Kyle out and destroy that planetkiller. The explosion damages Sayas ship (Nikkonofune) but she survives.
Kyle Brennan reveils that he found a possible way back to earth.
The old jumpgate that once connected to the Sol gate still exists, damaged by the fleet of Nathan R. Gunne but not completely lost.
This gate eventually will be recovered and repaired. Earth gets rediscovered but the Terrans mistrust this new situation. They had to face a new situation with aliens they didnt know and an Argon government which for sure wouldnt want to give up its independence.
Not to mention that the Terraformers still exist out there.
Mistrust and the technological supremacy of the Terrans which now start to colonize other systems causes conflicts. A criminal organization named Beryl manages to wake a scientist who spent centuries in cryosleep. That scientist was partly responsible for the creation of the first Terraformers.
Beryl tries to create new Terraformers in order to use them against the Terrans. The Argon government at some point starts to support Beryl and a Terraformer CPU ship gets deployed close to the Mercury orbit where the Earth defenses are not expecting an attack. The Terraformer replicates and attack earth. At the same time Saya Kho detonates a bomb on the Earth Torus Aeternal (a giant station ring that is build around Earth). Saya does not survive.
The Terrans declare war on the Argons but are defenseless and the Terraformer Fleet destroys large part of Earth.
Thats the Terran Conflict and the 2nd Terraformer War.
The ten-billion-strong ?eet of drones and CPU ships was destroyed only through the combined efforts of Dr Jei Nirin, Admiral Tebathimanckatt and Elena Kho, who would sacri?ce her life to save the planet she still called home.
Soon after that the complete jumpgate network shut down for unknown reason.
All systems and worlds were on their own, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. This situation remained for many years.
Cut off from the Argon government local groups tried to increase their power in the various systems.
In Albion the Plutarch Mining Corporation enslaved people and ruled with force. The opposing corporation Heart of Albion tried to fight Plutarch but never really had a chance until one of the old jumpgates all of a sudden reactivated. Ren Otani and Yisha Tarren where the first ones using the jumpgate as it was their only option to escape Plutarch.
The system on the other side was populated by a group of terrans which suffered regular attacks of pirates. The economy of that system was weak and close to collapsing.
Despite the conflicts of the past Ren Otani convinces the Terran (Canterans) government to economic deals with Heart of Albion that would stabilize the Canteran economy while Heart of Albion found refuge in Canteran space, when Plutarch took over the control of the Albion system.
Heart of Albions retreat has lead to the discovery of another active jumpgate in Canteran space, leading to Omicron Lyrae.
Omicron Lyrae had a strong population of Argons and strong economy. Despite the suspicious Argon government Ren Otani and Yisha Tarran managed to make trade deals with multiple large companies in Omicron Lyrae.
The Argons however suffered massive attacks of Xenon forces coming from a nearby system and the local government didnt expect to withstand for much longer.
Ren Ontani agreed to join an Argon fleet and attacked an installation deep in Xenon space using a cloaking device developed by a Split.
Plutarch forces eventually get decimated by Xenon.
End of the story... so far.
The "big storyline".
Before I start with this kind of storyline I need to explain the Kardashev scale.
Kardashev was a russian scientist of the 20th century which proclaimed multiple types of civilizations based on their ability to harness resources and energy.
The Kardashev scale starts with a Type 0 civilization (thats where mankind currently is).
A Type 1 civilization is able to harness the energy of the nearby star.
Type 2 can harness the power of their entire star (not merely transforming starlight into energy, but controlling the star). A civilization that is able to build a dyson sphere would advance to a type 2 civilization.
Type 3 would be a galactic civilization which is able to fly to all the stars and have full power over every kind of energy on galactic scale.
The original Kardshev scale ends at this point because everything beyond this point is really hard to imagine.
However, the X Universe keeps going on with the types.
Type 4 would be a civilization that has control over galactic cluster and Type 5 would control the entire universe.
This introduction of the Kardashev scale leads me to a point of time in the x Universe 5 billion years before the events that I have described in the "small storyline".
5 billion years ago the first species of the "Old Ones" comes into existence.
The Old Ones started just like we did... a bit of evolution, a bit of technological progress and their Type 0 civilizations turned into Type 1.
The Old Ones are not one species, they are many species which started their progress in the virgo star constellation.
They learned to harness energy, spread to the stars... became Type 2 civilizations and were eventually on the way to a Type 3 civilization. They met other civilizations... traded with them, cooperated and also fought wars.
About 3.5 billion years ago the different species united and formed the Community of the Old Ones. At this point the Old Ones have reached a Type 3 civilization and started their way to become a Type 4 civilization.
It took the Old Ones more than 3 billion years to discover the secret of consciousness.
1.5 billion years ago the Old Ones were attacked by a race that only is known as Outsiders. The Old Ones tried to contact the Outsiders for 100 million years without reaction, before they started to fight back. The Outsiders started to slowly change the physical constants of our Universe. Even the Old Ones are not able to change the Universe yet.
It is assumed that the Outsiders are a Type 5 or even Type 6 civilization which have full control over their own universe and wanted to invade ours (Type 6 might be a civilization which has control over multiple universes).
The Old Ones were able to stop the Outsiders in our universe but it is unknown what exactly stopped the Outsiders and if this stopped them forever. The Outsiders might return someday. The only true indication that the Outsiders are gone for now is that the physical constants have stabilized.
Clear is that the Old Ones are not the most powerful race out there since they dont have the control over an entire universe yet.
It is even unclear if the Old Ones ever will be able to to advance to a Type 5 civilization since the entropy advances faster than the Old Ones currently do. The universe might be dead before the Old Ones make this final step.
1 billion years ago most members of the Old Ones gave up their physical form and transfered their mind into a virtual simulation. They created clouds of a specific kind of matter which acts like a giant quantum computer. The clouds float around some stars and harness all of the stars energy, similar to a dyson sphere but without any technological construct around the star. When the star dies the Old Ones simply upload into another cloud around the next star.
Despite living in a simulation the Old Ones never cut their connection to the real universe.
Since about that time the Old Ones have started to construct the gate network which is ALOT bigger than the Terrans/Argons can imagine.
The Old Ones constructed the gate network to indirectly influence young civilizations, to protect them and to allow them to make progress without getting destroyed in wars or by natural catastrophies. The Old Ones control more than 750.000 galaxies which are home to only 1300 intelligent species. The gate network is used to bring species from distant parts of the universe into a central region (the local group). There species which share similarities are allowed to coexist and colonize other stars. Species which are incompatible get separated in their own region of space.
The gate network is a control mechanism that works most of the time but it isnt perfect.
Mankind wasnt identified as intelligent species until the Winterblossom did its first jump to Alpha Centauri. At this time exploration ships did find any other life in the discovered systems.
The Old Ones reconfigurated the gate network of that region after the end of the first Terraformer war. They allowed the Argons to make contact with the Paranids, the Teladi, the Borons and the Split. All these races share traits which are not unknown to the human. The aggressive nature of the tribal Split, the religious focus of the Paranids, the profit aiming Teladi and the peace loving Borons. All of that is in the human nature.
The insectoid Khaak however were considered incompatible with the other races and were separated from them. Only an accident, a mistake allowed Khaak to enter the region of space where the other races were living.
The gate network protects the species but it also controls them in a passive way. The species can use the gates to travel between the system. There is no need to use other ways of traveling between the stars. The Old Ones believe that by default only Type 3 civilizations are able and see the need to develop jumpdrives.
From the 1300 intelligent species only 12 have developed jump technology prior reaching Type 3. Mankind was one of them.
It appears that humans make progress alot faster than it would be considered normal. That same jumptech btw. caused a series of events that allowed the Khaak to get their own jumpdrives.
The Old Ones couldnt predict that. They also couldnt predict that there would be a 2nd Terraformer war and took this reason to shut down the whole gate network at the end of the Terran conflict.
The Terraformers which evolved to the Xenon were threat enough.
Earlier in the "small storyline" I wrote that Nopileos was contacted by the "Sohnen".
First time Nopileos saw a Sohnen on the Boron station, right before he made 18 billion credits profit. In fear that creature would be a Xenon, Nopileos ran for his life.
Later one Sohnen mets Nopileos on the Nyanas Fortune and tells him that the Xenon must not be destroyed.
The Sohnen are a mechanical species (thats why Nopileos thought it would be a Xenon). The Sohnen are not the Old Ones but they support and serve them.
The one on Nopileos ship explains that there is a community of more advanced species which are living together and have contact to the Old Ones.
Most likely the Sohnen are a Type 2 or 3 civilization which have not yet reached to point where they join/become Old Ones. It might take them hundreds of millions or even billions of years to be ready to join the Old Ones.
However, the Sohnen speak for the Old Ones and administrate the region of space where the humans and the other races are living. They establish new jumpgate connections and change old ones if required. They keep the balance and allow the lower species to evolve and make progress. Traders of the various species often reported about weird looking ghost ships which all of sudden appear in a system without the use of jumpgates, cross these systems with extreme speed and disappear again. That are the Sohnen ships.
The Sohnen are the link between the lower species and the Old Ones.
The Old Ones consider the Xenon a major threat that could spread from system to system, from galaxy to galaxy and destroy the plans of the Old Ones.
But the Sohnen told Nopileos that the Xenon must not be destroyed completely.
The Old Ones want to preserve younger civilizations, they want to reach the status of a Type 4 or even Type 5 civilization one day and in the end they want to stop the universe from dying by stopping entropy or at least slowing it down.
The Xenon are a young civilization of machines and soon they reach the point where they develop self-consciousness. There is hope that the Xenon, which already evolved from the old Terraformers learn to co-exist with the other races and their creators, the humans.
Thats why the Old Ones sent the Sohnen to contact Nopileos and delivered this message. In the end these events lead to the point where Kyle Brennan and Elena start to protect the Xenon CPU ships which have evolved, when the Split and Paranids wanted to destroy them.
The message Nopileos received, in the end allowed the Xenon to evolve.
If that is good or bad is unknown. Maybe it takes a few hundred million years to find out, maybe mankind surprises the Old Ones once more and makes another leap forward, together with the Xenon.
Maybe the Sohnen, long time ago were not so different from the Xenon.
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I think the X universe has one of the best and most detail rich stories that sci-fi games could offer.
The story is told by meanwhile 7 games if I remember correct 4 novels.
Ive only read one of these novels (about 15 years ago) so I might lack a bit knowledge there.
I really love how the "small storyline" which happens in a period of roughtly 1000 years fits and gets influenced by the "big storyline" of the Old Ones, which dates back up to 5 billion years.
It is interesting to see that despite all the small conflicts and problems there is a much bigger picture to see, that makes these problems to appear tiny and unimportant.
I know its not always easy to understand this summary of the story due to all the different points of view and I can tell you that its not so easy trying to remember all of that.
Sorry for the spelling mistakes and grammar... if you find anything you can keep it.
I wil (<- spelling mistake) update this thread as soon another game of the X universe gets released or if I eventually find enough time and the mood to read the 2nd novel.
