Old Ones - Other References to the Old Ones: The Old Ones did not appear in the 1st Edition of Warhammer 40,000. There was a similar species in their place in the form of the Slann or "Old Slann" that featured in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and Codex Titanicus (1st Edition), in which they made early contact with the Eldar and taught them the technology to create the Webway.Rogue Trader also states that the Slann were responsible for the genetic manipulation of various intelligent species of the Milky Way and suggested that the Jokaero were one of their creations.In the 3rd Edition , starting with Codex: Necrons, the Old Ones are first mentioned and their backstory elaborated by stating they genetically manipulated early life across the galaxy and fought an ancient war against the Necrons and their C'tan masters.Sources from later editions such as Codex: Eldar (4th Edition) and Codex: Chaos Daemons (4th Edition) also stated that the Old Ones had a hand in teaching the Eldar to make use of the Webway whilst Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition) mentioned that the Old Ones had actually been the original creators of it in the first place.The Old Ones were mentioned in Liber Chaotica Slaanesh in the chapter "Echoes of the Birth" where they are called the "First Ones." This section covers the Eldar species, stating that they were raised by figures of shadow and light that were an ancient as well as powerful alien race.  These "First Ones" are said to be the first to have reached into the starry night and to be older than gods yet still mortals who are subject to time. The First Ones are said to have left the Eldar and returned to the sky in order to allow their charges to develop over the millennia.Afterwards, they returned in strange, vast vessels that were worn and scarred. This is because the First Ones were already engaged in an unending war against the Yngir with the First Ones returning to inspect the Eldar and determine whether they were fit for the battle that lay ahead.The First Ones are known to have encouraged their younger race to focus their psychic abilities in order to create Warp-derived beings as weapons against the the vampiric gods of starlight. The battle that continued was long and the First Ones dwindled in number to the point that they lost influence among the Eldar.Without their creators' wisdom, the Eldar's psychic emissions in the Warp changed from sentient weapons into living gods of the Immaterium who were the first of their kind. After the absence of the First Ones, the Eldar heroes Eldanesh and Ulthanesh proved to be the only beings that could harness the power of the Warp gods to battle against their foes until they fled from a daemonic plague.In the aftermath, the Eldar are said to have adapted, refined and perfected the First Ones' skill in measuring the Warp and predicting its movements.The background book Xenology also makes a potential reference to the Old Ones. They are referred to as the "Old Gods" who lived prior to the birth of Slaanesh when they fought a war in heaven and hell against Star Devils. According to the author Kurdo Salvador, the Star Devils emerged victorious in this war and killed all the Old Gods, though one managed to survive. This survivor hid away where he continued his Old Ways of tweaking, dabbling, poking and prodding. When he was done with his work, he departed into the Warp in order to hide and watch.When "She" was born of the "longears," Slaanesh chopped the remaining Old One into millions of pieces with the shards kicked into the cold void in order "to linger like always..." These shattered remnants, according to Kurdo Salvador, became known as "the Umbra." The entity that was sent to linger also shares many qualities to that of Qah, a deity within the Hrud pantheon.Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition) explained that the C'tan still hold an unbending hatred of the Old Ones despite their civilisation being no more and actively seek out any degenerate descendants that may possibly exist on backwater worlds. Codex: Necrons even suggests that a Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen army can be used as a placeholder for the Old Ones' descendants.The Old Ones are also identified as possibly being the true identity of the Brain Boyz, the creators of the Orks.They are also assumed to be identical to the Old Ones mentioned in Warhammer mythology, however recent editions of both the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000" tabletop games have removed most of the surrounding evidence for this to maintain more separation between the two universes.