History
Information regarding the Old Ones is limited. Rupert Giles tells Buffy Summers in "The Harvest":
"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their...their Hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for, for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures..."
Anya Jenkins explains to the Scooby Gang in "Graduation Day, Part One" the nature of "pure demons." As Giles had stated, Earth was originally ruled by these huge, powerful, pure-breed demons, and the demon races that exist on Earth today are hybridized with humans and other species. Anya, although far too young to have seen an original Old One, had previously witnessed an Ascension.
The Old Ones possess many different shapes and powers, but all of them are gigantic. They were worshipped as gods (according to Illyria, she was a "god to a god"), ruled over vast territories, commanded fearsome armies, and constantly made war against each other. They also did not seem to live and die the way mortals do. Illyria claimed she lived seven lives at once, and even after her death, releasing her essence from the sarcophagus was enough to resurrect her into the nearest host. In short, under the Old Ones' rule, the world was a living hell.
At some point, the Old Ones lost their claim over this reality; some were killed while others were driven from this dimension. The corpses of the greater fallen Old Ones were placed in stone sarcophagi, while their powers were drained and embedded in jewels affixed to the surface of their coffins. All of the sarcophagi were placed in a mystical graveyard known as the Deeper Well, a hole in the world which could be accessed in the Cotswolds in England, and its supposedly antipodal point in New Zealand. A keeper or guardian, with a small detachment of demon warriors, was placed in the Deeper Well to prevent anyone from extracting a sarcophagus. They failed, however, to prevent Illyria's sarcophagus from disappearing from the Well, thus allowing it to be shipped to Knox at Wolfram and Hart. It should be noted, though, that this act was said to be preordained.
It was originally stated by Giles that "the books tell" that the last of the Old Ones to leave this reality fed off of a human, mixing their blood, and that formed the first vampire. However, Illyria disputes this, claiming that vampires were around when she was. In "End of Days," the Guardian claims that the last pure-demon in this world was defeated by a Slayer using the Scythe, on the spot that would one day become Sunnydale, California.
In the centuries that followed, the Old Ones continued to be objects of worship among the lesser half-breed demons. One of these cults was the Order of Aurelius, a cult of vampires worshipping the Old Ones and awaiting their return.
Read more about this topic: Old Ones (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
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