Monuments

The monuments were a collection of unnatural, not man-made objects created by the Monument-Makers between 24,000-19,000 B.C. in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. While most of them were assumed to be intended as targets to distract Omega Clouds, at least one of them was clearly artistic and has been interpreted as a self-portrait.

Discovery
The first monument was discovered on Earth's moon Iapetus by the otherwise unsuccessful Steinitz expedition around the turn of the millennium. It was presumed to be a self-portrait of its creator. Following this discovery, an unambigous confirmation that humanity was not alone in the universe, interest in space exploration rose again and ushered in a new era of spacefaring. The monument itself was turned into a museum, allowing visitors to approach it and stand close enough to touch it.

Several additional monuments were discovered, such as Oz (discovered in 1996), a city-shaped collection of cubes on the only moon of Quraqua. In 2197, thirteen monuments were known. Another momument was found orbiting Nok in 2202.

Function
While the purpose of the monuments remained unclear for the first two centuries after their discovery, Priscilla Hutchins in 2203 theorised that many of them had been intended to distract Omega clouds from their actual targets. This hypothesis was further solidified after Hutchins, together with Frank Carson and Angela Morgan, delivered proof of the clouds' seeking out right angles, and was considered proven after Carson's excavations on Beta Pacifica III uncovered the history of the Monument-Makers.