Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Calicone]

While there is already a good Reddit article on the Threat and its History, I think the author was overly eager to connect the dots, so-to-speak. There are some discrepancies I think are dubious, and I would like to see if I can correct them. To that end, I am going to try and present a more objective timeline based on the same text. To do so, I have combed through almost every relevant description, interaction, and canon text I can find in order to put this together. There will be many similarities between the two timelines, but it is my hope that any readers will be able to more closely follow the logic behind any drawn conclusions.

Nanoforges are Introduced

... and she said "Let the forges bloom in our Human Domain; so be crowned in the wealth and glory of a thousand stars!" ...

This quote depicts the introduction of the Nanoforges. This is almost certainly the catalyst for what is to come. Note I am omitting quite a bit of the original text. We will eventually cover most of each quote, but for now, hang in there.


Forge Piracy Begins

...is a militarized version of the Stencor civilian Mk.III Linear Catapult favored by frontier mining combines. Earned a poor reputation due to accidents caused by unlicensed nanofactured copies.

...is a militarized version of the corporation's heavy civilian model widely employed in terraforming applications. The weapon system was found to be used by anti-Domain 'bandits' on heavy warships and in defensive installations... Stencor Corporation investigated... found not liable for leak of weapon designs."

Stencor later claimed damages from Orion due to the leak of license files to blackweb forge-pirates.

... the Devastator was developed by the Domain Armada using generic parts in response to a rebellious world which managed to acquire an extensive set of fighter LPCs.

A lack of FRM means anyone who has a nanoforge can produce any item blueprint they have access to, with nearly no drawbacks, except a tiny chance of malfunction (drift).

Soon after, this leads to a bunch of rebels and pirates acquiring large amounts of materiel, potentially the entire reason the Domain had to deal with so many rebellions in the first place.


Fires of a Revolution

...the Kardakes was first deployed to battle conditions during the retaking of the Eridani₁ Insurrec-

... once Armada doctrine matured to the new conditions of the Aquila Brigands' Rebellion, the ibiquitous Iklwa formed the-

-costly embarrassment at Van Maanen's Star was only the proverbial last rod before criticality. Public outrage at all levels led to the opening of investigation into senior-

Armada leadership, most of whom escaped direct prosecution via the 'Grey Wave' which saw nearly four hundred senior officers resign fro-

This was eventually quelled with a dual-action solution. The first is specializing each planet, preventing them from having any general-purpose resources to stoke rebellion. From the Historian,

The Human Domain split key industries into separate worlds, although yes, with redundancies - set well apart from one another. If one world which produces hyperdrives tried to leverage their specialization against the Domain, well, what good are they without raw materials? Or AM fuel? Or, indeed, the basic necessities of life and access to markets?"
"How can one rebel when the Domain need only control the local Gate to lay a complete siege? Which one world could possibly stand against the entire Domain?

The second action was...

_{Footnote 1: Notice how all the stars/constellations mentioned are very close to Earth? Altair (Aquila), Van Maanen 2, Epsilon Eridani? This is extremely early in the Domain's history...}

FRM is Introduced

-of the Interstellar Quality and Design Assurance Reforms - a series of acts passed over an energetic dozen cycles by the representative body of the Human Domain and only so-called by later historians - which build the legal basis for sweeping enforcement of fabrication rights management

-making technology of 'signatures' embedded at the nanochemical level by the nanoforge itself with only minimal effects on overall structural in-

Thus ends the human threat of insurrection in the core worlds. But what about the frontier? Recall that there is a tiny amount of drift in the unlicensed nanoforge processes. In the best case, nothing happens, but in worse cases you can get malfunctions. It just so happens that there are large amounts of autonomous drones and sporeships manufactured before FRM was introduced. After hundreds of years, perhaps...


Cracks in the Foundation

-ide frontier manufacturing base to leapfrog development in systems newly added to the Gate Network, particu-

The Ilmari-class mobile fabricator hull was likely sent to promising systems before the Gates were set up, necessitating periodic maintenance via the onboard nanoforge. If we assume this, then over the countless lonely cycles, we can start to see defects crop up more and more frequently. An extreme scenario highlights the progressive erratic and anomalous behavior:

Despite the megadeath incident at Hipparcos₂ during the 3rd cycle of the 204th assembly, this author argues that it was an act of human error bordering on malfeasance rather than automation which accounts for-

Naturally, millions of dead is a hot topic for the Domain, even if it was a fringe world. This was most likely caused by an action somewhat like the Defabrication Swarm:

those with cybernetic augments - common among spacers and, of course, Company employees and officers - were... harvested

That is not to say that the Fabricator was the sole perpetrator, or even involved. Remember, the vast majority of ships on the frontier are automated at the time. It very well could have been the Fulgurite microwave emitter being mistargeted, or some other ship. I doubt we'll ever know for certain. Regardless, as time continues, the nanoforges crow more and more corrupt, eventually culminating in the inevitable.
_{Footnote 2: Fun fact! Every stellar object here was actually part of a ESA star survey called "Hipparcos" and is part of a, for the time, massive repository of stars, chock full of information. Or David could have looked at the Wikipedia articles for the stars, they are right next to the distance measurements for Polaris, Alnitak, and Gamma Cygni as of writing.}

The Threat Are Born
We are never given a precise date, but we can infer based on these quotes, or rather, single quote:

-shall not back down, we shall never withdraw. From the Belt of Orion to the Polaris Frontier, from-

-the Terran Core to the Sadr Region, our battlegroups₃ stand ready to protect our way of life, our very existence!

Polaris is ~400 light years away. Sadr (Gamma Cygni) and the Belt of Orion are both ~1200-2000 light years away(!). Quite a bit of time has passed! This is how we know it took a long time for these drifts to insidiously culminate into something harmful.

From there, the Threat are fought and dealt with, banished to the dark beyond the night as they passed into history. History became legend. Legend became myth. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost...

Until the Domain Explorarium ordered a non-routine survey of a Nameless Rock. High energy reading were detected (most likely due to orbital bombardment from you know who), and the Collapse happened shortly after. Coincidence? I don't know.

_{Footnote 3: This is also the earliest first-hand source we have mentioning Domain Battlegroups. This was likely before formal enumeration, though I would bet that we get another Battlegroup somewhere in-game because of this.}

Epilogue
There we go! My proposed alternate timeline of the Threat. Alas, it would not be a proper theory if it didn't have holes.

Hole 1
The "Terran Core" raises some questions, as by now, according to A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector, Earth should be devastated. It is noted that by now "the majority of human population and industry was almost certainly off-world and increasingly out-of-system anyway. The Old Earth was just a symbol by then anyway." If that is the case, why refer to by a label as  as important as the "Core", still? Could it be that the Threat...? To quote the Historian:

Every day we survive by powerful technologies which any one of us barely understands, and which may unleash truly apocalyptic destruction.

Or perhaps the Domain is not telling the whole truth...

Hole 2
What of the Hive Ship? It is a complete, and I do mean complete unknown. We have no information on what this thing is, or where it came from, but it certainly triggers the crap out of Domain INFOSEC.

Hole 3
What would the story look like if the Fabricator Units were not sent before the Gates arrived?


I'm sure there are more holes, there always are. But I'm getting tired of writing, so I shall leave with a final quote from the Historian which inspired this fevered project. Thanks!

"The real secrets are wiped, of course, but the story is all there..."

[Mrtophatcat]

Hole 1
The "Terran Core" raises some questions, as by now, according to A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector, Earth should be devastated. It is noted that by now "the majority of human population and industry was almost certainly off-world and increasingly out-of-system anyway. The Old Earth was just a symbol by then anyway."
 
Hole 2
What of the Hive Ship? It is a complete, and I do mean complete unknown. We have no information on what this thing is, or where it came from, but it certainly triggers the crap out of Domain INFOSEC.

Rome, and the Italian peninsula generally, while vital, were only so wealthy through the extraction of wealth of other land. It produced an outsized amount of wealth but that wealth came from the mines of Spain and the grain of the Nile and the trade of the eastern provinces. That is likely the same thing here with "Terran core" but scaled up immensely. Sure Earth is the center of the Terran core, like Rome was to the Italian peninsula, but while the Romans were limited in industrial capacity so Rome could stay the center of the empire, The Domain was not so it could easily be out shadowed and reduced to a cultural symbol a lot easier. A lot of western culture rides off the legacy of the Romans despite them being long gone, same thing is happening here with Earth and the Terran core.

Hive Ship is likely a Threat native design since it caters to their unique way of combat. It isn't too difficult to think they would design a whole new ship, or one new enough for the PDA to not recognize it, which allows its fragments to swarm better. The line unit only gets a 32.11% match, they can obviously radically redesign ships to match their needs.

[Calicone]

I agree with the first point. The quote is perfectly vague enough to to swing either way, most likely by intention. Perhaps the Core is merely a region like Sadr and Polaris. It would certainly fit in the context provided.

Hive Ship is likely a Threat native design since it caters to their unique way of combat. It isn't too difficult to think they would design a whole new ship, or one new enough for the PDA to not recognize it, which allows its fragments to swarm better. The line unit only gets a 32.11% match, they can obviously radically redesign ships to match their needs.

I'm not so sure. According to the timeline, or at least my interpretation (arguably wrong), the Threat were not created per se, but rather evolved into their current form via Nanoforge drift over a large time span. The timeline, therefore, would chalk these design mismatches up to Nanoforge drift, rather than active modification. On the other hand, we also know that the Threat can modify themselves from Zunya:

"they are autonomous self-fabricating, self-modifying constructs derived from ancient Domain designs."

There is a large crease in this logic. Almost every piece of Threat equipment - however modified, is derived from known historical designs, with only two exceptions. From a quote from the Voidblaster:

Not sure how the bots could have cooked this one up on their own. Zunya is going to love it.

The surprise of the speaker and perplexed thoughts of the author suggest that the "bots" are known more for innovation rather than creativity. Thus, while not impossible, it is implausible that the Threat have not only managed to architect an entirely unique and unexpected weapon, but a completely novel ship that matches against no known records.


If I may speak in the meta for a bit, David almost certainly is using these as a hook for later Lore development. Specifically since we know he has documents presenting an outline for the factions and narrative, we can be sure he has at least one for the Threat and how they tie into the greater scope. Anywhere you can see questions raised and this sort of double-speak (not correct term) happening means David has plans going on.

[Killer of Fate]

i dont get it
are you implying Threat grew hostile due to nanoforge corruption?
I thought it was pretty obvious Domain devised them on purpose to purge fringe colonies like Tri-Tachyon did after the Collapse
and then the things just went rogue, hence the Domain restrictions on AI technology?

The one thing that perplexes me is why the hell is there an Onslaught MKI inside the Persean Sector. When literally nothing was happening in Persean Sector until like a hundred years ago? Was it chasing the Threat across the entire freaking Orion-Perseus abyss?
Is it that Threat used to be far closer to the core of Domain. But they were being pursued across the galaxy by a Battlegroup that didn't really care whether they came back alive or not?

also 50% sure the megadeath is just the destruction of Earth by the Threat

[Mrtophatcat]

I think between the things you mention, and possibly the Guardian, its not out of the realm of possibility that unsophisticated AIs can "create" their own designs. But you are right that evolved is a better way to put it. The Hive ship is probably just the most redesigned and edited ships that the Threat uses. So much so that the PDA can't tell what it could have ever been from. I would also add the description of the Neutron Torpedo which, on the face of it, shows that despite TTs efforts it wasn't feasible for battlefield use. So clearly the Threat had to reiterate on it until it was useful for them, how they got access to it I don't know. But its also possible the Domain was more concern with the technology being too powerful and were trying to suppress its existence. TT and the Domain have a difficult relationship and the speaker does mention revoking their access to the research. Its just as possible they could have been able to making it work but the Domain realized the problems it would create and tried to stop them. How the Threat got access to it I still don't know.

But its possible the Threat got their hands on it and after enough generations found a use for it. The Threat most reminds me of our current LLM. While LLM are basically useless and unprofitable, the Threat may have been smart enough to both preserve itself and known how to incrementally redesign things the same way a LLM "evolves" with the data you give it. There is a parallel between the Explorarium and cores which follow their programming and redesign themselves to a worrying degree. When you fight an Explorarium fleet they engage you then quote the law and how they are defending themselves because its illegal to tamper with them. It's not a stretch to imagine the Threat is similar to what might be happening to the Explorarium drones but it had fewer safe guards so it became much more of a problem.

Its also possible the connections are being made as Devman and Co create the game or aren't connected at all or are being left vague on purpose. I don't know how they do their writings but generally you get inspiration as you write and change things sort of on the fly (at least thats what I do in my writings and I've heard other writers do that) so its not completely possible to know if the curtains are just blue or if they have a greater meaning. In another thread we realized the term "phase" is used for a few different and seemingly unrelated things without much connection (phase ships but also phase skimming and phase teleportation all using phase but without a proper explanation if its the same thing or not. Which makes me think its likely they aren't planning every little detail out and are to some degree winging it like a lot of writers). Only time will tell what is and isn't related I suppose.

[Mrtophatcat]

are you implying Threat grew hostile due to nanoforge corruption?
I thought it was pretty obvious Domain devised them on purpose to purge fringe colonies like Tri-Tachyon did after the Collapse
and then the things just went rogue, hence the Domain restrictions on AI technology?

There is an important distinction that should be made between the automated ships the Domain made and what eventually became the Threat. The Threat uses Domain law and technology so they obviously started as a Domain creation. But their hostility towards everything and eventual evolution into what we now know as the Threat makes me think at some point the old AIs started gray gooing and eating any resources and ships they found to keep self replicating. What I'm wondering is if the Threat more or less looked like this, transforming itself in the far off reached and eventually finding Domain space (and other automated ships) and eating anything it could find before the Domain locked in to destroy it. Or if, like you said, they were AIs used to suppress rebellion that some how malfunctioned and then retreated into far off space which then turned into the modern Threat.

[Calicone]

The game is quite emphatic when telling us that the Threat are not AI in any capacity:

Not fully understood, but clearly well below the threshold for being considered an artificial intelligence of any level. -- Threat Processing Unit

"These are not artificial intelligences," she says decisively. -- ZGR

Any resemblance to AI is being projected by ourselves through what we view as AI.

I think between the things you mention, and possibly the Guardian, its not out of the realm of possibility that unsophisticated AIs can "create" their own designs.

This is true, I cannot rule out the possibility. However, even in the Guardian's description, we have evidence that there are familiar designs within the superstructure.

There are elements of standard droneships within the hull structure... -- Guardian Battleship

It is unusual to see such novelty in a ship designed by an intelligence less powerful than an AI, previous evidence considered. The more evidence I gather, the less likely it seems that the Hive Unit was entirely created by the Threat. I conclude that the Hive Unit possess an underlying design iterated and innovated on by the Threat. The question then becomes: What design?

are you implying Threat grew hostile due to nanoforge corruption?

Yes. I laid out my evidence for such a theory. We even see that a colony item is also labeled as such: corrupted. It would not be hard to think that maybe anything a corrupted Nanoforge makes may also be similarly corrupted.

I thought it was pretty obvious Domain devised them on purpose to purge fringe colonies like Tri-Tachyon did after the Collapse
and then the things just went rogue, hence the Domain restrictions on AI technology?

These ships were most likely all automated, but not all of them are of military origin. The Fabricator and Overseer Units are both derived from civilian platforms. It is more likely that the Threat acquired the (unregulated) blueprints for such ships and weapons on the frontier, which is why we see repurposed mining drones (Defabrication Swarm), militarized mass drivers (Stencor's weapons), and civilian craft like the Fulgurite/Overseer (literally a Frontier Support ship) all being used.

As for AI restrictions, the Historian actually claims it is a sweeping restriction of many different technologies, not just AI.

Though much of the Persean Sector has been effectively freed from the Domain's technology restrictions...

[Mrtophatcat]

There is definitely a ship of theseus thing going on with the Threat. I think once you get to the point the PDA can't even tell what the Hive was supposed to be you've, in spirit, created a new ship. In general I would say all of these ships have been "created" by the Threat considered how radically different they are from their base function and blueprints but that's just my philosophy.

[Bungee_man]

I think the following key points are pretty clear:

 * The Threat were originally intended as a weapon, to suppress rebels. The precursors to explorarium drones.

 * The Threat 'evolved' rather than 'learned'. Nanoforge corruption resulted in mutations, some good, some bad, and natural selection did the rest. "Convert everything into more resources; reproduce rapidly; ignore orders to the contrary" is a very beneficial mutation, as far as natural selection is concerned. There are parallels here with the distinction between genetic algorithms (old, fast, cheap, shallow, robust) and backpropagation (new, slow, expensive, powerful, finicky) in real AI research.

* There are hints of manipulation by something less grounded in reality. The voidblaster is visually very similar to Shroud and Omega weapons, and the Guardians among derelict fleets share many visual elements with Threat ships.

[Calicone]

I agree with pretty much all of the above. I think summing them up as the ancestors/precursors to the Explorarium Drones is quite nice.

However, were they originally intended to be used as weapons? There are still civilian derivatives in the Threat. Even the Explorarium, while definitely used for rebel suppression on the frontiers, mostly focuses on its eponymous goal: exploration. That's why I think it is likely the Threat were likely intended to be used in the same manner, just without the Technology regulations and restrictions from the later Explorarium.

[SafariJohn]

I am pretty sure Threat was created by the rebels against the Domain and went out of control. Hence why Threat got chased out to the Abyss by at least one Domain warship.

A paperclip maximizer designed to maximize killing is quite an existential threat.

[Gris]

I am pretty sure Threat was created by the rebels against the Domain and went out of control. Hence why Threat got chased out to the Abyss by at least one Domain warship.

A paperclip maximizer designed to maximize killing is quite an existential threat.

That would be an interesting plot twist if this is actually true! 
Since most of their weapons and ships have mk2 retrofitted civilian derivatives just like the pirates in the persean sector.
So that's why we have DRM's in our ship blueprints and colony items like the Nanoforge.

[Killer of Fate]

I think the following key points are pretty clear:

 * The Threat were originally intended as a weapon, to suppress rebels. The precursors to explorarium drones.

 * The Threat 'evolved' rather than 'learned'. Nanoforge corruption resulted in mutations, some good, some bad, and natural selection did the rest. "Convert everything into more resources; reproduce rapidly; ignore orders to the contrary" is a very beneficial mutation, as far as natural selection is concerned. There are parallels here with the distinction between genetic algorithms (old, fast, cheap, shallow, robust) and backpropagation (new, slow, expensive, powerful, finicky) in real AI research.

* There are hints of manipulation by something less grounded in reality. The voidblaster is visually very similar to Shroud and Omega weapons, and the Guardians among derelict fleets share many visual elements with Threat ships.

i feel like it's just the end game of technology created analogically

Threat unlike Tri-Tachyon drones is wholly sentient
it doesn't operate in some regulated orders. It just operates directly. When it finds the player it addresses them, then reacts with hostility in assumption that the player is trying to deceive them

You could argue this is just a standard anti-Domain rebel protocole, designed to make Threat not fall for the dumbest trick imaginable. But in that case why doesn't Threat communicate in actual cohesive statements like Derelicts do, calling us instead "misgot". Using words that are very very old or simply do not exist. Suggesting they are rapidly evolving, their language included. Rather than being programmed to reboot every time they have a slightly too independent thought

Threat developed this tech because it's something that is developed when given time. Or something. I don't think Threat got into contact with aliens of the void and these aliens told them of these secrets. They just found out about this from some observation. Then made it and said "hmmm, okay. This is cool"

edit: on second thought though, maybe Threat ARE aligned with Shrouded Dweller, the description of Voidblaster somewhat implies that? But not sure

I am pretty sure Threat was created by the rebels against the Domain and went out of control. Hence why Threat got chased out to the Abyss by at least one Domain warship.

A paperclip maximizer designed to maximize killing is quite an existential threat.

i probably said this, but I think what happened is that Threat were the primordial AIs used to achieve most technological advancement for humanity. But then it somehow went rogue or glitched itself into being independent. There was some catastrophe. This could have happened before or after this independence was gained. Most likely it was Earth being destroyed. Possibly some other vast chunks of Domain territory. (the First AI Empire theory)

Threat retreated into the abyss, having technology to do so, and knowing that if they do not, they would be hunted down to extinction by Domain. Domain knew if the Threat was left unchecked, they would eventually grow back up and be able to take down the Domain with ease, considering it's significantly smarter than the Domain and develops far more rapidly. So they used the tempo and sent Battlegroups after them with no intention of ever seeing them come back. Especially considering they probably wanted to clear up the whole mess with no one knowing what actually happened. To keep the populous subservient and not in doubt of their relatively unquestionable political authority (the so-called Diktat)

These Battlegroups were tasked to commit into infinite warfare. Which lasted for long enough for them to devolve into cables. Like the Onslaught MKI we see floating in space. It's very much possible deeper in the void there are other ancient remains of the Domain that devolved into cables. Still fighting Threat here and there. Unless either side has been completely exterminated

Or who knows? Maybe what happened was that Threat eventually explained to Battlegroups that it has no hostile intent. And said Battlegroups just dispersed into nothing. Considering they were more machine than man. Well, jokes. They were entirely machine. They committed into the most logical choice once their task was completed. Die.

Which is why Onslaught MKI is abandoned. This outcome is very unlikely, but it's a funny weird scenario, I suppose.

This however wouldn't make much sense considering Threat immediately interprets us as hostile when it sees us using the Onslaught MKI. Maybe it did not communicate that to the battlegroups pursuing them at all. They just figured out eventually the war was pointless. And the Threat assumed that the Battlegroup never gave up. Being in permanent stress mode, as AIs are. They simply waited in the void. Hidden in plain sight. Expecting Domain to appear at any moment to finish them off. Living like this for thousands of years. Developing more and more advanced technology. Surpassing anything the Domain could have ever produced so far

Meh...

I think I'm misremebering something. The Onslaught MKI was probably simply defeated. But the Threat was neutralised enough to not fully conclude the job. Or they forgot? So we were able to use the Onslaught MKI's rugged nature to our advantage and recover it. Which means there was no "peace" between cables and Threat. They are fighting to this day. If any Battlegroups are left in the Abyss. We might meet them eventually

[Draginea]

Honestly, I think Threat is far more mundane than might be expected for something so strange. It's probably just cancer. Cancer taking the form of fully mobile autonomous atomic printers, but still basically cancer. I'll highlight one possible series of events that could lead to the emergence of the Threat.

On some far off fringe world a cosmic ray hits the wrong system in a nanoforge, the tiny thing that caps the production que. Some bozo somewhere wrote a program to add ships to the que to fulfill demand for those ships, but it had a small bug. Every so often the program would glitch out and add a bunch of extra ships to the que. It was annoying, but the que was limited, so at most there would be a couple extra ships, which were never really useless, so no one cared to fix the bug. Until the forge, now without a que cap, finds that it has a que that stretches so far it reaches the limit of its memory. And so it built.

It was surprising, a little startling, but the ships were still ultimately operating properly. People probably thought it was a big deal, but not so significant as to ask for Domain assistance. But a forge making forges making forges gets to absurd scales very fast. And with absurd scales the chance of something going wrong goes way up. One day, with millions of ships loitering about devouring moons previously marked as feedstock, another system was glanced by something. Maybe a mote of dust, maybe an x-ray, maybe a micrometeorite hitting the innards of an under construction hull. And all hell breaks loose. For you see, the system that was damaged was the one that managed recycling feedstock designation. Previously the ships were tame, if scary, blotting out the sun like that. But now they saw everything not part of the automated construction and patrol system to be feedstock, old hardware meant to be broken down and repurposed. Including meat. What followed would have been grim, but inevitable at that point. The automated systems consume planets, strip stars, and eat anything not part of the construction swarm. Before long there are billions of the things looking for their next meal. At some point the Domain finds them, and begins to try to wipe them out. But even for the Domain, completely unrestricted automated fabrication systems are impossible to fully contain. They might wipe out all the known ships in a sector, but one slips by unnoticed, finds a new world, and the growth begins again. Over time the evolutionary pressure from the Domain encourages departures from the original design of the system. It might not have been that scary at one point, it only had whatever frontier production data it had when it first went rogue after all. But mutations accumulate, over who knows how many years and ships. Maybe at some point what was now Threat encounters something like our mitochondria, it becomes incorporated from some unknown source, and the Domain really feels the pressure. A state of total war is declared, with all available production being focused on the production of the new Mk 1. After who knows how much sacrifice, the Threat is pushed to the edge of the Orion-Perseus Abyss.

As a note, I think the Domain probably encompassed hundreds of millions of star systems by this point, based on where the Orion-Perseus Abyss is on the Starsector map and matching regions of the real galaxy. Given the fact that the Domain in the Persian sector seemed to treat a barren rock as just another terraforming target, that means there could well have been hundreds of millions of inhabited worlds in the core Domain space. Even if each world were only size 8 (hundreds of millions of people) that means the population of the Domain was well into the Peta range at 10^16. Which is a conservative estimate. The number of people living in Domain space could have easily surpassed the number of grains of sand on all the beaches of earth (10^18). The Threat was considered an existential threat to that.

In any case, this is where our home comes into play. The Persian sector might have been intended to be used as an anvil against the Threat. My best guess is that back during the age of the Onslaught Mk 1, after the stabilization of the front and the pushing of Threat back to the edge of the abyss, a wave of Onslaughts were launched into the abyss after Threat. They would have cleaned the space they passed through, sustained on the supplies dropped by slain foes. There is a good chance that transverse jump was unknown or exceedingly rare at that time, so Threat would have been effectively trapped in the abyss, fated to be bound by the threads of lightspeed, bereft of natural exit points into hyperspace until they reached the Persian sector. And of course abyssal hyperspace is a quagmire, so, in order to deploy an anvil to clean up the last of the Threat, the Alcubierre drive equipped gate haulers were sent through n-space to create a bulwark on the far end of the abyss. This would also explain the presence of low numbering Battlegroups 6 and 14 in the Persian sector. The Domain almost certainly had a number of battlegroups vast enough to blot out suns, so the presumably elite low numbering groups being present might indicate the expectation of a great battle. This is supported by the fact that the Explorarium was conducting surveys of shallow abyssal space near the edge of the sector, which hundreds of years later lead us to the Mk 1 we find. So there is a good chance that the Domain planned to develop the Persian sector into a fortress sector over the last 200 years, and the loss of the gate network prevented that. So now, alone in the dark, huddled around a small ember of civilization, the last known remains of humanity lie ignorant of the great Threat creeping through the dark in their direction, unknowing that the bastion they should have become never came to be.

Of course, that is more written for flare than anything, but I feel that sort of event chain to be the most likely origin of Threat

Oh, also: We have some rough limits for the age of the interstellar Domain. It is said that none of the early sub-FTL vessels have made it to the Persian sector. If we assume that those were lighthuggers going near c then the domain is younger than 10k years old. I doubt crossing the abyss between galactic arms is feasible going much slower than 0.5 c, in which case the domain is younger than 20k years.
So, in that period of time the Domain's industrial capacity was enough to colonize up to a radius of 10k lightyears.
Nanoforges are terrifying.