The Furlings were an advanced alien race that flourished millions of years ago, during the time of the original Alliance of Great Races. They were powerful allies of the Ancients, but sowed the seeds of their own defeat when they took their research of artificial intelligences too far, creating a program that deemed organic life a scourge. The resulting AI War ravaged the Alliance and so shamed the Furlings that they embarked on a mass exodus from their home worlds, out beyond the galactic rim. Their evacuation fleets, however, were discovered and systematically destroyed by the Der'kal, alerting the aliens to the presence of the Milky Way Galaxy. As their vast armada contained the entirety of the Furling population, this marked the effective end of their civilization.