Elder Races

I have found the, or at least a, reference to Avalon in Diamond Mask and will quote the passage when I have time for a more leisurely post.

Meanwhile, consider seven Elder Races:

in Poul Anderson's Technic History, the Ancients are dead or gone and human beings run Technic civilization and will spread through several spiral arms;

in Anderson's The Avatar, the Others are alive but remote and human beings will become like the Others;

in Anderson's "Flight to Forever," the last of the Vro-Hi, half a million years old, plans the philosophy of the Second Galactic Empire;

in Anderson's Tau Zero, human beings will become the elder race of the next universe;

in Julian May's Galactic Milieu, the Lylmik are dying but humanity will take their place;

the Lensman and Green Lantern series both have a proactive elder race - and did Mentor of Arisia once reveal that his real form was a naked brain like May's Jack the Bodiless? I can't remember.