So, in the Spacemaster era, does the Althan civilization still have access to their old knowledge or was in lost long ago?
For all we know, 'civilisation' is not the correct word. From memory, I think there are three different cases:
- individuals who have survived the cataclysmic fall of the K'Taa'Viir empire of stars. They are individually powerful, but without access to the Essaence (which is local to Kulthea), they are individuals and would tend to work behind the scenes (to hide the fact that one of the 'Sianetic Harbingers' is still alive). They are probably quite paranoid about the survival of others of their kind (after all, the cataclysmic fall was a civil war). They likely spent much time in chronagenic sleep, and, while they *might* have access to the full scope of knowledge, doing something with that knowledge is another matter entirely (the human civilisation being so *primitive*).
- surviving althan colonies. Those are small planetary enclaves of Althan people. I think there is an example in one of the Space Master books. They have regressed technologically and their past is now part of their founding myth, with people with violet eyes being their expected messiah (since K'Taa'Viiri have violet eyes and are psionically and magically superior). They don't have any significant knowledge of the old Empire of stars.
- the K'Taa'Viiri domains on the eastern hemisphere of Kulthea. They do know things. However, as indicated in the SWMA, they don't have access to the full technological might of the old civilisation, and might merely be on par with the Terran Empire at best. They are probably severely lacking in industrial capabilities. They are also competing with one another. Plus, they are imprisoned on Kulthea by the field generated by the Eyes of Utha. But what little we know of them is that, while the K'Taa'Viiri lords are powerful, their underlings are less so, and typically halfbreeds like Ondoval's lieutenants, or Pale Men.
So, overall, those who have the greatest chance of having retained a significant part of the old knowledge are the few survivors that were not on Kulthea when the empire fell, and thus escaped the near-wipeout of their kin. The pure K'Taa'Viiri on Kulthea are few in number (probably half a dozen or so on the western hemisphere, and less than a dozen on the other). And I would assume that those who have survived while away from Kulthea are even fewer, for a couple of reasons:
- when the war started, it is very likely that both Kadaena and Utha recruited whoever they could (by any means necessary in the empress's case). K'Taa'Viiri were nobility - they commanded the masses. Most of them likely were killed during the fighting, or fell back on Kulthea. The only ones who hid were those who wanted to be left alone and were powerful enough to 'disappear' without leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that could lead 'recruiters' or executioners to their hiding place.
- the K'Taa'Viiri were not numerous to begin with. After all, they were a single clan in the Althan people. And their particular talents probably led them to be fairly restrictive in who they had children with and who them married - they brought selected people into their fold rather than sending their own out. So they concentrated their power, but as an elite, there were not many of them.
- Most of them probably stayed on Kulthea anyway, for two reasons: 1) because this was the seat of the empire, and being far from it meant you could further your own ends or defend against those who coveted your position, and 2) because Kulthea is where the Essaence flows, and the Essaence was the main reason why the K'Taa'Viiri became the undisputed leaders of the Althan. Beyond Kulthea, they were still powerful because of their technology and psionics, but they were diminished. They were probably more at ease with going to alternate dimensions than with going on an interstellar trip away from their native planet.
