"The Culture of the Past", level 88 Studium Delivery quest: Missing word?

[stilljustacatinacage]

Hinageshi: Oh my. Well, I suppose that means we will be studying Allag, then? I can think of no other bygone cultures worthy of scrutiny.

Tankin: And I understand full well why you would reach that conclusion. However, I recently happened upon records that suggest there exists a civilization that predates Allagans. A civilization older than time, far more advanced than one might believe possible.

I believe the above text in bold, "...a civilization that predates Allagans" should read:

... a civilization that predates the Allagans.

Thank you!

[Rongway]

"The" is not required there. Allagans are a people and a civilization can predate them just fine.

[stilljustacatinacage]

The civilization is Allag. "Allagans" is the collective noun for the people of Allag. "... a civilization that predates Allag" would also work, yes.

[Rongway]

Something can predate people. The nouns on the two sides of predate are not required to be the same class.

The Hubble Telescope predates the James Webb Telescope.
The Hubble Telescope predates post-soviet Russia.
The Hubble Telescope predates today's eight graders.
The Hubble Telescope predates a lot of things that aren't also telescopes.

A civilization can predate Allagans.

[Iscah]

"The" is not required there. Allagans are a people and a civilization can predate them just fine.

I feel like "Allagans" is more of a reference to individual people while "the Allagans" is the people as a whole race together.

Either "predates the Allagans" or "predates Allag" flows better than the current phrase.

[stilljustacatinacage]

A civilization can predate Allagans.

Okay, I see what you're saying now.

Yes, I suppose that does technically work, but it's very sloppy. "Allagans" is a specific noun, talking about a certain collective of people, and so should be preceded by a definitive article.

[Rongway]

Either "predates the Allagans" or "predates Allag" flows better than the current phrase.

it's very sloppy. "Allagans" is a specific noun, talking about a certain collective of people, and so should be preceded by a definitive article.

I don't disagree that "predates the Allagans" and "predates Allag" both sound better. But at that point we're being prescriptive. I'm just saying that despite how it sounds to us, the way it was written isn't wrong.