Basically, the "old folks" are the personages upon which the idea of "gods" came from. They ran humanity and then (among other things) 2 human slaves (a man and a woman) managed to get away with one of the Pieces of Eden (the Apple, which is where the biblical eden story got it's start). Then a solar flare went off, and basically wiped out a lot of the life on the planet, leaving humanity to become the dominant species.
Then the story just goes all Deus Ex and splits things down the middle with "control" and "Freedom" as the two sides. The unfortunate thing is that, as they work on the plot, it becomes more and more and more out there. The first was good, mostly stuck inside it's territory, and didn't go flying off the handle with sci-fi/magic.... the second had more magic, brotherhood was more, and finally Revelations just decided "you know what? F-it, let's just make it ALL technology!"
Glad I never bothered with that series.