FLYNG POLYPS / ELDER BEINGS / POLYOPOUS PEOPLE

Picture by Tom Sullivan, taken from S.Petersen's Field Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos.

[The flying polyps were a] horrible elder race of half polypous, utterly alien entities... They were only partly material and had the power of aerial motion, despite the absence of wings... [They exhibited] a monstrous plasticity and ... temporary lapses of visibility... [S]ingular whistling noises and colossal footprints made up of five circular toe marks seemed also to be associated with them.

—H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Out of Time"

The flying polyps came to Earth out of space as conquerors about seven hundred and fifty million years ago. They also inhabited three other planets in the solar system, including possibly Yaksh (Neptune) and Tond (though Tond itself may lie outside the solar system). S. T. Joshi suggests that one of the mysterious solar planets inhabited by the polyps might have been Yuggoth (Pluto) because its windowless buildings "would be admirably suited to these sightless denizens!" (Joshi, "Lovecraft's Other Planets", p. 36, Selected Papers on Lovecraft.) On Earth, they built basalt cities with high windowless towers in what is now Australia. When they attempted to colonize the oceans, the polyps were driven back by the Elder Things. Thereafter, they restricted their habitats to the surface world.

Their senses did not include sight, but what senses they had could penetrate all material obstructions. They were only partially matter, but still solid enough to affect and be stopped by normal materials; this additionally gave them resistance, if not outright invulnerability, to normal means of damage, though they could be destroyed by certain forms of electrical energy. They are able to levitate and fly despite lacking any visible means of doing so, and leave telltale massive footprints when on the ground. Their amorphous bodies can turn invisible at will, though this ability appears somewhat negated by whistling noises associated with them in general. In battle, their ability to control and direct powerful winds is put to use as a weapon.

When the Great Race of Yith came to Earth, they warred with the polyps and soon drove them underground with their advanced technology. The Great Race then sealed the entryways to the polyps' subterranean abode with trapdoors, which afterwards were diligently guarded. The polyps' cities were left abandoned, perhaps as a reminder of the horrors that dwelt below.

Eventually, the polyps rose up and exterminated the Great Race, afterwards returning to their subterranean haunts. Having no conception of light, the polyps seem content to remain there, annihilating the few intruders that chance upon them. The entrances to their dwellings are mostly deep within ancient ruins where there are great wells sealed over with stone. Inside these wells still dwell the polyps.

Source: H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow out of Time". [1936], (1982), The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, 1st ed., Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-35080-4., Harms, Daniel (1998). “Flying Polyps”, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, p. 109. ISBN 1-56882-119-0, Joshi, S. T. (1989). “Lovecraft's Other Planets”, Selected Papers on Lovecraft, 1st printing, West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press. ISBN 0-940884-23-2.

FIRE VAMPIRE / FTHAGGUA

Planet of Oirign:  Ktynga (or Norby's comet) a bluish comet that is currently near the star Arcturus. The comet is unusually hot and has strange properties, such as the ability to travel faster than light.

On the surface of the comet is a huge building wherein dwells the being Fthaggua and his servants, the fire vampires. Fthaggua and his minions can guide the comet to travel between the stars, searching for intelligent civilizations to feed upon and will visit the solar system four centuries from now.

The Fire Vampires are a gestalt non-corporeal species that resemble crimson bursts of lightning. They gain sustenance by draining energy from intelligent beings; the subject so affected bursts into flames as if experiencing spontaneous combustion. The fire vampires also absorb all memories from the targeted victim. Since the minds of the fire vampires form a collective "hive mind", all knowledge gleaned from a slain being is shared by every member.

Fire Vampire have a queen/regent entity which they serve and which is  refered to as Fthaggua. Fthaggua appears as an unsteady orb of blue flame. He is the high priest of Cthugha. Like his minions, gains energy and knowledge from the intelligent creatures they slay. With the knowledge so accumulated, Fthaggua and his minions can better plot their attacks on the sentient races of the universe, whom they regard as mere sources of food.

Source: Howard Philip Lovecradft Mythos. Derleth, August [1944] (1997). “The Dweller in Darkness”, Robert M. Price (ed.): The Nyarlathotep Cycle. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-092-5.Harms, Daniel (1998). “Fire Vampires”, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, p. 111. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. Petersen, Sandy. Call of Cthulhu, 5th ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-148-4. Wandrei, Donald [1933] (1997). “The Fire Vampires”, Don't Dream, 1st ed., Minneapolis, MN: Fedogan & Bremer. ISBN 1-878252-27-5.

ALIEN SQUID THING

SHAMBLER FROM THE STARS / STAR VAMPIRE

Picture by Tom Sullivan, taken from S.Petersen's Field Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos.

"It was red and dripping; an immensity of pulsing, moving jelly; a scarlet blob with myriad tentacular trunks that waved and waved. There were suckers on the tips of the appendages, and these were opening and closing with a ghoulish lust.... The thing was bloated and obscene; a headless, faceless, eyeless bulk with the ravenous maw and titanic talons of a star-born monster. The human blood on which it had fed revealed the hitherto invisible outlines of the feaster."

—Robert Bloch, "The Shambler from the Stars"

The star vampire dwells in outer space and is characterized by its ravenous appetite for blood. The creature uses its enormous talons to capture its prey, grappling and crushing the unfortunate and then draining the victim's blood through its tubular suckers. It is normally invisible, but following a sanguine repast, the star vampire becomes temporarily visible from the undigested blood it has absorbed.

The monster is always accompanied by a sardonic, preternatural titter which heralds its imminent arrival and marks its presence, even when it is invisible. After it has fed, the star vampire quickly departs, the eerie, ghastly laughter following in its wake. The occult book De Vermis Mysteriis (or Mysteries of the Worm) contains a spell for summoning the creature; though doing so is often dangerous, as the thirsty star vampire is likely to feast on its caller.

Source: Howard Philip Lovecraft Mythos. Bloch, Robert [1935] (1998). “The Shambler from the Stars”,  which was originally published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, 1st ed., New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 0-345-42204-X, Petersen, Sandy (1989). “Star Vampire”, Call of Cthulhu, 4th ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 0-933635-58-3.

CENTAURIANS

Planet of Origin: Fourth planet orbiting the B1 start Beta Centauri, 500 light years from Earth. An earth-type planet with lush vegetation.

The Centaurians are hairless blue skinned humanoids with, two eyes, two arms with hands that five fingers with and opposable thumb, two legs that are connected to feet that have five toes. Adults have large red fin from the the back of the pelvis to the front of their forehead.  Some are known to have developed psychic powers.

They have developed a tribal, pre-industrial civilisation, using bows and arrows.  The Centaurians are broken of into two sects depending on their beliefs. The first sect is the Habaktu, they are followers of the Circle of Life, which is their people's holy path and is guided by sharing a oneness with the deity Anthos. The second sect is known as the Akuun, those without faith.

SOurce: Marvel Universe, First appeares in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (January, 1969)

VAPORAN / VAPOR MAN

Planet of Origin: Vaporus, a planet which is part of the glalactic community in the 23rd century and even has some of its members in the Galactic Police.

The Vaporans are sentient green gaseous lifeform able to take on different shapes and assume different condensation states, becoming more or less solid and project different kinds of gas streams

Source: Galaxy Trio cartoon series, Hanna Barbera

MYSTERIANS / NATARLS / NATALS

The Mysterians (ミステリアン, Misuterian?) is a humanoid species that thousands of years ago lived on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. They were far more scientifically advanced than the beings of Earth. When Earth entered the Neolithic Age, this alien race had discovered the atom bomb. Despite all this progress, their world was devastated by terrible weapons when war erupted among their people. The bodies of those who survived were mutated and contaminated with Strontium-90, causing roughly 80% of the new born population to be horribly disfiguredand following this catastrophe, the survivors moved to Mars. However, since that planet was such a wasteland, they had to find a new home that could fit all of their needs. They desired Earth...

Hiding on the dark side of the moon, these people planned their invasion for years. Finally, in the Earth year 1957, they found a place where they could begin their attack: Japan. The aliens arrived on Earth undetected, by transporting their UFOs from their mother ship and hiding underground in the Mt. Fuji area. They used a giant robotic machien called Moguera as the tool of their invasion but failed.

In 1965, a similar species calling itslef the Natarls attacked Earth with  a wide array of technology and and ingenuity in their attempt to overthrow the Earth by various means, including mind control, sabotage, anti-gravity rays, space-torpedoes, saucer attacks, and finally their huge Mothership.

The Natarls are eventually defeated through the cooperation of Earth's nations in developing new weapons, launching a fleet of advanced rocket ships, and a sneak-attack on the aliens moon base.

Source:  The Mysterians (1957), Battle in Outer Space, (1959)

 

 

VORTAAK

The Vortaak are an aggressive humanoid warlike species which developed a spacefaring expanding monarchic civilisation. They are fairly human looking but with softer features, white skin and pitch balck eyes. They tried to conquer Earth at the turn of the 2nd millenium under the rule of Queen Vorticia,by mindcontrolling Earth's Kaiju but failed.

Source: Godzilla universe. Atari and Pipeworks Godzilla game series. In Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

FEN

The Fen were a barely sentient race of large jellyfish-like creatures that inhabit certain areas of hyperspace.

Though there is no known instance of a Fen ever consuming a Starship, they are attracted to metallic objects.  

SOurce: Babylon 5 universe,  The Well of Forever

BALOSIANS

Planet of Origin: Balos

The Balosians are a humanoid species which developed a small space faring civilisation and became member the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Balosians can be distinguished by their elongated, almost cone-like skulls that gently curve backwards. They were close to the Markab.

Source: Babylon 5, Deathwalker (episode), Born to the Purple

HURR

Planet of Origin: Androma

The Hurr are a humanoid species which developed a space faring civilisation in the late 22nd century and became members of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and later the Interstellar Alliance. As a society it is very intolerant, factionalized and thoroughly male-dominated. Female Hurr are considered by their society to be inferior in all ways and are restricted to childbearing and to providing pleasure and company to the males. They have no right to vote and marriage is considered the pinnacle of social achievement for a female. There is a budding feminist movement on Androma but given the nature of the civilisation, any change will be extremely slow and difficult.

Economic disparity within the civilization itself is rampant and there is a significantly large class of Hurr who live in abject poverty while the middle class is typically much smaller and the number of the wealthy elite is extremely small indeed. As is to be expected in this kind of situation, crime and political corruption are rife and crime lords work hand in glove with the government. Most Hurr live in the cities which are constantly suffering from overcrowding. Few Hurr live in rural areas but these are becoming more and more scarce. Hurr generally prize wealth, power and comfort above all else.

The Hurr are not a particularly spiritual people and religion is not considered to be that important to most of them. However, those that do follow a particular faith worship one of three male gods; Bron, Rikay and Skartu. Bron is by far the most popular, being a god of chaos and patron of gamblers. The teachings of the god Rikay on the other hand, preach a more conservative way point of view, urging for moderation in all things. The god Skartu is an avenging god with strict rules of behaviour and as such very few Hurr follow this faith.

Source: Babylon 5, episode The Quality of Mercy

IKSHA

Planet of Origin: Ikos

The Iksha are a fish-like humanoid species with scaly heads and bodies which developed a space faring civilisation were a member race of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and one of the many affected by the Dilgar invasion of the Non-Aligned sectors in 2230. 

Source: Babylon 5, Deathwalker (episode)

ONTEEN

Planet : Aicha
Onteen are oviparous human-looking humanoids who developed a small space faring civilisation. They do not give birth to live young but lay eggs that incubate and later hatch. Onteen hatchlings, though able to free themselves and crawl out of their egg at at birth are still very vulnerable and small enough to fit into the cradled hands of an average humanoid hand. Onteen have a series of internal air bladders that can become blocked as a result of infection or as a reaction to injury.

At least one sect of Onteen faith refers to themselves as the "Children of Time", believing that those born of the egg are the Chosen of God. This faith centres around the worship the "Great Egg" and involves belief in concepts they refer to as the Great Journey, the Great Song. The Children of Time have a very strict religious prohibition against puncturing the body, believing that the soul will escape the body and allow a demon to take it's place. If this happens then the individual is either cast out or ritually put to death, an act that is considered to be an act of mercy as it is freeing the body from it's misery. Onteen have been known to be uncomfortable with egg-eating species.

Source: Babylon 5

FIRST ONES: FIRST BORN / SPEAKERS

 

Evolving to sapience billions of years ago, The First Born and Lorien, the first among them, were humanoids born naturally immortal, never aging though still susceptible to death by injury or illness. At first they were kept in balance by the race's relatively low birthrates with less than a handful each year. Over time this changed as the younger generations began to grow old, infirm and died, until eventually only those that came first remained. They developed a peaceful advanced civilisation and eventually left their homeworld to explore the galaxy. In their travels they visited countless worlds and found many infant races. Thye acted as teachers and guardians before eventually stepping aside and allowing them to make their own paths, creating great empires, exploring and founding even younger races to whom they became teachers and guardians.

Gradually, over the course of a million years, the First Born who did not perish through injury or illness and most of their remaining pupils left the galaxy. Of those few who were left behind, Lorien was the only First Born to remain while among the handful of First Ones that did not leave, the Vorlons and Shadows took up the responsibility of the sole guardians and protectors of the younger races. Lorien eventually withdrew and dwelt deep beneath the planet that would become known as Z'ha'dum. He would remain there for a million years, but never forgotten by those he had taught. The Shadows, in their endless series of conflicts would always eventually return to the planet after being driven off, in respect for Lorien. 

In 2261, Lorien left Z'ha'dum and helped bring an end to the Shadow and Vorlon conflict and left the Galaxy with his remaining pupils, mainly the Shadows and Vorlons. 

The First Born are nowadays able to appear in their original humanoid form and in an evolved non-corporeal form which can travel through space at FTL speeds. They possess tremendous psychic powers.

Source: Babylon 5 universe

NOX

Planet of Origin: Gaia

The Nox are an advanced and peaceful humanoid species, capable of reviving the dead and rendering objects as large as their own city invisible. The Nox are considered to be a member of the "Alliance of Four Great Races", along with the Ancients, Asgard, and Furlings. They are known to be one of the oldest species that inhabit the galaxy though very few know of them. 

Physically, they resemble primitive humans with a faint gray skin color as well as grass-like hair from which branches and leaves grow. The Nox tend to wear primitive clothing with colors that combine gray to gray-blue to violet and scarlet. They appear slightly shorter than average humans with a slight build; they often present an unassuming façade which belies their capabilities. The species are strict vegetarians; getting their nutrition from fruits, vegetables, roots and other natural foods found in the forests of the natural world.

The eldest of the species can reach the age of 500 years with children reaching maturity by the age of 18 years. Once a Nox reaches adulthood, their aging slows down to an almost imperceptible rate. Only during the last two centuries of a Nox's life do they begin to appear old but this also belies their true age.

The Nox are an extremely intelligent and perceptive race that are able to perform complex arithmetic in fractions of a second. They possess an astounding ability to comprehend and retain information with near perfect memories.They make use of the five senses that Humans use but they are far more acute when compared to Humans allowing them to pick up on details and subtleties around them that others would miss entirely. This provides the Nox with abilities that border on extra-sensory perception due to their perceptive nature and heightened senses. In addition to this, the Nox possess the innate ability to tune into the bio-electrical fields within other beings, in a sense "reading" them at a level far beyond normal senses. They are capable of also channeling their natural heightened perception into a number of extraordinary abilities that include the ability to learn languages after hearing them spoken for only a short time, a mild form of mind reading that allows them to detect nearby surface thoughts, and the ability to heal others. With the latter,  the Nox are capable of completely healing the most severe of injuries and even resurrect the recently deceased so long as the tiniest amount of molecular activity as well as bio-electrical energy remains within the body. In order to accomplish this ritual, there is a minimum requirement of three Nox to perform the intense and focused concentration which interrupts their ability to use their technology. They also can render extremely large objects invisible and insubstantial.

 The race has a symbiotic relationship with nature and, in particular, the forests of the world as well as the living beings that occupy it be they animal or plant. In the view of the Nox, all beings contribute to and receive from the universe. This view prevented the Nox from allowing their technological advances to compromise the natural beauty of their environment of their world. Nox scholars long ago discovered that "life", the energy that keeps all beings alive, is in essence a dynamic energy myriad of other energy fields that exist outside the physical form. The Nox believe these external energy fields comprise the "life force" of their planet and the universe itself. In their view, these individual fields, also known as "consciousness" to the people of Earth, exists with an external field with each working with the other one.

The Nox practice philosophy of absolute pacifism and non-violence that is so strict that they refuse even to defend themselves when threatened. Should a Nox find themselves in such a situation, they tend to typically hide through the use of their stealth technology or simply use their technology to remove the aggressors along with their weapons. This policy is so strict that others within their domain are forced to obey their rules of policy of pacifism when necessary. Should visitors attempt to employ violence against one another, the Nox remove their weapons as part of their rules.

The Nox race highly value freedom; both for themselves and for the others. They refuse to infringe the rights of others for free choice except where such individuals choose to make use of violence or war-like ways. As such, the Nox accept no authority except their own and thus refuse to allow others to impose their views on others.

Isolationist and non-interventionist in the extreme, they feel morally obligated to help both sides of an argument, no matter if one side is thoroughly evil.  They will not even fight to protect themselves, however with their ability of rendering objects invisible and resurrecting their dead, fighting is unnecessary.

The Nox  rarely use their advanced technology,  which  includes the ability to create the effect of invisibility, to build floating cities, and to activate the stargate by thought alone. preferring to live in a simpler state with nature. For transport, they seem to mainly rely on Fenri are a large, flying species indigenous creatures that may appear to be hostile to strangerbut mostly keep to themselves.

Source: Stargate Universe. (SG1: "The Nox") (SG1: "The Fifth Race") and Stargate wikia entry.

COOPER / SUPER 8 ALIEN

 

The alien  is from a highly intelligent species that has developed a spacefaring civilisation. They are sexuate carnvores, have six limbs and generally moves similar to a spider, but can also stand up tall on their two hind legs. They have two long jointed arms that are capable of grabbing objects and throwing them long distances, and can also use their six limbs to climb. Able to breath Earth's atmosphere, they are troglodyte by nature. Gifted with telepathic abilities among themslves, they can also communicate with humans they have physically touched and pôssess some telekynetic talents and are able to interfere with electrical fields.

A ship containing one of these aliens was detected by Sputnik in 1957 orbiting the Earth. It was shot down to Earth in 1958 by detonating a nuclear warhead in the upper atmosphere. The aliens was taken to Area 51 but escaped while being moves to another area in 1979 near Lillian, Ohio. He then managed to reassemble its hsip and left the planet.

Source: Super 8 film.

ALIENS FROM COWBOYS VERS ALIENS

The aliens are a species that has developed an aggressive space faring civilisation. They stand over two meters tall clawed bipedal anthropoids with a nautral exoskeleton. They possess a smaller extra set of arms for precision manipulation which they can extend from their chest cavity the chest exoskeleton plates, reveling their more fragile interior.

They are known ot have come to earth in 1873 in Arizona to replenish their spaceship's fuel supply of gold and experiment on humans. They were planning on exterminating all life on the planet upon leaving, like they did on a planet they visited before but were thwarted by the local population with the help of a surviving member of the species they exterminated prior to coming to Earth.

As they dont seem to have plans of conquest, it is likely that they are on an eradication crusade of all species that could eventually pause a threat to their supremacy.

Source: Cowboys vers Aliens movie

ALIEN BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE

A meteor crashed near an American city in 1966 and a roughly humanoid alien materialised on top of it. The alien was greeskinned,  man-sized but with a frightful giant head and a childish body and had the ability to turn earthly animals over ten times there normal height and under his mental control. It mentionned that this technique had already been used on other worlds to conquer them.

The destruction of the meteor that brought it made the alien vanish, leading to believe that the Alien Brain was the metero itself and the humanoid alien a mere projection/creation destined to strike fear in the humans rather than a representative of another species.

Source: Hanna Barbera's Frankenstein Jr. Episode 4 "Alien Brain from Outer Space"

SHIFT AGENT

Shift Agents were entities without solid bodies. They could transfer their energy into mechanical objects and control them. It remains unclear is Shift agents are natural lifeforms or engineered agents.

One Shift Agent is known to have come to Earth in 1885 to retrieve some dark matter. It briefly possessed a steam train in England.

Source: Doctor Who universe (DWA: Track Attack)

FEARMONGER

The Fearmonger is an alien entity which fed off fear and hatred. It itself does not stir up fear, but chose hosts capable of stirring up large amounts of fear and stays with them for long periods, moving on if the host died. In addition to feeding off of fear, it can unleash mental bursts of concentrated fear on attackers, rendering them permanently insane with fear. When not inhabiting a host, it was vulnerable to any metal that can ground it, as its body was made of electromagnetic energy. 

According to some stories, an unknown alien civilisation created several psychic entities (each one personifying an emotion such as fear, compassion, pride, and anger) to incite group emotions and thus unite their people. When the civilisation fell, the entities left for other worlds. The entity responsible for fear eventually made its way to Earth.

It shares a lot of traits and history of the Redjac.

Source: Doctor Who Universe (BFA: The Fearmonger)

FAMILY OF BLOOD

The Family of Blood are green, gaseous sentient entities that can inhabit and possess human bodies and possess a unique sense, being able to track a scent over interstellar distances and even time period. They gather in family-based social cells or parents and children and spend their time hunting organic preys. They have very short lifespans, lasting only 3 months, but lend to their descendants technologies they've stolen from their victims. While in human form, the Family can telepathically communicate with each other from a distance. They also had access to their Hosts' memories, which enabled them fast understanding of stolen technologies but though have some difficulty assimilating personnality and pretending.

Source: Doctor Who universe (DW: Human Nature / The Family of Blood)

BODACH

The Bodach were incorporeal creatures who  fed on the energy produced by a mind when dreaming. They could emit psychic energy which would cause nightmares, allowing them to feed. This psychic energy could be blocked by aluminium. As the Bodach had no body, they were forced to control these sleeping people, using them to interact with their surroundings. The Bodach were known to the Celtic people, who believed they were evil spirits. At some point, an Obelisk was made with two crystal eyes. With these crystals, the Bodach would be able to send the whole world to sleep and feed on their dreams. In unknown circumstances, this did not come to pass, and instead the obelisk was buried outside what would be London. In 2050, the site was dug up and the obelisk destroyed shortly after.

Source: Doctor Who Universe (K9TV: Dream-Eaters)

PLANET BUILDERS / OBELISK BUILDERS

The planet builders are a secretive race of extraordinarily advanced beings able to create an entire star system complete with complex life on its one perfect earth-type planet in a matter of weeks. They makr planets they've made with a 2000 ft tall obelisk structure emitting a feint EM field. While they are in the local group, their sphere of influence does not seem to extend to the Milky Way. (SGU: "Faith")
Source: Stargate Universe  (SGU: "Faith")

REDJAC / JACK THE RIPPER / BERATIS / KESLA

The Redjac is a non-corporeal parasitic  lifeform that existed for centuries by journeying from planet to planet and feeding on the pain and fear he caused by committing serial murders. It  requires a host to inhabit in order to commit its crimes. It had many abilities, and can possess others and objects, even spaceship size ones.

One such entity seems to have existed on Earth from at least the 19th to the 22nd century.

It shares some characteristics with the Beta XII-A entity.

Source:  Star Trek Universe, (TOS: "Wolf in the Fold")

CALAMARAIN

The Calamarain are spaceborn intelligent, non-corporeal lifeforms that exist as swirls of ionized gas that emits Berthold rays (a form of deadly radiation that causes living animal tissue to disintegrate) when probing something but can also communicate through a sequence of tachyon emissions. They have the ability ot travel faster-than-light.

Source: Star Trek Universe (TNG: "Deja Q")