Great Race of Yith
Encyclopedia
The Great Race of Yith are alien
s in the Cthulhu Mythos
of H. P. Lovecraft
. They first appeared in Lovecraft's short story
"The Shadow Out of Time
" (1936). They are called the Great Race because they are the only beings to have mastered time travel
. Throughout "The Shadow Out of Time" they are simply referred to as "The Great Race" whilst their planet's name is only mentioned once.
and psychic
powers that once dwelt on the dying world of Yith. They escaped the destruction of their home planet
by transferring their minds
to the bodies of a species native to the Earth
in the far distant past. They lived on this planet for 200 million years or so, in fierce competition with the flying polyp
s, whom they initially subdued. However, this enemy over time increased in number and near the close of the Cretaceous
era (about 65 million years ago), rose up and finally destroyed the civilisation of the Race of Yith, forcing the Yithians to flee en masse to other bodies located far in the future.
In the bodies that the Great Race of Yith inhabited on the Earth, they were tall and cone-shaped, rising to a point with four strange appendages, all of which can extend and recede at will to any distance up to about ten feet. Two terminate in claws, the clicking of which acted as a method of communication, a third in four red "trumpets," and the fourth, a yellowish globe featuring three eyes around the central circumference, flower-like ears on top and tentacles on the underside. They have no sexes and reproduce by spores instead, though rarely because of their species longevity. Movement is achieved via expansion and contraction of a grey, rubbery layer at the base of the conical body.
The unique ability of this scientifically advanced race was to travel through time by swapping minds with creatures of another era. This allowed them to satisfy their interest in human culture, science, and occult beliefs. Occupied beings' minds transferred to Yithian bodies against their will; these "captive minds" were queried by skilled inquisitors while the Yithians using their bodies learned as much as possible about the societies in which they dwelt.
Although captive minds were prisoners, they were nonetheless granted some freedoms in exchange for their cooperation. Those captive minds who cooperated with the Great Race were allowed to wander the Yithian cities at will and to browse the Yithians' gigantic library, which contained metallic cases with books, made of an incredibly long-lasting material, that recorded the histories
of uncounted alien races
, including humanity
. Creatures inside a Yithian body could also communicate with other captive minds from across our universe
(and beyond) from the past and future. Once the Great Race had learned all they could from a captive mind, the occupied being's intellect was swapped back, with the additional precaution of erasing or suppressing all knowledge of the Great Race. Even so, it is possible for scraps of knowledge or experiences gained from their time with the Great Race to remain in dream
s.
Any creature which is possessed by the Great Race of Yith has the host's mind transferred to the original Yithian's body. Because of this, when the Great Race of Yith felt obliged to transfer their minds to the 'beetle folk' due to their defeat against the flying polyps, the people who originally possessed the bodies of the Coleopterous race would presumably have been destroyed by the victorious polyps.
's Great Sandy Desert
. This primordial city is where the Great Race housed their enormous library.
The library of Pnakotus held the Pnakotic Manuscripts
, a legendary tome containing a detailed chronicle of the Great Race's history, among other things. Copies of this manuscript would later be passed down through the ages, eventually falling into the hands of sinister cults which would guard them into modern times.
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
s in the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. They first appeared in Lovecraft's short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Out of Time is a novella by Americanhorror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories.-Plot summary:...
" (1936). They are called the Great Race because they are the only beings to have mastered time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
. Throughout "The Shadow Out of Time" they are simply referred to as "The Great Race" whilst their planet's name is only mentioned once.
The Great Race in the mythos
The Great Race are beings of enormous intellectualIntelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
and psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
powers that once dwelt on the dying world of Yith. They escaped the destruction of their home planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
by transferring their minds
Mind transfer
Whole brain emulation or mind uploading is the hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device...
to the bodies of a species native to the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
in the far distant past. They lived on this planet for 200 million years or so, in fierce competition with the flying polyp
Flying polyp
A flying polyp is a member of a fictional alien race in the Cthulhu Mythos. The creature first appeared in H. P...
s, whom they initially subdued. However, this enemy over time increased in number and near the close of the Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
era (about 65 million years ago), rose up and finally destroyed the civilisation of the Race of Yith, forcing the Yithians to flee en masse to other bodies located far in the future.
In the bodies that the Great Race of Yith inhabited on the Earth, they were tall and cone-shaped, rising to a point with four strange appendages, all of which can extend and recede at will to any distance up to about ten feet. Two terminate in claws, the clicking of which acted as a method of communication, a third in four red "trumpets," and the fourth, a yellowish globe featuring three eyes around the central circumference, flower-like ears on top and tentacles on the underside. They have no sexes and reproduce by spores instead, though rarely because of their species longevity. Movement is achieved via expansion and contraction of a grey, rubbery layer at the base of the conical body.
The unique ability of this scientifically advanced race was to travel through time by swapping minds with creatures of another era. This allowed them to satisfy their interest in human culture, science, and occult beliefs. Occupied beings' minds transferred to Yithian bodies against their will; these "captive minds" were queried by skilled inquisitors while the Yithians using their bodies learned as much as possible about the societies in which they dwelt.
Although captive minds were prisoners, they were nonetheless granted some freedoms in exchange for their cooperation. Those captive minds who cooperated with the Great Race were allowed to wander the Yithian cities at will and to browse the Yithians' gigantic library, which contained metallic cases with books, made of an incredibly long-lasting material, that recorded the histories
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of uncounted alien races
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, including humanity
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
. Creatures inside a Yithian body could also communicate with other captive minds from across our universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
(and beyond) from the past and future. Once the Great Race had learned all they could from a captive mind, the occupied being's intellect was swapped back, with the additional precaution of erasing or suppressing all knowledge of the Great Race. Even so, it is possible for scraps of knowledge or experiences gained from their time with the Great Race to remain in dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
s.
Coleopterous race
Because the Great Race traveled to the future as well as the past, they foresaw their own destruction by the flying polyps. Before the fateful day, the Great Race transferred their best minds forward through time into the bodies of the "beetle folk" (the Coleopterous race), Earth's dominant species after humankind. One of the factors involved may have been the fact that the flying polyps are completely gone by this point in time.Any creature which is possessed by the Great Race of Yith has the host's mind transferred to the original Yithian's body. Because of this, when the Great Race of Yith felt obliged to transfer their minds to the 'beetle folk' due to their defeat against the flying polyps, the people who originally possessed the bodies of the Coleopterous race would presumably have been destroyed by the victorious polyps.
Pnakotus
The Lost City of Pnakotus (also called the Library City, The Lost City of the Archives and Pnakotis) is located in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
's Great Sandy Desert
Great Sandy Desert
The Great Sandy Desert is a desert located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of...
. This primordial city is where the Great Race housed their enormous library.
The library of Pnakotus held the Pnakotic Manuscripts
Pnakotic Manuscripts
The Pnakotic Manuscripts is a fictional manuscript in the Cthulhu Mythos. The tome was created by H. P. Lovecraft and first appeared in his short story "Polaris"...
, a legendary tome containing a detailed chronicle of the Great Race's history, among other things. Copies of this manuscript would later be passed down through the ages, eventually falling into the hands of sinister cults which would guard them into modern times.
The Great Race in popular culture
- Contemporary and correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft, Duane W. Rimel penned a poetry cycle called "Dreams of Yith" which was published in The Fantasy Fan for July and Sept 1934. The cycle was revised by Lovecraft, by Clark Ashton SmithClark Ashton SmithClark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
and also by Robert H. Barlow. Dreams of Yith can be found in August Derleth's anthology Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the MacabreDark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the MacabreDark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre is a poetry anthology edited by August Derleth and published in 1947 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,634 copies...
. - In the FuturamaFuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode "A Bicyclops Built for TwoA Bicyclops Built for Two"A Bicyclops Built for Two" is episode nine in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on March 19, 2000.-Plot:The Professor opens the episode by bearing good news to the Planet Express crew: several years ago he had tried to log onto AOL, and it has finally connected. He sends...
", a creature resembling a purple Yithian can be seen as a would-be bride. - In the computer game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the EarthCall of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the EarthCall of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a Lovecraftian horror first-person action-adventure game developed by Headfirst Productions and published by Bethesda Softworks in 2005, in conjunction with 2K Games. The game was released for the PC and Xbox systems; the Xbox version is officially...
, the Great Race and its advanced technology play an important part in the story, and appear in the very end of the game. Their purpose in the game is expanded to a greater level of detail if the player is able to attain an "A" as his final score. - The Darkest of the Hillside ThicketsThe Darkest of the Hillside ThicketsThe Darkest of the Hillside Thickets is a rock band from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. Their music largely consists of often tongue-in-cheek homages to the works of H. P...
released an album based on "The Shadow Out of Time" called "The Shadow Out of Tim" which naturally features the Yithians. - German heavy metal band RageRage (band)Rage are a German heavy metal band, formed in 1984. They were part of the German heavy/speed/power metal scene to emerge in the early to mid 1980s, along with bands such as Helloween, Running Wild and Blind Guardian.-Background:...
have done 2 songs featuring the Great Race, both appearing on their 1995 album Black in Mind. The 2 songs are titled "Shadow Out of Time" and "In a Nameless Time". - In The 4400The 4400The 4400 is a science fiction TV series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Sky Television, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network. The show was created and written by Scott Peters and René Echevarria, and it stars Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie...
episode "Wake Up Call", Tess DoernerTess DoernerTess Doerner is a fictional character on the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400, played by Summer Glau. She disappeared April 3, 1955.-Season Two:...
bases her description of the future on the city of the Great Race as described in "The Shadow Out of Time." - In May 2006, special tournaments were held for the Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card GameCall of Cthulhu Collectible Card GameThe Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game or Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game is a collectible card game marketed by Fantasy Flight Games. It is based on the fiction of the Cthulhu Mythos, primarily the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game...
where the winners were pitted against a special, overpowered deck featuring the Yithians as played by the tournament organizer. - In "To Mars and ProvidenceTo Mars and Providence"To Mars and Providence" is a short story by Don Webb, published in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches. It is a conflation of The War of the Worlds, the Cthulhu Mythos, and the biography of H. P. Lovecraft.-Plot summary:...
", the MartianMartian (War of the Worlds)The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the fictional race of extraterrestrials from the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds. They are the antagonists of the novel, and their efforts to exterminate the populace of Earth and claim the planet for themselves drive the plot and present...
s from The War of the WorldsThe War of the WorldsThe War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...
are given the psychic attributes of the Great Race. - In the short film Casting Call of Cthulhu by writer/director Joseph Nanni, a Yithian named Gary Gribstock auditions for a role in a film inspired by H.P. Lovecraft