Ethereal (X-COM)
The Ethereals are an alien race from the X-COM series.
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History
The first appearance of the Ethereals came during the latter stages of the First Alien War of the 20th century. Whilst rarely encountered on the field, there were a number of skirmishes between these alien masterminds as the soldiers of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. Eventually, this led to the capture of a number of live specimens and autopsies to be conducted on deceased subjects where the true nature of their threat was realized. Similar to the other alien species, the Ethereals were largely defeated when X-COM assault their Cydonia base and destroyed the alien Brain controlling the hordes.
At the time, the Enforcer was also dispatched in combat the numerous aliens across the world. This culminated in an assault against the alien mothership in orbit where it was revealed that the guiding intellect of the aliens was the High Ethereal. After killing it, the aliens invasion of the planet was ended and their threat seemed to had ended. After the Second Alien War when Humanity went to the stars and explored the Frontier, they once again encountered the aliens along with the Ethereals who were now piloting space craft against mankind.
Background
These humanoid beings were often shrouded by a cloak that hide their physical features from outsiders. An autopsy report later determined that their bodies were physically retarted to the point that it was incapable of sustaining their life functions. Not only were the muscles atrophied but their internal organs were also underdeveloped and even their sensory organs such as their eyes appeared to not function at all. In contrast, their brains were highly developed and drew a great deal of the bodies blood supply. It was a source of mystery as to how these creatures were able to function and sustain themselves without any form of physical support.
It was through their hyperdeveloped brains which gave the race tremendous psychic abilities which provided them not only telepathic communication but the capacity to affect the physical environment through telekinesis as well. X-COM was unable to truly understand how the telekinetic powers worked for the Ethereals as they defied the physical laws that were known to Humanity at the time. Whilst their bodies were physically weak, an Ethereal was perfectly capable of sustaining themselves through their mental powers alone. This made them extremely dangerous in any battlefield condition as they made use of their formidable mental powers in combat. Fortunately, they appeared to had rarely taken part in ground missions on Earth and instead relied on the other alien races to pursue their mysterious objectives. Ethereals were a guiding influence for another of the alien hordes namely the Muton foot soldiers who relied on the psionic influences of these telepathic beings.
Their powers and abilities made them as a source of dread for Human opponents who later acme to realize that the race were not engineered for planetary surface operations. Instead, they were designed to serve as pilots and were extremely adept in such a role. In combat situations, they were proven to be fairly aggressive in their attacks though the biggest danger was their psionic powers which allowed them to not only panic Human pilots but even take control of them and thus made them dangerous to those pilots with low psionic capabilities.
Notes
- According to the novel adaptation by Diane Duane, X-COM scientists discovered that the Ethereals were an alien race of the Sectiod species that once lived near a dying red star. In order to survive its effects, they modified their bodies and began replacing them with bionic prothesis in order to increase their psychic powers as well as reduce their dependency on physical needs.
- The same above novel also indicated that X-COM scientist Trenchard at the base in Morroco merged Ethereal DNA with his own body turning him into a hybrid of the two races. However, he became a spy for the aliens though X-COM Commander Jonelle Barrett managed to learn of this and used Trenchard as a tool for misinformation to the enemy aliens.
- Ethereals were expected to appear] in the cancalled X-COM: Alliance game.
