Great Race of Yith
The Great Race of Yith are a species that feature in the Cthulhu Mythos.
Contents |
History
The Great Race 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 earth for 200 million years or so, in fierce competition with the Flying Polyps, whom they initially subdued.
However, this enemy over time increased in number and near the close of the Cretaceous era (about 66 million years ago), rose up and finally destroyed the civilization of the Race of Yith, forcing the Yithians to flee en masse to other bodies located far in the future.
Overview
The Great Race are beings of enormous intellectual and psychic powers that once dwelt on the dying world of Yith.
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 10 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. The Yithians would use their knowledge of the timeline gained in this way to subtly intervene in events to ensure that the events lead towards the rise of another species in the distant future that the Great Race could again project their consciousnesses to before they were overwhelmed by the Flying Polyps.
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 dreams.
The Lost City of Pnakotus (also called the Library City, The Lost City of the Archives and Pnakotis) is located in Australia'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.
Notes
- The Great Race of Yith were created by H. P. Lovecraft where they made their first appearance in the short story "The Shadow Out of Time" (June, 1936).
In other media
Television
Video games
- In Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, the Great Race of Yith featured heavily in the plot of the survival horror video game. It was revealed that one of their number took over the mind of Jack Walter's father at the moment of his child's conception. Thus, the young Jack came to inherit the Yithian's psychic powers leading to him experiencing visions that nearly drove him insane.
Comic Books
- In Weird Detective, the Great Race of Yith appeared in the setting of the Dark Horse comic book series. It was stated that they had seventeen senses allowing them to achieve a variety of different feats in whatever form they took. Long ago, they were said to had created the Flying Polyps who rebelled against them long ago leading to the Yithians imprisoning them. Despite this being the case, the Great Race knew that their former creations would one day free themselves and thus worked to stop their race. One of their number operated in modern day after switching bodies with a human detective named Sebastian Greene who worked to ensure the Yithian plans were achieved.
Appearances
- The Shadow Out of Time: (1936)
External Links
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