Alien Species
Register
Advertisement

The Yaddithians are a sapient, highly advanced race of clawed, tapir-snouted creatures, native to a quintuple star system located in an unfathomably distant galaxy.

Biology[]

Yaddithians are a bizarre race, with tapir-like snouts, clawed hands, rugose and partially squamous skin, and a general shape that is articulated in a manner evocative of insects, yet still curiously humanoid. They live much longer than Humans.

Members of this species are able to live in Earth's environmental conditions, but are vulnerable to Earth bacteria and diseases, and need to accustom themselves to Earth's gravity, which is different from Yaddith's.

Their vocal throat-organs are not well-equipped for speaking Human languages, but are capable of learning them, speaking with a characteristic buzzing sound. Similarly, their clawed hands aren't well suited for writing in a way that is easily legible for Humans.

Culture and society[]

Yaddithians inhabit the planet Yaddith, a fantastic world with five multi-colored suns located in a distant galaxy. The planet has been described as having "dizzy black crags", "bizarre metal towers", "unexplained tunnels" and "cryptical floating cylinders". Of these, the "unexplained tunnels" almost certainly refer to those burrowed by the Yaddithians' enemies, the subterranean Dholes, which they're perpetually at war with. At least a few Yaddithians are wizards, and have mastered spells to prevent the Dholes from leaving their burrows.

Due to the Yaddithians' advanced technology which enables them to travel casually to other worlds and galaxies, Yaddith has also been described as the world "most freely in touch with others" in the entire cosmos. Their most curious technological achievement consists of the light-wave envelopes: luminous pods made of "electron-activated metal" that enable them to travel to 28 different galaxies, and can be modified to reach even more distant ones, such as the Milky Way; although the latter requires the user to be in suspended animation for the trip, which can take millennia.

History[]

The Yaddithian civilization developed in an ancient era. Thousands of years before mankind emerged on Earth, the planet Yaddith had already turned into a "dead world", dominated by the Dholes. Since they were a spacefaring race, they may not be completely extinct, as some might have escaped from their planet.

Appearances[]

  • "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price (1934)

Notes[]

  • The name "Yaddithian" is not used in the original story, and originates from their homeworld, Yaddith. The Call of Cthulhu RPG does refer to them as "Yaddithians", or "Denizens of Yaddith".
    • Some authors, such as Lin Carter, have referred to the inhabitants of Yaddith as the "Nug-Soth", which is strange given that that's the name of a human magician from A.D. 16,000, briefly mentioned in Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time.
    • Carter also portrays the planet Yaddith as being in orbit around Deneb, which contradicts Lovecraft's claim that Yaddith is in a quintuple star system in another galaxy.
Advertisement