Great Race of Yith
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In the fictional Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft the Great Race of Yith are aliens with enormous intellectual and psychic powers who escaped the destruction of their home planet by transferring their minds to the bodies of a species native to Earth in the far distant past. They lived on the planet for 200 million or so years, in constant competition with the Flying Polyps until this enemy finally destroyed their civilization 50 million years ago.
On the Earth they were tall and cone-shaped, rising to a point with four strange appendages terminating in claws, 'trumpets' or a yellow globe which functioned as a sensory organ. The unique ability of the scientifically advanced race was to travel through time, by "body-switching" with a creature of another era. This allowed them to satisfy their interest in human culture, science and occult beliefs. Occupied beings, transferred to a Yith body against their will, were simultaneously queried for their knowledge. These beings were prisoners, but were granted some freedoms in exchange for their co-operation. This included being allowed to wander the Yithian cities at will and browsing the gigantic library, in which were contained metallic tubes with scrolls that recorded the histories of uncounted alien races, including humanity. Those creatures which were placed inside a Yithian body could also communicate with other beings from across the universe (and beyond that).
The Great Race escaped the destruction of their society by transferring their minds forward through time into the bodies of the 'beetle folk' who will become Earth's dominant species after humankind.
They are fully described in The Shadow Out of Time by Lovecraft. They produced the Pnakotic Manuscripts, which among other information contain a description of their history.ko:이스의 위대한 종족