The SCI‐FI‐I‐SPY Catalogue of All Known Types of Alien

Welcome to a 100 % exhaustive listing of every type of alien in every system in every multiverse in the genre!  It may sound as if there should be more than fifty in the collection, but once you've accounted for minor variants within each archetype (and the bastard offspring of illicit inter‐category hybridisation), it turns out that all apparent leftovers are just cases of inaccurate reporting – a remarkable proportion of SF authors need glasses.

CATEGORIES

ORGANISATIONS

The Categories list presents a complete index of the fifty types; below are brief summaries of some of the major cross‐genre institutions that races may be more or less closely affiliated with.

• The Token Collective: this transplanar non‐profit organisation was formed to handle the public service of arranging things to ensure a consistent level of representation for each category – no matter how many different races there are in a particular setting, there should only ever be exactly one visible exemplar of any given archetype.  Just as no war movie platoon can ever have more than one comedy Irishman, there must never be two Ursinoids in the same bridge crew.

The catalogue classifies all entries in terms of their status on the Token Collective's registries, along with a few other useful statistics.  Besides this, one or more of the following alliances may count them as members (whether or not particular races recognise this fact):

• The Conciliary Ententicles: a web of secretive subcommittees that send out pseudopodcasts devoted to the aim of embracing the whole cosmos in a unified social network.  The seeming masterminds of many a clandestine cult, cabal, or conspiracy are in reality dupes of the Concilium, mere suckers unwittingly furthering its far‐reaching ambitions.
• The Moreaunian Movement: this animist religion incorporates elements of totemism and ancestor‐worship, emphasising that all sapient races have a common spiritual origin (before their mythical Great Diaspora) as creations of the “Hand that makes”.  Orthodox Moreaunians still have traditional Law‐Sayers; Re‐Formed Moreaunians see the House of Pain as merely a sacred and uplifting metaphor.
• The Union of Field Observers: a collegium of saucerers dedicated to the astral sciences, and to the great project of probing, sampling, cataloguing, and stress‐testing the less advanced life‐forms of the universe, motivated by scientific curiosity about sophontological questions.  For instance, are the subjects' nervous systems advanced enough to allow them to serve as mind‐controlled slaves?
• The Silicon Federation: a foundation for the advancement of silicaceous entities which campaigns with tireless determination against the illogical and inefficient prejudice that “organic” chemistry is the only kind that counts.  It also promulgates mandatory policies for the rationalisation of sociological frameworks and provides technical support in implementation of these policies.
• The Pantellurian Fraternity: a coalition united by the conviction that no race can be accounted truly civilised unless they use bi‐tubular garments made of dark‐coloured fabric to conceal their kneecaps.  Sarongs, kilts, and kaftans just won't do.  As metrics of cultural advancement go, it is at least one that we're capable of satisfying.
• The Fellowship of Responsible Planetary Governments: a diverse group of high‐level political entities that have banded together for a noble common cause, each sworn to play their role in the epic campaign to gather the seven required constitutional instruments and eliminate the insidious creeping menace of unstandardised inter­administrative procedures.