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.
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.