Aliens on Earth: Part 1 (Lovecraft)

One of the big mysteries about the Cthulhu Mythos universe is – why are there so many alien species on Earth? What is it about our planet that has attracted at least five major alien species (the Mi-Go, the Antarctic Elder Things, the Flying Polyps, the Yithians, and the spawn of Cthulhu) in Lovecraft’s works alone, plus many others in other Mythos stories?

Well, nobody really knows, but here are my speculations:

If we look just at Lovecraft’s work, we see that aliens show up for several reasons. Earth is simply one of many planets the Mi-Go visit, useful for mining as well as occasional studies of humans. Their interstellar civilization is said to include not only a major base on Pluto/Yuggoth, but other star systems, other galaxies, and even worlds “beyond the last curved rim of the universe” (The Whisperer in Darkness). Thus, it’s not too surprising they use Earth. We’re not particularly special to them, just one of countless worlds, and a relatively unimportant one at that – there don’t seem to be permanent Mi-Go colonies on Earth.

The Yithians arrived to escape a gigantic cataclysm that destroyed their original world, Yith– it isn’t clear they had much choice in where to go. However, Yith is described as “trans-galactic” (Shadow out of Time); if it’s on the other side of the galaxy, surely we weren’t the nearest acceptable planet? The Yithians could only move their minds, so they needed a planet with an intelligent species. If the Mythos universe is so full of aliens, though, that doesn’t seem too difficult. Perhaps the Cone-Beings they took over were simply easier to control than other species in our galaxy. This does make sense; many Mythos creatures have exceptional mental abilities and might be able to prevent or repel a Yithian mind’s takeover attempt.

The Elder Things, Flying Polyps, and spawn of Cthulhu engaged in full colonization of the Earth, but at separate times. The Elder Things arrived first, before terrestrial life; their colonies centered in Antarctica and the surrounding seas. At some uncertain later point, Flying Polyps arrived and dominated much of the Earth until defeated and trapped underground by the Yithians. The spawn of Cthulhu arrived much later. During long and inconclusive wars with the Elder Things, they seem to have mostly been restricted to a continent which no longer exists, which eventually vanished, trapping them: “all the lands of the Pacific sank” (At the Mountains of Madness). The Yithians and Elder Things left in control of the Earth engaged in wars, but apparently rarely.

The Deep Ones and the Nameless City’s reptilian beings seem to be natives to Earth, though they do form two additional sentient races. It is not clear that the Deep Ones are older than primitive forms of humanity, so they may have arrived on the scene after most of the alien species had departed or been trapped. The Nameless City reptiles seem to have remained in their own area, far from the Yithians and Polyps centering in Australia, the Elder Things centering in Antarctica, and the Cthulhu spawn in the Pacific.