Monster Mondays 5: The Mi-Go
From a cold planet residing in the solar system's shadowy edge exist a race of inhuman creatures, hyper intelligent fungal insects with a penchant for stealing brains. They are...
The Mi-Go
Originally appearing in H.P. Lovecraft's sonnet collection "The Fungi of Yuggoth" and later in his story "The Whisperer in the Darkness", the Mi-Go are a recurring race of alien creatures within the Cthulhu Mythos. In appearance they are a race of man-sized insects with multiple appendages and a pair of strange looking wings, in place of a head they have a mass of fleshy rings and growths lined in antennae. They are believed to communicate to each other through telepathy, but they are capable of physical speech, often described as like the buzzing of insects, and are capable of communicating in human languages. Many sources attribute some interdimensional properties to them, and most agree that the matter they are comprised of could not exist naturally on Earth. They are an ancient species, multiple references found within the work of Lovecraft and other authors stating that they had a war with Cthulhu's spawn and the Elder Things over ownership of prehistoric Earth. They come from a planet called Yuggoth, though this may not in fact be their original home. Their ability to travel across interstellar distances with only the use of their wings grants them incredible mobility, but it has been observed that they have difficulty traveling great distances on a terrestrial environment.
The Mi-Go are a highly mysterious race, rarely approaching humanity. Their goals are many and often times unclear to the linear thinking of men. While they typically try to avoid men they can be dangerous when provoked, and could quite possibly conquer the globe in its present state if they desired to. They remain in hiding, one supposed reason for this is they are hunted by a group of humans known as "The Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign". Given their name, this Brotherhood would be dedicated to the Great Old One Hastur, who was underdeveloped in Lovecraft's own fiction but given a more significant role by Mythos torchbearer August Derleth. In terms of their own religion, it is mentioned that they venerate Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath, other eldritch beings in the Mythos. They are capable of transporting human beings to other worlds by surgically removing their brains and placing them in large, clear jars. They also posses the technology to attach certain apparatuses to these jars, allowing the brain to see, hear, even speak.
