  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
The Colour Out of Space is an extraterrestrial entity or force of unknowable and the titular main antagonist of the 1927 short story The Colour Out of Space by the late legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft.
This creature is known to drain the life out of all animal, plant and sapient life they encounter - arriving on strange meteors it proceeds to destroy everything it encounters.
History
Basic Overview
In Lovecraft's story, the Colour Out of Space is an alien entity of unknown origin or function that crashed landed on Earth upon a meteor and soon became a catastrophic force that drained the life of any living creature it came across, it has since become noted as one of the more iconic aliens of Lovecraft's works and embodies much of his cosmic horror, in which protagonists rarely win and the "enemy" is both unknowable, largely unstoppable and often beyond simple good and evil : since the Colours Out of Space are neither good nor evil but simply alien, albeit incredibly dangerous to all other life due to their properties.
Impact on Earth
Colour possesses mutagenic properties around the house melted faster than anywhere else nearby, and skunk cabbages of prodigious size and unusual color sprouted out of the soil. The trees budded early and were observed to be moving even with no wind of any sort. Sprouting saxifrage bore the same unnatural hues as the cabbages.
Within a few months all plant life near the site took on unnatural properties and odd hues to the point where the road running near it fell into disuse, owing to people fearful of seeing such a sight. Although all plant life in the area tended to die away, some, most notably trees, reacted in an unusual way.
One member of the family claimed that the branches of some trees "swayed also when there was no wind," although it is never established if this swaying was the result of specific manipulation from the alien species, or was merely another example of the unusual growths.
Aftermath
The colour rapidly shot itself up into space and left Earth with everything it had ever touched glowing with its mixed colours, and the trees pointing their branches up towards the sky.
All things organic that it had associated itself with are crumbled into dust. The farm which had been invaded was located near one of four towns later flooded to form a reservoir.
In Other-Media
The colour(s) is included in Lovecraft-inspired role playing games, such as in the Call of Cthulhu game, where a colour out of space is a monster that the player characters may encounter.
Gallery
