Thargoids

In the Elite series of games the Thargoids are an insectoid alien race; probably a reference to Captain Kremmen's eponymous foes.

In the original "Elite", the Thargoids, striking from an unknown home planet, are at war with the Galactic Cooperative of Worlds (GALCOP). Although there are several distinct battlesites in the galaxy, The player is not privvy to these. Smaller Thargoid warships make intrusions into human space, where they either attack human ships in Normal space, or ambush them in the hyperspace dimension known as 'Witchspace'. They are the only species capable of 'hovering' in Witchspace.

Thargoid vessels are incredibly resilient and require a heavily upgraded ship and a lot of skill to defeat. If a Thargoid ship is encountered a warning alarm sounds. The player can jump back into Witchspace provided enough fuel is left. During the attack, one or more large Thargoid ships will attack, each one launching several drone vessels to join the fray.

The Thargoids do not appear in "Frontier Elite" despite many rumours to the contrary of hidden Thargoids. A piece of scenery which is based on the Elite Thargoid ship model does exist at a Federation military base however and there exists a fan made modification which allows the player to have a thargoid ship in the game.

In "" the Thargoids do appear as part of unique and interesting storyline (First Encounters is the first Elite game to have a story line) and are the only known (currently existing) sentinent alien race. If the player chooses to follow the storyline, they learn how the war against the Thargoids finished, who was responsible and how they won the war. They also travel to the Thargoid homeworld (it has an ammonia based atmosphere), over two thousand light years from human habited space. The player can then make a decision which will affect the future of the Thargoid race. Depending on this decision, the player can accept a Thargoid Mission and receive a Thargoid Warship as reward, leave unharmed, be destroyed by Thargoids or destroy the Thargoid race for the eternal appreciation of the Empire and Federation. (Last option is unavailable, due to missing code.)

Thargoid Biology:Thargoids are insectoids. They could survive in temperature approximate 200 kelvins. All their reproduction is parthenogenetic, there is no evidence of second gender. There are two castes: adult hive "Mothers" which spawn eggs, and "Drones" - sterile "workers".

Thargoid Psychology:Thargoid Drones, although self-aware, have very little sense of self-preservation, and probably have "hive consciousness" residing in hive mother.

Thargoids in Literature:In The Dark Wheel, a novella that accompanied the Elite game, Thargoid spacers are said to have had their "fear glands" removed, making them more effective warriors.

External links

* [http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Thargoids http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Thargoids]