Martense Family

The Martense Family were created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "The Lurking Fear". They were once humans, but have devolved into a deformed cave-dwelling race due to decades of isolation and in-breeding. 
==Description==
Due to decades of in-breeding, the Martense Family now hardly resembled normal humans. They were misshaped and covered in hair, with their most prominent trait being their heterochromia. 
They not only ate any humans who came across them, but also members of their own family who were not fit enough. 
==History==
In the 1670s, the Dutch merchant Gerrit Martense built his family mansion on Tempest Mountain in Catskill, New York. He and his family isolated themselves away there due to their loathing of the British Empire and society as a whole. 
Several year on, they began to inbreed with themselves and their servants. Much of their offspring would spread out to inhabit the local valleys and hills, but the main Martense family stayed in their mansion. 
The only recorded Martense to have left isolation was Jan Martense, who had joined the colonial army. When he returned to Tempest Mountain, his family treated him as an outsider, so he made plans to leave. 
When a friend of his went to see him after he stopped sending letters, he was told that Jan had been struck by lightning. But, after exhuming his grave, he found that Jan's skull had been smashed in. The Martenses were not convicted due to lack of solid proof, but this broke off what little ties to the outside world they had. 
What exactly happened during this period is unknown, but the Martenses seemingly continued to inbreed until that had devolved into a grotesque species that lived in the tunnels below their old mansion. 
In 1921, monster hunters came to Catskill after sightings of the hairy men. After several encounters, the monster hunters have much of Tempest Mountain exploded, seemingly ending the threat of the Martenses.
==Adaptations==
In the 1994 film Lurking Fear, the detail about the Martenses having heterochromatic eyes is dropped. The 1997 film Hemoglobin, on the other hand, keeps the heterochromia, but renames them the Van Daam family, founded in the 17th century by a noble Dutch woman named Eva Van Daam, who had an incestuous relationship with her own twin brother.
==Gallery==
Martense.jpeg
Lurking fear 1.jpg|Martense Kin, illustrated by Robert Bloch
Martense-TheWorldsOfHPL.jpg|Martense Kin, illustrated by Octavio Cariello (The Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft: The Lurking Fear)
Martense-MalleusMonstrorum.jpg|Martense Kin, illustrated by Loïc Muzy (Malleus Monstrorum)
Martense-KarelThole.jpg|Martense Kin, illustrated by Karel Thole (The Lurking Fear and Other Stories)
LurkingFear1994.jpg|Martense Kin in the 1994 film Lurking Fear
VanDaam.jpg|Van Daam Kin in the 1997 film Hemoglobin
File:Lurking Fear Tyler Pierson.png|Martense Family by Tyler Pierson
Category:Sapient Species
Category:Earth-Native Species
Category:Species Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Extinct Species