Shan

The Shans, also known as the Insects from Shaggai, are an insectoid alien race which appears in the Cthulhu Mythos and were also said to awe the plant-like deity Dzéwà.
==Description==
They are described as having semi-circular ridged wings covered with triangular scales, huge lidless eyes, jointed tendrils covered with black shining tentacles, ten legs, and three mouths. Shans are parasitic and can phase into a human's brain, giving its host their memories while slowly taking over. They are made of alien matter that allows their atoms to exist conterminously with those of their host. Their nutrition comes from photosynthesis of the green rays of the double sun that Shaggai orbit. (: The Insects from Shaggai)
The Shans' brains have six lobes, containing three separate pairs of right and left hemispheres. An individual Shan can therefore entertain three separate trains of thought, three separate actions, or even three separate conversations. With highly developed mental powers, their primary means of communication between members of their own species is telepathy. They can also communicate telepathically with or even feel emotions of species other than their own, but only through direct physical contact with the central nervous system. They also developed an ability to slide their atoms through the electron shell of any organic substance (Kirlian phasing). (: Delta Green: Countdown)
The Shans are extremely-long lived organisms. An average Shan can be expected to live for as long as fifteen to eighteen centuries. The Shans are hermaphroditic and can fertilize themselves if need be, but usually two Shans will exchange reproductive materials. Both Shans will develop an "egg sac" containing hundreds of Shan embryos. When the egg sac ruptures, the Shan embryos consume their parent as their first meal, and then turn on each other; this ensures that only the strongest and most aggressive larva will survive. Because of the fatal nature of reproduction, Shans breed only when it is in the group's interests to increase its numbers. (: Delta Green: Countdown)
Without having to work for food, the Shans had sunk to an abysmal state of decadence. While on Shaggai, they would torture slave-races from other worlds for pleasure; and when on other planets, they sought the most terribly haunted localities to view their horrors (: The Insects from Shaggai). They also have an insatiable desire for new experience and its narcotic effect on their mind, not curiosity. (: Delta Green: Countdown)
They worship Azathoth and practice various horrible rituals. (: The Insects from Shaggai)
==History==
Eons before the Shans first crawled out of the seas, there was a civilization on Shaggai that had erected cities consisting of pyramidal temple-ships made from green minerals unknown to Shaggai. They had long since departed or become extinct, but had left hundreds of portals to the court of Azathoth inside the pyramids. Opening one such portal was the reason why the Shans were transformed into worshipers of Azathoth. They adored him in the form of Xada-Hgla, the Cradle of Chaos. Whether this being was indeed an avatar of Azathoth or merely one of the minor outer gods dancing and writhing around the Daemon Sultan's throne is unknown to this day. With the temple-ships, the Shans soon began teleporting through non-Euclidean space to Xiclotl and other worlds in nearby star systems, setting up outposts and capturing slaves. (: Delta Green: Countdown)
After the destruction of Shaggai by a "semi-spherical red globe" (Ghroth), the Shans escaped to Xiclotl. After staying there for two hundred years, disturbed by witnessing the creature (Zy'tl Q'ae) worshiped by the planet's inhabitants, some of the Shans teleported to another planet in the next galaxy (Milky Way according to : Delta Green: Countdown), Thuggon, taking the Xiclotlan with them as slaves. Less than ten months after moving in, again disturbed by a black object that sucks out flesh from the body of this planet's inhabitants, they teleported to L'gy'hx (Uranus). After eight-and-a-half centuries, due to a religious conflict with the L'gy'hxian, 28 Shans that still worship Azathoth along with some religiously converted L'gy'hxians were forced to leave Uranus and manage to teleport their temple to Earth, imperfectly materialized in Goatswood, England in 1643 A.D. Due to Earth's atmosphere prevent them from teleporting again (also because of several errors when constructing the new temple-ship) and made it impossible for the beings to fly any great distance, they decided to stay and grew a new cult but without success. (: The Insects from Shaggai, Delta Green: Countdown)
In 1968, the Shans managed to avoid a raid by the organization PISCES, infecting some of their agents in the process. Twenty years later, through PISCES they have deeply infiltrated the British government and the European Space Administration. (: Delta Green: Countdown)
==Gallery==
Shan (Edition Sans Detour).jpg|Illustration by Loïc Muzy for the bestiary of the role-playing game "The Call of Cthulhu", by Éditions Sans-détour in 2015.
47 Insect of Shaggai.png|Ryuga Boumera's interpretation of an Insect from Shaggai.
Shan (Chaosium).jpg
Shan (Internet).jpg
Shan elder.jpg|Artwork for Lindwurm's Elder Sign
es:Shans
Category:Sapient Species
Category:Species Originating From Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Extraterrestrial Species