Colour Out of Space

The Colour Out of Space was an extraterrestrial force or entity featured in H.P. Lovecraft's tale of the same name. It arrived on Earth via meteorite, and infected a large swath of Arkham, Massachusetts that would subsequently become known as the "Blasted Heath." The colour was said to have "poisoned" the soil around where it had landed. It appeared to have "infected" the local plant life and the results were great discolorations in the flowers, grass, and trees. In the later stages of the infection, the plants became grey and developed “a highly singular quality of brittleness”. Along with the discoloration came the ruining of fruit and vegetables grown along with the abnormal behavior of the plants during the night. The flowers would glow in the darkness and the trees seemed to reach out to the sky and move without the wind. In addition to the destruction and alteration of the plant life, the livestock of the Gardner farm, which was in close proximity, underwent strange and grotesque mutations and fell into a gruesome state of grayish decay before ultimately dying, leaving behind a useless and inedible meat.
Upon the arrival of the entity, the Gardner family descended into madness, poor health, and ultimately death, with the last surviving member being Nahum Gardner, who described the entity as a "sucking, burning thing that is not of God's work."
Ultimately, the entity departs from Earth to return where it came from, but another, smaller part is believed to be still in the former Gardner's farm, as the valley is said to continue to slowly decay year by year.
==Overview==
The colours come from an area of space or other dimensions where natural laws differ. Adult colours create sphere-carrying embryos, which are sent out through space to find nourishment on other worlds. Deposited on verdant soil or in shallow waters, the embryo begins to germinate. After a few days, the outer shell dissolves, and the new creature, which we may term a larva, emerges.
The jelly-like larva can grow to great size. As it infiltrates and infects the ecosystem, local vegetation exhibits a tremendous but unhealthy growth. Fruit swells and harvests are bountiful, yet such produce is bitter tasting and unwholesome. Insects and animals are born deformed or mutated. While invisible in daylight, at night the area infected by a colour is evident, as all plant life glows with the unearthly colour, and the vegetation begins to twist and writhe, as though in a strong wind. Even those humans living within a colour's infected area shine with the same spectral light.
After a few months, the larva matures into a young colour. It now makes brief trips from its lair to feed and begins to drain the life force from the area, literally sucking out the life of the land and anything living upon it. In humans, this life drain is characterized by the victim's skin aging, turning gray and cracking; the face sinks and strange fleshy growths may be evident. Once drained, those affected die, as do all plants and animals. A colour may drain an area of approximately 5 acres (some 20,000 m²). The area drained is ruined thereafter, wherein no plant can grow. When it has drained enough energy, the maturing colour departs the planet for space and adulthood.
==Gallery==
==Behind the Mythos==
*In At the Mountains of Madness, "the colour out of space" is one of things mentioned by Danforth during his deliriums.
*In "The Lady in Gray", by Donald Wandrei, the colour figures among the things that the narrator has witnessed in his dreams.
*In Neil Gaiman's "I, Cthulhu", the King in Yellow claims that he first appeared in our universe as "a mere colour out of space".
es:Colores surgidos del Espacio
Category:Species Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Extraterrestrial Species