The Espheni were a tall, thin, bipedal grey alien species form the Wiit'uti Universe who were widely known for the invasion of Wiit'uti Earth.
They towered over humans and Skitters. They look like dolphins from the chest up, leading the most factions to call them "fish-heads." They have very skinny arms that go from their shoulders to their knees. Their eyes are mammalian in appearance and they do not appear to have noses, rather, two nostril-like holes around the corners of their eyes. While they prefer not to fight and direct their harness slaves to do the fighting, the Espheni are physically very strong. As demonstrated by the fact that an Overlord was seen effortlessly snapping the heavy metal chains meant to restrain him simply by standing up and swinging his arms. They carry concealable swords inside their arms and it is unknown what material it is made of.
History[]
Ancient History[]
The Espheni originated from another galaxy, when some point around 2,000 years ago, intergalactic Espheni explorers came across the Milky Way Galaxy and discovered Earth in a strategic location for use . In order to utilize its immense resources and strategic capability, the queen of the Espheni race ordered the Espheni to land on Earth for conquest.
A few hundred years later, the Espheni Queen chose to send an invasion to the planet led by her daughter, the Espheni Queen's best warrior. Landed in the land which would eventually be named South America and the Espheni came into contact with the local Nazca "primitives". The primitive humans managed to defeat the small invasion force and kill the queen's daughter and the other Espheni sent with her. Enraged at the death of her beloved daughter, the queen swore to one day return to Earth with a thousand times the force she sent last time and wipe out humanity in revenge.
Alien Conflicts[]
Over 1,000 years ago, the Espheni came into conflict with the first race they would engage in large-scale warfare, a race known as the Dornia who were located within their own galaxy. Ultimately, the Espheni appeared to win the initial conflict, resulting in the enslavement of a large amount of the Dornia species and their conversion into the first Skitters via harnesses. The Dornia model would later serve as a blueprint for other enslaved species to become Skitters. The Espheni were then driven from their home galaxy by the surviving Dornia through a combination of biological warfare resulting in a large amount of fear of the Dornia arising amongst the Espheni, and as a result they were pushed into the Milky Way Galaxy, and would continue to be relentlessly pursued, forcing them to attack/conquer any world they came into contact with in order to gather resources to fuel their war machine.
As the Espheni Empire continued to invade planets and enslave multiple species, they eventually came across a planet inhabited by the advanced Volm, proceeding to invade and conquer the planet in a short amount of time. The Volm then evacuated most of their race from the planet in time and engaged the Espheni in a drawn-out war across the galaxy. The Espheni traveled to many different planets in order to find and destroy their new enemies. The Volm pursued Espheni forces attempting to liberate conquered planets as revenge, eventually allowing them to end up at Earth again due to the two endless conflicts they fought.
Invasion of Earth[]
It is revealed several months after the invasion that the Overlords are the apparent masterminds behind the invasion of Earth. They are first seen by Resistance fighters of the 2nd Mass Tom Mason, Hal Mason and Cpt. Dan Weaver on a scouting mission in the city. Tom believes that the aliens are only now showing themselves because they believe they are safe and have won.
In the season one finale the Resistance is able to launch a powerful counterattack against the invaders. After discovering that Skitters and Mechs are linked through a radio frequency, they come up with a jamming frequency that they use to disorientate and repel an attack on the Resistance base. This leads to a mass retreat by the alien forces back to their tower in the city. Tom believes that they have managed to confuse and possibly even scare the aliens. Taking advantage of the retreat, Tom is able to fire a missile at a fleeing ship that crashes into the alien structure, causing significant damage.
Biology[]
Overlords are tall humanoid bipeds with smooth gray skin, standing roughly twice as tall as a human and three times as tall as a skitter, though compared to a human their body is skinny and elongated. Their graceful gait indicates that they are able to move about easily in Earth gravity. Their overall features are somewhat fleshy and blubbery, though their proportions are quite skinny so they do not appear bloated. They do not have a very pronounced neck: while their head is fairly far away from their shoulders, powerful neck muscles smoothly transition from the torso to the head. The top of the head possesses a fairly rounded bullet-shaped point. Indeed, of their facial features only the eyes are particularly prominent, with well-defined eye sockets and seemingly mammalian eyes, spaced only slightly further apart than on a human.
Otherwise, they have very weak and poorly defined chins, small and difficult to observe ears, and a poorly defined nose. They actually don't have a "nose" so much as the forehead smoothly slopes down between the eyes down to the upper lip, which in turn slopes down their poorly defined chin into their "neck". They do possess four nostril-slits, two on each side of the head, but much higher than on a human. The small nostrils are located close to the inner corner of each eye. They do seem to have a normal vertebrate mouth, though it is made clear that they are not capable of speech and are instead able to speak through humans telepathically and make grunts if pain is inflicted upon them. Overall, the upper body gives the vague impression of a humanoid dolphin; hence Pope's nickname for them: Fishheads.