Byakhee

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The Byakhee are a fictional race of interstellar beings in the Cthulhu Mythos.

[edit] Summary

There flapped rhythmically a horde of tame, trained, hybrid winged things ... not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor decomposed human beings, but something I cannot and must not recall.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Festival"

The Byakhee often serve Hastur the Unnameable. Since the beings are made of ordinary matter, they can be injured by normal weapons such as pistols. Byakhee can fly through space and can carry a rider, though the rider needs protection from the vacuum and cold by suitable spells or potions. Byakhee live in interstellar space but may be summoned to Earth to perform tasks or to serve as steeds.

Similar flying creatures appear in Robert E. Howard's Conan stories.

[edit] References

Call of Cthulhu [the role-playing game] has taken its description of the byakhee from the creatures in Lovecraft's "The Festival", but it is uncertain whether Lovecraft and Derleth's creations are one and the same.
—Harms, Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, pp. 42.

Byakhee appear (and are the name of a song) in the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society's spoof-musical A Shoggoth on the Roof.