"The Nosferatu are damn good at what we do. No-one even argues that. If you need to know, if you want it found, you come to us."
— Bertram Tung, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
In science fiction and fantasy, some fictional races are known for producing great warriors, learned scientists, or thrifty merchants. However, a few cultures may find themselves characterized for their ability to fit a particular societal niche that most commonly appears when such cultures are at war — namely covert operations.
Here, this particular race's Hat is based around spying, information brokerage, sabotage, theft, or assassination (perhaps all of the above). In other words, their culture is composed entirely of The Sneaky Guy. As always, the reasons why they became known for this trait varies: maybe they're possessed of some special trait or power that makes them ideally suited to black ops work, such as shapeshifting, invisibility, poison glands, or even psychic powers; maybe their native culture is essentially a gigantic City of Spies in which spying and sneaking is encouraged; or perhaps they simply don't have any other means of surviving in a hostile setting, and must resort to sneakier methods of staying alive.
For good measure, this trait can be used in service of the species, or it can be sold as a service to wealthy customers — either on an individual basis, or as an entire species, depending on how comfortable the culture is in dealing with outsiders.
Members of this species are often characterized as sly and untrustworthy, sometimes to the point of being regarded as an entire race of tricksters. Some may even extend their sneaky nature to their basic visibility as a culture, living in a Hidden Elf Village until they find clients that they can offer their services to... or, in the case of more militarized spy species, until they have accumulated enough sleeper agents among an enemy they intend to conquer.
May overlap with Stealthy Cephalopod, depending on the nature of the species.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- Marvel Comics: When not characterized as a Proud Warrior Race, the Skrulls are stereotyped as as a race of infiltrators, undermining cultures from within until they are weakened enough for a conventional invasion. Their ability to shapeshift also plays into this particular image, being often used to insinuate their operatives into a culture they hope to eventually assimilate into their empire. Meet The Skrulls focusses particularly on this characterization, with an entire family of Skrull infiltrators indoctrinating their children to serve the empire in secret — even chastising the youngest daughter for shapeshifting just to avoid a bully. In turn, the daughter uses her powers to turn the bully's friends against her through increasingly cruel acts of social engineering.
Fan works
- Scootertrix the Abridged: Zebras are naturally suited to working as spies and codebreakers because they communicate entirely in riddles.
Films — Live-Action
- Star Wars: Since their first appearance in Attack of the Clones, Clawdites have been depicted as spies, informants, assassins, and bounty hunters — thanks to their ability to shapeshift. For good measure, new expanded universe texts commonly characterize them as cautious and slow to trust others — even fellow Clawdites, hence why many of them prefer to pursue employment offworld rather than navigate the constant identity-checking measures on their home planet.
Literature
- Taken to the point of parody in Death and Diplomacy with the Saloi. They are all spies, and everyone knows they're all spies, and they know that everyone knows they're all spies, and so on. Or possibly they aren't, and they just find it convenient to let everyone believe that.
- His Dark Materials: The Gallivespians are commonly used as spies and assassins by Lord Asriel's forces, mainly due to their small size and the poison barbs on their feet.
- Legacy of the Aldenata: The Himmit are chameleons and natural camouflage experts, to the point that a Himmit can evade the detection of a group of highly-trained spec-ops scouts in a small conference room while they know it's there. Although they're biologically hardwired to avoid doing anything that will reveal their position to "predators" — and thus cannot serve as assassins — they serve well as scouts and infiltration specialists, and sometimes provide transportation and covert supply lines to (human) scouting teams. Unusually, the Himmit are not particularly sly or sneaky in their day-to-day dealings, especially with beings who are interacting with them in good faith.
- Shadows of the Apt: Combining this trope with Sneaky Spider, the Spider-kinden are known for two things: being The Beautiful Elite, and being manipulative, cutthroat schemers. Their homeland, the Spiderlands, is known for its intricate politics as their rival families wage a continuous Cold War against each other for dominance. However, they're more of a spymaster species than spies themselves; while they certainly have the necessary skills, especially regarding seduction and social engineering, there aren't many of them and their reputation often precedes them, so they do their best work when at the center of a web of other agents.
- Star Wars Legends:
- Thanks to the line "many Bothans died to bring us this information" in Return of the Jedi, Bothans have been characterized as spies and intriguers. Paranoid by nature and popularly stereotyped as untrustworthy, the Bothans are famous for their Spynet, a network of thousands of information-gathering operatives spanning the galaxy — and their means of obtaining the plans for the second Death Star.
- Similarly, thanks to the example set by Garindian in A New Hope, the Kubaz are stereotyped as sneaky, underhanded characters (at least in The Essential Guide to Alien Species). Because of their unique powers of observation and talents for networking, they can often be found working as spies, information brokers, and on occasion, bounty hunters.
- The Anzati are essentially space vampires who feed upon the brains of the victims they've acquired through their telepathic powers and above-average physical talents. Thanks to their abilities and secretive natures — combined with the example set by Dannik Jerriko — they can frequently be found working as assassins.
- Because of their Photographic Memory, cunning minds, politicking natures, and observational skills, the Jenet have been employed quite frequently as spies, both by the Empire and by various crime syndicates.
- The Noghri possess great talents in stealth and hand-to-hand combat, and possess Undying Loyalty towards their benefactors. Consequently, in the wake of a environmental catastrophe on their homeworld of Honoghr, Darth Vader convinced the Noghri that the Empire would rebuild in return for their services; for this reason, most Noghri seen off-world were Imperial assassins and bodyguards. Grand Admiral Thrawn himself kept a Noghri named Rukh as his personal bodyguard and spy. However, when Leia revealed that the Empire had long since reneged on their reconstruction promises, the Noghri switched their loyalties to "Lady Vader" and the New Republic — assassinating Thrawn in the process — and have since served a similar role as the Bothans... albeit with more wetwork and less intrigue.
- The Shi'ido are possessed of impressive shapeshifting abilities, aided by the power to influence the minds of others; for good measure, they're an incredibly secretive culture that wants nothing to do with outsiders, preferring to disguise themselves as inanimate objects whenever explorers visit. Since so few of them lead public lives offworld, the Shi'ido have become infamous thanks to those of them who ended up as criminals, and are popularly stereotyped as an incredibly dangerous race of spies and assassins. Senior Anthropologist Hoole is attempting to fight this stereotype by working as a respectable member of the scientific community... but even he tends to work best by observing alien cultures from the inside without their knowledge.
Live-Action TV
- Farscape: In "Scratch n' Sniff", Crichton and D'Argo are introduced to a Han-Jee, a species with detachable eyes that can work remotely. For good measure, they can share the memories of what they've seen via the tentacles on their back. As such, Han-Jee have a reputation for working as information brokers, to the point that D'Argo instantly recognizes the significance of meeting Kabaah as soon as they're introduced. However, it's also indicated that Kabaah has a sideline interest in making porn.
- Grimm: Uhranuti are falcon-like Wesen with incredible visual acuity and a tendency towards isolation, ruthlessness, and stealth; according to the Season 5 blu-ray guide, this makes them ideal assassins — as is the case with Marwan Hanano, the Black Claw sniper in "Key Move."
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Original Series: Espionage is a specialty of the Klingons (influenced as they were by Cold War-era Russia). Of course, this was prior to the dramatic shift in depiction that saw them portrayed as the Proud Warrior Race we know today.
- Star Trek: Discovery: Subverted. Espionage and infiltration turns out to be the specialty of House Mo'kai, the leading faction of the Klingon Empire, rather than a species-wide hat.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: By this point in continuity, role of spy species has shifted to the Romulans; formerly depicted as another Proud Warrior Race, they are now notorious for their duplicitousness. Quite apart from their habit of spying on other races and waiting to strike, their infamous Tal Shiar keeps a close eye on their civilian populace at all times, and is rivalled in efficiency only by the Cardassian Obsidian Order.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Founders of the Dominion are an order-obsessed race of Changelings who prefer to remain hidden — a cultural legacy of the days when they were highly-persecuted as a species. Since the Vorta manage the Dominion in their name and the Jem'Hadar serve as their warriors, the Changelings fill the espionage niche when diplomacy fails and conventional warfare cannot suffice. With their powers, they are well-suited to operating as spies, saboteurs, and infiltrators, most notably by replacing key dignitaries in order to sabotage their enemies from within. Even the heroic Constable Odo isn't above covertly monitoring potential criminals and disguising himself in order to get the drop on suspects.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Kenku have a reputation for being capable spies, assassins and generally being good at skulduggery. They are often proficient in skills such as acrobatics, deception, stealth and sleight of hand. As a result of a curse placed on them by one of their gods, they cannot create anything original, but can only copy things made by others; instead of having their own language they mimic the voices and words of others they've heard, and create excellent forgeries of documents if given an original to copy.
- Tieflings are humanoids whose ancestry has been tainted by devilsnote . There are several different bloodlines of Tiefling that the Arch Devils have bred for specific nefarious purposes:
- Dispater, the most paranoid of the devils, specifically molds his tieflings into capable spies, infiltrators and information brokers, granting them the Disguise Self and Detect Thoughts spells.
- Fierna breeds tieflings with forceful personalities to cajole and manipulate others — tieflings with the Fiernan lineage always know the Friends cantrip, and can cast the Charm Person and Suggestion spells.
- Glasyan lineage tieflings, bred by Glasya to be able to carry out heists, automatically know the Minor Illusion cantrip, & the Disguise Self and Invisibility spells.
- Tabaxi have a reputation as being good at intrigue due to being naturally good at both sneaking and observation, due to having racial proficiency in both the Stealth and Perception skills. Though other races tend to underestimate them due to their reputation as being distractable.
- Eberron: The Changelings' shapeshifting powers have led them to being frequently sought after as spies and assassins; they're also quick to learn the language and customs of other cultures, making them even more desirable in clandestine fields. Unfortunately, their powers and criminal value have left them widely mistrusted and even feared by the other races of Eberron, who tend to stereotype them as devious and naturally deceitful.
- Magic: The Gathering: Being the color most associated with deception, Blue often gets these. Most depictions of vedalken, naga and merfolk tend to be sneaky, secretive and often ninjas and rogues. The cephalopod-like cephalids, however, are one species who is entirely depicted as this: in Dominaria, they are backstabbing and maintain control through various agents, while in New Capenna they are associated with the Obscura, a mafia family that specialises in using information for extorsion.
- Warhammer: The Skaven are by nature secretive, vicious, and backstabbing, and serve as an extremely non-mercenarynote example of this culture: they're planning world domination, but rather than achieve this through traditional warfare, they have built a vast under-empire of tunnels through which they launch surprise attacks on the surface world — sometimes depopulating entire settlements in the process. Because of this approach, they're widely perceived as a myth by most human societies. Like all aspects of the Skaven character, this sneaky, devious aspect is embodied by one of the four Great Clans — in this case, the mercenary Clan Eshin, who are composed entirely of spies, assassins, and poisoners.
- The World of Darkness:
- Vampire: The Masquerade:
- The Nosferatu Clan. Having been cursed with monstrous ugliness at the dawn of vampire history, they have been forced to live in the shadows ever since, relying on stealth and unity as a Clan to survive. Because of this, they are widely known as expert spies and information brokers, making themselves indispensable to the Camarilla through their apparent omniscience. According to their clan books, they gather secrets through Obfuscate, ghouled janitors, modern technology, the occasional Animal Eye Spy, and mundane stealth techniques; they've even created a Clan-restricted online data-sharing network known as Schrecknet in the Modern Nights. For good measure, the unique services they offer allow them to make exorbitant demands of customers — granting them consequence-free revenge on the clans that exclude them from Kindred society.
- The Banu Haqim Warrior Caste possesses the Disciplines of Celerity, Obfuscate, and Quietus, so they're well-suited to stealthy covert ops work... and because the Warriors were the only members of the Clan that other vampires were liable to encounter for most of Kindred history, the entire Banu Haqim are popularly stereotyped as nothing but monstrous assassins akin to The Hashshashin; the addiction to Kindred vitae inflicted on them by the Baali only worsens this impression. Furthermore, after the Banu Haqim were cursed with an allergy to vitae by the Tremere, the Sorcerer Caste attempted to get around the Clan's new affliction through alchemical blood potions — but in order to get the ingredients, the Warrior Caste had to take up mercenary service as real assassins, only strengthening the stereotype.
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Corax are the only Fera breed that can fly, and can read the memories of the dead by devouring their eyeballs. Combined with their dislike of fighting and their firm belief that "there are no secrets," they've carved out a vital niche as spies, information brokers, and messengers.
- Vampire: The Masquerade:
Toys
- LEGO Dino Attack: Mutant Lizard abilities include Chameleon Camouflage, darkness, and heightened stealth. Therefore, their online bio notes that this mutant dinosaur species is particularly skilled when it comes to infiltrating bases.
Video Games
- Endless Legend: Cultists of the Eternal End — or rather the sentient automata that form its higher echelons — are a variation. They only have one city and are unable to build more, but infiltrate and turn minor factions and induct them into their cult, sending these converts out as their shock troops. Heroes of the Cult are often very practiced at infiltrating other factions, too.
- Endless Space 2: The Umbral Choir exists almost entirely as a series of covert operations and possessed double agents, being otherwise almost entirely immaterial; they rely on possession of others' populations, installing undetected sanctuaries in their colonies and hacking their systems in order to exist, scout and expand their territory. They're permanently cloaked and extremely hard to find, but can rarely defend themselves if they're found, only flee and hide once more.
- Galactic Civilizations II: The Drath are infamous for being secretive and highly manipulative, laying out strings to pull throughout the galaxy entire, and presenting a highly passive-aggressive front to it all. Rumors (likely spread by them) are that they've already conquered the galaxy and the others simply don't know it yet. In gameplay terms, they get a massive bonus to all espionage.
- Mass Effect:
- The salarians are partly renowned as a Proud Scholar Race; however, the other half of their reputation is based around espionage and black ops. Because salarians aren't a very imposing species, they rely on stealth rather than traditional armies, and even their soldiers prefer to make use of sneaky guerilla tactics rather than straight-up fighting. Throughout the galaxy, the Salarian Union is known for fleets based entirely around surveillance and its legendary Special Tactics Group — which has a reputation for ending wars before they even begin. Party member Mordin Solus embodies both hats, being a brilliant scientist who served in the STG and took part in a covert biological attack on the krogan DMZ, reinforcing the genophage with an upgrade of his own design and secretly disseminating it in person.
- The drell are a client race of the hanar, who saved their race from extinction. As part of this relationship, select drell are often expected to carry out tasks on behalf of the Hanar that their patrons might find personally difficult — including assassination. For good measure, drell possess surprising physical strength, biotic potential, and Photographic Memory, traits advantageous in covert operatives; consequently, the first three Drell we meet over the course of the series consist of a master assassin, an information trafficker, and a novice hitman who later reforms and becomes a priest if you play your cards right.
- Master of Orion II: The Darloks are noted for being excellent spies and unparalleled infiltrators, and their spy networks are both cheaper to run and more effective than those of any other race. Them being Voluntary Shapeshifters capable of taking the shape of their targets definitely goes a long way.
- Pokémon Sword and Shield: Inteleon is the Secret Agent Pokémon. It can camouflage itself, and its body has many hidden capabilities like fingertips that can shoot water, a knife hidden in its tail and a membrane on its back that it can use to glide through the air.
- Space Rangers: Pelengs are infamous for spying on every other race, stealing their tech for themselves. They also consider piracy to be a respectful carrer choice, and their society is prone to backstabbing, making coups a semi-regular occurrence. The rest of the Coalition sees them as The Friend Nobody Likes, but tolerates them because their spies are useful for them, too.
