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"When will they see that the Horde exists BECAUSE of the Alliance? Because of their prejudice and their bigotry!? They force us ever closer to Hellscream’s Horde!"
Lor'themar Theron, World of Warcraft

All right, you know the drill: Two or more groups of aliens really hate each other not for concrete differences but over Fantastic Racism. Cue a new kid on the block that threatens both. Cooler heads prevail and they team up against the new guys, in the process they learn a valuable lesson about tolerance and embrace The Power of Friendship. Pretty standard plot and Aesop, except for one tidbit. The new guy? That's Humanity. Either because of real or perceived threat, these alien races have banded together into an Anti-Human Alliance with the goal of either conquering and enslaving us or outright wiping us off star-charts.

Despite the space focus, this trope can be used in any setting with one or more non-human races. In Fantasy it's usually a group of evil races such as orcs, goblins, undead, etc. However "good" fantasy critters may despise humans for their own reasons, such as fairies, elves, dryads, etc. It's especially common to have post-humans form such an alliance, such as Mutants, Cyborgs, vampires, and people with superpowers. Better yet, the non-humans that want to kill humanity are its children, such as rebellious robots, A.I., and Designer Babies.

The motivating factor behind this alliance can vary, here are a few common causes:

Depending on the tone of the series, these differences may be resolvable or ultimately lead to endless war and conflict until one side finally kicks the bucket. It's also worth noting that humanity may have one or two non-human allies that are being equally targeted for helping us out.

See also Alike and Antithetical Adversaries, Equal-Opportunity Evil, Enemy Mine and Gang Up on the Human. May result in a Genocide Backfire because ultimately, at least one human will survive.

Contrast Creature-Hunter Organization and Screw You, Elves! when the humans decide to fight back and form an organisation to repel the non-human races, and Absolute Xenophobe and Muggle Power when the non-human races aren't necessarily evil but the humans are still against them.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Transformers parody episode "Trans-homers" has two races of alien Mechanical Lifeforms land on Earth and wage "war" (i.e. a series of petty pranks), the eponymous characters joining opposite sides after becoming machines themselves. When Brief convinces their leaders to make peace, they thankfully agree, after which they all merge into a single powerful Ghost that wants to wipe out all humanity.
  • In Rosario + Vampire the monsters (at least several, if not dozens of species) have united to create a monster world separate from Earth, and exterminate humans who sneak into the monster world. Much to his chagrin, Token Human Tsukune finds himself mistaken for a monster and gains a Cute Monster Girl Unwanted Harem, at least some of whom believe Humans Are the Real Monsters. His True Companions choose to stand by him when his cover is blown in the anime, fending off a small army of their classmates.
    • The final arc of the manga involves Tsukune and his True Companions trying to take down one of these.
  • In Drifters, the Black Cloaked Man is gathering such an army, comprised of all non-human races except Elves and Dwarves (who have already formed the beginnings of their own version of The Federation).
  • In Shaman King, Hao Asakura has formed a squad of followers specifically to assist him in winning the Shaman Fight by force so he can become Shaman King and create a kingdom consisting of shamans and shamans alone. His younger brother Yoh and his friends, and the X-Laws, fight against that.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul, Ghouls are not known for their cooperation, primarily due to being extremely territorial and naturally competitive. That is what makes Aogiri Tree so significant, with hundreds of Blood Knights brought together under the banner of Ghoul Supremacy. Humans and peaceful Ghouls alike are targeted by them, and their criminal dealings combine them with The Syndicate. Although the sequel reveals that Aogiri Tree's real goal is not ghoul supremacy, but rather the coexistence of their kind and humanity, making them Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters, at least from the ghoul side.
  • Overlord (2012) has the Demi-Human Alliance, a coalition of the demi-human tribes living just beyond the borders of the Holy Kingdom, united by force by Demiurge in order to invade the Holy Kingdom.

    Comic Books 
  • The DCU:
    • In Injustice 2, Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins join forces with Gorilla City to annihilate mankind in order to save the environment. While many of their members are technically meta-humans and Ra's is a Misanthrope Supreme legitimately devoted in his goal to Kill All Humans, he is still a human himself, an inconvenient little fact pointed out by Gorilla Grodd. In response to this, he revolts against Solovar, the king of Gorilla City, and tries to take control and kill Ra's and his followers.
    • In Invasion! (DC Comics), various alien races are convinced by the Dominators to help them invade Earth, out of fear of its superbeings — and disgust over our genetic variety. Of course, the Dominators plan all along to capture the superhumans and use them to conquer the universe.
    • The Superman arc that reintroduced the "retroboot" Legion of Super-Heroes features the United Planets going to war with the xenophobic Earth.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • In one crossover, Earth is sealed off from the rest of the universe for having intervened in the affairs of other civilizations too often (never mind that it was often to save them). They even dump their alien criminals on our world! (As in Invasion!, this turns to be part of a plan by one race to then turn on the rest.)
    • The Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants from X-Men. In short order, humans strike back, but the Brotherhood started it.

    Fan Works 
  • The Night Unfurls: In order to enact vengeance against humankind for the enslavement of dark elves, the Dark Elf Queen, Olga Discordia, declared war against Eostia centuries ago. To achieve this end, she allied the orcs and the dark elves together by giving one of her cities to the orcs as tribute.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Princess Mononoke, the ape gods, boar gods, and wolf gods don't care at all for humans. The apes want a guerilla war. The boars argue for a more all-out war because it's Better to Die than Be Killed. The wolves end up siding with the boars more out of sympathy than anger.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In the backstory to Hellboy II: The Golden Army, humans are at war with elves and the other magical races, nearly driving them to extinction. This prompted the elves to create the Golden Army, which decimated the humans so badly that the elven king was horrified and negotiated a peace.
  • In Aquaman (2018), this is Orm's goal, to unite the four remnant kingdoms of Atlantis and lead them in a war against humanity.

    Literature 
  • The Brothers Cabal: The monsters are fed up with human persecution and wish to fight back by creating the Ministerium Tenebrae. It's somewhat downplayed in that the Ministerium only wishes to cause enough casualties to force humanity to an armistice and creation of a monster homeland. Additionally some wealthy backers of the organization are humans looking to profit from investing after the initial conquest.
  • Star Wars Legends
    • In Young Jedi Knights, there's the Diversity Alliance, who plan on killing humans with a bio-weapon that only targets humans.
    • Far earlier, there were several anti-human resistance movements on Coruscant, mostly in reaction to the oppressively human-centrist government.
    • In the X-Wing Series these tendencies are exploited by Director of Imperial Intelligence turned de facto Empress Ysanne Isard after the Imperial capital falls to the New Republic... soon after a biological weapon whose symptoms make Ebola look good by comparison that targets almost every species except humans is deliberately set loose on the surface, leaving the arriving New Republic forces with a huge public health crisis and the human and nonhuman populations at each other's throats.
  • Sergey Volnov's Army of the Sun is set after a galaxy-wide rebellion of alien races against the EarthStella Empire, which had formerly conquered all of them. All the aliens join together to wipe out the human threat. Of course, no side is in the right here. This is a Crapsack Universe, after all.
  • In The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You, humanity is attacked by a coalition of alien races hell-bent on wiping out all humans simply for looking ugly. Their only similarities are that they're all slimy, ugly (from a human point of view), and reptilian/amphibian.
  • The multi-species Conclave in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is effectively one of these at first since the human Colonial Union refuses to join and remains hostile to the Conclave. Arguably justified anti-human racism as well, since it was partly the CU's history of aggression towards 97% of known species that helped bring the Conclave about. Later averted when Earth's ties to the CU are broken and the Conclave treats it as a separate entity.
  • The vampires of the Red Court in The Dresden Files were gunning for one of these for most of their war against the White Council. Unusually, they didn't have much luck, partially because the White Council actively took steps against it and partially because nobody really liked the Reds either.
  • In Out of the Dark, a group of aliens scheme to make another race come and kill all humans because the prospect of having a second warlike, omnivore race as neighbors is terrifying for them. In a lovely case of Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, while humans might've wanted to coexist peacefully before this little stunt, they're hell-bent on revenge now.
  • In Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future, the Great Sioux Nation is a group of aliens from various species who have all suffered at the hands of humanity for one reason or another and have chosen to band together to work toward Man's downfall. They are willing to work with individual humans on occasion, but only if doing so would be detrimental to humanity as a whole.
  • The unpublished novel Tea With Seira is a very long story where the titular Seira really doesn't want to commit genocide but ultimately authorizes the complete extermination of humanity.
  • The angels of The Empirium Trilogy hate humans due to them claiming land that, the angels feel, is rightfully theirs. They banded together in order to kill them off, starting the Angelic Wars. By the Second Age, their anger shifted to hating humans because their Saints tricked them into an endless void that stripped them of their physicality.
  • The Ashtown Burials has most of the transmortals ally against the Order of Brendan to start off with, with plans to move against the rest of the world - partly because of the restrictive treaties the transmortals were placed under, mostly because people who go out of their way to turn themselves into undying warriors tend to be assholes. By the last book, the only transmortals left on the heroes' side are two depressed accidental immortals, an ex-Brendanite who became He Who Fights Monsters, and Gilgamesh.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Smart Brain in Kamen Rider 555 is really a front for a group of Orphnochs seeking to wipe out mankind. The reason they want to do so is because their kind evolved from humans, and there are certain humans who have the potential to be reborn as an Orphnoch upon dying, so they've decided the best way to create more of their kind is to kill humans en masse and see which ones come back as Orphnochs.
  • The Neo-Human Empire in Inazuman, whose leader Emperor Banba believes there will be famine in the near future and seeks to avert it by exterminating all humans. Though he also just wants to rule the world.
  • Star Trek
    • The Alliance in the Mirror Universe in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a coalition of races that rose to power in the vacuum created by the Terran Empire's decay into a more democratic and peaceful organization after Kirk made some convincing arguments about mercy and compassion to Mirror-Spock.
    • Before that (in-universe chronology), there was the Anti-Imperial Alliance in Star Trek: Enterprise. It was eventually crushed by stolen future technology that won the war decisively in humanity's favor.
    • Star Trek: Discovery continues that with the rebellion, which is slowly being ground to dust by the more advanced and ruthless Terran Empire. The rebellion is led by a Klingon of all things, and one of the questions Michael has for him is how a Klingon managed to lead such a diverse group of races despite his race's prejudices. He explains that it usually helps to have a common enemy.
    • According to the non-canon Shatnerverse novels, it was Tiberius himself who manages to convince the Cardassians and the Klingons (who hate each other) to join against the weakened Empire, after Spock ousts him. Then they pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on him.
    • There are also the Xindi, who are hell-bent on eliminating humanity. While they're all originally from the same planet, they are five (formerly six) distinct species (Xindi-Primates/Humanoids, Xindi-Arboreals/Sloths, Xindi-Reptilians, Xindi-Insectoids, Xindi-Aquatics, and the extinct Xindi-Avians).
  • The Votanis Collective in Defiance is a joint government representing each of the several alien races that live on earth, and regularly engages in covert actions against the all Human Earth Republic. The Cult that abducted Irisa as a child is made of many Votans and plans to wipe out Humanity and turn Earth into a paradise for the Votan. In Season 3, a Votanis Collective Doom Troops regiment shows up outside Defiance and plans to kill all humans, but it turns out they were rogue and the VC proper shows up to apologize; they may work against the Earth Republic, but they aren't butchers.

    Tabletop Games 
  • In Anima: Beyond Fantasy, where Fantastic Racism is almost rampant, we've Samael, an organization that encompasses sentient, non-human races. While some members of it just want to live in peace again with mankind, others want to destroy it.
  • Warhammer 40,000: The Tau Empire is made up of several races that would be horrifying Scary Dogmatic Aliens or Starfish Aliens in any other work. They'd be perfectly content to make allies of humanity (in fact, many human "heretics" do join up with them) but humanity is so xenophobic that they're more this trope. The Tau are often considered the closest thing to "good guys" in this setting but bear in mind that a lot of their recruitment strategy is flat out brainwashing... unless that's just propaganda...
    • The forces of Chaos include renegade humans, insane cultists, fallen Space Marines, mutants, and more than a few human-hating Xeno races like the Laer and Yu'Vath. All are unified by their hatred of humanity's Imperium.
  • Jack the Ripper was a monster hunter in Rippers, then he went mad from too many monster implants and turned on them and joined the monsters to make an alliance between monsters to fight the Rippers. This organization is called the Cabal and ultimately their goal is to wipe out or subjugate humanity. The Cabal continues to exist even though Jack has once again switched sides and rejoined the Rippers.

    Video Games 
  • Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator has four species of sentient alien. Three, the Kraliens, Argonians, and Torgoth, are members of an anti-human "Hegemony," per the Word of God canon. The fourth race, the Skaraan, aren't part of this hegemony but have a mutual non-aggression pact.
  • The Elder Scrolls
    • The Aldmeri Dominion is the preeminent anti-human alliance in Tamriel, having at least three known iterations throughout history. The Altmer (High Elves) of the Summerset Isles and the Bosmer (Wood Elves) of Valenwood typically make up the Dominion, with the Khajiit of Elsweyr occasionally on board as a client state or vassal nation. Though the opinions of individual elves may vary, the Dominion is decidedly anti-human in stance and has actively opposed the spread of human empires and influence throughout history. In addition to the usual Fantastic Racism reasons for their dislike of the races of Men (not even getting into the religious reasons), the Dominion feels that the human lifespans are too short (particularly by the Long-Lived Altmer) to possibly do a fair and even-handed job of ruling the continent. At the end of the 2nd Era, it took Tiber Septim, using the Numidium, capturing the Dominion capital of Alinor in a Curb-Stomp Battle bring the Dominion into an Empire of Men for the first time in history.
    • The 4th Era Dominion, its third incarnation, is led by the extremist Thalmor and plays this idea up to eleven. Taking the credit for ending the Oblivion Crisis within their homeland brought the Thalmor immense support, and they eventually took over the entirety of the Altmeri government. After having Potentate Ocato assassinated in a successful attempt to destabilize the now Vestigial Septim Empire, they seceded, annexed Valenwood, and reformed the Dominion of old. The Thalmor-led Aldmeri Dominion serves as the Greater-Scope Villain of the Civil War questline in Skyrim.
    • In The Elder Scrolls Online, the (mostly) elven Aldmeri Dominion is explicitly opposed to a human-dominated Tamriel, which is why they oppose the Imperials and the other two factions, each of which includes at least one race of Men.
  • In Genesis Rising, the Defiance is an alliance of the remnants of several species that humanity conquered or exterminated. They have also reverse-engineered the Human Empire's Organic Technology to fight them.
  • Halo: While the multi-species theocracy known as the Covenant had already existed for millennia before they ever encountered humans, their main goal in the games is to wipe humanity from the face of the universe because they're unholy. Well, that's what the Prophets are telling their followers anyways. Nonetheless, many Covenant members harbor doubts about the validity of their campaign against humanity, and this trope eventually becomes subverted by the end of Halo 3: during the Great Schism, many former Covenant soldiers who were betrayed by the Prophets or simply disagree with the Covenant religion ally with the humans against those still loyal to the Prophets.
    • After the Covenant falls apart, a number of remnant factions still wish to finish the job against humanity. Ironically, the leaders of the most powerful of these factions (which we fight in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians) were among those who were betrayed by the Prophets. They just happen to really hate humans that much.
    • That said, the motivations of the soldiers in both the Covenant and its remnants vary widely; while some are true believers, many are simply coerced slaves or mercenaries Only in It for the Money.
  • Subverted in the Winds of War expansion of Heroes of Might and Magic 4 — The other factions have specific and very different reasons for fighting the humans, and are fighting each other over which one will eventually conquer them.
  • This is the plot of Icewind Dale II. The two Big Bads gather all the monster races bullied by the six towns in the north for their savage behavior (the monsters', that is) and put them under one banner. Hypocritically, the villains also take advantage of their connections to the Host Tower of the Arcane Brotherhood of Luskan, an organization of evil human wizards.
  • The Fomors in Mabinogi and its prequel Vindictus see humans as a menace to the world (all that chopping and building and domesticating — such greed and hubris!) and want to exterminate or at least ruin humanity. The Fomors accept anyone who wishes the end the human threat, even disillusioned human renegades.
  • If you played the Renegade path in Mass Effect, the Citadel species become a lesser version of this in 2: they aren't openly hostile to humanity, but they resent humanity's quick rise to power and offer the implication that Shepard deliberately threw the Battle of the Citadel in order to kill the Council. Depending on dialogue choices, they may be completely right.
  • World of Warcraft: A good majority of the major races of the Horde are united by their animosity towards humans. This mutual hatred is driven by the Cycle of Revenge between the Horde and the Alliance, which are both defined by Gray-and-Grey Morality.
    • The orcs devastated the human nations of the Eastern Kingdoms, in particular Stormwind and Lordaeron, during the First and Second Wars due to being under the control of the Burning Legion. In the aftermath, they were rounded up by the humans and put into internment camps. Eventually under the leadership of Thrall, the orcs broke free and fled to Kalimdor where they formed a new Horde free of the Legion. In spite of their desire to atone for their ancestors' sins, most humans are not willing to accept their atonement. In particular, the warmongering aspirations of Warchief Garrosh Hellscream have not done them any favors, as he destroyed the port city of Theramore using a Fantastic Nuke (an action that turned Jaina Proudmoore, the ruler of Theramore and one of the foremost voices for peace between the Alliance and Horde, into a grief-stricken and vengeful figure who wanted to punish the Horde), attempted to unleash a Sealed Evil in a Can, and summoned an alternate version of the Old Horde all in his bid to make a world where the orcs reigned supreme.
    • The Darkspear Trolls were driven from their home isles by the Kul Tiran humans (as well as the machinations of the Naga which led to their chieftain being sacrificed), but were rescued by the orcs while on their voyage to Kalimdor. The Zandalari Trolls also qualify, as they despise the Alliance for not only invading their homeland during the Fourth War but also for causing the death of their beloved King Rastakhan during the Battle of Dazar'alor. On the other end of the spectrum, trolls are among humanity's ancestral enemies, which is why humans have such a hatred for them. The Alliance's attacks on Zandalar, which were meant to discourage its inhabitants from joining the Horde, end up backfiring on them badly. Not only do these attacks cause the Zandalari to join the Horde, but the neighboring Vulpera also join the Horde for protection when the Alliance attacks their caravans.
    • The Forsaken were once human themselves, being victims of the Scourge that laid waste to their nation of Lordaeron during the Third War. Even when they broke free from the Lich King's grasp and tried to reach out to their former allies, they were received with fear and revulsion. This forced them to throw in their lot with the Horde in an alliance of convenience, though over time their bond with the Horde became genuine. However, they have become even more despised in the eyes of the Alliance due to their role in the Wrathgate as well as the warmongering of their leader Sylvanas Windrunner (who also later became Warchief) having led to invasions of Alliance nations such as Gilneas and Darnassus (even though she was eventually ousted by the Horde).
    • The High Elves were part of the Alliance, and even fought the Horde in the Second War, but left afterwards out of pride, isolationism, and arrogance having been Aloof Allies during the war who only participated out of ancient obligations. This cost them dearly as during the Third War their lands were devastated by the Scourge and their whole race almost went extinct. The survivors rechristened themselves the Blood Elves and tried to rejoin the Alliance, but several factors led to them being shunned, in particular the leader of the Alliance remnants in Lordaeron being a racist human leader who despised them for personal reasons during the Second War. As such, they were forced to ally with the Naga and Illidan Stormrage, which led to them making a home in Outland. As for those who remained behind in their homeland, they ended up becoming new members of the Horde (a move that was in part influenced by the aforementioned Sylvanas, as she was once their major military leader who had died fighting the Scourge). Even though they briefly considered rejoining the Alliance during Garrosh's tenure as Warchief, they were targeted by Jaina and driven out of the neutral city of Dalaran, an action that led to them committing themselves to the Horde for good (see the page quote for their reaction). Note that while most blood elves are members of the Horde, the few surviving high elves (who did not become blood elves) remain loyal to the Alliance.
    • The Bilgewater Cartel goblins qualify as when they escaped their island of Kezan as it sunk during the Cataclysm, they were caught up in a chase between Alliance ships and the vessel carrying Thrall, who had renounced his position as Warchief during the Cataclysm. This led to them throwing in their lot with the Horde as well.
  • The Scoia'tael in The Witcher is an alliance formed between elves, dwarves, and a few other fantasy races, who commit acts of terrorism against humans in retaliation for the Fantastic Racism humans subject them to, though there is a fair amount of nuance. Many, humans and non-humans alike, sympathize with their goals, if not their methods. Some elves consider the atrocities the Scoia'tael perform to be more likely to incite racial riots than address the injustices non-humans are submitted to. At least one Elven ruler has sworn fealty to a human overlord and is doing very well out of that deal. Elves are clearly over-represented among the Scoia'tael, and while everyone who isn't human is welcome to join, all Scoia'tael leaders are elves, and it is common knowledge that the Scoia'tael as a whole will never put the interests of non-Elves above those of Elves. The Dryads, who are suffering most from human expansion, hate the Scoia'tael just as much as they do all non-Dryads, and point out that while Elves may be doing less ecological damage than Humans, that mostly boils down to Elves being less numerous and powerful. No-one even bothers to ask the aboriginal species, the gnomes, what they think about the whole mess.

    Webcomics 

    Web Originals 
  • C0DA takes place in the far distant future of The Elder Scrolls universe, written by former TES writer/designer Michael Kirkbride. Prior to the events of the work, it is revealed that the Aldmeri Dominion (of particular Skyrim infamy) rule the world, and are still led by the fascistic Thalmor. When the Humongous Mecha Numidium re-emerges after having been caught in a time warp, it continues its war on the Dominion, leading to an apocalyptic event known as "Landfall", which has forced the remaining inhabitants of Nirn to take refuge on the moon Masser. Numidium uses its "ancestroscythe" ability to refute the Altmer (High Elves), the leading race of the Dominion, effectively Un Personing them from existence. This event is known as the "Erasure of the Altmer".
  • Stellaris Invicta featured in its first season the First Galactic War (also known to humans as the War on Five Fronts), which saw a Grand Coalition spanning most of the Milky Way declare a massive preventative war against the human-supremacist Greater Terran Union in an attempt to end their centuries-long bloody streak of conquest and subjugation. Although the War become the longest-running and bloodiest conflict in human history, the GTU and the Grand Coalition eventually found themselves on the same side with the outbreak of the War in Heaven - first against a pair of recently awakened Fallen Empires, and later against the genocidal incursion of the Unbidden.


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