SOURCE: Star Born (1957) by Andre Norton

DESCRIPTION: "Raf glanced from one of his neighbors to the other. The one on his right had chosen to wear a sight-torturing shade of crimson, and the material was wound in strips about his body as if he were engulfed in an endless bandage. Only his fluttering hands, his three-toed feet and his head were free of the supple rolls. Having selected red for his clothing, he had picked a brilliant yellow paint for his facial makeup, and it was difficult for the uninitiated to trace what must be his normal features under that thick coating of stuff which fashioned a masklike strip across his eyes and a series of circles outlining his mouth, circles which almost completely covered his beardless cheeks. More twists of woven fabric, opalescent and changing color as his head moved, made a turban for his head. Most of the aliens about the room wore some variation of the same bandage dress, face paint, and turban. An exception, one of three such, was the feaster on Raf's left. His face paint was confined to a conservative set of bars on each cheek, those a stark black and white. His sinewy arms were bare to the shoulder, and he[57] wore a shell of some metallic substance as a breast-and back-plate, not unlike the very ancient body armor of Raf's own world. The rest of his body was covered by the bandage strips, but they were of a dead black, which, because of the natural thinness of his limbs, gave him a rather unpleasant resemblance to a spider. Various sheaths and pockets hung from a belt pulled tight about his wasp middle, and a helmet of the metal covered his head. Soldier? Raf was sure that his guess was correct." (Star Born by Andre Norton)

NOTES: Those Others are the last remnants of a human-type race. The most prominent difference is the three middle fingers of their hands are all the same length. Those Others have a complex society with castes (one of these is military). Their personal appearance is of great importance to them. As a race they despise all living things not bent to their will. They once made a race of slaves from the seal people, building in telepathy so that they could communicate with them. These slaves eventually revolted and became the Free Folk. Those Others also created The Pack but lost control of them too. Those Others enjoy killing any other living creatures for entertainment. They have an arena for public spectacles of this sort. In the revolt with the Free Folk, Those Others were set back technologically, their numbers dwindling. They hope to store houses of old tech that they can use to wipe out or subjugate the free Folk and return to their level of supremecy. Those Others are not part of the Free Folk's telepathic community but they do leave a psychic residue of evil behind where ever they go.

HISTORY: A typical Norton bad guy race such as the Baldies from the Time Agent series. Once again Norton is depicting the human race's evil side without any of the better virtues of our kind. Something like the embodiment of Corporate America. Evil but not cardboard.