Basic Information
Greys are alleged extraterrestrial beings whose existence is promoted in ufological, paranormal, and New Age communities, named for their skin color. Greys are distinguished by their physical traits like big heads (Proportionally to their bodies), Big eyes that are black and have no iris or pupil, being gray, being small and no noticeable outer ears among other traits.
Traditionally greys serve in the mythopoetic role of abductor and have been charged with removing humans for a variety of scientific or pseudoscientific studies. Some students of the fortean link them to the Fair Folk (as big eyed, vaguely humanoid little people who abduct) but this link is far from universally attested.
Greys are frequently credited with psychic powers - although this, again, varies by account.
Some popular theories about greys include:
- Greys are trying to create grey/human hybrids as liaisons, servants or puppets.
- Greys are only one of several visiting species and are using earth for Colonial Warfare or Proxy Warfare to some end.
- Greys are an artificial servant species of some other advanced society1.
- Greys are the latest form taken by Fallen Angels to corrupt humanity.
- Greys are the latest form taken by actual Angels to save humanity.
- Greys are just nosy aliens.
- Greys are some kind of Tulpa formed by someone or something astrally projecting from somewhere else.
- Greys come from underground/inside the hollow earth.
- Greys have a base somewhere in Antarctica
- Greys have corrupted (insert name of superpower or conspiracy) and have bases in their territory and are behind (insert name of technical innovation) and (insert name of undesired social trend).
- Greys are humans from the future, using time-travel to study, guide or contact us. UFOs (well, some of them anyway) are thus time machines.
- Greys come from another dimension rather than another planet.
- Greys are/were the Ancient Astronauts
The Greys also may or may not be disputing the earth with other alien species such as the Reptilians - if they are, how many human conflicts could turn out to be proxy or colonial warfare?
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Game and Story Use
- Greys can be used as high level antagonists in shooter games or MMORPG's
- Alternatively they can be used as primary movers in a campaign - either patrons, enemies or a Schroedinger's Faction for PCs to interact with.
- Or they can be incidental - PCs might make contact with visiting Greys whilst involved in something else.
- You could start a campaign like this - the greys abduct the PCs, chat to them and turn them loose. And then hilarity ensues.
- Use fake greys to mess genre savvy PCs about.
- The cRPG Deus Ex uses some very ambiguous greys. The ones the player encounters are indeed replicas made by the universal constructors … what they are replicas of though is not clear.
- These guys may be interesting in a early sci-fi setting as well - as humanity starts to explore space, we will naturally be looking for other intelligent life. If the greys really are around, we would expect them to make contact … if we can't find them, they are likely to be written off as a hoax.
- Consider a setting in which the greys weren't contacted … but eventual contact with other species finds that they also remember the greys. The few, advanced, "elder" species refuse to discuss the issue. What are (or were) the greys, and where did they go?
- Stephen King uses Greys of various kinds - the main antagonists of Dreamcatcher are very much in the UFO/Xenomorph mould, although the named example "Mister Grey" is somewhat more complex and apparently able to discorporate and possess another character. Mr Robert Grey on the other hand is amongst the names used by an even more alarming extra-terrestrial that is better known as "It".