History Main / EldritchStarship

* In ''Videogame/FateGrandOrder'', the fifth Lostbelt storyline reveals that the Greek Pantheon are actually alien starships who arrived on Earth and ended up being worshiped as Gods by humans, interacting with them via [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith humanoid avatars]]. In "Proper Human History", their starship bodies were eventually destroyed by another alien entity [[spoiler:who would eventually become Altera]], but in their unique Lostbelt (timelines that have severely diverged from the main one and resulted in human progress being halted) Zeus managed to defeat said entity and the Pantheons proceeded to further upgrade their starship bodies.

* In ''Literature/StarCarrier'' books, it's the human fighters that fit this trope the most. Thanks to their nanotech hull, they're able to change shape at will. For example, their standard acceleration form looks like a sperm cell, while the combat form is more swept forward. They also have a winged atmospheric form. Their weapons come out of the hull when needed, and the hull simply parts instead of having gunports. Subsequent books, set 20 years later, have more advanced designs that no longer have weapons simply hidden inside the hull. This version of the hull forms weapons on demand and reabsorbs them afterwards. In addition, if the fighter's AI senses an incoming attack that may hit the pilot, it can shift the entire cockpit inside the hull to allow the shot to pass harmlessly.

*** Time travel pods discovered by the ''NX-01'' crew in were bigger on the inside than on the outside.

*** The shuttle even has an UnusualUserInterface based on gestures and holography. To fire the shuttle's weapons, one makes a motion rather like drawing and releasing an arrow from a bow.

* The Anti-Spirals of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' utilize very odd kinds of ships, the Mugann. In-universe, their strangeness was due largely to the fact that they didn't have faces, but they were designed quite oddly regardless, being animated in 3D rather than the 2D style of the rest of the show and appearing like artificial [[EnergyBeing Energy Beings]]. They also explode into explosive geometric prisms when destroyed. Later, the Anti-Spirals graduate to using spacecraft shaped like hands (Hastagry) and feet (Pada) with human faces on their palms and ankles, with capital ships (Ashtanga) that are one gigantic mass of faces and arms.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

** In the ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'' RPG:

* The Access Ark from ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' is a gigantic sphere [[PlanetSpaceship the size of a planet]], and it serves as the [[MegaCorps corporate headquarters]] for the [[PlanetLooters Haltmann Works Company]]. At first, it seems like that's all there is to it, but when Kirby [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon infiltrates the Ark]] in the final sequence of the game, he'll find [[spoiler:a bizarre, [[AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield colorful]] virtual reality that's [[BossRush infested with minibosses]] and plays some rather [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3UIyAJPzA creepy music]] in the background]]. Come the FinalBattle against [[spoiler:[[AIIsACrapshoot Star Dream]], the Access Ark's mother computer]], it turns out that [[spoiler:beyond merely "eldritch", the Access Ark is actually the repurposed body of a ''[[DeusEstMachina Galactic Nova]]'', the clockwork comets from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' with enough power to [[MakeAWish grant any wish]].]]

** If a civilization opts to Become the Crisis, they gain access to the most eldritch ship design of all: the Star Eater. It's an enormous, black, [[SinisterGeometry perfect cube]], which, as its name suggests, can [[StarKilling cause any star to instantly collapse into a black hole]], annihilating everything else in the stellar system. Also, they're made ''entirely'' of dark matter, an exotic substance that can only be extracted from black holes. These Star Eaters are key to the Crisis Civilization's ultimate goal: [[spoiler:collapsing enough stars into massive quantities of dark matter to fuel the Aetherophasic Engine, which will annihilate the entire galaxy if completed]].

** A Prowler piloted by Aeryn once appeared to fade away, ghost-like, as she said goodbye to John. It's not clear whether this was actually the (never before seen) effect of a Prowler's FTL drive, or an abstract effect meant to emphasize John's sense of loss and isolation. If it was the former, it was quite unlike the usual depictions of FasterThanLightTravel in science fiction. Notably, ships in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' usually just accelerate to FTL, unless they're traveling through a wormhole, or the ship is a Leviathan using Starburst.

* [[EldritchAbomination Pa'anuri]] starships in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' are planet-sized constructions that are roughly spherical, but full of quite large gaps (as in, continent-sized). Just one is able to nearly destroy a solar system by going directly after the orbit of its primary gas giant. It's eventually revealed that these are made from the destroyed {{Planet Spaceship}}s of {{Precursor}} races, and are designed as a way around the Pa'anuri weakness to teraporting: they revive the dead Pa'anuri pilot when they arrive in the target system. [[spoiler:However, they're not eldritch enough that they can't be hijacked...]]

* The [[NightmarishFactory Star Forge]] in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' is this in spades. On top of its infinite production capabilities, it also feeds on the dark side impulses of its user, first corrupting its [[AbusivePrecursors Rakata]] creators and then Darth Revan and Darth Malak after they found it on the orders of the Sith Emperor Vitiate. It doesn't help that the station is partially sentient as a result of its feeding. Its capacity for corruption was so strong that Revan chose to limit his contact with the station to prevent it from driving him insane.

* The superhappy ship from ''Three Worlds Collide'', described as a "fractal of ugliness" that can survive a nova unprotected.

* The Cone Ship in ''WebComic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' is just a [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20130511.html giant, featureless white cone]] -- but inside it's a [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20130820.html seemingly infinite flat white plane.]] And if you manage to get off the plane, you see the ship's [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20140301.html true interior,]] a swirling mass of AlienGeometries weirdness.

* The ancient Pod Ship that the USS Enterprise encountered in the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''... as well as a few other ship designs from the animated version of the show. An expanded universe novel even specifically refers to this ship in mention as an "eldritch" ship.

*** More than just the strange way numbers work on the bill, but all numbers in a restaurant. Snap a breadstick in the wrong place and you'll find yourself plummeting into a star. [[http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Bistromatics Read all about the non-absoluteness of numbers in restaurants here]], it's far too long to try and give a simple quote.

* [[StarfishAlien Outsider]] starships in Larry Niven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' setting are spindly webs of material the size of small cities (in fact, they are the only place where Outsiders are known to live, spending most of their time in interstellar space following ''[[SpaceWhale Starseeds]]'' for reasons they refuse to tell anyone). The ships use an advanced reactionless drive which can accelerate/decelerate to a large fraction of the speed of light in moments without injuring the physically fragile crew (the Outsiders have hyperdrive, and sold the technology to humans, but [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace they refrain from using it themselves]]). The ships have no interior besides a few small rooms that can be pressurized for alien guests; the Outsiders [[BizarreAlienBiology live in the vacuum of space and ''eat'' by placing one end of their body in sunlight and another in shadow to generate thermoelectricity]]. To survive the long trips between stars, Outsider ships have an artificial sun, with the many spires of the ship casting shadows so that the crew can feed.

They might be constructed out of unconventional materials (or powered by them), be [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence connected to higher levels of reality]], or have an exceptionally UnusualUserInterface or [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} an otherworldly interior]] whose AlienGeometries look like they were designed by Creator/MCEscher. There's no guarantee that the crew or the ship itself won't [[MobileMaze change its interiors]] (or even [[TransformingVehicle its exterior]]) from time to time. Frequently they are a GeniusLoci or function as a SettingAsACharacter. These are, in essence, "Starfish" Starships -- ships based on StarfishAliens technology -- whose conceptual design and performance seem to defy the very laws of physics.

They might be constructed out of unconventional materials (or powered by them), be [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence connected to higher levels of reality]], or have an exceptionally UnusualUserInterface or [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} an otherworldly interior]] whose AlienGeometries look like they were designed by Creator/MCEscher. There's no guarantee that the crew or the ship itself won't [[MobileMaze change its interiors]] (or even [[TransformingVehicle its exterior]]) from time to time. Frequently they are a GeniusLoci or function as a SettingAsACharacter. These are, in essence, "Starfish" Starships -- ships based on StarfishAlien technology -- whose conceptual design and performance seem to defy the very laws of physics.

The milder form of this usually begins with BiggerOnTheInside or dimensionally transcendent in some way other than bog-standard FasterThanLightTravel, and it only grows weirder from that point on. May involve BodyHorror or invoke elements of CosmicHorrorStory.

They might be constructed out of unconventional materials (or powered by them), be [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence dimensionally transcendent]], or have an exceptionally UnusualUserInterface or [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} an otherworldly interior]] whose AlienGeometries look like they were designed by Creator/MCEscher. There's no guarantee that the crew or the ship itself won't [[MobileMaze change its interiors]] (or even [[TransformingVehicle its exterior]]) from time to time. Frequently they are a GeniusLoci or function as a SettingAsACharacter. These are, in essence, "Starfish" Starships -- ships based on StarfishAlien technology -- whose conceptual design and performance seem to defy the very laws of physics.

* [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070410023604/starwars/images/b/b2/Ravager.jpg The Ravager]] in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicII''. It's essentially a falling apart corpse of a ship held together only by the Dark Side powers of [[HumanoidAbomination Darth Nihilius]].

** Under "Starfish" ships, we have the gigantic, asymmetrical, and crystaline [[SiliconBasedLifeform lithoid]] ships, as well as end game crisis ships: [[spoiler:the SinisterGeometry of the [[AIIsACrapshoot Machine Consciousness]], the {{Living Ship}}s of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Prethyon Scourge]], and utterly bizarre transparent energy-ships of the [[EnergyBeings Extradimensional Invaders]].]]