Carrionites

Home Planet: Rexel 4
Life Form: Witch-Like Humanoid

The true form of a Carrionite resembled a female with wrinkled skin and large clawed hands, with sharp canine teeth. However, Carrionites could assume a near-Human form, and the Carrionite Lilith was able to assume the form of a beautiful young woman. Carrionites could fly, dematerialise and rematerialise at will, communicate with other Carrionites from a distance and use voodoo dolls to cause odd deaths in enemies. Though their abilities were described as witchcraft, it was actually based on a word-based science, as opposed to the mathematics of most species. This technology relied on the right words and the right places, such as the Carrionite's use of Globe Theatre's structure. The Carrionites waged a war on a species called the Hervoken who had similar powers. However, the Eternals banished them and the Hervoken to the Deep Darkness. Several billion years later in the late 1500s, a group of three - Bloodtide, Doomfinger and Lilith - escaped using words of power from the plays of William Shakespeare, partly the result of the writer's grief at the death of his son. They influenced the design of the 14-sided Globe Theatre, based on the planets of their star system, and planned to use his new play, Love's Labours Won, to free the rest of their race from the Darkness and take over Earth, to establish the "Millennium of Blood". The last few lines of the play were written by Shakespeare in a trance to be a spell said by one of the cast of the play to open a portal from the Deep Darkness to this universe. The portal was closed and the race of witches and all copies of Love's Labours Won vanished into the Darkness, thanks to the Doctor.

Episodes: The Shakespeare Code