Typhon

"People are quick to project human features onto things they don't understand. The Typhon kill us without hesitation. But it's not because they're evil. It's because they can't do otherwise."

- Alex Yu talking about Typhon.

Typhon are hostile aliens encountered on Talos I during Prey (2017) and on Pytheas during Prey: Mooncrash. CAUTION: This article contains marked (and some unmarked) spoilers for Prey (2017) and Prey: Mooncrash. Read with care.

Overview
Typhon are hostile aliens, that were being kept on Talos I space station and Pytheas Moon base for study. The goal of the study was to give the powers that Typhon have to humans by mapping their Neural patterns onto Humans through Neuromods.

Meanwhile, the Neuromods themselves required the use of exotic materials harvested from Typhon organs, which was what enabled the modification of the neural networks in the human brain, even when used imprint human-derived abilities onto other human recipients. For that purpose, Talos I also housed the primary facility for exotic material production.

Characteristics
All Typhon are formed from a shiny, shimmering grey-black substance that seems to display the characteristics of solids, liquids and gasses all at once, and the Typhon can with ease change the structure and solidity of this to change shape, and use their appendages as weapons. This semi-solid form is also most likely the source of their high durability. Almost nothing is explained or revealed about their anatomy or biological makeup - indeed, their physiology is incomprehensibly alien. Their sizes and shapes vary greatly, ranging from small arachnid-like creatures to large humanoids and floating orbs, but the vast majority of them are vulnerable to kinetically induced trauma, be it via blunt force or ballistics, or quasiparticle supercharging.

Each Typhon species possesses different abilities such as mimicking matter, telekinesis, teleportation (i.e. quickly phasing or warping to a nearby location), generating fire, electricity, or corrosive gas, mind control, remote machine control, psychic assault, or even creating new species of Typhon. In spite of their complex neural structures, they lack mirror neurons, preventing them from empathizing with the suffering of other beings or even recognizing they are anything more than prey. It is for this reason that Alex Yu advises against calling them "evil", as they are not intentionally malevolent or cruel, simply pursuing what they see as a food source, which, according to January, is consciousness. Typhon are able to replicate or spawn more of themselves in strange processes, as evidenced by the abilities of Mimics and Weavers.

Despite lacking mirror neurons or empathy, Typhon are able to sense whether the life forms surrounding them are part of their collective or not. As such, they will not attack other Typhon that are not mind-controlled, but will instantly and relentlessly attack any other form of sentient, organic life, especially humans. The only exceptions to this are Tentacle Nests and Cystoids, whose response to their environment is solely based on motion detection.

Typhon Types

 * Apex
 * Cystoid
 * Mimic
 * Greater Mimic
 * Etheric Mimic
 * Thermal Mimic
 * Voltaic Mimic
 * Moon Shark
 * Nightmare
 * Phantom
 * Etheric Phantom
 * Thermal Phantom
 * Voltaic Phantom
 * Poltergeist
 * Technopath
 * Telepath
 * Tentacle Nest
 * Weaver

Early History
The Typhon were discovered on the Vorona-1 satellite, which was launched by the Soviets in 1958. The satellite was orbiting the moon until the Soviets lost communication with it. They then sent a manned mission to investigate. The repair team didn't find any external issues so the Soviet leadership ordered the cosmonauts to breach the satellite. In the moments that followed, the cosmonauts encountered a non-terrestrial life form, which killed all members of the mission.

After two years of silence, the Soviets contacted the United States and pleaded for help with containing the threat. President John F. Kennedy agreed, and in 1963, the US-Soviet collaboration resulted in the Kletka program. A permanent installation was built to contain the non-terrestrials. After a failed assassination attempt on Kennedy, the US seized control of the program and started to study the non-terrestrials, but were unable to harness their enigmatic abilities for military or commercial applications. After a containment failure lead to the death of the entire research team, the US abandoned the station. Eventually, the TranStar corporation secured the derelict station and transformed it into Talos I, a cutting edge innovation center. In just five short years, the team aboard Talos I achieved a great understanding of the Typhon organisms and started to apply their research to humans (in the form of Neuromods).

Modern Day
As of 2035, they Typhon have managed to breach containment and overrun the station, rapidly killing most of the crew. Some lucky individuals managed to escape or hold out in safehouses in the station. The Typhon contaminants have also spread to the nearby Pytheas moon base, also owned and operated by Transtar.

At the end of the game, it is revealed to "Morgan" that the Typhon have made it to Earth and overrun the planet. The current status of the human population is not known. Whatever real Morgan did, he failed to stop the Typhon contaminant aboard Talos I.

Trivia

 * Typhon is the name of a monster from Greek mythology and is considered the father of monsters.
 * According to the myth, Typhon battled Zeus for control of the universe, which mirrors (and may have inspired) Morgan's fight against the hostile alien race.
 * In reality, the function of mirror neurons in humans is the subject of much speculation, with one theory arguing that they are the neural basis for emotions like empathy.
 * The Pytheas Typhon differs from their Talos I counterparts in various ways, including their dermal texture.
 * The Nightmare, Moon Shark, Telepath, Technopath and Phantom are all Typhon species that were made by the Typhon ecology only because of humans.
 * The Nightmare is widely known as having been created to kill Morgan Yu. For more details, see the Nightmare page.
 * The Moon Shark (found in Prey: Mooncrash) was created using an unknown process by the greater Typhon ecology to live on the moon in the Crater on Pytheas. It's purpose is unknown, but it is clear that it was created for the purpose of thriving on the moon.
 * The Telepath's main ability relies on humans or other animals with human-like brains to operate. It is unlikely that the Telepath has any use in they Typhon's natural habitat. It was almost vertainly created by Weavers as an explicity anti-human typhon species.
 * They Technopath is similar to the Telepath in that it was created to take advantage of a certain part of Talos I. It is confirmed that the Technopath is a sort of offshoot of the Telepath. Again, it is unlikely that a technopath would have any use in the Typhon's natural habitat.
 * The Phantom is created from a human corpse by Weavers, and cannot be created any other way (Note that the phantom double that the Etheric Phantom creates isn't actually a phantom, merely a temporary assembbly of Etheric energy). Again, humans are not present in the Typhon's natural habitat.
 * All of the above contribute to the Typhon's ability to adapt and change to conquer their environment. There is a fitting analogy here with humans, with the Typhon being the greater colonizers that overrun the humans, finally offering humans the perspective of the lesser creatures that serve as collateral and resources for their own expansion.

Gallery
Тифон Typhon