Characters and races of The Dark Crystal

The characters from the 1982 cult fantasy film The Dark Crystal series were created by puppeteer Jim Henson and concept artist Brian Froud.

Most of the information about specific characters and species names that were not mentioned in the film come from supplementary materials such as Froud's book The World of the Dark Crystal.

The Gelfling once had a flourishing civilization with a writing system similar to hieroglyphics, having relied on Aughra during the Age of Innocence before the urSkeks' arrival, which hastened their development while they venerated the aliens for their advancement.

Eventually, the Gelfling learned that one among them was destined to find the Shard and restore the Crystal to its natural state alongside the urSkeks during an upcoming Great Conjunction.

[1] Jen is a young male Gelfling and the protagonist of the film, having been raised by the urRu Master urSu from infancy when his family was slaughtered by the Garthim.

Having escaped the slaughter of her people when hidden by her mother in a hollow tree trunk, Kira ended up wandering into a Podling village and was adopted by them.

The Grottan Clan have large ears and big eyes to help them move around in the dark, but are sensitive to sunlight causing them to wear special blindfolds to filter the light.

But she was saved from death by the urSkeks with their member TekTih teaching her of the inner workings of the universe while creating her observatory home on top of a mountain known as High Hill, Aughra providing information on Thra in return.

Present at the second Great Conjunction that splintered the urSkeks, Aughra attempted to calm down the nascent Skeksis before they cracked the Crystal of Truth and tricked her into entering a deep slumber to see the universe before she reawakens during the events of Age of Resistance.

Oz also voiced Aughra originally (similar to a combination of Fozzie Bear, Yoda, and Miss Piggy); but her lines were redubbed by Billie Whitelaw.

The fabrication team for Aughra included: David Barclay, Jeremy Hunt, Paul Jiggins, Graeme Galvin, and Steve Court.

Since later novels and the TV series, these characters are no longer canon: More commonly known as the "Mystics", the urRu are benign counterparts of the Skeksis and embody the urSkeks' redeeming qualities yet are mostly indifferent and rarely act.

While initially lean and fairly agile creatures, nearly identical to the Skeksis, the urRu aged differently from their counterparts as they began using walking sticks to move around while gradually losing their memories.

The urRu have four arms, elongated heads, white hair, and tails, in a manner that concept artist Brian Froud described as being "... between a dog and a dinosaur".

Once on Thra, presenting themselves as "light bringers", the urSkeks spend the next thousand years hastening the development of the planet's people while exploiting Aughra's interest in the universe to acquire the Crystal of Truth from her.

Lee novels, these are the canon 18 UrSkeks: The Podlings, also known as the Pod People, are a species of gentle "earth-people" native to Thra and affiliated with the Gelflings, named for the giant seed-pods in which they live.

With The World of the Dark Crystal revealing that many were initially lured to the Castle, the Podlings were abducted from their homes by the Garthim so that skekTek can extract their vital essence for a youth serum reserved for the Emperor.

While the serum's effects are temporary compared to the essence extracted from Gelflings, the process turns the Podlings into aged and mindless slaves who submit to the Skeksis' commands.

The unnamed Podlings in the film are performed by Dave Goelz, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz and voiced by Barry Dennen, Patrick Monckton, and Sue Weatherby.

The design and fabrication team for the Podlings consisted of Bob Payne, Amy Van Gilder, Mike Quinn, Cheryl Henson, Marianne Harms, Nick Forder, Sarah Monzani, Peter Saunders, and Debbie Coda.

In The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, their origins are shown at the end of the first season as skekTek reveals the first Garthim (performed by Daniel Dewhirst) following the fight at Stone-in-the-Wood.

While the urRu convinced the Skeksis to not exterminate the Makraks, Raunip participated in the peace talks and suggested their relocation to the region known as the Field of Fire.

After bidding farewell to Aughra, who wept silently after he left, Raunip succeeds in his mission despite half of his face burnt and on the verge of death.

While they resemble Gelflings, the female Firelings lack wings and the older members of the race had fin-like ears and sported a pair of antennae on their foreheads.

She was the heir of one of Mithra's Ember Queens and the first Fireling to leave her homeland since the race's creation, heading to Thra's surface world in a misguided quest to retrieve a shard from the Crystal in order to stop the Great Dim.

Her return home after the crisis saw her confront Nita, a rival claimant to her position as Ember Queen, though the two eventually joined forces in order to stop the Fire That Stays from finishing what the Great Dim had started.

Debuting in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, skekGra and urGoh placed him in a chamber beneath the Vapra Clan's throne room to await the Gefling that would revive him.

Lore is awakened by Brea in "The First Thing I Remember is Fire," playing skekGra's recording to explain himself as her guide and protector in her journey to Circle of the Suns.

In the production of The Dark Crystal, the Landstriders were performed by professional stiltwalkers operating on four stilts like Robbie Barnett, Swee Lim, and Hugh Spight.

In the first season of Age of Resistance, skekSil provided two known Gruenak survivors (performed by Kevin Clash and Neil Sterenberg) with stitched mouths to assist skekTek in repairing his essence extraction machine and improve on it.