Furies are a collection of incredibly powerful, non-humanoid races from another galaxy. These races, of which there are 666 make up a collective known as the Host. (VOY novel The Final Fury).
The Furies are well-regarded by many species as one of the the most terrifying races in existance and as one of the greatest threats to the galaxy. Furies appear horrifyingly ugly and as hideous demons or nightmarish creatures, although some Furies resemble mythological creatures from the myths and legends of other races; such as the Human Devil and Medusa, and the Klingon Fek'lhr. Furies are naturally adept at striking fear deep into other races and they use this to their advantage. Fury vessels wield powerful weapons and are constructed with extremely dense outer hulls, making them resilient to most conventional weaponry. In the Twenty-Fourth Century, the Furies developed basic shielding for their vessels and the devastating fear weapons.
As a race, Furies have a deep and complex culture, bound by loyalty, duty, pride, honor, and remembrance. Each Fury posseses a small doll made of strange fabics, which they carry with them at all times. Within each doll, a Fury stores the memories they have accumulated over a lifetime. The Furies regard their dolls as their greatest artifacts and most important treasures, and will always place the safety of their dolls above their own lives. If a Fury ever lost their doll, their memory and all of their accomplishments would be lost and forgotten. It is traditional for a defeated Vergo to destroy their vessel and place the dolls of their crew within an escape pod. Furies do not burn their dead as in some other cultures, but respect them and burn only the living.
The singular leader of the Hosts is known as the Autarch.
History of the Furies
Exile
The Furies originally ruled the Milky Way Galaxy until they were defeated in a long war that took place in the Alpha Quadrant against the Unclean, an equally powerful, non-humanoid race. After their defeat, the Furies were driven and exiled from their territories in the Alpha Quadrant and Beta Quadrant, never to return. The Furies were banished to the Delta Quadrant region of the galaxy where they supposedly remained for millenia, developing a way to travel beyond the immense distances from their exiled home to return and reclaim their former territories.
The First Strike (2267)
In 2267, the Furies breached the Milky Way Galaxy using a form of artificially generated inter-galactic wormhole travel. First contact with the Furies was made by General Kellen of the Klingon Empire shortly after their emergence. Captain James T. Kirk, commanding the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), was summoned by General Kellen to aid in dealing with the Furies.
Although efforts were made to establish friendly relations with Vergo Zennor of the Fury vessel, Rath, vast differences in cultures finally ignited hostilities between the Furies and the Federation and Klingons. As the invasion began, the Furies quickly proved much more fearsome and powerful than the Alpha Quadrant races could have ever imagined. The Rath quickly crippled the Enterprise and several Klingon vessels with its superior weapons. Although the Furies lacked the knowledge of shields, their vessel was composed of an extremely durable hull that proved resilient to phasers, distruptors, and even photon torpedoes. Captain Kirk managed to defeat Vergo Zennor by using a tractor beam to tear off the outer hull of the Fury ship and expose its vulnerable inner hull. A combined volley from the Enterprise and the Klingons finally succeeded in destroying the Fury vessel. With the destruction of the Rath and the collapse of the artificial wormhole, the terrifying galactic threat of the Furies seemed to have ended. The system of first contact was later named the Furies Point by the Federation. (TOS novel: Invasion!, #1: First Strike).
Second Strike (2371)
The Final Fury
The Furies decided that a full scale invasion would now be necessary in order to reclaim their former territory. In order to accomplish this, they created a powerful energy collector that surrounded their exiled home's star. This energy collector was intended to cause the sun to go nova, which would transmit a great deal of energy to an artificial moon built in orbit above the Fury planet. After receiving the energy, this moon would have created a wormhole that would have sent the home world back to the Alpha Quadrant.
However the Furies did not plan on a lone Federation starship - USS Voyager - interfering with their plans. After discovering what the Furies were up to, Captain Kathryn Janeway sent Lieutenants Sam Redbay and B'Elanna Torres on a mission to destroy the moon. Despite being exposed to the Fury terror inducing weapon, both gathered the strength to continue their mission. When the two realized that even a small change to the alignment of the Fury transmitter would keep the Furies from jumping into the Alpha Quadrant, they managed to perform this adjustment. When the transmitter activated after the sun went nova, the wormhole formed and enveloped the Fury planet, but the Furies did not jump into the Alpha Quadrant as planned, having gone somewhere else entriely. The crew of the Voyager did not know for certain where the Furies wound up afterwards - if the Furies had wound up in the Gamma Quadrant, the Lesser Magellanic Clouds, or if they had jumped into inter-galatic space. The fate of the Furies after this event remains unknown.