The Tengu are part of Japanese folklore. In 2005 they were first used by Chaosium as a fictional race for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
Background[]
The Tengu are an alien race of bird-like humanoids that have crow-like features, talons, shiny black wings, a beak and bird-like feet along with human-like hands and a bipedal form. Its members can live for centuries, with elders growing long wiry beards. They cannot fly but travel via astral apportation, in which they turn into an energy state, travel via the astral plane, and reform physically elsewhere. Due to being multi-dimensional entities, they can regenerate by drawing ethereal energy from the astral plane. Tengu are incredibly agile and due to their ascetic training they are also highly skilled martial artists who are able to harness their Chi to increase the power of their strikes and able to use pressure points to stun, immobilize, or kill opponents.
The Tengu arrived on Earth over 50,000 years ago and have settled the mountainous regions of Asia, and since then have intermittently warred with the Mi-Go over territory. Tengu originally shared their home star system with the byakhee. Seeking to become the masters of Aldebaran, for many millennia they waged war against the byakhee. On the verge of defeat the byakhee appealed to Hastur for help, whom demenaded their servitude. To destroy the byakhee, the Tengu summoned Ghroth. It consumed the byakhee homeworld, which then plunged into its sun, resulting in a cataclysm. The Tengu fled and scattered across the cosmos, some of whom arrived on Earth. Because of this, the Tengu have become the sworn enemies of Hastur. Due to the influence on Buddhism by one of his avatars, the Emerald Lama, the Tengu are usually antagonistic toward Buddhist institutions. They enjoy tricking and tormenting Buddhist monks, leading them astray. They are a mystical race whose members can weave illusionary magics to fool the senses, communicate via telepathy and, if skilled enough, can possess the body of a human.