Carrionite

The Carrionites were an apparently entirely female species of humanoids. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)

Biology
The true form of a Carrionite resembled a female with wrinkled skin and large clawed hands. Inside their mouths are 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, a trick she used to ensnare male victims.

The Carrionites that were summoned by the final lines of Love's Labours Won were even more horrific, with no visible legs, massive claws, beak-like noses and hooked chins. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)

Technology
Carrionites could fly, dematerialise and rematerialise at will, communicate with other Carrionites from a distance and use poppets 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. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)


 * ''The fact their science was largely implemented using words alone, without much use of instrumentality, suggests that their powers were derived from the lexical equivalent of block transfer (which used pure mathematics to reshape reality).

History
At "the dawn of the Universe", the Carrionites evolved in their 14-planet star system and developed their word-based science. However, the Eternals banished them to the Deep Darkness using a special word of power. In time, they passed into legend like most species from the Dark Times.

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, in 1599, planned to use his new play, Love's Labours Won, to free the rest of their race from the Darkness and take over Earth, removing Humanity from it as a pestilence, to establish the "Millenium 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. However, the portal was closed and the race of witches and all copies of Love's Labours Won vanished into the Darkness thanks to the help of the Doctor, who told him that he was "the wordsmith" and could create the new words of power to send them back into the Darkness, and Martha Jones, who provided the last word - "Expelliarmus" - from the Harry Potter series of novels.

The Carrionites were probably Shakespeare's inspiration for the Weird Sisters of his play, Macbeth. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)