The antagonist alien species in the FreeSpace games developed by Volition, Inc. and published by Interplay.
In the space combat sim game, the Shivans are a race of aliens from a far part of the universe. They have not attempted to contact or communicate with the other known races (Terrans and Vasudans) but instead seek out to destroy utterly all life and propertly affiliated with both species.
The name of the species originates from the Hindu god Shiva, the Destroyer and purger of the universe. There have been some theories stating that the vicousness and destructiveness of the Shivan race is that like a god purging the universe of all unclean things.
The Shivan space ships all have a menacing, insect and spiderlike design to them in both model and colour scheme. They are a vicious and ferocious warriors, sending in all their available starfighters and larger capital ships to any combat engagement when possible without ever attempting to retreat unless their forces are being rerouted to another combat zone.
Outside of their ships, the Shivans are large multilegged crab like creatures that are extremely agile. They have adapted to the zero-gravity environment of space and use their many flexible legs to crawl and jump around inside their ships.
As well, it has been documented that the Shivans are able to generate a beam weapon that emits from their large eye at the center of their bodies.