On a mission to find new resources and allies, a Weave scout ship discovers Earth circa late 20th/early 21st century and finds that humans are uniquely suited as allies, in that they have the ability to fight, are adaptable to a wide variety of environments, have few (or sometimes no) compunctions regarding war (humans having been fighting each other for all of their recorded history), and above all seem even more enthusiastic when their aggression is focused on non-humans.

The Amplitur, with their mind-controlling abilities and therefore ease with which they control conquered populations, have gradually been pushing the Weave back for centuries and seem to be on track for final victory. However, most sentient species in the galaxy have evolved to be incapable of committing violence against other sentients (violence of any sort being most uncivilized, but against another sentient being a unthinkable crime), which leaves a shortage of warriors on both sides. Most of the fighting takes place on planetary surfaces, and is relatively restrained in terms of destruction, the purpose of the war being to convince and control one's opponents rather than destroy them. The Weave is a group of species allied in opposition to the Purpose. The Amplitur are attempting to join all sentient species in what they call the 'Purpose', an alliance they 'guide' to some unknown (even to them) end.

Two major alien civilizations, the Amplitur (a squid-like species with telepathic and mind-controlling abilities – which they couch as 'suggestions') and The Weave (a confederacy of more or less equal species), have been fighting a war for several millennia. The Damned Trilogy is a set of three science fiction novels by American writer Alan Dean Foster ( A Call to Arms, The False Mirror, and The Spoils of War), detailing human involvement in an interstellar war.

Aliens by Alan Dean Foster