Today we’re talking about Illithids, also known as mind flayers, they are alien looking
humanoids that live deep within the Underdark.
They have brain powers, and use their psionics to dominate and control other creatures.
Doing so creates slaves for their hive mind.
Now the mind flayers were once the dominant race of the Inner Planes.
They created space ships called nautiloids that were able to cross between planes.
From there they would harvest intelligent species for food, gathering slaves, and to
create new mind flayers.
The race most affected by the Mind Flayers were the Gith which made up the majority of
their slave population.
But like all large empires the Mind Flayers fell when their mind controlled gith somehow
broke the mental bonds that held them.
They rose up against the mind flayers and in less than a year the mind flayer empire
collapsed.
Today the mind flayers are scattered about the universe, in hiding from the Gith.
Who split into two factions the githyanki and the githzerai.
The gith routinely send out hunting parties to find and slaughter the remaining mind flayers.
Upon coming to Faerun the obvious place to hide was the underdark, which is where you’ll
find the majority of Mind Flayers on Toril.
Their consumption of brains means that mind flayers won’t be that far away from other
intelligent humanoids.
They need these intelligent creatures as food but also to propagate their species.
Now Mind Flayers eat brains and retain some of the memories from that brain.
They have a hive mind so these memories are shared with the colony of Ilithids.
Despite having a hive mind the mind flayers think for themselves.
This isn’t like the overmind with the zerg, or even the borg where all minds are one.
They communicate with each other and share information but are still considered separate
beings.
There is a central core to their thoughts and that is the Elder Brain.
A gigantic brain that resides at the bottom of a pool filled with briny fluid.
If the Hive mind is a network then Mind Flayers are nodes in that network and the Elder brain
is the center of it all.
Volo’s guide to monsters describes the mind flayer colony as a great library of lore stored
within its members’ minds, with the elder brain as the librarian.
There are limits on the Elder Brain, it can only stay in communication with its mind flayers
up to a 5 mile radius.
Usually a mind flayer won’t leave the colony unless specifically directed by the Elder
Brain.
Leaving can be dangerous but returning with new information can be extremely valuable.
The Elder Brain has no empathy for creatures other than itself, and views it’s illithid
army as an extension of its will.
Much like a mind flayer controlling a thrall slave so does the Elder Brain exert its will
over the mind flayers.
This is not to say that mind flayers are merely slaves or trapped, in fact many of them want
to be there protecting the Elder Brain.
Sometimes a mind flayer wanders too far away from the Elder Brain, or the Elder Brain suffers
an attack and the connection is broken.
These renegade mind flayers will usually wander fearful of gith attacks in hopes to make a
new colony.
Mind Flayers reproduce by laying eggs.
These eggs hatch into a larva type creature that must be inserted into a victim's brain,
usually through the ear or nostril.
There it slowly devours the brain of the victim while attaching itself to the body, eventually
the mind flayer replaces the brain.
During this week long metamorphosis the body of the victim changes to resemble an illithid.
Grayish skin, no hair, and four tentacles around its mouth.
Certain height and weight criteria exist for a successful transformation.
Implanted tadpoles develop too quickly inside small humanoids such as halflings, and too
slowly in giant ones.
Such development mishaps abort the whole process, killing both the victim and the tadpole.
Thus Acceptable hosts are humans, elves, drow, the gith, grimlocks, gnolls, goblins, and
orcs.
Every once in awhile an Ulitharid is created during this process.
An Ulitharid is not beholden to the Elder Brain and eventually leaves the colony to
start a new one.
It takes a few mind flayers with it and when it is roughly 100 miles away from the old
colony it will change into an Elder Brain to start a new colony.
The original Elder Brain hates the independant thought an ulitharid but knows it is necessary
for the propagation of their species.
Mind flayers don’t have tongues or lips like most other humanoids making speech difficult
for them.
They have vocal chords but the inability to form most words.
Thus mind flayers use telepathy to speak to other creatures when it is deemed necessary.
Although they have natural psionic abilities mind flayers can learn to harness arcane and
even divine magic.
When they need to cast a spell using a vocal component or utter the command word of a magic
item they can push a tentacle down their throat and curl it up to form a faux tongue of sorts.
This is highly uncomfortable for the mind flayer and for us to think about, so let’s
move on.
Mind Flayers create thralls by psionically stripping down a creature and rebuilding up
it’s personality and specialities.
Humanoids are best for this as they have opposable thumbs and the ability to craft and use tools,