Hello! Ric here with a index on a fantasy race with a science fiction twist, the multidimensional
travelling Illithid, also called Mind Flayers from Dungeons and Dragons lore. A quick disclaimer
here, D&D by its very nature, especially in its current edition, is designed to be easily
tailorable from campaign to campaign, so any lore for any source is malleable and only
true if you want to use the vanilla details. For this reason, I will be looking in their
(quotes) “official” lore and common traits as depicted in the Forgotten Realms, 5e and
Spelljammer to build a basic picture of them from biology, to history and culture. With
them, its all about the brains. Specifically, they eat brains. Upon doing
this, they absorb the memories and understand some personality traits form the victim, but
the Mind Flayer doesn’t necessarily reflect that absorbed person in any way. Although
continual consumption of a specific humanoid type might start to imbue that Mind Flayer
with those qualities leading to slight variation in cultural influence among different colonies.
A healthy Illithid has a glossy sheen to its skin and they need to consume a sentient mind
at least once a week to remain healthy from feeding on the energies of thought, more than
the nutritional value of the grey matter itself. Not only do they feast on brains, but they
have very powerful and persistent psionic powers that allow them to control vast quantities
of thralls. Doing this, they managed to rise to power and build a multidimensional empire
spanning numerous worlds. At its height, it even became a threat to the outer planes,
those realms that were governed over by deities and other god-like beings.
They dwelt in the Astral Space upon vast fleets of Nautiloids vessels, dreadnaughts and space
colonies. From these bioorganic vessels that resembled large conch shells or Fibonacci
spirals, they could pierce the veil between dimensions and cross easily from one realm
to the next making them not only an interstellar, but multidimensional power. Alongside their
ships, they established colonies on worlds that they had managed to usurp control of,
by enslaving the population. In the Spelljammer setting, a generally more sci-fi orientated
focus on traversing space, they created a thrall species called the Oortling to shepherd
and feed off. Originally a sentient species in their own right, the Illithid did what
they do, and overtook the entire society, making them cattle. As the name suggests,
they live on comets and asteroids, in a solar systems Oort clouds.
Another common tactic was to set up vacant ships to attract salvagers or the curious,
to acquire more thralls-to-be from the poor investigative crews of other vessels.
But, as with all Empires, one dominated species that they bred to serve them, the Gith, were
so efficient as slaves that they eventually grew resistant to the Mind Flayer’s abilities
with natural telepathic and telekinetic powers of their own. Thus, they rebelled. In less
than a year, the Gith tore apart the Illithid Empire and continue to pursue and harry the
Mind Flayers even millennia later. The Mind Flayers took shelter on the material planes
and planets, isolated from each other and loosing many Nautiloids to the Gith, cutting
off their easy access to other dimensions. The only Ilithid that survived were the ones
who fled deep underground into the Underdark, places far from the astral skies that they
once ruled. So complete was the Gith’s rebellion, that the ilithid were almost made extinct.
In the Forgotten Realms, they arrived around 12400 years ago from their colony on Glyth,
the ringed sixth planet in the solar system of that setting.
Because of this near-complete revenge from the Gith, the Mind Flayers lost much of their
history and now many questions remain concerning their origin. They know they are ancient,
predating most other species of the universe, but so too claim many other races of Dungeons
and Dragons lore. One theory states that they came back through
time, which is why no one can find their place of origin and why their history may be both
long, but conflicting with the claims of being the first. The most likely origin is that
they are from the Far Realms, beyond the known crystal spheres that make up the edges of
the universe. This plane of existence beyond the confines of the multiverse, is a dimension
where physics and the natural law is unlike anything experienced in our understanding,
our material plane. It has powerful psyche and physical warping effects on beings that
spend too long there, and certainly their aberrant forms match up with descriptions
of Lovecraftian horrors witness by those who have also entered into the Far Realms.
The Mind Flayers are genderless and have a parasitic life cycle and share a hive consciousness
alongside their own intellect. They begin by spawning a clutch of eggs, once or maybe
twice in a lifetime which are incubated in the brine tank of the Elder Brain, we’ll
circle back to that in a minute. The eggs hatch into tadpoles that feed on each other
and scraps of brain fed to them for around 10 years, before they are ready for their
next stage. They are then taken from their tank and presented to a captured slave or
thrall of any compatible species. If you’re squeamish with eye stuff, avert your gaze
for 10 seconds, because that is how they enter the victim’s skull to consume their brain.
As they grew, they replace the host’s mind in a process called ceremorposis, and they
anchor to the brains stem. The body then mutates into a new Mind Flayer, spouting four tentacles
from the face (a process that takes around a week).
This is the life cycle of most Illithid, who live for around 120-125 years. However, if
it has six tentacles, it is regarded as an Ulitharid, a “Noble Devourer”. This is
a more powerful Mind Flayer, who will eventually leave the colony to found its own as they
were not bound to the hive mind of the Elder Brain.
The Ulitharid, will then work to establish its own colony and when it reaches sufficient
size, it will evolve into a new Elder Brain, thus cementing a new hive mind. Tadpoles that
do not go through ceremorphosis, or that aren’t cannibalised by other tadpoles will become
a Illithocyte or Neothelid, an abomination to the Mind Flayers. Such a being would grow
into a wild, ravenous worm and as such, it was to be killed before it became a threat.
Alongside their own kind and their thralls, they often wove their psychic energies to
form various other serving creatures, such as the intellect devourer, a literal brain
on legs that can also communicated telepathically. These were used to guard, patrol and lure
people into their domain. They would also commonly alter simple creatures such as rats
to serve as scouts by endowing them with psionic powers linked to the elder brain. There are
also rare instances of renegade Illithid, such as most “Alhoon” an undead Mind Flayer,
but due to the overpowering hive mind of the Elder Brain, such instances of true independence
were very rare. The Ilithid could speak undercommon and Deep
Speech, the languages of the Underdark, their new lair, and the Far Realms, possibly their
old. However, as they used telepathy to talk, images and feelings worked better than verbal
dialogue to convey meaning. Their written language was Qualith, which just looked like
four lines but it was imbued with the writer’s psionic power so viewing it replayed the writer’s
intent in the mind. Currently, they are far more hostile, xenophobic
and paranoid than they were as a spacefaring power (although they were still evil, even
then). This is probably in response to the loss of their empire, the pervasive presence
of the hostile denizens of the Underdark and the continual hunt from the Gith that still
search to finish their eradication of the Illithid, millennia later. There are still
some Mind Flayers that are space-faring, with their own Nautiloid or Spelljammer starships
and not all are completely hostile. As their entire culture was once proficient
in planar travel and dimensional hopping, their perspective on deific beings was somewhat
different from those bound to one plane of existence. As such, they didn’t really have
a religion centred on a god or other being, as in their history, they had visited many
of these dimensions and saw the inhabitants as just that, resident species. And if they
were from the Far Realm, beyond creation, then how must they view these other beings
bound by inferior laws of physics. Dead Mind Flayers brains however are harvested
by their kin, and fed to the Elder Brain in a way to preserve its memories and knowledge.
They generally did follow two ideals, though, the pursuit of Ilsensine, ultimate knowledge
and secondly, Maanzecorian, the preservation of perfect memory. But different colonies
interpret even these in different ways, some all but making these ideals into literal presences
in the hive mind. Even ideals get weird when you’re psychics, it seems.
For the most part, the Illithid are dangerous and powerful entities that currently, build
deep underground networks of hives while amassing thralls to prepare for the time when they
can reclaim their self-righteous empire. However, their perilous existence is maintained as
much by secrecy and discretion, so their efforts are tempered by the fear of being discovered
and eradicated, especially by the Gith. This leads many to be a spiteful and cold-hearted
being, caught in between their efforts to dominate and to hide.
Thanks for watching this Index on the Mind Flayer’s of Dungeons and Dragons, although,
in most instances, a fantasy race, there was just such as strong sci-fi element to them
that I just could resist. As apparently, neither could a lot of you according to the last vote.
Speaking of, this time we’re turning our attention from something slimy, to fuzzy with
either choices being from the cat-like Caitian species of Star Trek, or the feline Zygerrian
of Star Wars. Let me know which one we should look at for the next index and until then,
thank you for watching this one. I’ll see you next time, thanks again, I’ve been Ric
and goodbye!