Mind Flayer

The Mind Flayers are unknown to most of the surface world, but they are the psychic terrors of the Underdark.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

Mind Flayers are powerful psychics, who use their powers to dominate other races, who they regard as "primitives". They do not show any sympathy or care for other races, regarding them alternatively as tools, hosts, food, and test subjects.
Mind Flayers use telepathy to communicate, and colonies of Mind Flayers share a psychic connection. They often use their psychic telekinesis to enable their levitation and flight.

Genetics and Reproduction

Mind Flayers have a distinctive reproductive process and they do not reproduce or give birth in the typical sense. In their larval form, they are parasitic tadpoles, which enter the skull of their host. Once inside, they change the body into a full Mind Flayer in a terrifying process. Additional larvae are produced by the most powerful Mind Flayers.

Additional Information

Average Intelligence

Mind Flayers are extremely intelligent.

Civilization and Culture

Historical Figures

A rogue Mind Flayer was reported to have engaged in the intrigue of the 6512 Dragon Heists.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Mind Flayers are commonly accompanied by Brain Abominations (sometimes called Intellect Devourers) and their thralls, taken from many races. Mind Flayers often include umber hulks and other Underdark creatures as their thralls. Some Mind Flayers achieve more powerful forms.
Most surface peoples have little knowledge of the Mind Flayers, considered to be rumors or speculation, despite scattered reports of Mind Flayers spying on the surface inhabitants or abducting individuals. The most comprehensive texts on the subject are written by Volo, but they are dismissed by most serious scholars. According to Volo, the Mind Flayers are from a vast empire in the future, but returned to the past to begin their conquest anew. Volo theorized that the Mind Flayers had a hand in the evolution of many races, including the neogi, the morlocks, the bugbears, and the duergar. Unknown to the general populace, the Atathian Empire Owl Legion is investigating the Mind Flayers as a serious threat following the Endless Winter of 6512.
Within the Underdark, Mind Flayers are feared and hated by all races. Mind Flayers are the "Great Enemy" of the Duergar, who escaped from slavery under the Mind Flayers millennia ago yet were permanently changed by their torment. The aboleths themselves reportedly fear the Mind Flayers, having no knowledge of them.

Average Physique

Mind Flayers have thin, frail bodies. They have distinct heads, with oversized craniums, glossy black eyes, and four tentacles surrounding a vicious mouth.