Mind Flayer
Mind flayers, also known as illithids (meaning "mind flayers" or "mind rulers" in Undercommon), were evil and sadistic aberrations. Dwellers of deep Underdark areas, these alien humanoid-looking beings sought to expand their dominion over all other creatures, controlling their minds to use them as hopeless slaves and devouring their brains for sustenance. Their natural psionic abilities also made mind flayers respected in the eyes of the drow, beholders, duergar, and other dominant races of the Underdark.
Appearance
Mind flayers were humanoid in appearance but with an octopus-like, ridged head with four tentacles surrounding a lamprey-like mouth. They were warm-blooded amphibians, whose blood had a silvery-white color. Their hands had long, reddish fingers and lacked the index finger, and their feet were two-toed and webbed. Mind flayer eyes were extremely sensitive to bright light, and they considered it painful. Mind flayers that were healthy from brain-rich diets excreted a kind of slimy mucous substance that coated their mauve skins.Culture
Mind flayers were tyrants, slavers, and planar voyagers. They viewed themselves as masterminds, controlling, harvesting, and twisting the potential of other creatures to further their evil and far-reaching goals. Although they cooperated to achieve a goal, they would back away at the first sign that something was not profitable to their self-serving interests. Mind flayers were aggressive and elitist and would attempt to mentally dominate any non-slave, non-illithid that they met. However, despite their aggressiveness, illithids were ultimately a paranoid and fearful race. Emotionally, a mind flayer appeared detached and calm, showing no signs of passion or loss of control. However, sometimes they showed great bouts of anger, which were difficult to identify as true emotions or mere display. The mind flayer mind knew only negative emotions, only finding fulfillment in the angry and sadistic act of consuming a brain. The closest to happiness any mind flayer could know was in its pride and in satisfying its curiosity.Abilites
In spite of their lack of physical abilities, mind flayers were feared by all beings in the Underdark because of their great mental prowess. In addition to the small array of mind-affecting spells that every illithid had at its disposal to take control of its prey, they also frequently employed a powerful mind blast to affect a multitude of foes. The mind flayer's mind blast was a 60‑foot (18‑meter) cone that stunned anyone caught within it. Normally, a mind flayer would use its mind blast ability to stun a few foes and then drag them away to feed. Once it had its victims, it would attach all of its tentacles to the head of one of its prey. Then, the mind flayer sucked out the brain, instantly killing the creature, as long as it only had one head. The mind flayer used its other spells mainly to enslave its minions and keep them under total control. It also used its spells on the battlefield. Their abundant psionic powers allowed them to levitate at will, as well as to detect the thoughts of nearby creatures and to dominate or charm any kind of creature in their vicinity. Additionally, there were reports of mind flayers capable of controlling other by power of suggestion.Ecology
Illithids fed on the brains of sentient creatures (mainly humanoids). This was the only kind of nourishment that could sustain the mind flayer physiology, which required hormones, enzymes, and psychic energy that only brain tissue could provide. Feeding was a euphoric experience for a mind flayer, as it absorbed its victim's memories, personality, and fears. It was also viewed by them as the ultimate form of dominance over another creature. A mind flayer needed to consume at least one intelligent brain per month in order to remain healthy. Malnourished mind flayers died after four months of brain deprivation. The psionic energy also left traces of the original prey's individuality on a mind flayer's sense of culture and aesthetics. Illithids were all sexless, without male or female biological sex, and once or twice in their life they would lay a clutch of eggs from which tadpoles hatched. The tadpoles were kept in the elder brain tank, where they were fed brains by caretakers and engaged in cannibalism for around ten years. The elder brain also fed exclusively on tadpoles. Tadpoles that survived to maturity were put through the ceremony of ceremorphosis, where each was implanted into a humanoid victim and devoured its brain, taking its place and merging with the body to transform it into a new illithid. Only some humanoid species were suitable hosts for illithid tadpoles.Society
Mind flayer colonies operated as a single hive mind, with control centralized by an elder brain, a singular entity that exerted its telepathic control simultaneously over all mind flayers within a radius of 5 miles (8 kilometers). The elder brain was the heart of the community. Held in a pool of briny fluids, the elder brain consisted of all the brains of the dead mind flayers in the colony. It served as the center of the communication network, relaying information received from one mind flayer to the entire colony, storing all the collective knowledge of the colony, and issuing commands to individual mind flayers. The degree of control and organization exerted by the elder brain over a mind flayer community was so absolute that it was more convenient to think of a mind flayer colony as a single individual: the elder brain. Although mind flayers willingly came together to achieve an end, they were always vying for more control in the community, but even then they were always beneath the elder brain.
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