illithid
Illithids are megalomaniacal in the extreme, tyrants driven by an immense ambition and intrinsically ruled by an overwhelming sense of self-importance. The Illithids seek nothing less than world domination. It is their destiny to attain mastery over the universe. The ultimate prize they yearn for is complete dominion over all the planes of existence, with the power to reshape reality and all within it to fit their designs. However, Illithids do not believe themselves to be horrifying monsters.
In the minds of the Illithids, their kind has acted as agents of "Order", forces of law tasked with taming a chaotic and unguided universe. They see the various races in its confines as potential thralls with no supervision, living out aimless existences and working with no direction. In this role as multiversal caretakers, the Illithids constantly work for what they see as the betterment of the cosmos, asserting their ultimate control to provide the restoration of order that only their superior species can bestow to all the multiverse.
The Illithids strongly believed in their manifest destiny, and view the task of bringing the multiverse to heel as one of great importance. The illithids instruct all who question this view to look at the biological facts, how they have stood at the top of the food chain and how all others have naturally fallen beneath them. While the Illithids recognized that other creatures have resisted their control, they perceive this as a natural result of reality's current state, the unknowing thralls within not knowing any better than to fight their masters.
Basic Information
Anatomy
An Illithid stands between 5'4" and 6'2", having humanoid shape and narrow build. Its head resembles an octopus, with four (rarely six) writhing tentacles where its mouth is. Its skin color ranges from mauve to a greenish lavender, soft and damp like an amphibious creature, and constantly covered by a layer of glistening slime.
An Illithid's hands have three narrow reddened fingers and a thumb, while its feet have two webbed toes. Its fingers and toes are capped with sharp nails, although despite appearances these are made from soft cartilage and do not serve well as weapons. Its eyes are pure white or yellow.
An Illithid's most deadly physical feature is its tentacled mouth. An Illithid's four prehensile tentacles can be extended from 2 feet to 4 feet in length, and the Illithid can manipulate them with great precision. Its small, circular mouth is lined with rows of teeth. It constantly drips an oily slime. Despite lacking a jaw, the Illithid is capable of speech.
Genetics and Reproduction
Growth Rate & Stages
There are four stages to the Illithid life cycle: Tadpole, ceremorphosis, Illithid or Ulitharid and the Elder Brain.
The tadpole spends the majority of its time in the Spawning Pool, fighting to survive in a constant contest with its siblings. This period of the life cycle lasts for about 10 years. The tadpoles are not considered to be intelligent or to even be individuals at this stage of their development. They are merely part of the generating process rather then a creature unto themselves. They are driven only by biological drives. An Illithid does not retain any memory from its time in this phase of the life cycle.
When implanted into a humanoid's brain, usually through an orifice such as the ear canal, nostril or eye socket, the tadpole starts consuming the gray matter of the humanoid's brain, eventually latching onto the brain stem. It then essentially replaces the brain, and forces the body into a physical transformation to an Illithid. There are several stages within the ceremorphosis stage: Implantation, Replacement, Metamorphosis and Emergence.
During this metamorphosis process, the Illithid is completely vulnerable. Thus, the advantage to bringing other Illithids from the colony. This means the newly forming Elder Brain will have someone to attend to them during the transformation. Otherwise, they must depend on their location to hide them as their only means for defense during this time.
With a new Elder Brain, a new colony is established. They are the undisputed ruler of their colony for the duration of their lives. They spend all of their time in the Spawning Pool whether their is an active clutch of tadpoles or not. They generally produce a clutch of eggs every thirty years. Each clutch tends to produce about twenty new Illithid individuals. However, this can vary greatly depending on the manner in which the tadpoles are attended to after they have reached maturity.
Elder Brains seem to live indefinitely. None have been known to have died from old age. Rather they died when their colonies are over thrown, diseases strike or other such circumstances occur. Because of this, the Elder Brains become the repository of the colony's history as well as its ruler. Most of the individual Illithids that die, become a part of the Elder Brain when their brain is consuming. Thus, increasing the knowledge of the Elder Brain and the colony.
Tadpoles
Ceremorphosis
Implantation
The initial stage, Implantation, lasts for approximately a few hours (3-5 hours) as the tadpole begins eating away at the host's brain. This is the only stage in which the victim can be saved from Ceremorphosis effectively. One method is to quite literally destroy the host's head, and cast resurrection or true resurrection on the host. Lost pieces of personality can be regained with the use of restoration and heal spells. A wish spell can also restore the host at this stage.Replacement
At this stage, the tadpole's personality takes over the host. If they are within 5 miles of an Elder Brain, the Illithid's alignment changes to lawful evil, and the process cannot be reversed save from any divine intervention by a god or the wish spell. This stage lasts around two hours.Metamorphosis
At this stage, the humanoid is considered incapacitated and cannot take any actions. During a period of one week, the humanoid's body begins shaping itself to resemble a typical Illithid. The tadpole secretes chemicals that begin to break down the host body from the inside out. These chemicals break down the host body into cells called imaginal cells. Imaginal cells are undifferentiated cells, which means they can become any type of cell. Many of these imaginal cells are used to form the new body. However, the host body's general framework is maintained and thus the Illithid carries traits from its host.Emergence
Once the metamorphosis is complete, the Illithid begins the process of becoming aware of themselves and their new body. This process takes about a week. The newly formed Illithid has no memories of its previous stages of life nor does it recall any of the host's life. The Illithid's brain was created during the metamorphosis process and is a clean slate. As such, it contains only the basic drives that all Illithids have.Illithid
This is considered the adult stage and the final stage for the majority of individuals. Illithids generally live to be 125 years old, but can live as long as 135. When they are old and begin the dying process, they seek out their Elder Brain with the goal of dying within the Spawning Pool. The Elder Brain will consume the brains of all Illithids that come to them because in so doing they gain all the memories of the that individual Illithid. Thus, Illithids believe that this is the path to immortality and an eternal unification with the colony.Elder Brains
For those exceptional and rare individuals that are Ulitharids, their end of life urges are entirely different. When they feel the beginning of the dying process, they are compelled to leave their colony and begin a new one. If possible, they will take other Illithids with them. Once they have found a suitable site for a new colony, they will begin their next and final stage of life. Each ulitharid carries a psionically enhanced staff made of black metal. When the ulitharid is ready to give up its life, it attaches the staff to the back of its head, and the staff cracks open its skull and peels it apart, enabling its brain to be extracted. The brain and the staff are then planted in the ulitharid’s corpse, causing it to dissolve into ichor. This psionically potent slime helps to fuel the transformation of the area into a brine pool that surrounds an embryonic elder brain.Ecology and Habitats
The Illithid prefers darkness and cooler environments. However, they are highly intelligent and thus have the capacity to adapt to almost any kind of environment.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The sustenance of Illithids are the brains of other creatures, mainly those of humanoids. Only brain tissue provides the required combination of the three essential components needed to sustain the Illithids physiology: hormones, enzymes, and psychic energy. Illithids also eat other foods, most of which contain the critical enzymes and hormones they need, with internal organs being good sources and high on the Illithid menu.
While certain essential biochemicals and hormones could only be found in brain matter, Illithids eat brains more for the psychic quotient of sentient gray matter than the physical nutrients. The Illithid nervous system is unique in that every nerve has a direct connection to the brain, meaning that a Illithid's digestive system is an extension of its brain, and therefore, along with the rest of the body, cognitive and self-aware in a sense. It is this unique digestive system that allows them to extract more than nourishment from their food.
Stray memories were acquired from a Illithid's prey, which they share with the other members of their colony. As a result of their parasitic nature, traces of the victim's individuality are also retained by a Illithid. While this does nothing to hamper their intelligence, it does influence their sense of culture and aesthetic preferences, ranging from their desired modes of architecture to their senses of style and decoration.
Psionic energy is extracted from the brain by an Illithid in the victim's last moments of activity. The psychic essence freed from brains is nourishing in a way far more efficient and potent than flesh could be alone, metaphysically reenergizing their metabolism so well that only one intelligent brain is needed per month for them to remain healthy. Without this minimum requirement met, an Illithid will slowly suffer physical debilitation and grow so weak that they will die in four months. Ideally they will eat a brain about every other week so as not to feel deprived.
It is common for Illithids to supplement their diets with other sources, by snacking on the brains of certain creatures they consider to be delicacies. Still, without the minimum essential brainpower, an Illithid will slowly waste away. It is possible, for an Illithid to sustain itself by only consuming the brains of sufficiently intelligent lifeforms, if necessary. Animals that demonstrate extraordinary intelligence, such as exceptional cats, dogs, or bears, for example, sometimes have the psychic quotient required to properly nourish an Illithid. However, these sources are unreliable and come with risk.
Illithids savor the minds they consume, and the brains of thinking beings are preferable to those of lesser lifeforms. Experiences and emotions are the part that makes the meal truly fulfilling, and the intelligence and imagination of the victim are a key factor in how highly rated a brain is. Various other elements influences the flavor of a brain: a sense of great self-importance gives brains a pleasing tanginess, those afflicted with demonic madness are more succulent than sane ones, and active, magic-filled, and experienced minds were among the tastiest of all. For these reasons, Illithids have preferences for specific types of brains. For example, free individuals are more satisfying than thralls, with the thrilling lives of adventurers ranking their brains highly. Those brains from exceptional scholars are also highly prized.
Beyond dietary necessity, Illithids consume brains because doing so is an enjoyable activity. Feeding was a euphoric experience for an Illithid, as it absorbed its victim's memories, personality, and deepest fears. If they can afford to eat more than one brain in a month, or even several in one week, they might choose to do so, obtaining both the pleasurable sensation and a psychic boost. All species are mere cattle before the Illithids, and to consume brains is their ultimate act of dominance over another creature. Additionally, it is a source of gaining knowledge and power for their colony. For at the end of their lives, every memory within their minds becomes a memory for the Elder Brain and thus knowledge for the colony.
However, in the Mundane world, eating brains is not well received and leads to rebellion. In order to prevent their people from rising against them, the consume the brains only of criminals and war prisoners. Because of this, there are many crimes that come with a death penalty. When possible, they will supplement their feedings with the brains of those they can sneak in, but this is rare because it presents a great risk to the colony.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
There are not many Illithids within the Mundane world. There is only one colony currently within the Mundane world that is within Bainbridge Island. The Shadow Kind have come to refer to those who live within this colony as Illithids. Those individuals that are not members of this colony are referred to as Mind Flayers and are usually spoken of as if not a part of the same species. The Mind Flayers are seen as the lesser threat as they have no means of reproduction as long as they have not established a colony.
Average Intelligence
They tend to be highly intelligent creatures.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Illithid eyes are extremely sensitive to bright light, and they consider it painful. In fact, their eyes are more sensitive to infravision than to visible light, so that the entirety of their visual acuity was through darkvision, and they can see two additional colors in the spectrum beyond the color red. In total darkness or under starlight, a Illithid can see clearly as far out as 480 feet (150 meters), but under direct sunlight that infravisual range decreases to just 15 feet (4.6 meters). Illithid vision is also more sensitive to the recognition of geometric patterns than that of other humanoids.
While it did not actually harm them, Illithids absolutely despise sunlight, avoiding it at all costs. They required only the heat created by the geothermic processes of planets to survive. Most Illithid can not imagine living in the sun without some form of protection. From the desiccating effect it has on their skins to the clouding of their vision, and the mere thought of being immersed in sunlight is as horrifying to them as drowning in blood would be to a human.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
They have adopted the American naming traditions as a way to better fit in with the Mundane world.
Major Organizations
Relationship Ideals
Illithids do not have biological sexes and thus do not engage in romantic relationships. However, their heavy consumption of human brains has generated an influence in their behaviors. This includes the desire for companionship and friendships. Generally, the Illithid will seek out those who are considered inferior to themselves and will attempt to establish a dominate role in the relationship. However, once this relationship is established, they will make every effort to take good care of their friend by ensuring that they have all their needs attended to and are lavishly spoiled. Affection from a Illithid generally results in a person being bombarded with material things that the Illithid believes they would desire.
Average Technological Level
TL2
History
The Illithids came through the Shadow Rifts into the mundane world like all other Shadow Kind. A strange quirk of having been pulled through the Shadow Rift is that they have lost their ability to plane shift. All of them. Thus far, none of them have been able to explain the reason for the loss of this ability, especially since their other abilities remain intact.
Because of the nature of their reproduction, they have not established much of a population in the Mundane world. A colony could only be established when an Ulitharid came through the rift. Thus, there is only the single colony in the Mundane world at this time.
Genetic Descendants
Origin/Ancestry
The Shadow Realm
Lifespan
125
Average Height
Between 5'4" and 6'2"
Average Weight
100-150#
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
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