Pathfinder Kingmaker Mind Flayer
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Pathfinder kingmaker mind flayer Continue This article has several problems. Help improve it or discuss these issues on the speech page. (Learn how and when to delete these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Help improve this article by adding citations to trusted sources. Unmapped material can be questioned and removed. Find sources: Illithid – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2014) (Learn how and when to delete this template message) This article describes a work or element of fiction in a universe-style primarily. Help write about it to explain fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspectives. (September 2013) (Learn how and when to delete this template message) (Learn how and when to delete this template message) IllithidFirst appearanceThe Strategic Review #1, Spring 1975InformationTypeAberrationAlignmentAlmost always Legal Evil In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids (commonly known as mind flayers) are monstrous humanoid abnormalities with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign environment, they live in the damp caves and towns of the huge Underdark. Illithids believe themselves to be the dominant species of multiverse and use other intelligent creatures like thralls, slaves and chatter. Illithids are well known for making thralls of other intelligent creatures, as well as feasting on their brains. Licensing The illithid is considered Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Game License. [1] Publication history Mind flayers were created by Gary Gygax, who has said that one of his inspirations for them was the re-enactment of the Titus Crow book The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley. [2] Tim Kirk's cover art on the book, then in his first printing house, depicted only the tentacles of the titular Burrowers, the Chthonians. [3] Dungeons & Dragons (1974–1976) Mind flayers first appeared in the official newsletter of TSR Games, The Strategic Review #1, Spring 1975. Here, the mind flayer is described as a super-intelligent, artificial creature with four tentacles at its mouth that it uses to beat its prey. When it hits prey with a tentacle, the tentacle penetrates into the brain and pulls it out, allowing the monster to devour it. A mind flayer large weapon is given like Mind Blast, a 5-foot radius wave of PSI force that affects each opponent in different ways based on how intelligent it is; possible effects include permanent mindedness, rage, confusion, coma, and death. [4] They were also part of the Eldritch Wizardry supplement,[5][6] for the original (white box) Dungeons & Dragons game (1976), in which they are described as superintelligent, male-shaped creatures of great (and legal) evil, with tentacles penetrating the brain and pulling it out mat. Advanced Dungeons & 1st edition (1977–1988) The mind flayer appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977). [7] Roger E. Moore authored The Ecology of the Mind Flayer, which appeared in Dragon #78 (October 1983). [8] The article The Sunset World by Stephen Inniss in Dragon #150 (October 1989) presented a world that had been ravaged entirely by sensory flakes. The Dragon's Bestiary column, in the same issue and by the same author, described illithidae, the strange inhabitants of this world. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989–1999) The mind flayer first appears in Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989),[9] and is reprinted in Monstrous Manual (1993). [10] The ulitharid, or noble illithid, was introduced in the Dungeon adventure Thunder Under Needlespire by James Jacobs in Dungeon #24 (July/August 1990), and later included in monstrous kompendium Annual One (1994). The complete Psionics manual (1991) presented ways on using the mind flayers with psionic superiority. [11] Alhoon, also known as illithilich or mind flayer lich, was introduced in the Menzoberranzan-boxed set, in the booklet Book One: The City (1992). The book The Illithiad (1998),[12] and the Monstrous Arcana module series that accompanies it, greatly develops the mind flayer further. Illithiad introduced the illithid older brain and illithid-roper junction, urofion. The Dawn of the Overmind module contained an original story for the Illithids. [13] Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000–2002) The mind flayer appears in the Monster Manual for this release (2000). [14] Savage Species (2003) added the mind flayer race class, allowing Mind Flayers to be played from level 1 onwards until they reached parity with normal Mind Flayers, and added the prestige class Illithid Savant. [15] Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003–2007) The mind flayer (Illithid Savant) appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), in both playable and non-playable forms. One of the differences between the playable Mind Flayer in the Monster Manual and Mind Flayer race class in Savage Species is that the race class has only itself as a favored class, while the normal Mind Flayer has the guide as a favored class. The mind flayer got its own chapter in the book Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations (2005). [16] The Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004) re-introduced the psionic mind flayer, describing the differences between psionic and normal mind flayers, although creating a Psionic mind Flayer still requires the information from the monster manual. [17] Monster Manual V (2007) introduced the concept of thoon, a driving force (be it some alien god, outside philosophy, or other driving incentives) that has changed several mindflayers's world prospects. Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (2008–2014) The mind flayer is included in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008). [18] Dungeons Dragons 5th edition (2014–present) The mind flayer appears in the Monster Manual for this release (2014). [19] Typical physical characteristics of Illithids have a humanoid body with an octopus-like head. They have four tentacles around a lamprey-like mouth, and require brains of sentient beings as part of their diet. An illithid who snares a living creature in all four of its tentacles can extract and devour his living brain. Their eyes are pale white, and they can look just fine in both darkness and light. Their sense of hearing is slightly poorer than that of a man; they have difficulty distinguishing between multiple sounds mixed together, yet they are good at discerning from which direction the sound came from. Their skin is purplish blue to gray-green and covered in mucus, and is very sensitive to sunlight. They hate sunlight, even if it doesn't actually hurt them. One of their most feared powers is the dreaded Mind Blast, where the ire emit a cone-shaped Psionic shockwave with their mind to incapacitate any creature for a short time. Illithids also have other psionic powers, generally telepathic in nature, although their exact effects have varied across editions. Other forces include a defensive psionic shield and powers of psionic dominance to control other people's minds. Biology illithids are hermaphrodite creatures that each spawn a lot of larvae two or three times in their lives. The larvae resemble miniature illithid heads or four-tentacled tadpoles. Larvae are left to develop in the pool of elder brain. Those who survive after 10 years are inserted into the brainof a sapient creature. Hosts are determined in a very specific way. Hosts in general are humanoid creatures that are between 5 feet 4 inches and 6 feet 2 inches. The most desirable of races for hosts are People, Drow, Elves, Githzerai, Githyanki, Grimlocks, Gnolls, Goblinoids, and Orcs. When the larva is implanted (through the ear canal) grows and consumes the larva host's brain, absorbs the host's physical shape completely and becomes sapient itself, a physically mature (but mentally young) Illithid. This process is called ceremorphosis. Illithids often experiment with non-humanoid hosts, but ceremorphosis involving other creatures usually fails, killing both host and caterpillar. The transformation between values (almost always a human or similar humanoid, such as an elf or dwarf) takes about a week, if not detected and removed within about thirty minutes of injection into the incapacitated host. When an Illithid undergoes ceremorphosis, it can sometimes take on certain parts of the absorbed host creature's former mind, such as mannerisms. This usually manifests itself as a minor personality function, such as a nervous habit or reaction (e.g. nail-biting or tapping a foot), even if the process that determines the type and number properties so inherited seem to be stochastic. Some adult Illithids have even been known to hum a song that its host knew in life. Usually, when a mind flayer inherits a trait like this, it keeps it a closely guarded secret, because, its peers were learning from it, the illiders in question would likely be killed. This is due to an Illithid legend about a creature called Adversary. Legend has it that, eventually, an Illithid larva undergoing ceremorphosis will take on the host's personality and memory in its entirety. This adversary, mind and soul, would still be values, but with all the inherent abilities of an Illithid. Sometimes ceremorphosis can partially fail. Sometimes the larva does not contain enough chemicals to complete the process, sometimes there is psionic interference. Whatever the reason, it has happened that ceremorphosis has ceased after the internal restructuring, resulting in a human body with an Illithid brain, personality and gastrointestinal tract. These unfortunates still have to consume brains, usually by cutting open heads (because they lack the necessary tentacles). These creatures are often used as spies, where they easily blend in with their respective host types. The Illithid community also maintains a longstanding taboo related to abnormalities or failures of the ceremorphosis process and hunt and destroy such exceptions.