Illithid

A race of squid-like people with psionic powers. The originate from Dungeons and Dragons franchise and ever since have become one of the most iconic races from the game. They were created by Gary Gygax himself. They're intellectual property of Wizards of The Coast and therefore they don't fall under the [Open Game License]

Appearance and Racial Features

File:Illithid.png

An Illithid

(Note: Most of this information is copied from the Wikipedia [article]. To research more we suggest reading the Wikipedia Article or referring to the book "Monstrous Arcana - Illithiad")

Illithids have a basic humanoid body, but their head is octopus-like. They have four tentacles around a lamprey-like mouth, and require the brains of sentient creatures as part of their diet. An illithid who snares a living creature in all four of its tentacles can extract and devour its living brain. Their eyes are pale white, and they can see perfectly well in both darkness and light. Their sense of hearing is slightly poorer than a human's; they have difficulty distinguishing between several sounds mixed together. Their skin is purplish blue to gray-green and covered in mucus, and is very sensitive to sunlight. Though sunlight does not actually harm them, they loathe it with incredible ferocity.

An illithid city is ruled by a creature called an Elder Brain which lives in a pool of cerebral fluid in the city's center. When an illithid dies its brain is extracted and taken to the pool. Illithids believe that when they die their personality is incorporated into the Elder Brain, but this is not the case. When the brain of an illithid is added to the Elder Brain, the memories, thoughts and experiences are consumed and added to the sum of the whole, but all else is lost. This fact is a closely guarded secret of the Elder Brains, since all illithid aspire to a form of immortality through this merging process. An extremely ancient Elder Brain is called a God-Brain because its psionic powers are almost limitless.

Since the Elder Brain contains the essence of every illithid that died in its community, it functions in part as a vast library of knowledge that a mind flayer can call upon with a simple telepathic call. The Elder Brain in turn can communicate telepathically with anyone in its community, issuing orders and ensuring everyone conforms.

Illithids generally frown upon magic, preferring their natural psionic ability. Psionic potential is an integral part of the illithid identity, and the Elder Brain cannot absorb the magical powers of an illithid mage when it dies. They tolerate a limited study of wizardry, if only to better understand the powers employed by their enemies. However, an illithid who goes too far and neglects his psionic development in favor of wizardry risks becoming an outcast. Denied the possibility of ever merging with the Elder Brain, such outcasts often seek their own immortality through undeath, becoming alhoons.

Illithids typically communicate through psychic means. They project thoughts and feelings to each other in a way non-illithids can scarcely comprehend. When they do feel the need to write, they do so in "qualith." Instead of typical alphabet-based writing, illithids write in qualith by making marks consisting of four broken lines. They use each tentacle to feel the breaks in the lines, making it basically similar to braille. However, qualith is extremely complex, as each line modifies the preceding lines through explaining abstract concepts associated with the above words in ways no human can understand; only by understanding all four lines simultaneously can the meaning be understood properly.

Illithid in different quests

Cutebold Slaughter Fest

Illithids are one of the main races present in the setting. They're often involved in slave trade, capturing mostly Goblins and whoever else they can capture. They posses rather extensive psi powers, so approaching them is considered dangerous.

The Big City

Illitihids live in the city in a weird symbiotic-like tie to the society. They still eat the brains, but it's regulated - they only eat the brains of death-sentenced criminals, people willing to end their life or recently dead. Of course they're willing to pay money for the consent of eating a fresh brain.