Illithid

also known as mind-flayers or faceless the nightmarish illithid looks like its head is an octopus with no visible pupils, flesh covered in natural slime, it mouth is hidden away under its tentacles and is much like a lamprey having many teeth in this round orifice, and generally they have mauve colored skin

Culture

the illithids are a mysterious race, they always seem to be trying to do somthing but what that somthing is no one really has any idea. another confusion is where did they come from? some whisper they may not even be from this planet. and in an age where 'planets' wasnt commonly understood such a rumor holds alot more water

the illithid is a brain eating creature. it hold no interest in the rest of the body and will either turn the rest of the body into a thrall or simply feed it to the thralls it already has. how it eats creatures brains is surprisingly barbaric for such an arrogant race they simple hold onto the creature and shove their tentacles in the first orifice it finds, teeth cannot cut through illithid tentacles

thralls are slaves of illithids created by eating the brains of the creature they once were and replacing it with far less appetizing brains of somthing they have massive quantities of, commonly rabbits, then flooding the brain with suggestion, magical brainwashing, and enough intelligence to obey orders

in combat an illithid is an extremely powerful magician and is capable of manifesting its intellect as psychic powers these powers include psychokinesis, mind reading, suggestion, and mind blast. mind blast is a powerful ability that illithids normally use at the beginning of combat. mind blast has a similar effect on living creatures that an emp would have on robots. in a cone shape in front of the illithid anyone who fails their saving throws will have their intellect set to 0 for 3d4 rounds losing all ability to do anything beside basic living functions such as breathing the individual will simply stand their blankly doing nothing. thralls and illithids are immune to mind blast

the one that leads any enclave of illithids is the elder brain, the eldar brain is the brain matter gathered together of all that enclaves dead illithids. the eldar brain has a personality all its own and holds no connection to the dead illithids besides their intellects, this brain is housed in a large tube in the center of their facility along with their young. the illithids are asexual and produce 1-2 'tadpoles' in their lifetime that eventually grow(inside the brain tube) into illithids or die. the first test of a young illithid is to use dimension door to escape the tube

History

the illithids are arrogant creatures seeing all other races as cattle at best, because of this when some had found themselves before the lord of death lord bane they felt little reason to treat him any differently. lord bane has a history of lashing out hatefully to anyone lesser or even equal to him that dares to act like his better(see the story on sartek) so because of their high-and-mightiness towards him he now hunts them ruthlessly. over time this has caused a level of fear for lord bane and his followers and any party that includes one of his worshipers will find illithids acting alot more modest(by illithid standards at least)