Oblex

"It's a fascinating specimen to be sure, but are you positive it's safe?" A human stands over the shoulder of a gnome wizard as the smaller man prods at the skeletal remains within the ooze creature before them. With stimulation, the slime body rises, its surface contorting to take the appearance of the poor soul whose remains lay inside it. Offering its hand to the worried human it speaks, "It's perfectly safe. But you're going to need further convincing. That's what her memories tell me."

-Account of Gordon Softwhistle

Oozes and slimes are beyond a doubt simultaneously the most and least dangerous threats to adventurers in the world. Among their ranks are the oblex, an especially twisted and perverse specimen borne of the experimentation of illithids, necromancers, and other practitioners of questionable magics and morals. However, as corrupt as their origins are, there are rare cases in which an oblex's instincts as a slime are overcome by the memories of those it has drained and consumed. In these odd cases, the oblex does what it can to insert itself into civilization, balancing itself between the memories it has, and the knowledge that it is not that same person.

An Origin of Experiments History is unclear on the exact origins of the first oblex. What is accepted as the best theory is that illithids close to the surface of the Underdark captured stray oozes from ruins and dungeons that caves and tunnels had broken into, and proceeded to experiment upon them the same ways they did on humanoid races. The result was a craftier ooze that could steal the memories of its victims, and replicate their appearances in a limited capacity from that information. The rare non-hostile oblex that have been asked of their origin profess similar levels of uncertainty, stating that they have divided from their original so many times that any information linking back to it has been lost. This mystery, and the nature of their ability to take a humanoid form, leads to many folk to mistrust and outright fear even the professed peaceful oblex. But in having overcome their instinctual need to consume and absorb, civilized oblex yearn instead for the comforts of society, going to great lengths to earn the acceptance of others.

Memories Returned to Flesh An oblex's form is borne from the numerous memories it has consumed before achieving higher sentience. Certain memories of its victims grow stronger than others, influencing its final appearance, but at its core an oblex always knows that it is not what it remembers. They take the appearance of a humanoid, but alter the features just slightly from the memories' sources.

Oblex Names Oblex have a hard time settling upon a name since they're made up of a multitude of memories. Some elect to forgo names entirely, but the majority understand that when interacting with other races, having something to be called is important. These names are often taken from the strongest memory they can summon, and always lack a surname of any sort. The nature of this selection process often leads to names that do not match the oblex's outward appearance, such as a male body referring to itself as Janice, or an elven figure calling itself a decidedly dwarven name.