Mind Flayers (Illithids)

"As I approached the Mind Flayer colony I began to regret everything up to that point, as a job I had agreed to bring back the head of an illithid to my employer, some alchemist from cloudreach. When I finally turned into the tunnel going into the colony I was presented with a blinding pain in my skull and looked up to see one of the accursed mind flayers running at me. Incapacitated by the pain I was lifted by the mind flayer and felt even more pain on my skull. It was at that time my loyal companion, and wife, lagertha killed the beast in its tracks and we escaped to the surface, never to visist that fresh hell again"

-Ragnar Kalgarad, memoirs of a mercenary

Mind Flayers are a race that is alien to the material plane and are as dangerous as they are otherworldly. They subsist off of the minds of other creatures mainly. While this isn't neccessary, normal food and even non-sentient minds are repulsive in taste to the mind flayers. This has led them to be among the most feared of all humanoids.

Origins

The true origin of Mind Flayers is often debated by scholars, adventurers, and even mind flayers. Some believe that they are from the future and have travelled back to kick-start their empire. Others believe that they are merely from another plane and are invaders to the material plane. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, Mind Flayers are both from the future, and from another plane. They traveled back after the collapse of their empire due to the Gith revolt and are trying to establish a new empire in this plane.

Society

Mind flayers' society is relatively fair in its ranking of citizens, many are considered peers by eachother except for ulitharids, the elder brain, and mind flayer arcanists. The elder brain is the leader of the colony and is the closest thing they have to a deity aside from the gods of knowlege, which they don't actually worship. It is a massive brain that leads the colony. It is telepathicaly connected to every illithid in a five mile radius and exerts some level of control over them. They are fed the brain of ilithids when they die in hopes of "joining the collective", but in reality the elder brain is merely devouring its subjects' brains.

Ulitharids are an imposing form of ilithid that arise in about 1/1000 cases. They are larger and smarter than other Illithids and will eventually leave the colony to found their own. When a ulitharid dies its brain is removed and placed in to an empty elder brain pool where it developes into an elder brain. These illithids are resented by elder brains, but are accepted.

Deviant mind flayers will often be labled so because they pursue the arcane or they reject the elder brain. These deviant mind flayers are run out of the colony or killed and end up going it alone. These mind flayers will often develop a healthy respect for other races, as they need to interact with them in order to sustain themeselves. Other mind flayers will most likely kill them on sight, under the assumption that their thoughts will taint the colony

physical traits

An illithid resembles a human in basic body structure, but taller and much more slender. Its skin is some cool color, such as pale green, mauve, or sky blue, and when it is well-fed, its body is coated in a thin film of mucus. Its skin is smooth and completely hairless, with a tall, sloping cranium, two roughly-humanoid milky white eyes, and four long, coiling tendrils concealing an alien mouth evolved to open the skulls of other creatures and feed on their contents. Ulitharids have six tentacles and are much taller than the average mind flayer as well as having longer fingers. All mind flayers have claw-like formations on their hands and they appear to be dangerous, but they are cartilage formations that are useless for combat.

society

Illithids live in vast, subterranean cities full of thralls, often outnumbered ten-to-one or more by their mental slaves. Illithids offer themselves up to its mass when they near the end of their lifespans, hoping to be absorbed into titanic intellect of the Brain. It is a closely guarded secret that the Elder Brains only consume the knowledge of their wards, with everything else being simply discarded and lost with the death of the body.

Illithids' plane of origin was free of magic and they have a culture that regards the use of magic as aberrant and disdainful. Illithids consume the brain matter of living (or at least recently-living) creatures to sustain themselves with enzymes, hormones, and psychic energy.

Young illithids derive their personalities and emotional capacities from contact with strange crystals, containing the thought-impressions of previous illithids and their cold demeanor. This is the reason for the traditional illithid emotional state of stoicness being so prevalent. A Mind flayer who spends extended time among other races and isolated from other mind flayers can develope positive emotions. This is more common in mind flayers under 20 years old, whose minds have not fully developed yet. This phenomenon is nearly impossible after a mind flayer is mentally mature due to their psyche becoming more cemented in.

Illithids who have spent long periods of time among other races of beings, devoid of the company of other illithids, are often mind-wiped or otherwise mentally scanned when they return to the networked intelligence of their community, to purge the outside influences that may have colored their thoughts and made them more like the surface creatures.