Pandaemonicon - the Mind Flayer splatbook
Nov 24, 2021 13:50:14 GMT -6
Post by masmanus on Nov 24, 2021 13:50:14 GMT -6
The Demigeshtalt – ‘Flayer Society
The Wheel at large knows of the Mind Flayers as psionic monstrosities – and this is true – but the ‘Flayers possess a deceptively complex society and psychology only partially defined by their telepathic natures. Unlike the Kython Swarms, ‘Flayers are not a true hive mind, and neither are they true individuals. Rather, each ‘Flayer mind is a semi-independent node within a network of ceaseless telepathic communication. They have individual will, but they are constantly connected with the rest of their conclave, and this endless flow of thoughts and emotions between individual ‘Flayers creates something greater than the sum of its parts. The parapsyhcologists of the Izzet Leage refers to the integrated Mind Flayer though-form as a “demigeshtalt”. The ‘Flayers refer to this psionic union as the Khaloo.
Mind Flayer society is organized into large family-groups called Conclaves. ‘Flayer conclaves are culturally homogenous and hostile to outsiders owing a nearly universally shared mind-state mediated by the Khaloo. This hostility even extends to other Mind Flayer conclaves, but a given conclave typically trains a handful of “synapse” members to serve as messengers and diplomats to neighboring conclaves so that ‘Flayer society as a whole continues to function smoothly.
Conclaves are dominated by a small number of higher-caste members of strong psionic potential. Typically, these include a single Elder Brain and a handful of Ulitharids, though may include baseline ‘Flayers of uncommon force of will or offshoot species like Neothilids depending on the particular conclave. Small, young conclaves that have not yet conceived of an Elder Brain are usually helmed by only a single Ulitharid. These higher-caste members don’t exert total control over the conclave, but they are the functional leaders of the concave due via force of personality – really, the social dynamics of a conclave isn’t too far removed from a high-school social clique – the majority of the group defers to the “cool kid” with the strongest psionic potential.
Ceremorphosis – ‘Flayer Reproduction
From birth to death, the physiology of Mind Flayer life cycle is unique, and unspeakably horrible. In basic configuration, a mind flayer is amphibious. The first portion of its life is spent as a tadpole hatched from an egg. An adult ‘Flayer spawns hermaphroditically two or three times during its lifetime, depositing about a thousand eggs in a briny pool constructed for just this purpose. The eggs hatch after about a month, releasing the writhing tadpoles into the pool. The tadpoles spend ten years in the pool, where they are fed a fatty mash of brain material and other organs prepared by nursery attendants. After a decade, they have grown from a fraction of an inch to around 3 inches in length. At this point, in terms of sentience and intellect, they are still little more than intelligent frogs.
This is the real mystery of the ‘Flayer life cycle, for ‘Flayers do not grow their own bodies. Instead, a mature tadpole is inserted into the ear, nostril, or eye of a helpless humanoid captive. Over a period of several days, the tadpole burrows into the host brain, consuming gray matter and gaining body mass in a nearly equal ratio. When the process is complete, the victim’s brain is completely replaced by the tadpole’s bloated tissue. The tadpole is neurologically melded onto what remains of the lower brain stem and assumes complete control of the body’s nervous system. The victim dies irrevocably, but the body lives on with a parasite serving as its brain. The process of ceremorphosis takes a week to complete, but after that point no means can bring the victim back short of a miracle.
Ceremorphasis is most successfully in humanoid species of size 3-5 with generally mammalian physiology (Humans, Elves, Eldarin, Orks, and Tau are favored by the ‘Flayers for consistent results). Outside of these parameters, the “infant” flayer is much less likely to survive the ceremorphosis process, and those that do survive display unexpected deviance from typical ‘Flayer physiology. These deviations can prove to useful – Aasimar hosts for example have a much higher chance of producing Ulitharids, for examples – but most ‘Flayer conclaves avoid non-standard hosts unless they have a surplus of tadpoles that would otherwise die in the spawning pool. The Gith, naturally, are an exception to this, being carefully bred by the Mind Flayers to serve as hosts.
The Great Awakening
The War of Monsters Fall was an unprecedented event in the history of ‘Flayer society. For hundreds of millennia, the vast emptiness beyond Pandemonium was considered to be a barren, empty realm overseen by petty, angry gods – a cultural memory of the Syrne that sealed them away so long ago. Particularly courageous or insane Conclaves occasionally ventured out into the outer void, with the vast majority never returning. For most conclaves, the great beyond was just a backdrop to Pandemonium, the true center of the universe.
When the Eldarin re-activated the Pandemonium Gate, the ‘Flayers awakened to the first “Great Truth” as it would later become known, that the Wheel was inhabited not by cowardly, spiteful gods, but by all manner of deliciously sapient peoples. Within Panedemonium, all other thinking species save the Aboleths were simply prey to the ‘Flayers, so this profusion of sentient life beyond Pandemonium seemed nothing more than a fertile, unsettled frontier.
At first, as the ‘Flayers pulsed out of Panedemonium in waves of nautiloid ships, they met with great success. The Eldarin and other races of the wheel were caught wholly unprepared for the tenacity and immense psionic power of the ‘Flayers, and so numerous worlds fell to their onslaught. However, it would not be long before the ‘Flayers learned of a second great truth – that the sentients of the wheel were not mere livestock, but posed a credible, potentially existential threat. In time, the races of the Wheel rallied and brought forms of magic and technology to bear that the ‘Flayers had never before conceived of. The Pandemonian cephalomorphs were bushed by to their old territories within Pandemonium and sealed in once again. They had lost their war, soundly.
The aftermath of the War of Monster’s Fall had a massive impact on ‘Flayer society. The myriad conclaves of pandemonium were forced to awaken to a third truth, this being that they were not the inherent masters of reality as they had once thought – that they would have to compete to survive. This final truth, called the Throdog Nafl’fhtagn or “Great Awakening” fundamentally fractured Mind Flayer society. Some conclaves elected to err on the side of survival and retreated deep into the center of pandemonium to the shores of the Understea, striking deals with the Aboleth to carve out cysts within their territory. Other conclaves chose to abandon Pandemonium altogether, uprooting their Elder Brains and ushering their slaves into nauteloid ships to step out blindly into the Wheel without the aid of the pandemonium gate – it was these conclaves that eventually gave rise to the Thoon. A third faction took an action unprecedented in ‘Flayer history – they began to learn.
The forces of the greater Wheel had left all sorts of detritus in and around Pandemonium during the final battle that sealed the ‘Flayers in once more. Those conclaves who resisted the urge to flee to wildspace or the Undersea instead began studying the magical and technological artifacts of their foes. In the seven-thousand years since, these conclaves have twisted the knowledge of the Wheel in ways that only a ‘Flayer mind could, and stand poised to make their re-emergence with an arsenal of novel horrors.
The Wheel at large knows of the Mind Flayers as psionic monstrosities – and this is true – but the ‘Flayers possess a deceptively complex society and psychology only partially defined by their telepathic natures. Unlike the Kython Swarms, ‘Flayers are not a true hive mind, and neither are they true individuals. Rather, each ‘Flayer mind is a semi-independent node within a network of ceaseless telepathic communication. They have individual will, but they are constantly connected with the rest of their conclave, and this endless flow of thoughts and emotions between individual ‘Flayers creates something greater than the sum of its parts. The parapsyhcologists of the Izzet Leage refers to the integrated Mind Flayer though-form as a “demigeshtalt”. The ‘Flayers refer to this psionic union as the Khaloo.
Mind Flayer society is organized into large family-groups called Conclaves. ‘Flayer conclaves are culturally homogenous and hostile to outsiders owing a nearly universally shared mind-state mediated by the Khaloo. This hostility even extends to other Mind Flayer conclaves, but a given conclave typically trains a handful of “synapse” members to serve as messengers and diplomats to neighboring conclaves so that ‘Flayer society as a whole continues to function smoothly.
Conclaves are dominated by a small number of higher-caste members of strong psionic potential. Typically, these include a single Elder Brain and a handful of Ulitharids, though may include baseline ‘Flayers of uncommon force of will or offshoot species like Neothilids depending on the particular conclave. Small, young conclaves that have not yet conceived of an Elder Brain are usually helmed by only a single Ulitharid. These higher-caste members don’t exert total control over the conclave, but they are the functional leaders of the concave due via force of personality – really, the social dynamics of a conclave isn’t too far removed from a high-school social clique – the majority of the group defers to the “cool kid” with the strongest psionic potential.
Ceremorphosis – ‘Flayer Reproduction
From birth to death, the physiology of Mind Flayer life cycle is unique, and unspeakably horrible. In basic configuration, a mind flayer is amphibious. The first portion of its life is spent as a tadpole hatched from an egg. An adult ‘Flayer spawns hermaphroditically two or three times during its lifetime, depositing about a thousand eggs in a briny pool constructed for just this purpose. The eggs hatch after about a month, releasing the writhing tadpoles into the pool. The tadpoles spend ten years in the pool, where they are fed a fatty mash of brain material and other organs prepared by nursery attendants. After a decade, they have grown from a fraction of an inch to around 3 inches in length. At this point, in terms of sentience and intellect, they are still little more than intelligent frogs.
This is the real mystery of the ‘Flayer life cycle, for ‘Flayers do not grow their own bodies. Instead, a mature tadpole is inserted into the ear, nostril, or eye of a helpless humanoid captive. Over a period of several days, the tadpole burrows into the host brain, consuming gray matter and gaining body mass in a nearly equal ratio. When the process is complete, the victim’s brain is completely replaced by the tadpole’s bloated tissue. The tadpole is neurologically melded onto what remains of the lower brain stem and assumes complete control of the body’s nervous system. The victim dies irrevocably, but the body lives on with a parasite serving as its brain. The process of ceremorphosis takes a week to complete, but after that point no means can bring the victim back short of a miracle.
Ceremorphasis is most successfully in humanoid species of size 3-5 with generally mammalian physiology (Humans, Elves, Eldarin, Orks, and Tau are favored by the ‘Flayers for consistent results). Outside of these parameters, the “infant” flayer is much less likely to survive the ceremorphosis process, and those that do survive display unexpected deviance from typical ‘Flayer physiology. These deviations can prove to useful – Aasimar hosts for example have a much higher chance of producing Ulitharids, for examples – but most ‘Flayer conclaves avoid non-standard hosts unless they have a surplus of tadpoles that would otherwise die in the spawning pool. The Gith, naturally, are an exception to this, being carefully bred by the Mind Flayers to serve as hosts.
The Great Awakening
The War of Monsters Fall was an unprecedented event in the history of ‘Flayer society. For hundreds of millennia, the vast emptiness beyond Pandemonium was considered to be a barren, empty realm overseen by petty, angry gods – a cultural memory of the Syrne that sealed them away so long ago. Particularly courageous or insane Conclaves occasionally ventured out into the outer void, with the vast majority never returning. For most conclaves, the great beyond was just a backdrop to Pandemonium, the true center of the universe.
When the Eldarin re-activated the Pandemonium Gate, the ‘Flayers awakened to the first “Great Truth” as it would later become known, that the Wheel was inhabited not by cowardly, spiteful gods, but by all manner of deliciously sapient peoples. Within Panedemonium, all other thinking species save the Aboleths were simply prey to the ‘Flayers, so this profusion of sentient life beyond Pandemonium seemed nothing more than a fertile, unsettled frontier.
At first, as the ‘Flayers pulsed out of Panedemonium in waves of nautiloid ships, they met with great success. The Eldarin and other races of the wheel were caught wholly unprepared for the tenacity and immense psionic power of the ‘Flayers, and so numerous worlds fell to their onslaught. However, it would not be long before the ‘Flayers learned of a second great truth – that the sentients of the wheel were not mere livestock, but posed a credible, potentially existential threat. In time, the races of the Wheel rallied and brought forms of magic and technology to bear that the ‘Flayers had never before conceived of. The Pandemonian cephalomorphs were bushed by to their old territories within Pandemonium and sealed in once again. They had lost their war, soundly.
The aftermath of the War of Monster’s Fall had a massive impact on ‘Flayer society. The myriad conclaves of pandemonium were forced to awaken to a third truth, this being that they were not the inherent masters of reality as they had once thought – that they would have to compete to survive. This final truth, called the Throdog Nafl’fhtagn or “Great Awakening” fundamentally fractured Mind Flayer society. Some conclaves elected to err on the side of survival and retreated deep into the center of pandemonium to the shores of the Understea, striking deals with the Aboleth to carve out cysts within their territory. Other conclaves chose to abandon Pandemonium altogether, uprooting their Elder Brains and ushering their slaves into nauteloid ships to step out blindly into the Wheel without the aid of the pandemonium gate – it was these conclaves that eventually gave rise to the Thoon. A third faction took an action unprecedented in ‘Flayer history – they began to learn.
The forces of the greater Wheel had left all sorts of detritus in and around Pandemonium during the final battle that sealed the ‘Flayers in once more. Those conclaves who resisted the urge to flee to wildspace or the Undersea instead began studying the magical and technological artifacts of their foes. In the seven-thousand years since, these conclaves have twisted the knowledge of the Wheel in ways that only a ‘Flayer mind could, and stand poised to make their re-emergence with an arsenal of novel horrors.
