ILLITHID3

But even the illithids have at least one weakness; they are highly vulnerable
to light-based attacks. The long ages which they spent deep within the earth
has rendered their skin fragile and easily seared by powerful, concentrated
bursts of light.
 
Society:
Unlike many other evil creatures, the illithid as a society have little
interest in 'taking over the world'; in their arrogance, they actually believe
doing so to be beneath them. Illithids congregate almost exclusively in small,
hidden communities of a few dozen to a few hundred, which are known as
'Hives'. Hives are not the mere inanimate dwellings which all other creatures
live in, but living and semi-sentient entities in their own right, with organ-
like walls and fleshy floors. Each Hive is ruled over by an Elder Brain which
resides deep within the Cerebral Cortex of each Hive. There, hidden within its
 fleshy folds, the Elder Brain wields its power over everything in the Hive.
Each Elder Brain is mentally interconnected with each illithid, with the
connection being especially powerful within the boundaries of the Hive itself.
There, the Elder Brain can pick up thoughts and implant them as easily as
other creatures might speak. In turn, each Elder Brain is part of a giant,
interconnected mental web which it shares with every other Elder Brain, and
so each illithid is quite literally connected in a mental web with every other
illithid, to varying degrees.
 
One step below the Elder Brain in the illithid hierarchy is the master
illithid known as a 'Mind Flayer'; commonfolk describe the entire illithid
race as 'mindflayers', but amongst the illithid themselves, 'Mind Flayer' is a
title in and of itself. Each Mind Flayer possesses unsurpassingly puissant
mental abilities, and it serves as the caretaker and guardian of both the
Elder Brain and the Cerebral Cortex itself. Their orders are considered to
be almost as absolute and sacrosanct as that of an Elder Brain's, but they
rarely issue orders save in cases where the Cortex or the Elder Brain is
threatened.
 
Aside from the Elder Brain and the Mind Flayer, illithid hierarchy is very
casual and almost non-existent; there is something of a ranking based
upon each illithid's respective mental prowess (which other illithids can
immediately gauge), but by and large, illithids are far too arrogant to accept
the control of others. As a rule, they are only interested in developing and
furthering their own mental powers, to the extent that they actively shun
the pursuit of other forms of magic. Illithids who delve too deep into the
studies of magic and neglect their development of their mental abilities run
the risk of becoming an outcast from illithid society, being expelled from the
Hive and having their connection with the Elder Brain severed. To an illithid,
this is a fate worse than death. In turn, the illithid guard the secrets of
their mental power jealously; thus far, the only mental powers they have
revealed are those which psionicists of other races have already developed,
as they do not wish to run the risk of their treasured powers being learned
and possibly duplicated. Nonetheless, it is all but a given that the illithid
of the Elder Earth possess many hidden secrets indeed.
 
Illithid undergo a horrific growth and development process which points at an
unnatural, otherworldly origin. They are born from the fleshy walls of
the Hive itself, taking the form of a pale, squid-like larval creature
nestled within a huge, tube-like protective shell. Specially assigned
caretakers watch over them, feeding them until the day comes where the larva
are removed from their shells, then re-implanted within a living humanoid
body; specifically, within the victim's skull. There, the larva feast on and
supplant the functions of the victim's brain, taking over the body and
gradually metamorphing it into the familiar, terrifying illithid body, at
which point the illithid is considered 'fully grown'. It is perhaps because
of this growing process that illithids have a well-known fondness for eating
the brains of their victims, even though they can sustain themselves on other
sources of food. The illithid consider brains to be a delicacy, and the more
intelligent the race the unfortunate owner of the brain belonged to, the more
delicious the brain. This only adds to the fearsome aura and reputation which
the illithid possess.
 
See also: ILLITHID4