Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Salacious Angel 01-18-04, 10:28 PM	In my new advenrure I've been itching to try out Ilithids as a recurring villainous race, but I simply cannot find enough information about them to present an in-depth story-oriented campaign. Because I live in Australia, its slightly more difficult to access WotC material, otherwise I would have bought that Underdark supplement.
Vix Damnul 01-18-04, 10:38 PM	Have you tried searching these boards for this topic? I'm pretty sure i contributed in a thread a while back about the illithid lifecycle, so that should still be somewhere. And, to the best of my knowledge, there's really no illithid ecology/info of note in the underdark book. Fiend Folio has some stuff, though. If you're lucky, someone who owns the old Illithiad will post on this, which was a book dealing specifically with the flayers, and in great depth, so i've heard.
Kojiro James 01-18-04, 11:27 PM	Yeah, I contributed to a topic like this not too long ago. Go back through the messages a little.
sandskimmer 01-19-04, 01:43 PM	If you can find the 2ed monstrous arcana book on Illithids (I don't recall the title), it'll have all the ecology you could ever hope for! Try the out-of-print forum to see if anybody knows where to get one (besides e-bay or your local hobby store). Dragon magazine also has lots of info on these creatures from time to time - try searching back issues. And yes, the underdark books pack alot of info on them as well.
Salacious Angel 01-19-04, 08:39 PM	Does anyone know what ceremorphosis is?
sandskimmer 01-19-04, 09:06 PM	According to the American Heritage Dictionary: Cere: fleshy or wax-like swelling at the base of the upper part of the beak. Morphosis: manner in which an organism, or one of its parts changes from one manner to another. So it's apparently some change in the Illithid's beak...
Unilin 01-19-04, 10:17 PM	Ceremorphosis is the process by which an illithid tadpole becomes a full illithid. The tadpole is placed into the ear of a human (or some other way of introducing it into the brain, the ear is probably the easiest), and it then proceeds to eat the upper brain, replacing it with it's own mass. This completly destroys the personality and memories of the original human. The tadpole will then bond with the brainstem, taking controll of the body and initiating the physical changs which completes the process. The physiology is different enough, obviously, that almost nothing remains of the original host, either mental or physical. The process can only be done on a human to produce a true illithid, any humanoid can be used for ceromorphosis but non-humans produce a half illithid. Additionally, about one in 10000 (I think) tadpoles will ceromorph into an advanced form of illithid with six tenticles, these are reveared by normal illithids, and are often leaders of enclaves.
Primus, the One and Prime 01-20-04, 12:48 AM	The six-tentacled are called Ulitharids. I also suggest alterring the Ceremorphosis list of beings to create True Illithids to include Githyanki and Githzerai. It wouldn't make sense otherwise. though, a case could be made for the Gith races having evolved, naturally or otherwise, defenses against the Mind Flayer's reproductive processes in the eons since the rebellion.
the Horc 01-20-04, 01:13 AM	Githyanki and Githzerai are humans, even if they don't like to admit it (they're humans as much as Duergar are dwrves)
Primus, the One and Prime 01-20-04, 01:17 AM	Not quite. After all of those years of mutation and crazy energies, human is not quite the word. When was the last time you saw a human lay an egg?
krichaiushii 01-20-04, 06:08 AM	I believe the 2d edition book was called the Illithiad, and was followed up with a trilogy of related mind-flayer adventures. Good stuff for illithid fans.
RhoxandRoll 01-20-04, 01:34 PM	Yes, it was the Illithiad. And, Githzerai and Githyanki were humans, they became a different race over thousands of years. So it is not a subrace (like the duergar), it is a mutation. The Githzerai and Githyanki really don't like admitting that they're basically the same race.
Sprue Rubbles 01-22-04, 02:21 PM	Originally posted by sandskimmer If you can find the 2ed monstrous arcana book on Illithids (I don't recall the title), it'll have all the ecology you could ever hope for! Try the out-of-print forum to see if anybody knows where to get one (besides e-bay or your local hobby store). You can download the incredibly detailed book at this site for only 5 bucks: http://www.svgames.com/tsr9569esd.html
The Colonel 01-23-04, 11:03 PM	If it's any help, someone did a storming article about this in Dragon a very long time ago. It might be on that archive CD they brought out. It will be 1ED (or maybe 2ed) but it was very good. I think the 'cere' bit was meant to be the same sort of word root as cereberal... ie to do with the brain. Think FF has some good Ithilid stuff.
Brian.C 01-24-04, 09:43 PM	Another thing about cerebromorphasis. Sometimes the process goes horribly wrong, and instead of an illithid or half-illithid, the victim mutates into a giant monstrosity called a neothelid. This monster (which looks like a purple worm with four tentacles coming out of its mouth) is an engine of destruction that kills and devours everything it sees. Illithids are very touchy (meaning scared) about the subject of neothelids, and they never purposely try to create one (because these beasts are uncontrollable and will kill illithids just as willingly as anything else) so no-one knows the exact conditions under which a neothelid might be spawned. Most likely, it happens when an illithid scientist in charge of breeding projects tries something foolish. I once ran an adventure where the PCs thought they were going to invade a small illithid stronghold. But when they got there, they found the place evacuated - almost. They found illithid bones washed clean by acid, strange pools of slime, and a pair of illithids who were half starved and scared out of their minds. Eventually, they found a journal documenting a breeding project, of how a scientist was attempting to perform cerebromorphosis on a summoned and bound osyluth baatezu - last page of the journal was covered with blood. Naturally, I waited until I was certain the players were scared before the monster actually attacked. They were on their last legs when they defeated it. - Brian
Hand of Vecna 01-24-04, 09:48 PM	Actually, I believe the Neothelid is what happens to an Illithid tadpole if it's not implanted in a humanoid host and is left in the Elder Brain brine pool. In time it devours other tadpoles, then hops out and retreates deep into the Underdark, where it eats whatever it comes across, growing bigger and bigger until it becomes a Colossal worm-like thing.
Brian.C 01-24-04, 09:53 PM	If a tadpole isn't implanted (and most aren't) it eventually dies. Anyway, the stats for the neothelid are in the Psionics Handbook. The only clue to its origin is that it is "a rare result of the mind flayer reproductive cycle gone horribly wrong. Their very existence is a taboo topic among illithids." - Brian
Northen_Spur 01-24-04, 10:03 PM	2ed illithiad, A neoillithid like posted perviously is a single tadpole that survived the death of the elderbrain. The tadpole eats all the other taldpoles and crawls out of the brine pool. If it's lucky it will find, pest and vermin to eat and survive. Only once it feasted on a sentient humanoid brain does it develop psyonic and cognative awareness.