Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Mind Flayer

The Illithid, alien parasite beings who ruled the cosmos long ago, mortal enemy of all intelligent life, aberrations born of the nightmarish Far Realm.
00:00 Time Stamps
1:18 Meta Origin
1:50 Publication History
4:05 Ecology
4:34 Tadpole Stage
5:26 Ceremorphosis
6:40 Host Races
7:21 Adult Size
8:18 Senses and Sun Resentment
10:08 Mucus Properties
10:24 Diet and Digestion
11:35 Variant Intellect Devourer
11:45 Joining the Elder Brain
12:45 Colony Communication
13:12 Elder Brain Pt 2
14:25 Brain Golem
14:43 Ulitharid
15:44 Origin
20:46 Neolithid
22:00 Fun Fact: Scent
22:20 Illithid Roper
22:54 Vampiric Illithid (Feral, not charming)
23:30 Arcane Illithids
23:52 Alhoons
24:52 Mind Witness
25:56 Cranium Rats
26:15 Illithosites
26:42 humanoid cattle
28:03 Illithidae: animals with convergent evolution
28:50 Slime Chuul (ceremorph)
29:11 Mosgricken (Deep Gnome ceremorph)
30:25 Ceremorph Shock Troops (lizardfolk)
31:05 Oryndoll
31:40 Architecture & Tech
32:27 Language
32:58 City of Oryndoll
33:25 Founding of Oryndoll

[Darkraggs]

Great video and keep up the good work ❤
1:18 Meta Origin
1:50 Publication History
4:05 Ecology
4:34 Tadpole Stage
5:26 Ceremorphosis
6:40 Host Races
7:21 Adult Size
8:18 Senses and Sun Resentment
10:08 Mucus Properties
10:24 Diet and Digestion
11:35 Variant Intellect Devourer
11:45 Joining the Elder Brain
12:45 Colony Communication
13:12 Elder Brain Pt 2
14:25 Brain Golem
14:43 Ulitharid
15:44 Origin
20:46 Neolithid
22:00 Fun Fact: Scent
22:20 Illithid Roper
22:54 Vampiric Illithid (Feral, not charming)
23:30 Arcane Illithids
23:52 Alhoons
24:52 Mind Witness
25:56 Cranium Rats
26:15 Illithosites
26:42 humanoid cattle
28:03 Illithidae: animals with convergent evolution
28:50 Slime Chuul (ceremorph)
29:11 Mosgricken (Deep Gnome ceremorph)
30:25 Ceremorph Shock Troops (lizardfolk)
31:05 Oryndoll
31:40 Architecture & Tech
32:27 Language
32:58 City of Oryndoll
33:25 Founding of Oryndoll

[justjoy]

Good video for playing a wizard in Baldur's Gate and thinking "My character should know a great deal about mindflayers, but I don't want to read spoilers for the game itself."

[ohorta]

As someone who’s never played DnD and is now in love with Baldurs Gate 3, this video is awesome. Great insight into the lore.
Thanks.

[Steezington]

Baldurs gate 3 introduced me to dnd. I wish i’d discovered this stuff earlier, cuz this is amazing!

[saeyabor]

34:41
"There's so much lore on the Mind Flayers I could talk about them all day, and maybe one day I will."

Don't telepathically threaten us with a good time...

[Tecaz]

The inspiration for Baldurs Gate 3 at 7:38

[lordnaarghul]

I believe I read somewhere that the cosmic Illithid Empire grew so vast and so powerful at one point that the Blood War actually stopped, with demons and devils considering a truce to deal with these powerful psychics. That's the level of scary these things can reach.

Back in the early 2010s I had contemplated an alhoon antagonist who had an ambition of becoming the next Orcus, never really understanding that Orcus was using him as a blunt object to batter his enemies with.

[FoxBatinaHat]

8:00 The legend of the Host-which retained its memory when turning into a Mindflayer (cough Baldur's Gate 3 cough)

[itsashane]

Idea: a game where you play as an elder brain running a mindflayer colony

[Pfhreak]

"Let's check YouTube before I got to bed." Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Mind Flayer - 44 seconds ago "Every once in a great while I have good timing."

[StoicheiaSage]

I played an Illithid once as an ambitious Rogue/Wizard that was a Mastermind subclass. The combination of their mind control and psychic powers combined with the Mastermind's ability to sow the seeds of deceit among groups of people made the class almost the ultimate "non-combat combat" character. I eventually just got so good at playing the character that the rest of my party was almost a little scared of the character. He was so hard to kill that eventually me and the DM agreed to have the character live on in legend and have me move on to another. The DM has allowed me to use him sometimes in again when the appropriate campaign/setting comes along, but his invincibility, just because of mainly my luck with him and the combination of race and class, has made him a "if he's on the scene, shits real" in our play group. I love Illithids and Morgrack will always live on to be one of the five most powerful characters in my group's circle.
My DM and me have been talking about making a campaign where my Illithid is the villain and they ascend into a Lich Illithid. We'll see how that goes, especially if things go as planned and the DM lets me play as the villain and have us have a "Raid Boss" campaign where I get to play as the main villain and actively have a group of players against a single other evil player.

[Arwcwb]

II'd love to listen to a twelve hour Mindflayer marathon video.

[JJbm]

Hell, the video I can’t believe I didn’t make a comment on last year when I first saw it. What a fantastic classic D&D channel.

[Kitava.]

Recommended this video to my friends so I could go through Baldur's Gate 3 campaign without having to explain every single detail.

[grandsome]

20:06 Quintessence you said? Now, I can put those DnD monster into my Mage: The Ascension campaign!

[RoundRobin]

According to Lords of Madness:
Illithids originated in the vastly distant future when creation was starting to die. Thousands of elder brains pooled their energies to create a portal into the Far Realm, which exists outside the boundaries of creation. Upon their arrival within its influence they ripped an opening through time and space to arrive in the prime material. Less than 1% of those who embarked on the journey survived and those who lived were greatly weakened to such an extent that the servitor race that had been under their mental control for millennia revolted and fled to become the Illithids most hated, implacable and tenacious enemies.

[levimorne]

Gotta love these ancient evils from scary settings. Nothing like a marriage of Lovecraft and RPG!

[moregasmthepowerful]

I had no idea that an Illithid could become a Lich. I think I've found my new favourite Monster.

[dr.calibrations]

"Good hunter, may you find peace in the waking world."

[SimonAshworthWood]

The psionic people of Athas and necromancers with their mindless undead hoards can save us from the mindflayers!