3 AM Thoughts on the Illithid God-Brain

[Speedwagon]

Ah, the God-Brain. This floating mass of cerebrum that's been peacefully chilling out in Bluetspur, and has been a part of the setting ever since Realm of Terror. It's even in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, so there's definitely a place for this not-of-the-usual-gothic-horror Darklord. But what did it do, to get damned to the Mists? Illithid societies (and the Elder Brains that head them) follow such alien laws and sense of morality to the point that they might not be operating with a sense of morality in mind. I find Fiends like Ebonbane and Inajira more 'relatable' and 'comprehensible' than something like the Illithid God-Brain, and they're innate embodiments of evil as an actual fundamental force of nature akin to gravity or magnetism within the D&D Multiverse and Cosmos writ large. But I think that there's something the God-Brain could have done to definitely damn it to the Mists, with such repercussions that its actions would still be felt throughout most campaign settings with no one truly knowing what happened. There'll be more on Bluestpur as a Domain and the changes I've made to it, but here's the backstory and Curses/Torments of the God-Brain that I thought of.

A NEW BACKSTORY:
The Illithid-God Brain was one of the very first Elder Brains in Illithid existence. It was one of the largest of the original Elder Brains, and was responsible for maintaining the first cities of the Illithid empire within the Astral Plane, the Inner Planes, and the Prime Material Plane. But in comparison to its peers, the future God-Brain was unique in its gluttony for knowledge and lust for ever-greater power. While the rest of its peers were content with their current position and made meager expansions on their holdings, this Elder Brain was specifically gifted by Ilsensine, the patron deity of the Illithids, to forever expand their holdings. This Elder Brain had greater ambitions than the Prime Material Plane. It knew that Ilsensine resided within the Deep Caverns that ran beneath the Outlands, alongside other deities like Laogzed and Ghanaudur. It wanted to be a god itself, greater than Ilsensine ever was or could be. To that end, the Illithid God-Brain pushed itself and its minions to such heights as to have been considered both abominable and beautiful by other mind flayers. The infiltration of hundreds of polities within the Prime Material to spread cults in the Elder Brain's name, the ordering of the Ulitharids under it to cannibalize their own Elder Brains, believing that the current Illithid form that Ilsensine had created them in was not good enough. Thus, the addition of non-Illithid brains to the Elder-Brain's brain mass was inevitable and abominable. Finally, Ilsensine had enough. It decided that it would put this upstart Elder Brain in its place, by giving it knowledge that only a god could handle and watch it suffer the consequences. Thus, Ilsensine gave the future God-Brain its 'unthinkable thought'. The creature could not handle such a thought, no matter how much it added to its brain-mass. In the throes of its sickness, the carefully laid plots to infiltrate realms across the multiverse fell apart. The creature understood that it was Ilsensine who was behind all of this, and it knew that this was its last chance to accept its place in the hierarchy. It refused to be beaten. In fact, if the God-Brain (as it dubbed itself) could not be a god of the Illithids, then there shall be no Illithids nor Illithid Empire for Ilsensine to rule over! Thus, the God-Brain did the unthinkable: it gave the minions of the Illithids, the Githyanki and the Githzerai, the psionic means to fight against their oppressors. Finally, in its Act of Ultimate Darkness, the God-Brain sabotaged the psionic ritual that would throw the Illithids into the past to save their future empire, thus ensuring the Illithids would become a species on the verge of extinction and always be hunted by the Gith or their other former slaves.

CURSES AND TORMENTS
-The God-Brain is an immortal being afflicted with mortality. Having existed in Bluetspur for millennia (as time works differently in Bluetspur than in other Domains of Dread), the creature had multiple millennia of life to look forward to, even if such a timespan was too short for something as egotistical as it. Now, after many radical experiments that have resulted in failure, the God-Brain's time is truly running out. It has not millennia nor centuries, but mere decades to complete its various goals.
-The Dark Powers continuously draw in various alien/extraterrestrial creatures to Bluetspur, serving to further distract the God-Brain's focus from its long-running plans for the sake of ensuring the immediate survival of the Illithid colonies under its command from these strange new monsters (these creatures can be other Lovecraftian horrors like the Mi-Go or they can be monsters in the Spelljammer setting, regardless they like how Illithids taste).
-The inability to manifest the unthinkable thought rankles at the God-Brain incessantly, forcing it to resort to more and more depraved actions. These depraved actions are horrific even by the standards of the average Illithid, and have caused rifts and infighting within the colonies that only further detract from its wider goals.
-The God-Brain possesses the knowledge of various experiences but desires to experience those sensations in a hands-on manner. Unfortunately, it is incapable of creating a vessel that can house its massive intellect while interacting with the world like other sapients, without sacrificing one or the other.
-The grandest and most exciting experiments are doomed to fail. The true next step of Illithid evolution eludes the God-Brain. Its greatest experiments on Illithids end with unthinking monstesr or rebellious failures, incapable of the kind of advanced mental capacity needed to be true Illithids.
-As its psionic powers have grown, they have begun to show downsides. Now, the God-Brain is in constant psionic contact with any living, thinking being within its entire domain of Bluetspur (this is the source of the strange dreams that visitors in Bluetspur receive, as they are actually the semi-lucid thoughts and memories of the God-Brain). However, as the number of such beings grow, it becomes harder for the God-Brain to concentrate as its own thoughts are increasingly drowned out by the thoughts of other, lesser minds.
-Finally, and perhaps most vexing for the God-Brain, by incorporating non-Illithid minds into itself, it has...changed. These brains did not become absorbed into it in the same manner as Illithid brains would, and now at times the God-Brain has vivid memories of things it never experienced, desires and wishes that are not its own, and they've begun to cloud its own identity. The God-Brain is losing the ability to sort between its own mind and the minds it has absorbed. It occasionally loses itself in thought, reminiscing about a life it used to live in a small mountain shack with its wife and children, or dreaming of its desire to grow up and become a proud soldier defending its country against barbarians. In its times of pure lucidity, the God-Brain realizes that the more minds it takes in the greater the delusions grow and the more it loses its control over its true self. Even worse, it realizes that because its just a giant brain forever stuck in a brine pool, it can never truly experience these new dreams and memories in the way it finds itself craving to. However, the God-Brain has chosen to interpret these downsides as the beginning stages of its ascent to true godhood, and so it continues to seek out new minds to be added to itself, furthering its torment.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I like Matthew L. Martin's version from The Book of Sacrifices, pp24-26. In that version the Illithid god-brain was once a human psion named Seldrid, whose city of Thaan was besieged by the illithid. In his struggle against them, he began to admire them, and believed that the war between their races would hone humankind into a superior race. When the illithid faltered long short of this goal, he sought them out and discovered that their elder brain was dying. In the interests of forging his supreme race, he betrayed his own people and was assimilated into the elder brain. He then used his knowledge of the Thaani defenses to conquer them and have their leading psionicists' brains added to his gestalt as well. Thus, he and the entire illithid civilization were transported to Ravenloft, and the former psion became darklord of Bluetspur. However, he can no longer experience feelings and emotions directly, nor can he stray from the briny pool in which he rests.

I like this version because it involves the Thaani and is more human-centered morally, not high fantasy and also comprehensive than trying to figure out what could be considered immoral or evil to an alien-like race as the mindflayers.

[Mistmaster]

I agree with Mephisto.

[Speedwagon]

I like this version because it involves the Thaani and is more human-centered morally, not high fantasy and also comprehensive than trying to figure out what could be considered immoral or evil to an alien-like race as the mindflayers.

Yeah I understand that completely, personally while the Seldrid backstory is interesting, I wanted to challenge myself to try and figure out what would be immoral or evil to things like the Illithids. I do plan on adding in some stuff on the Thaani (and a tie-in to the Seldrid backstory), and this is just to give an alternative to the usual interpretation of Bluetspur for others to use. I'll add the current sketch of the God-Brain and what my interpretation of Bluetspur looks like soon!

[Mistmaster]

I like this version because it involves the Thaani and is more human-centered morally, not high fantasy and also comprehensive than trying to figure out what could be considered immoral or evil to an alien-like race as the mindflayers.

Yeah I understand that completely, personally while the Seldrid backstory is interesting, I wanted to challenge myself to try and figure out what would be immoral or evil to things like the Illithids. I do plan on adding in some stuff on the Thaani (and a tie-in to the Seldrid backstory), and this is just to give an alternative to the usual interpretation of Bluetspur for others to use. I'll add the current sketch of the God-Brain and what my interpretation of Bluetspur looks like soon!

I have a further interpretation for my Bluetspur; Actually at a certain point, in my Bluetspur, it was an Illithid to reckognize that the eternal war against the Thaani would end as the one against the Gith had. This Illithid found a cadre of similarly oriented illithids, and they took over the Elder Brain, becoming a Lawfull Good one. It reformed the Illithid race and gave them an alternative to praying on humans. He reached to the Thaani for a peace agreement, but their warrior-king Seldrid hated the Illithids so much that he prepared a plan for genocide while apparently accepting the peace offert. But when he enacted his plan the Elder-Brain sacrificed themselves. Seldrig became imprisoned in the corpse of the Elder Brain, as a new one took the lead of the Illithid. Seldrig mindless body was taken over by the spirit of the Elder Brain, and he founded the current line if Thaani kings. Now Seldrig lives almost alone in an abandoned area of the Illithid capital, unable to full control the powers of his mind. The majority of the Illithid fear the Dead-Brain, but a cabal of Mind Flayers, nostalgic of the old order have started a cult around him. As the God-Brain, Seldrig attept to reconquer his lost humanity, while retaining his new powers in the meanwhile. He is cursed to see his attempts fail.

[Pizza]

Very cool.

[Speedwagon]

This particular Dread Possibility (who's name is inspired by the War of Jokes and Riddles of DC Comics) is inspired by Leliel's interpretation of the 5e Nightmare Lands, so please check that out and give them some love! Link here: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... ds#p247440

The Nightmare Court are highly interested in worming their way into Bluetspur. As beings of pure thought, the Nightmare Court believe that they can easily utilize the Illithids of Bluetspur to achieve their own ends, carried on from their time as the Dinwiddy Cabal. The Illithid God-Brain, on the other hand, absolutely detests these creatures, while also being deeply envious and curious of them. The God-Brain wants to manifest an unthinkable thought, and has entertained the idea of becoming a being of pure thought like Ilsensine, knowing that its damnation to the Mists was partly caused by Ilsensine’s intervention of the God-Brain’s ascension. The Nightmare Court is too chaotic and alien for the God-Brain to understand, and a similar sentiment is found within the Nightmare Court itself regarding the Illithid God-Brain. The Nightmare Court find the alien sensibilities of the Illithids to be utterly disturbing compared to the human(oid)-derived dreamscapes they thrive within. The God-Brain wants to figure out what makes the Nightmare Court function but does not want to give up its corporeal form, despite the mortality inflicted upon its immortal coil. It fears that becoming a being of pure thought will make it subjugated by the Nightmare Court. Conversely, the High Master is highly interested in the Nightmare Court, and has made its own plan to contact them, armed by the God-Brain with the greatest psionic protections it can muster, on the guise of fulfilling the psionic titan’s whims of investigating the Nightmare Court. This not only shields the High Master from the Nightmare Court’s influence, but also from the sight of the God-Brain. As an aside, the Nightmare Court are deeply interested in the Thaani people, as the Nightmare Court’s origins can possibly be traced back to the Thaani homeworld, with the Thaani being strongly involved in the subject of dreams. A War of Thoughts and Dreams between the two factions would spell doom for the rest of the Demiplane…