God Brain's curse

cure · Post by **cure** » Sat May 23, 2009 2:50 pm

I am curious as to the correct understanding of the God-brain's curse.

The God-brain is described in RLDMG, p. 19 in these terms by Mangrum:

"The God-brain floats alone in a briny pool, far beneath the surface, attended only by mindless illithid tadpoles. More than anything else, the God-brain desires experience - to move; to breathe; to truly live."

From the article "The Realms Beyond," Book of Souls, Mangrum additionally writes: "This creature has the memories and psionic strengths of every brain joined to it, but it is trapped; powerless to do anything but float in its subterranean saline pool, surrounded by the slithering forms of barely-sentient illithid tadpoles. It is a vast intelligence robbed of the ability to directly experience the world around it. The God-brain tries to feed this craving by searching the minds of those around it. The God-brain can read the mind of any creature in its domain, and on rare occasions it can sense the minds of individuals beyond the borders of Bluetspur. It can only sense the most powerful of these minds, those of characters with psionic abilities. If the God-brain senses such a mind, it may decide to try and integrate this mind into itself."

Lastly Mangrum describes the "God Brain's problem" in the following terms in this thread http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... e&start=45:

"It's an active mind trapped in a completely useless body. The God-Brain isn't Data, wanting to be 'human' -- it's Stephen Hawking, who, despite a brilliant mind, can't get out of his chair.

"The God-Brain is a 'bubble boy' who would love to travel the world -- to see it with his own eyes, to breathe it in -- but is stuck in one, sterile room, watching reruns on TV."

What puzzles me is how the fate of the God-Brain is different than that of any other elder brain. Not being an expert on elder brains I am perhaps missing the point. Elder brains don't seem to be mobile creatures, being brine bound to their last as far as I can tell. And moreover they presumably don't care, being obsessed rather with knowledge and knowledge as power.

Is the God-Brain then cursed with an alien obsession, to want a mobility and a corresponding corporeality that is improper to elder brains?

Or do elder brains all pine after mobility but typically care far more about knowledge and knowledge as power?

In which case, rather than being cursed with an alien obsession, the God-Brain is cursed to never really grow up and pursue its destiny of mental dominion over existence and instead remains in an adolescent state of mental development characterised by its futile shaking of the bars of its physical cage.

Or is the point subtler? If elder brains do get out and about, it is surely psionically, albeit not by levitating and such. Rather they 'haunt' the minds and dreamscapes of others. Is the God-Brain somehow more limited in this than other elder brains? It is of course locked away in Blutspur itself, which is not exactly overflowing with sentient life.

The curse then is physical but in the broadest possible sense? Even if the God-Brain could walk, the distance to the edge of its prison is short and the interior of the prison is scoured of anything worthy of attention. What the God-Brain is condemned to is a thoroughly barren existence. So like Marie Antoinnette, it has its servants join it in a model village, which in the God-Brain's case was the 'secret plot' against it and the general events of the 'Thoughts of Darkness' module.

Clarifications and insights would be greatly appreciated.

Nathan of the FoS · Post by **Nathan of the FoS** » Sat May 23, 2009 3:15 pm

cure wrote:Is the God-Brain then cursed with an alien obsession, to want a mobility and a corresponding corporeality that is improper to elder brains?

I would go with this, myself. FWIW, If you use the BoS origin story for the God-Brain it would explain why it is cursed with these desires when other elder brains are not, since in that account its central organizing intelligence was originally human.

DocBeard · Post by **DocBeard** » Sat May 23, 2009 3:52 pm

That's a good expansion, but I cannot help but enjoy the simplicity of the original curse.

The utterly alien god-brain wants, more than anything else, to be an individual human being. With all of the Lovecraftian ties the illithid have, the idea that one of their secret ascended masters wants to be one of the meat things, creatures that are as alien to the illithid as they are to us, is kind of awesome. Plus it's a great motivation; the God Brain can hatch almost any heinous scheme with the express intention of learning to understand the human mind well enough to become an individual again.

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Sat May 23, 2009 3:55 pm

I also see most elder brains (IIRC from the Illithiad) as being happy enough with their own brain power and control over the illithid flock around it. It is the center of their little universe and it is satisfied from it.

God Brain wants more, wants to experience things.

Joël

Zettaijin · Post by **Zettaijin** » Sat May 23, 2009 5:50 pm

The God-Brain is a little like Warbot in Accounting, I think.

alhoon · Post by **alhoon** » Sat May 23, 2009 7:49 pm

As far as Illithiad goes, an Elder Brain is content to remain motionless. It doesn't want to move or act as something more than a sentient super-computer.

The God brain is different. Instead of something like a sentient super-computer it is (as JWM stated) something like a genius strapped on a bed because it cannot move. It wants to experience life, not act as an advanced AI.

Yaoi Huntress Earth · Post by **Yaoi Huntress Earth** » Sat May 23, 2009 8:37 pm

Kind of like AM from the short story (and computer game) "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream." Wouldn't be surprised if the God Brain had a jealous, sadistic hatrid toward humaniod because of this (not unlike AM did).

DocBeard · Post by **DocBeard** » Sat May 23, 2009 9:05 pm

Nice reference.

Yaoi Huntress Earth · Sat May 23, 2009 11:25 pm

When you think about it, AM is a darklord with his own "domain" in it's story when you think about it.

Archedius · Post by **Archedius** » Sun May 24, 2009 1:04 am

I can't help but think how annoying this must be for the Illithid to have their elder brain to have a completely separate agenda and goal than they have.

Aside from the specific illithid researchers the God Brain uses...the others must have to organize themselves for the most part. At least you can use them in non-traditional ways as a DM.

Lord Cyclohexane · Post by **Lord Cyclohexane** » Sun May 24, 2009 1:32 am

Yaoi Huntress Earth wrote:Kind of like AM from the short story (and computer game) "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream." Wouldn't be surprised if the God Brain had a jealous, sadistic hatrid toward humaniod because of this (not unlike AM did).

For some reason, I'm not at all surprised to find out that this is one of Harlan Ellison's stories. I found a PDF (fourth link on Google) and was completely floored. The way he writes Lovecraftian horror by substituting incomprehensible Elder Gods with incomprehensible Machine Intelligence is beautiful.

Because of this thread, as I was reading how the characters couldn't escape AM's caverns, it made me think of not being able to wake up from a nightmare... or not being able to log out of a Virtual Reality game gone horribly wrong... or having one's living brain carved out and permanently added to the GodBrain...

S must have been much more desperate to escape Azalin than I could ever imagine, to even consider such a fate.

Yaoi Huntress Earth · Post by **Yaoi Huntress Earth** » Sun May 24, 2009 5:02 pm

You should try to torrent the game version, they go more into the characters' personaliteis and Harlan wonderfully overacts as AM.

cure · Post by **cure** » Sun May 24, 2009 6:44 pm

AM makes for a very interesting and productive reference.

I am beginning to think, especially after reading about AM, that the illithids themselves are nowise safe from the God-Brain's displeasure with its lot in existence.

The matter of the limitations imposed upon the God-Brain by its curse also is worthy of thought. For example, it should not be able to use the True Mind Switch or even the basic Mind Switch psiconic power, or at least it dares not do so, lest its immense intelligence and unparallelled psiconic powers remain tied to its physical form and become the province of the corporeal being with whom the switch is made. The description of the mind switch power makes it clear that there should not be a problem, but can the intellectual might of an elder brain really be crammed into a humanoid ceribellum? An elder brain - a racial supremacist if there ever was one - might be excused for thinking not.

Simply not having the Mind Switch psiconic power fits somewhat nicely with the Apparatus experiments. Their goal, so far as the God-Brain was concerned and we should assume it orchestrated the entire episode, was exploring a different avenue for its transference into a humanoid form.

How actively it pursues the overthrow of its curse, versus simply trying to deal with it via vicariously sampling the experience of others, will greatly influence the grand trajectory of its actions.

The Mind Seed psiconic power offers some interesting possibilities for a slightly less second-hand sampling of existence . . .

DocBeard · Post by **DocBeard** » Sun May 24, 2009 7:03 pm

Oh totally. Why do you think the High Master Illithid is alive? Dude hasn't been assassinated by his subordinates yet because they figure he keeps the God-Brain lulzing, which means it is not getting its kicks thinking of terrible things to do to them.

cure · Post by **cure** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:29 pm

As to how an elder brain earned darklordship, I have never liked the idea that it once was human. Still I do think that it needs to have engaged in activities that set it apart from other elder brains.

I tried playing with Nathan's Unified Powers Checks theory and an elder brain just being an elder brain would easily make itself a candidate for darklordship of a pocket domain between the abomination of brain harvesting, the abomination of the dark magic of the psiconic power of assimulation, and the offence of the betrayal of telling illithids that their consciousnesses are perserved in it.

An elder brain is not really going to set itself apart by being even more violent to strangers or pushing further the envelope of dark magic.

It could turn violence on the illithids it rules, especially in some culturally unsanctioned way.

It could pursue betrayal, developing devilish schemes against strangers, gaslighting them as dopplegangers would. Or it could set the members of its own community against themselves in a combination of the previous two, as a sort of infernal test.

Finally, it could diversify into blasphemy. Blaspheming an evil religion is hardly as difficult as it might seem. The elder brain declares Maanzecorian dead and demands to be worshipped in its stead. Or it declares itself Illsensine and demands to be worshipped. Or it bans religion and develops a mad rationalism that is itself a religion. The blasphemy angle of course squares with the blasphemous title of God-Brain.

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