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

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."

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

This dude just casually stating the premise of baldur's gate 3 5 years before its release as a "myth" lol. Can't believe that tidbit of lore was used for the game.

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.

The inspiration for Baldurs Gate 3 at 7:38

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

One of my players played a mindflayer who was "disconnected" from the hive mind and they played them as skittish and paranoid it was fun

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

hits different after Baldurs Gate 3

I feel like I've half bastardized this race by playing one of these a bard. His instrument is a vuvuzela, which he plays because the vibrations feels good on his tentacles, but being healed by a vuvuzela is probably more excruciating than his mindblast.

that reminds me.. i read in some 3.5 book about mind flayers using purple worms as mounts by causing a cyst in their mouth and a special harness that could be used to force the beasts mouth to stay open or shut... i forget the precise book but i think it was in a section about exotic mounts.

I'm glad none of these vile monsters are real otherwise we would all be in big trouble.

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

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.

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.

Favourite monster ever.

all of a sudden, very popular video :P

Imagine a Mind Flayer equivalent of a Worm that Walks, which is comprised entirely of Mind Flayer tadpoles.

Mind Flayer is a great name for a heavy metal band

i once roleplayed a lawfull neutral mindflayer. He wore robes and a iron mask, stalking around in the night to eat the brains of badits and thieves. yes, i created the goddamn squidman

5:55 dead in an hour you say? I wonder then how the writers of Baldur’s Gate 3 justify the player’s character and other NPC’s surviving more than a day with it in their heads. XD

Your skin monster thing is now an official part of the mind flayer lore in my games. Too cool!

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

I ran a campaign centered around the Illithids of Thoon. I made Thoon an Obyrith in the Far Realm who used her essence more than any other Obyrith in crafting the Seed of Evil given to Tharizdun the O.G. Mad God (take notes, Cyric) to place in the Astral Sea. In my cannon, Thoon never left the Far Realm (unlike many other Obyriths who inhabit the Abyss, & rule/propagate the Qlippoth) & as much as the Obyriths imprinted on Tharizdun, so too did Tharizdun imprint upon Thoon. This led to an overwhelming drive to reunite with the Chained God (described by Thoon as "completing herself"), thereby sending her Illithids to collect Quintessence (which I redefined as refined souls stripped of identity & processed into raw Creation energy) to fuel a particular weapon which when combined with a sliver of the heart of the Abyss, would shatter the Chained God's prison. In other words, I love em too

I knew this was gonna be awesome, but man you knocked it way out of the park. Bravo (does a slow clap)

5 year old video, has 171k views as of 8/12/23. Bg3 came out 👍

Thank you BG3 for renewing my love for DND

These guy always gave me the creeps.

Similar to the vampire description of 'the Strain' novels. The 'worms' burrow into a host and the body is transformed

Yay. :) Loved the old mindflayer vid, it was one of my favorites. This one is missing all of the cool atmospheric details you had in the other one though, like when you were describing the lairs.

Great job, AJ. Your videos have always been great, but you can really see how the production values have improved over time.

I've been waiting for this! The mind flayers have been my favorite d&d monster since the ancient days of 1st edition, and this episode in the series truly did them justice. Well done!

These are so going to be my villains for my campaign

Weird dark sun game idea, you are retinue of the finest Templars of a sorcerer- king and you've been tasked to find out why a growing psychic black spot has developed in a region only to be a confronted woth something more terrible than your lord. A mind flayer colony has plan shifted to Athas and found lots of large psychic brains to eat and convert.

How about: The Illithid races become so diverse & far seeding into the past that, humans, or dodecapus, are an intensively planned blend of Illithid races, here on earth, where they believe this to be a successful planetary domination.

Actualy I remember in a magazine that Mind Flayers where inspired by the Larry Niven story World of Ptavvs. A race called the Thrint who enslaved others telepathically creating a galactic empire via mind control. Also Charles Stross based his Gith races upon the enemies of the Thrint the race the Tnuctip.

Outstanding video on the illithids,great foe for any campaign Master Pickett! Keep cranking out that good content!

Your videos are fantastic, I'm glad I found this channel!

Bravo well done, Sir. I was wondering if you could make a small section in your videos for information on what can be harvested and made from key parts of creatures that you cover in your videos. thank you

This is amazing, glad it got recommended to me after playing Balders Gate 3!

Thanks AJ, I knew research on your channel would be helpful.

I played a high level wizard who was captured by an illithid. I had a contingency spell readied in case I was killed by something to “soul jar” their consciousness and I could attempt to possess their body. The tadpole stood no chance against my spell DC. Body still died and I got to experience turning myself into an illithid. I was barely able to resist the elder brain when I made my escape, and my party almost killed me when I reconnected with them. Character became an NPC after a couple of sessions, but it was fun and cool. Eventually transferred his mind to a fresh clone of his old body.

Fantastic job. Very well done. Love the lore vids!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the similarity between the wraith of Stargate Atlantis and the illithids of D&D. I am convinced that the illids were the inspiration for the wraith. Feed on humans Bio-tech Mysterious origin Psychic powers and communication Psychic controlled tech Ravaging entire worlds for food Even their hive mentality. Just replace the elder brain with a queen, and their societies would be virtually identical.

Great video man, I’m working on my first campaign and I’ll definitely use these guys

Another fantastic show AJ!

i smell an epic campaign... one with spell weavers as the anti-heroes... oh that would be so so sweet...

im so happy to see this channel growing so fast

An Intellect Devourer is basically junk food. Can't live off them, but they're quite tasty... I got a genuine chuckle out of that.

I once played a Mind Flayer Warlock called Xan'Thurr who after an encounter with a powerful wizard began to have flashbacks to his life as a human and became fascinated with the world above. After he left he had to keep hidden by living in the shadows. He also had to consume brains which he got from killing drifters. Favorite character I ever played and tough to roleplay. He eventually met his end by the hands of another mindflayer saving the party.

AJ, I swear, the depth you go into in your videos it's amazing! Please, keep up the good work. PS. I wonder in the creators of Stargate (the show, not the movie) bases the Goa'uld off of mind flayers...? It's worth a thought. PPS. you should try making a few videos showing the influence D&D has officially had on pop culture. That would be awesome! I would watch fully, thumbs up and share (with all my friends) every video in that series. SOOOOOOOO.... Basically I already do with your videos. LoL. Love ya man, keep on inspiring and entertaining all us lore addicted nerds. LoL.

"Your source for easy listening lore..." Indeed it is. Love your channel AJ

Freakin fantastic as usual. You should have waaayyyy more subs.

Wow, Mindflayers really made it impossible to get rid or limit them. It'd be awesome to come up with a timeline. That alters their race and turns them into a symbiotic species, instead of body stealing parasites.

BG3 Brought me here. Fascinating stuff. I love it. Thank you for making this video!

I like the reproductions A.J. As always, thank you for the entertainment and hard work. I know these must take some effort and research to put together.

This was truly indepth and well done. Thank you for the contet 🥰

This lexicon must be forwarded to Swen for a BG3 sequel .

Anyone else exited about the fact baldurs gate 3 early access releases today and its about these guys

i love mind flayers i know there are a lot of beholders fans out there and i get it but to me mind flayers will always be king i love the fact that despise using several references to several works they still manage to be kind of unique and cool in their own way, i love their culture, their society (i mean for being villains obviously) and they look mughty badass too!

I have 3.5 edition stats for a mind flayer assassin. That character was absolutely Nasty

Thank you AJ Top-notch video

I've just discovered this channel and I'm loving it you haved earned another sub lol

I really enjoyed this in preparation for bauldur's gate 3.

I like to give my ilithids cool syfy like bio mechanical guns and constructs

Great video I'm hooked on the lore since BD3

iv always wanted to play a mind flayer monk

My favorite part of this is the tadpole and the changing into the mindflayer with ten years of growing to dominince

AJ always killing it

it would be extremely gnar gnar if you did a vid on ormyrr, i would totally watch that

Been playing BG3 and this definitely helps with the story thanks

Say AJ, I noticed in the table for Aberrant Mind sorcerers’ origins that there’s an option for an incomplete ceremorphosis. Any theories on how one could gain sorcerous power from something like that? Best ones I could come up with are that the tadpole was modified by an Ilithid magic user or Alhoon, there was a planar bleed through during the ceremophosis process or a condensation of ambient magical energy such as faerzress, or (if you wanna tie it in with BG3) the tadpole was a prototype for the tadpoles used by the cult of the absolute.

Great video, I love mind flayers :)

Those spaceships look goofy as all get out. Arg we be Squid Pirates Arg!

Guess I need to bing all of these again.

Ended up here coz of Bulders Gate 3 😂 Awesome stuff man!

I've been really interested in the Tamer Creed lately. I love the idea of a mind flayer decked out in full plate armor.

I always imagined a game where the elder brain has some what of a tumor that alters the natural state of the mind flayers making a colony of them more docile and neutral instead of evil

We need the Great Modron March to destroy them! But seriously I miss Mechanus and would love to see the interaction between these two races...

maybe each new addition of D&D is another loop for the Mind Flayer's so we are now on loop 5?

could you make an all mindflayer playlist, please ? they have this vast ecosystem of related aberrations and i simply can not find them all in one place.

Pretty cool video. My old DM used to love throwing these things at us.

You showed a brainstealer dragon when talking about a neothelid. :3 Also I noticed alot of this coming from my wiki posts. :)

Stargate Atlantis, hell yeah. For some reason not as many people as one might think like SGA, which is a shame because of how awesome it is. By he way, great job on the video, quite informative.

TSR was Tactical Studies Rules I believe, if i'm remembering back to the original modules back in the day correctly?

I prefer all my illithids to have a perfect illusionary appearance that allows them to freely walk among the common races. Also makes a great shock for my players when the old sage that they went to, seeking forgotten knowledge grabs them with invisible tentacles and try to eat their brain.

Looks like you are going to have to do a new video on the mind flayer with baldur's gate 3 being announced and the mind flayer are playing a pivotal role apparently So you can capitalize off the hype ☺️

because of Tasha's cauldron of everything we know that even with the correct parameters it can fail because of the aberrant mind origin table

Man playing as a null would be cool or being able to transform into null

Well now I want to have my players over hear a madman ramble on about how covering your self with the epidermal goo that covers the Illithids body will grant you a measure ov spell resistance, depending upon how much you use. ...only to find out that it does Not do that. Perhaps it does nothing. Perhaps it does something terrible! Not sure what to do yet but I seriously feel like you just handed me a beautiful gift ov an awful idea 😈

Would Ilithids trade with a society with sufficiently advanced psionics, or would the Ilithids see that society as a threat?

In _Out of the Abyss_ , there is a small chance that the PCs, when traveling between the locales in the Underdark, can meet Grazzilax, a mind flayer who is part of a small group of similar, normally evil denizens that are actually _neutral_ aligned and have 18 intelligence, dubbed the Society of Brilliance. His fellow Society members include a derro, a troglodyte, a kuo-toa archpriest and an orog, Of course, that neutral alignment just means that Grazzilax is not immediately going to try mind blasting the party then sucking out their brains - even if he clearly has the ability to overpower them - unless they attack him first. He'd much rather talk things over, and may even become a temporary ally depending on whether he enjoys their company or not. A lot of published D&D adventures have individual monsters who deviate from their usual behavior for one reason or another. _Out of the Abyss_ also has: -A kuo-toa who's basically a beacon of serenity, but is 100% pacifist, and won't even fight in self-defense. -A gnoll fang of Yeenoghu who's gone completely mad, in that he genuinely regrets all the vile things he's done...and if treated with Greater Restoration, he immediately reverts to normal gnoll behavior. -A wounded gnoll who was captured by minotaurs working for Baphomet to be used as bait. If his injuries are treated, he warns the PCs of his situation. Meanwhile, _Descent Into Avernus_ has: -A bearded devil named Krikendolt who suffered a brain injury that made him turn chaotic good, and that gets him bullied by his fellows, who want him to kill his pet abyssal chicken Earwax. He will accompany the PCs if they save him, but he will return to being lawful evil if his brain injury is treated. -An death knight who, if reminded of his humanity, will help the PCs on their quest to find Zariel's sword by pointing them in the right direction, since he hates his current state and wants to pass on, but Zariel won't let him. -A chaotic evil eladrin who will nonetheless team up with the characters if they help him defeat the other warlords of Avernus. And in _Dungeon of the Mad Mage_ there's one that comes to mind: -A corrupted planetar that has been capturing people who reach his level and executing them for some BS reason I can't remember. A character who willingly offers to take the place of an ally he's deemed guilty has a chance to break the corruption. When freed from the corruption, the planetar immediately commits suicide, but Torm grants blessings to the party, which are permanent if a character worships Torm.

Interesting to go back and rewatch this after playing BG3 and the "mindflayer who will turn against them."