#Ulitharid

[unaarista]

Ulitharid!Omeluum AU again! Boy, do i love AUs. Lemme put my favourite NPCs with barely a few spoken lines in a different world and give them full fledged lives.

Plus a little accompanying story under cut:

…First, they shoved them into the cleaning chamber – a tiny, dark room, with cold water constantly spraying from the ceiling. Then, the culling – an angry looking mind flayer (though to Blurg they all looked angry) made the prisoners line up and passed along the line, occasionally pointing the long clawed finger, and obedient thralls in the same black coveralls pulled people – usually sickly or old – from the line and dragged them away with surprisingly little resistance – seems like Blurg wasn’t the only one who accepted his fate. When Y was taken, Blurg briefly closed his eyes and did a small prayer in his heart, with words half-forgotten, to no one in particular – neither of his people’s gods cared for him, nor he cared for them.

Those who remained were dressed appropriately to their new illithid masters’ tastes – in an unknown rubbery material that wrapped itself over the body as if alive, obeying the mind flayer jailers’ mental commands, flowing like a quicksilver, sticking to the skin like a slime, wet and disgusting. As if the look of anything that is not gray and moist was offensive to their captors’ eyes.

He expected to be placed with those who can do the heavy work and sent to be enthralled, but instead was separated from the group. Many, many narrow and dark passages later, so many that his head was spinning, he felt a distinct foul and salty smell in the air. More passages – and, flanked by two thralls he did not dare to look at, he entered a vast chamber with a dimly glowing lake of pungent smelling liquid – an illithid brine pool, his memory prompted. A creature so tall it towered over its brethren stood near the edge of it. It turned, as if sensing a presence of a mind not yet broken, and approached them, flowing gracefully, its six tentacles snaking in excitement. Oh, so his brain was deemed worthy to become a snack for an ulitharid master of this colony. What an honor.

An inaudible conversation was clearly happening between the ulitharid and his mind flayer escort. Blurg’s internal debate whether having your skull dissolved would feel just painful or debilitatingly painful was interrupted by a mental command to look up. He obeyed – not that he could do otherwise - and creature’s burning gaze pinned him down. A voice, calm and devoid of emotion, yet almost kind in comparison to others, rustled in his head: “I am informed that a group of scientists is present among the new arrivals in our colony today. Fascinating to meet fellow researchers in a place such as this. My name is Omeluum. Let us share in each other’s knowledge”.

Without waiting for an answer, it turned and left through one of the many passages. A painful jab from another thrall pulled Blurg from his stupor and he hurried after.

[venacoeurva]

Squid time in the Underdark, ft. Brooks PRF (Pathetic Resting Face)

-Please do not reupload/edit/use-

[teem-boo]

Mind Flayer Colony mass attack!!

Characters in order: Anthares ( @lu-seabun ) • Roteuthis • Vangar • Agengi ( @manticorablogs ) • Aki ( @lichfromspace ) • Logan • Qhuohuur • Pyelik • Oda • Auzzimaks ( @thoonist ) • Xenoceras ( @bbqsean ) • Vennet ( @fritterbat ) • Gloomy ( @lubia-zenite ) • Ran • Clementine • Ankilukt ( @skelizard ) • Vlassk ( @unaarista ) • Loor ( @leavingautumn13 ) • Fredrick ( @robofeather ) • Moss ( @magmethius ) • Cebrezaya ( @serenamidori ) • Mary James • DM Sona ( @foxtopusdeamond ) • Cosmo'nil ( @galacticgeckoart )

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left, the Ulitharid! They're a person-sized rare form of illithid. These are the elite, the mindflayers that can become elder brains one day. They see near everyone else as a lesser, HOWEVER. They're nearly as strong as an orc, have miles of telepathy range, and can grapple with those tentacles. They have the psychic power to read or control minds, levitate, drop your intelligence to that of an animal, or stun you! Plus unbelievably high confidence!

On the right, Armanite! 10 ft (3m) and 2,600 lbs (1,200 kg), they're basically a telepathic demon centaur that LOVES to tussle in massive brawls. They tend to be arrogant and can shoot lightning! Yeah not much to these ones tbh.

[alienartfriend]

today i give you squid. tomorrow? who knows...

preliminary/concept design for my mindflayer (ulitharid), sovereign, she/it pronounds. <3

gonna play around w a lot of the elements but clothes are a placeholder entirely, just wanted to put something on her that didn't cover up a lot of the body. coloration and markings based off the coconut octopus!

rambling about her under the cut

my wife came to me a few months ago saying, "i want to do a side campaign and i'd really love to DM for someone whose character gets turned into a mindflayer session 1." i IMMEDIATELY responded, "i'm your man let's do this i wanna be a baby squid."

i went in to prep once we had the group solidified going, "yeah i'm just playing a normal human fighter. (: his name is john he's gonna be a battlemaster. (: you know normal stuff." and even with everyone being like "???? that is so not your M.O." the other players didn't really question it, except our friend wren who immediately clocked me

and then everyone lost their mind when the transformation happned LMAO

obviously she is very depowered, to be in line with the other player characters. mechnically she is a way of the astral self monk, but all her abilities and ki and all spells gotten through feats are flavored as her psionics.

she was transformed using an experimental tadpole so she didn't like, overwrite or "kill" john the way other mindflayers are typically written as killing the personality of their host body so much as she's the tucked away parts of him brought out. he's as much a part of her now as she was part of him before the transformation. the very condensed reasoning is that he was hand-selected so it was seen as a "waste" to totally overwrite him. the experimental nature of her transformation is also why she's so forthright with her emotions.

(i was kinda playing it as… john was a trans woman who hadn't allowed himself to come to that conclusion yet, to make the transformation both an allegory for transition and also making her literally trans. if i'm not fucking around with gender expression in a DND character it's not me. this is based a little bit off my own experiences of seeing my pre-transition self almost like a second person who is now part of me but isn't, like, me.)

and she's very happy to be alive! very full of love for herself and her party! very unlike your typical mindflayer! very much does not understand why the rest of the party is so horrified by her! she's keeping their tadpoles from transforming them (bg3-style) but she doesn't understand why they don't want to be transformed! john hated being what he was, so why don't they want to experience the joy she's feeling? we have only done the first session so she'll figure out in time that it wouldn't bring them joy the way it brought her joy. but for now, like any good cephalopod, she's full of curiosity and life.

she technically doesn’t have a name name yet, but she’s going by sovereign because the thrall that was assigned to follow her around calls her “my sovereign” and she’s like "well that is close enough to a name for now i suppose."

[ry-studios]

Another illithid Bebe! I’m happy with how this one turned out UwU

[neferess]

smiles. mind flayer oc

[bludermaus]

(ORIGINALLY POSTED ON NOVEMBER 30th, 2023)

This was supposed to be just a normal squid but then I forgot and added the brain and now I guess I just made a very well-fed Ulitharid =w=

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You can buy this on Redbubble!

💎 To see the HD version, get your hands on the Photoshop file or just support me: https://www.patreon.com/bludermaus 💎

[adndmonsteraday]

The nobles of illithid society, ulitharids (loosely meaning "enlightened ones", or "noble devourers" in Undercommon) possessed extraordinary gifts of strength, and a vile, malicious intellect. They were treated as minor godly beings by their normal mind flayer brethren.

The tadpoles that became ulitharids appeared normal, but were changed by some unknown force. The unique nature of the altered tadpole was not apparent until it underwent the process of ceremorphosis, where the usual procedures of morphological alteration to the host body were altered and the resulting mind flayer displayed a pair of unusually long mouth tentacles not seen in other illithids.

Ulitharids also exhibited psychological changes in addition to the physical, demonstrating a harsher, more spiteful temperament than other mind flayers. Ulitharids were also extremely rare within mind flayer enclaves: between 1-in-25 and 1-in-100 illithid tadpoles would develop into an ulitharid.

According to Volothamp Geddarm, ulitharids were also key to the expansion of illithid society, as they are the caste of mind flayers capable of eventually metamorphosing into elder brains; an ulitharid that grew sick of fighting its parent elder brain for power would take a substantial part of the colony to a new area, whereupon its brain would be placed in a new or reclaimed brain pool and be merged with the brains of other illithids to become a larval elder brain, capable of supporting illithid larva and expanding their empire. The only restriction on this process was that the ulitharid could not die of old age, as their brains would be too decrepit for the process. To that end, an ulitharid often carried an extractor staff, a device that would allow it to remove its own brain when the brain pool was ready, which would also recycle its body into psionically-active sludge that would assist the new elder brain in adapting to its pool, and could serve as a useful melee weapon in a fight.

An extremely dangerous foe in combat, ulitharids could threaten foes with their powerful mental attacks and long reach, in addition to forming a psionic protection somewhat akin to mage armor.

Their formidable mental powers were their greatest weapon. Wielding mind blasts, charms, the power of suggestion, and the ability to dominate the mind of both man and beast, they were extremely dangerous to face in combat. They also possessed the powers to shift planes and create dimension doors.

The ulitharids formed the elite nobility of mind flayer society, with their rarity supporting the reverence they received from other illithids, who viewed them as a blessing and second only to the elder brain. Their ego reflected their privileged position, as they viewed common mind flayers as lesser beings, nearer to illithid-spawned abominations like urophions.

Source: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ulitharid

[greenieart]

Finished comm! Client doesn’t use socials but they let me design the outfit for their ulitharid oc which was a BLAST. Thank you so so so much for commissioning me, this was amazingly fun to do!!

[unaarista]

a fun little idea

[venacoeurva]

Some misc Kruessakts, I love the fin “ears”

-Please do not reupload/edit/use.-

[thecreaturecodex]

Mind Flayer, General Information

"Elder Brain Variant" © Wizards of the Coast, by Nino Is. Accessed at Art of MtG here

[While the OGL 1.1 debacle was going on, I said that I was going to keep my distance with Wizards' IP for a while. Why the change? Well, Wizards accidentally (on purpose?) released a bunch of previously Product Identity monsters into the Creative Commons, including the mind flayers. And I had been contemplating the illithidae as my next D&D monster project for a while, since I was commissioning art for the modron hierarchs.

My take on the mind flayers is going to be, like many of my versions of D&D monsters, somewhat iconoclastic. Namely, I don't like the elder brain very much. At least, not as they are typically interpreted, as the masters of a hivemind of unquestioningly obeying illithids. That makes the basic illithid into a minion and a drone. The combination of controlled by elder brains and the ever-increasing emphasis on ceremorphosis makes the mind flayers feel like the Borg. Which is less interesting than the original 70s and 80s version, where it was a species made up entirely of evil masterminds. I want to re-inject some of the respect for the normal illithids into this version.

My flavor text draws inspiration from all of the various mind flayer interpretations that have come before. A major source of inspiration was "The Sunset World", an article from Dragon 150. The various creeds were a big deal in 2e, as illithids played major roles in both Planescape and Spelljammer, but have been all but forgotten since them. I'm ignoring the time travel element from 3.5's Lords of Madness, but I am using their interpretation of mind flayer emotions. I am also finally giving them a mechanical weakness to bright lights, which somehow has been flavor only for the last 47 years.]

Mind Flayer The mind flayers are a species of hyper-intelligent, imperialist aliens that view other creatures as slaves and cattle. Their empire spans over dozens of planets, but is currently in something of a declining period due to slave revolts, conflict with the Dominion of the Black and other misfortune. Mind flayers are known for their decentralized organization and various means of travel and conquest. Some use spaceships, but most travel from planet to planet using the Astral and Shadow Planes as corridors. The mind flayers hate bright light, and the late stages of their planetary conquests include changing the atmosphere or stars of planets in order to reduce their illumination to a comforting red hue. The hub of their empire, although it is likely not their home world, is Ssirik-Akuar, the Sunset World.

As the name suggests, mind flayers use mind-influencing magic to control their enemies and allies alike. But they are also avid consumers of brains. A mind flayer can survive on an omnivorous diet of meat, fungi and plants, but grows listless and unhealthy if it does not regularly consume the brains of sapient creatures. A mind flayer can inject its tentacles straight into the brains of its victims, pithing them. Most of the time, this brain-dead individual’s brain is consumed by that mind flayer, but pithed victims are required for the mind flayer’s bizarre reproductive cycle.

What are thought by some to be different species of mind flayers are in fact different stages in a complex life cycle. The most commonly encountered mind flayers, illithids, are the equivalent of males. The elder brains that illithid colonies gather around are the equivalent of females. Illithids periodically fertilize the elder brain’s eggs, and the elder brain lives in a pool of slime crawling with mind flayer tadpoles. Illithids insert these tadpoles into the pithed body of a Medium-sized, mammalian humanoid in order to allow their young to reach maturity. Inside a host body, the tadpole insinuates into the remaining nervous system and eventually replaces its tissues like a cancer, transforming the body into an illithid. A few tadpoles, fed special enzymes by the elder brain, grow into ulitharids instead. An ulitharid is essentially an immature elder brain that spends decades learning as much as it can and coordinating the efforts of illithids before metamorphosing into a new elder brain. Most mind flayers do not concern themselves with matters of gender, and most of their bodies have lost the secondary sexual characteristics of their former lives.

Mind flayers are supremely arrogant, and their interactions with other species are usually exploitative and predatory. They present themselves as being without emotion, but in truth they are capable of regulating their emotions more directly than other creatures by consciously releasing chemicals. An illithid’s emotions are typically disdain, spite, arrogance and a lust for power. They rationalize their fears as concern and self-preservation. Almost all mind flayers consider themselves part of one or more “creeds”, which are philosophical callings that influence how mind flayers pursue their goals of conquest and consumption. Mind flayers do not discriminate between sources of power, and arcane, divine and occult magic, as well as alchemy, are common pursuits.

Mind Flayer Deities The primary god of the mind flayers is Ilsensine, the God Brain. Mind flayers consider Ilsensine to have been the first elder brain. According to the Venerator Creed, Ilsensine’s priesthood, when an elder brain dies, its knowledge passes to Ilsensine. Ilsensine’s unholy symbol is a green brain with two tentacles, and its favored weapon is the tentacle. Those few worshipers of Ilsensine that aren’t mind flayers treat unarmed strikes as their favored weapon. Ilsensine is lawful evil, and their domains are Charm, Evil, Knowledge, Law and Magic. Ilsensine’s subdomains are Hatred, Memory, Slavery, Thought and Tyranny. A cleric of Ilsensine can use the Hatred subdomain to modify the Evil domain.

A recent emergence in mind flayer culture is the rise of the Creed of Thoon. Thoon is a mysterious entity associated with the Plateau of Leng. Thoon’s followers are devoted to violent expansion, extracting vital essences from their victims along with brains and harnessing them into strange constructs that blur the line between living and non-living. Thoon’s unholy symbol is a complex rune made of tentacles, and its favored weapon is a heavy flail. Thoon is neutral evil, and its domains are Artifice, Evil, Madness and War. Thoon’s subdomains are Alchemy, Construct, Nightmare and Tactics.

Mind Flayer Mechanics “Mind flayer” is a subtype of the aberration type, with the following characteristics:

Spell resistance equal to 15 + the mind flayer’s CR

Affectless (Ex) A mind flayer gains a +4 racial bonus on all saving throws against emotion effects

Light blindness

Sunlight Sickness (Ex) A mind flayer in direct sunlight is sickened, as well as suffering penalties from its light blindness

Pith (Ex) A mind flayer can make a coup de grace attempt as a full round action without provoking attacks of opportunity against a helpless or pinned opponent. The coup de grace must be made with a specific natural weapon, listed in the mind flayer’s entry. This coup de grace does not function against creatures that have no head or no brain, and creatures with multiple heads are not killed if they fail the save (although that head is no longer functional).

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left is the Yuan-ti Nightmare Speaker! These sadistic half-blood yuanti follow the Nightmare Serpent, reveling in causing terror and tormenting victims. They can change into snakes, manifest illusions of your greatest fears, and use magic to spread fear and darkness (and mage hand). And yeah, snake bottom half. meaning dual cloacal extensions for double-clit or double...you know I've been saying dick, but do you have any idea how many different shapes snake genitals can take? Spiked clubs, masses of semi-stiff fronds, all sorts of stuff.

On the right, the Ulitharid! They're a person-sized rare form of illithid. These are the elite, the mindflayers that can become elder brains one day. They see near everyone else as a lesser, HOWEVER. They're nearly as strong as an orc, have miles of telepathy range, and can grapple with those tentacles. They have the psychic power to read or control minds, levitate, drop your intelligence to that of an animal, or stun you! Plus unbelievably high confidence!

[alienartfriend]

tempest is probably making a dick joke but luckily for him sovereign still thinks he's the funniest man in the world. arguably because of the dick joke.

this was originally based off a meme because i think their height difference is fuckin hilarious (tempest is not short for the record! he is 6'4"!) but sov's so earnest of a character this ended up being cute instead of funny

--

tempest (he/him), left, belongs to @asinglemossball. sovereign (she/it), right, belongs to me.

[fan-da-engraver]

plant repotting - illithid style!

had to do @laitiel 's handsome squiddy boi C: