#jr the mindflayer

[bigmfrat]

OC-ifying the windmill mindflayer because I can here he is in-game, he's so cringe and so fucking stupid I love him so much

Thez wanted to kill the newborn until the emperor agreed with him, being the spiteful little shit that he is he changed his mind and decided he was going to smuggle the newborn into the gate and raise the little idiot in his home instead. At least Thez has experience with adolescent illithid since he trained the apprentices when he was a venerator but he was not considering the next 20 years of his life (probably because he thought he was going to die or be enslaved within the next 3 days). My headcanon is that they do a lot of physical development in the first month, coming out like nasty little baby birds with soft and sloppy bones, joints, and insides, and take 10-15 years to fully grow into their adult body. To skip most of this the moonrise colony used netherese magic to speed up the process, this, however, leads to incomplete assimilation of the host's mind causing severe mental partialism in a large percent of its population. Basic mental partialism is supposed to be rare and keeping any conscious memories is supposed to be extremely rare to the point that it was a "story told to frighten young-adult mind flayers (pg 35 of the illithiad)". The emperor having it, you having it, and possibly even the windmill mindflayer having it (because he talks like a murder hobo bhaal boy) shouldn't be possible, at least extremely improbable. So I decided he's a silly little bhaalspawn with mental partialism :) Without JR, Thez would go back to doing what he was doing before getting snatched by the nautiloid, rotting in his house and only leaving to go to work, but now he's taking jr to the Underdark to attempt to erase the last bit of his affliction

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Even though ceremorphosis produces illithids that appear mature to the uninitiated, neophyte illithids do not possess anything near the experience or mental abilities that outsiders attribute to all illithids. Just like any other race, illithids must grow into their strength and powers, though such knowledge is guarded by mind flayers. In fact, from the time illithids are born to the time their powers mature, many years will pass. Just like other living organisms, experience brings wisdom and new abilities; illithids that live long enough can expect to reach their race's standard potential within 21 years of their emergence. Thus, while an illithid force of traders, explorers, or other important group consists of mature illithids, a large subterranean city of illithids possesses segments of the population with less than stellar abilities.

pg 14 of the Illithiad At the end of the week of ceremorphosis, nothing remains of the victim. Its tissues have been entirely replaced with the rapidly transforming mind fl ayer tissue. The creature is warmblooded and hermaphroditic, with a life expectancy of up to 135 years. It looks fully grown, but the newly ceremorphosed creature is an infant, only days into its sentient existence. It must grow in learning and experience before coming into its full power. This process varies from one mind fl ayer to another but the average “growing up” period lasts about twenty years. Immature illithids are seldom allowed outside the security of a well-protected subterranean city.

pg 63 of the Lords of Madness

[precious-little-bhaalbabe]

[littlejuicebox]

Legit just sick in bed thinking about TavxHalstarion headcanons for if they all had a daughter:

- She would be princess problems, no doubt about it. And #1 daddy’s girl.

- “Oh you don’t want to take me shopping for ten new outfits, compliment me as I try them on, and hold all my bags while we shop? That’s fine, my daddy will take me.”

- “Oh you don’t want to build me a house with your bare hands because it’s too much work? That’s fine, because my daddy will. No, not that daddy. The other one.”

- “Oh, you don’t think women can be leaders and be in charge of men? That’s funny because my mommy lead BOTH my daddies in battle and all three of them saved YOUR mommies and daddies from being mindflayers.”

- “Some people only have ONE daddy and some people have NO daddies?” Cue genuine shock and confusion from six year old Tav Jr.

- Absolute menace to society. But also a strong, fearless leader.

- Knows how to sew, embroider, whittle, cast healing spells, live off the land, speak to animals, pickpocket/lockpick, ballroom dance… really a jack of all trades kinda girlie.

- She’s giving female Robin Hood meets social justice queen vibes.

- Generally kind, but if you’re a bully on the playground? She’ll draw blood without a second thought.

- If she’s called to the principles office for such an offense, Astarion is the first one through the door threatening to sue everyone.

- Meanwhile Halsin is checking Tav Jr. and the other kid over for injuries, healing them if necessary.

- Tav is simply shaking her head at Tav Jr, knowing damn well that strong sense of justice and morally gray vigilante way of handling it is all her and she can’t actually be too mad that her daughter picked up the trait.

-Halsin will try to help her control her internal rage with meditation, while Astarion will try to show her how to simply not get caught.

- Halsin: “What do we do when we get the urge to physically hurt someone, my heart?” Tav Jr: “Take a deep breath and ask the Oak Father for patience.”

- Astarion: “What do we do once we’ve actually physically hurt someone, darling?” Tav Jr: “Remain silent and ask for my lawyer to be contacted.”

- Regardless of who is actual, biological daddy, Astarion and Halsin share the role with pride and recognize one another’s strengths for what they are. It takes a village to raise a child, and little Tav Jr. is fortunate to have her very own village built right in.

[henrysglock]

Do they show Vecna's mind lair in the play? Is it and the void basically the same thing?

Speaking of the mind lair, did you know that concept artist Michael Maher, Jr said that the duffers described it to him as "It’s the eerie, scary mind of a madman with broken memories."

I just think the broken memories bit is very interesting considering how much of a unreliable narrator Vecna is

We see the mindscape at multiple points! We see it in the attic vision (you can see the red through the massive cracks and missing pieces in that specific attic set), and we see it when Henry's listening to Virginia's memories of selling him and Patty out to Brenner, which happens right before the Shadow possesses him/the Creels are killed.

The degree of dilapidation in that attic set/the Creel house in that scene reminds me of the scene in the VR game where Vecna comes back to his mindscape to find the Creel house totally torn apart (the Mindflayer telling him he's been away too long and the house was destroyed because he wasn't keeping it together). I feel like we can really see the beginnings of that brokenness/destruction in TFS, particularly in Act I. When we get to the Creel murders in Act II, the house isn't there at all. It's just the dining table and the radio cabinet in open mindspace. It was very reminiscent of the blasted-apart Creel house, where you see isolated bits and pieces backed by open mindspace. It very much give the feeling that Henry has been shattered, and leaves me wondering how much he managed to patch all that back together before we enter the VR sequence.

The Mindflayer saying that the Mindscape Creel house fell apart when Henry wasn't around implies that he was holding himself/it together to some degree, and it also implies that it can be fixed if enough work is put into fixing it. That tells me none of this is beyond repair yet, and I'm interested to see how that fits in with the idyllic Creel house set in ST5.

[vrisktorias--serket]

Guys I think Robert f Kennedy Jr is gonna turn into a mindflayer.

[henrysglock]

Dimension X is where Vecna ends up with the Mindflayer:

Hellscape seems to be the setting for Vecna's zapping/falling scene:

These scenes were omitted from being used in Season 4.

So many interesting potential places there.

Dimension X - Some sort of new dimension that we don’t know about? Are there more out there that will be shown by the end? Further plot twist? Or is this just where Vecna has ended up?

Hellscape - This is interesting. The mindscape and mindlair belongs to Vecna. What’s the Hellscape? Something to do with the Mindflayer?

California Skatepark mindscape - Guessing this was to do with Max but was removed.

[seasofinfinity]

Mindflayer by Christopher Bernades Jr.

[precious-little-bhaalbabe]

I never understood why Mindflayer Karlach dresses Like That. It’s not like they HAVE to, Omeluum dresses like a normal person. It’s made very clear that even if it’s not Karlach in there anymore, the being with her memories is trying very hard to emulate her and do as Karlach would’ve wanted, so why do they dress all… spooky Illithid style. Looks nasty. Someone get that girl to the myconid colony so Omeluum can tell her she can dress normal. Also she deserves to have some more friends. Blurg and Omeluum are a good place to start.

[precious-little-bhaalbabe]

You called us to send asks about mindflayer karlach 🙇 I am here to learn. What are your Thoughts

I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED

Basically most of my points have been made before in the tags of other posts but she deserves her own post.

The jist of it is explained in this post and the accompanying image

Basically, Illithid transformation does destroy the host. Our Karlach isn’t Mindflayer Karlach, it’s her tadpole all grown up. Having absorbed all her memories. Because of this, lots of people say that the Mindflayer ending is Karlach’s bad ending. Personally, I don’t see it as her best ending (going back to Avernus and getting her heart repaired is her best ending for me) but I don’t see it as any worse than her ending where she chooses to burn up on the docks surrounded by her friends as a free woman. In both endings (burning up and Illithid transformation), Karlach dies.

But for her Illithid transformation, Karlach’s little tadpole stowaway takes over, consuming her body and her memories. With no Elder Brain influence (given she’s FIGHTING the Absolute) and only Karlach’s memories to build herself off of, the Tadpole decides to make herself a 1:1 copy of Karlach. She retains her name and maintains Karlach’s relationships and does what Karlach would have wanted (at least what she interprets as Karlach wanting, given she has access to all her memories).

I’ve seen people mad about this, how Mindflayer Karlach isn’t Karlach, Illithid transformation kills the host and this mindflayer is just pretending to be Karlach to manipulate us. And I don’t think that’s quite true. Cause without an Elder Brain to serve, what purpose would manipulating the party have? The tadpoles only memories are Karlach’s. Mindflayer Karlach isn’t a sort of devious trick and lie, it’s more of an “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” situation.

My belief is that as Squidlach continues to live her life, absorbing the memories of the terminally ill she helps leave the world on their own terms, and having her own experiences as a mindflayer and an individual, she will come to view herself less as BEING Karlach and more as FROM Karlach. Viewing Karlach as a predecessor or even a mother. Thus “Karlach III” (she can’t be “Karlach Jr.” because OUR Karlach is already Karlach Jr. if you visit her parents grave in Baldur’s Gate, you see her mother was also named Karlach.)

My hopes and dreams for Karlach III is she gets to meet Omeluum and he can help her figure out what it is to be A Mindflayer but also they can live healthily with their own kind without an Elder Brain, free to pursue their own goals and be good people. And also he can teach her how to wear normal clothes so she can get out of the awful Illithid fleshy horror outfit the transformation left her in. She deserves to wear normal clothes. It’ll help her be less scary.

Maybe the two of them together can start a little colony of peaceful mindflayers together! Not as like, a couple (Omeluum is already clearly married. To Blurg) but like. Idk. Maybe they find a way to grow new mindflayers without being parasitic. Or they take in other runaways from other Elder Brains like Omeluum and the Emperor. Or maybe idk some people are like Karlach and want to choose to give rise to an Illithid for whatever reason. I just think it would be neat.

And even if they don’t, I think it would still be good for the two of them to be friends. It’ll really help Karlach III come into herself as her own person, as a successor to Karlach rather than a copy. It’ll be good for her.