Page 66 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

mind flayers is a great mystery to those who study the basis of freedom. The most passive serve only as advisors and sources

sorcery. Certainly, mind flayers have no dragon blood. It could of historical information. The norm is a degree of control

be that this tendency depends on the history of the donor body somewhere between absolute authoritarianism and enlight-
prior to it undergoing ceremorphosis, but since no systematic ened despotism.
study is possible, no one knows. An elder brain’s telepathic range extends 350 feet, although
However it’s explained, the combination of psionic and some elder brains might have feats, spells, or psionic powers
sorcerous power is fearsome. These creatures are shunned that extend this range. Within that radius, an elder brain is
even by others of their own kind. aware of all living things. Intervening material has no effect
on its ability to communicate or on its awareness of all thought
Elder Brains within range. This hyper-awareness makes it almost impossible

At the center of every large mind flayer community is a fetid for enemies to sneak into an illithid community. Their pres-
pool of murky, swirling, briny fluid. The pool itself can have ence is detected and resistance organized long before intruders FLAYERS CHAPTER 4

any configuration, but in every case it serves two purposes. move close enough to present a significant threat. THE MIND

First, it is an incubator for illithid tadpoles; hundreds of thou- Besides communicating directly with individual mind

sands might inhabit the pool as a teeming mass at any given flayers, an elder brain can establish contact between two or
time. Second, it serves as the nutrient pool for the community’s more illithids that would otherwise be outside one another’s
elder brain, the intelligence that guides and unites the illithids range of 100 feet. In this capacity, the elder brain acts only as
into their tightly woven society. a conduit, albeit one that hears and remembers everything
How an elder brain comes to be is unknown. Even to the mind that passes through it. Some elder brains use spells such as

flayers, an elder brain is timeless and ageless. It is an amorphous, Rary’s telepathic bond or equivalent psionic powers to keep in

writhing bulk of tissue, the conglomeration of cast-off brain touch with individual mind flayers at tremendous distances,

matter from deceased mind flayers. When a mind flayer dies, its allowing near-instantaneous communication throughout the

brain is removed ceremonially and cast into the pool, whereupon community.
it sinks to the bottom to be absorbed into the greater mass. This Because of an elder brain’s awareness, mind flayers are of

melding of an individual’s brain into the communal elder brain necessity among the most lawful of creatures. Plotting against
is a fate to which mind flayers aspire; they do not fear or regret the community or the elder brain is impossible. Even deviating

their passing. If anything, they fear a death that prevents them from the social norm is likely to bring about swift corrective
from becoming a part of the elder brain. action ranging from a single stern warning to coercion or
No individual personalities survive absorption by the elder psychic annihilation, depending on how harsh that particular
brain. It is sentient (some might say super-sentient), but its elder brain cares to be at the moment.
consciousness lies outside any human or mind flayer experi- Elder brains grow and gain power continually. They never

ence. The nature of its intellect is a mystery to mind flayers, become old, infirm, or senile (their sanity might be called into
because even their potent psionics cannot penetrate beyond question, but only from the limited perspective of mortal crea-
the shallowest layers of an elder brain to discern its inner tures). A large number of illithids believe that all elder brains
workings. are growing toward an ultimate purpose—that at some point
The brain is clearly a physical as well as a psychic entity. It in the future, the brains will meld into a single, all-seeing elder
subsists by extracting presentient psychic vibrations from the brain capable of communicating across limitless distances
tadpoles that teem around it. “Devoured” tadpoles are reduced through the Astral Plane.
to oily residue that dissolves slowly into the brine. Mind flayers are subject to one huge misconception

An elder brain is typically 8 to 10 feet in diameter, regardless concerning elder brains. They believe that their individual con-
of how many brains are absorbed into its mass. While an elder sciousness survives after joining the elder brain. This notion
brain’s mass doesn’t increase beyond a known maximum, its is completely wrong. The elder brain extracts knowledge and
intelligence and knowledge do. Each new brain contributes strength from the brain matter and adds its mass to its own,
all of its life experience to the elder brain’s totality. but the illithid is dead. Only the elder brain lives forever. Elder
Elder brains rule their communities completely. Their brains guard this secret, as one might expect.
dictates and pronouncements are beyond question. Some are For elder brain statistics, see page 144.
cruelly dictatorial, while others allow varying amounts of
Brain Golems
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One of the most astounding and disturbing abilities of an elder
brain is its capacity to create what is known as a brain golem.
PSIONIC SUBSTITUTION
In Chapter 8, the elder brain is described as a 20th-level sor- This construct is formed from the brains of intelligent crea-
cerer. This spellcasting merely serves to emulate its psionic tures, with a body that is an extruded portion of an elder brain’s
abilities for DMs who choose not to use psionics in their game. own mass. The head of the golem secretes a slimy substance
Elder brains are never true sorcerers. that sheathes the body in thin, membranous skin.
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