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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
    
USA
12020 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2013 : 13:37:08
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So, I'm looking at the flood of email on the new reaper kickstarter #2. One of the things its showing is some space add-ons called Bathalions. There's 3 different versions, and I get that the base idea probably came from someone playing starcraft with their own spin. Basically, they are these creatures with mindflayer type heads and a snake-like body (with chitin) and 3 varieties of arms (first is a huge, scythe-like bone talon, next up is pincers, next up is 3 opposable claws). When I saw it, I was like.... hmmm, Sarrukh experimented on illithids? Maybe that kicked off the whole illithids experimenting on other cultures? Maybe it was tit for tat because of illithids experimenting on Sarrukh? Maybe its just illithids experimenting on their own kind? I was also trying to think where would be a good place to showcase this weird group of mind flayers. I'm thinking maybe they've been in the deepest depths of the underdark. Hell, maybe in the far realm, these are a common breed of beings, and they've only recently broken through into our dimension. Anyway, just thought... that's definitely new, let's share..
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-ii-the-return-of-mr-bones
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
    
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2013 : 13:56:35
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Goroloth looks like a illithid/aboleth hybrid.
Weird, because I have those in my homebrew.
I wish I had spare cash - I'd buy them all. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 24 Oct 2013 13:58:32 |
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Lilianviaten
Senior Scribe
  
489 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2013 : 16:02:23
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That design is sick! I think yuanti are natural psions too, so it could be a perfect blend. In fact, the illithid larvae being developed in a natural psionic race (as opposed to humans) will probably make the adult a more powerful psion. And it should get a magical aura of fear just for being such an unnatural, scary looking thing. Insane magic resistance. I doubt either yuanti or illithid societies would accept these freaks, though. Where would they live? |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
    
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 24 Oct 2013 : 23:01:41
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2E canon doesn‘t permit such hybrids; the Illithiad categorically excludes non-bipedal races, centauroids, and others. Illithids simply don‘t (or won‘t) ever permit such species to host their tadpoles and be converted into Mind Flayers. They don‘t tolerate even the slightest physical and psychological deviance from their norm, and actively destroy any such beings before they are allowed to mature. Gotta admit that it must be impossible to hide your innermost thoughts and struggles while living as part of an interconnected telepathic brain-community.
Having said that, D&D is richly populated by the impossible. Yuan-ti do seem inclined towards experimentation to infiltrate/control other races. and post-2E lore offers great emphasis on hybridizing every cool and popular race/class it can. |
[/Ayrik] |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
    
USA
12020 Posts |
Posted - 25 Oct 2013 : 13:36:31
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quote: Originally posted by Ayrik
2E canon doesn‘t permit such hybrids; the Illithiad categorically excludes non-bipedal races, centauroids, and others. Illithids simply don‘t (or won‘t) ever permit such species to host their tadpoles and be converted into Mind Flayers. They don‘t tolerate even the slightest physical and psychological deviance from their norm, and actively destroy any such beings before they are allowed to mature. Gotta admit that it must be impossible to hide your innermost thoughts and struggles while living as part of an interconnected telepathic brain-community.
Having said that, D&D is richly populated by the impossible. Yuan-ti do seem inclined towards experimentation to infiltrate/control other races. and post-2E lore offers great emphasis on hybridizing every cool and popular race/class it can.
Yeah, I don't see these things as being accepted within illithid society. I hadn't put 2 and 2 together with yuan-ti and psionics, but that makes me even more go "sarrukh experiment or maybe yuan-ti experiment". What I'd find of most interest would be an idea of a bunch of experiments that began to breed true, but maybe something like their creators were all killed off (maybe they had their society split via a portal... illithids came in, killed the creators and a lot of the lab experiments, but missed these). Or, maybe the experiments break free of their creators.
My initial thoughts were to have them buried in the underdark. However, what if they're from Glyth? You know, maybe some Sarrukh with yuan-ti servitors relocated there and were experimenting on captured mind flayers. Maybe the atmosphere of Glyth is just getting too unbearable and they're seeking a new world. They steal some mind flayer spelljammers and settle somewhere remote on Toril. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
    
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 25 Oct 2013 : 22:39:32
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Great scribes such as Richardson and Krashos might be able to provide detailed chronologies of Realmslore, and I may be mistaken, but I‘d thought illithids “invaded“ Realmspace (especially Glyth) many millenia after the Sarrukh and Creator Races had essentially left. This seems to bode ill for Sarrakh experimentation with illithid hybrid races. |
[/Ayrik] |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
    
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 02:28:17
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The illithids arrived in the Realms from Glyth via spelljammers circa -11,000 DR.
Though, "Serpent Kingdoms" suggests that sarrukh from Mhairshaulk knew of the illithids too... which was long before their arrival from Glyth. I've provided speculation for how this apparent temporal discrepancy might be explained in the old 'Creator Races and the Days of Thunder' scroll. |
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Edited by - The Sage on 26 Oct 2013 02:31:27 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
    
USA
12020 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 02:31:18
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quote: Originally posted by Ayrik
Great scribes such as Richardson and Krashos might be able to provide detailed chronologies of Realmslore, and I may be mistaken, but I‘d thought illithids “invaded“ Realmspace (especially Glyth) many millenia after the Sarrukh and Creator Races had essentially left. This seems to bode ill for Sarrakh experimentation with illithid hybrid races.
Left Toril. Doesn't necessarily mean left realmspace. Who knows how many planets they spread to before their society fell apart. Some of them may have fallen into a deep sleep and only recently in the past few millennia risen from it. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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The Masked Mage
Great Reader
    
USA
2420 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 03:47:07
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Further, illithids are pretty much everywhere else as well. So wherever the Sarrukh went its likely they had some mind flayers to flay :P |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
    
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 13:42:23
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Why blame the illithids, or Sarrukh for that matter?
The Yuan-ti seem willing to experiment on everyone, so why wouldn't they have tried their hand at such a hybrid, from their end?
Then, the 'children' may have surpassed their expectations and gotten free, and now have their own, secret 'enclave' and agenda.
The illithids, for their part, may consider them abominations, and want to find and destroy them (like how the Skrulls were seeking-out and destroying Dire Wraith infestations in Marvel Comics).
In fact, it may even be something along the lines of those creatures in Blade II - the Reapers - children of the vampires who fed on their own kind. Imagine to everyone's horror a yuan-ti/illithid hybrid that targeted their parent-races. Now imagine illithids coming to the PCs for help...  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
    
USA
12020 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2013 : 21:52:07
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quote: Originally posted by Markustay
Why blame the illithids, or Sarrukh for that matter?
The Yuan-ti seem willing to experiment on everyone, so why wouldn't they have tried their hand at such a hybrid, from their end?
Then, the 'children' may have surpassed their expectations and gotten free, and now have their own, secret 'enclave' and agenda.
The illithids, for their part, may consider them abominations, and want to find and destroy them (like how the Skrulls were seeking-out and destroying Dire Wraith infestations in Marvel Comics).
In fact, it may even be something along the lines of those creatures in Blade II - the Reapers - children of the vampires who fed on their own kind. Imagine to everyone's horror a yuan-ti/illithid hybrid that targeted their parent-races. Now imagine illithids coming to the PCs for help... 
Oh, I like that idea.... that they favor eating illithid brains over any others. That's really good. As to Sarrukh or yuan-ti, yeah, I specifically mentioned both because I'm not concerned with which it was. The yuan-ti abominations would definitely experiment with just about anything. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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