The Mind Flayers! Baldur's Gate and D&D Lore!

[@lostapwbm2790]

Ah the Mind Flayers. They combine two of Arch's favorite things: Slavery and tentacles.

[@hewitttribe5536]

But sadly no rats.

[@CheezMonsterCrazy]

@@hewitttribe5536 Mind Flayers have Cranium Rats.

[@matt36866]

Just need some dragon dildos and it's complete

[@dragonlord498]

@@matt36866 well their is mind flayer dragons out their quite rare but they exist....

[@dispiedark8682]

Come to mind flayer city, who needs dragon dildo's, some of your kind come with 6 tentacles. We can set your mind a blaze with sensation. (painful ones) We can bread some with spiky tentacles two! so no worries, We got you covered for all your insertion delights. Come now to mind flayer city the Vacation destination for the senses and that mush needs stress relieve! (We will relieve you of your brain, don't worry just come over. )

[@akachi6331]

Sooo Arch....both 40k and D and D lore...words cannot express the joy i feel right now.Keep it going good sir.

[@kethos017]

No matter what communities may say, they are the same concept with let‘s say somewhat sinular style. A wise man (Arch) can see beyond the veil that separates all things.

[@deedlessdeity218]

You forgot the good kind of Vampire lore.

[@oskarpalus2846]

Variety is good, however 40k alone has enough content for next 10 years of lore videos at current pace. Arch may be stretching himself thin.

[@kethos017]

True. We need more Vraks, we only have 24,5 hours of him talking about it.

[@YiotisTheGnome]

Don't forget the Dark World lore!

[@deedlessdeity218]

Be an Elder Brain. Plan the overtaking of Athkathla for decades. Have your little band of broken off jolly squids be waltzed over by a completely random band of bored adventurers looking for talking swords in the sewers on the side. Ah, the joy.

[@ANDELE3025]

Even worse, be killed by random incorporeal undead that just wandered around and decided to touch you a few times because you and 80% of your slaves cant detect it and it you got between 11 to 15 strength. Doesnt work so well/its a bit better with 5e sample monster stats as they are explicitly designed for standard adventurers tho.

[@StarSage66]

The big brain am winning again! I am the greetest! Now I will leave Faerun for no raisin!

[@Rex1987]

i know right? just as you plan to take over the world using your perfect plan and then just SOMEONE has interrupt you! nobody has any manner these days :D

[@ejedwards988]

@JoeRingo118 no! NO! NO! NO! *NO! NO! NO!* Shame on you. You should know better. Mind-flayer lives do not matter. Not now, not ever.

[@TheAlgorath]

@JoeRingo118 Agreed, Brain Eating Parasites are just part and parcel of living in a major city today.

[@xXBisquitsXx]

Had a feeling we might be seeing some Baldur's Gate lore, enjoying the variety of lore videos.

[@tarmok3756]

Arch: "Due to VtMBL, I have way to much to do atm." Also Arch: "Guess I throw myself into another massive univers and do lore vids on it."

[@ArchYouTube]

kill me....

[@Abyss-Walker-189]

@@ArchKZbin No. Lore for the lore god.

[@tarmok3756]

@@ArchKZbin HA! Interesting. Blessed by the attention of the man himself. I feel honoured (but could also be the 6 beers I had by now ;) ). Keep up the great work good Sir and make sure to give my home boys the the Nosferatu some love as soon as PDX introduces them. PS: any plans you may be at PDX con this year?

[@Ichaerus]

Like a nymphomaniac complaining about sex, but wanting to get plowed within the hour. :P

[@akumaking1]

@@ArchKZbin how would Mind Flayers fare in Warhammer?

[@Slowmelt0]

"I hate how D&D does evil, I would much prefer [the perfect description of how Evil is defined in D&D]" - Arch, man who has clearly played with only 3aboos.

[@zemorph42]

"3aboos"? Is this in reference to 3rd edition? Care to elaborate? I'm very curious.

[@ElectromagNick]

I like playing around with the Illithids in my homebrew settings. There's so much you can do once you start playing around with the Rules As Written expectations, and I've found 5E to be particularly homebrew friendly. One region of my setting, Olithiri, has essentially a city-state of lawful neutral Mind Flayers that were altered by a Wish, fundamentally screwing with the lifecycle and ecology of this specific colony. To sum it up as best I can, a Githzerai wizard bent reality to force his own sense of empathy onto the Mind Flayers within the region and burned the pain he'd suffered because of the colony onto the hive mind at large. This caused a feedback loop of emotion that overloaded, the resulting psychic backlash killed the Elder Brain and about half the colony. An Ulitharid caught at the very edge of the backlash prior to leaving the colony later used a Wish so that the colony could feed on thought and dreams to sustain itself instead of needing to consume brains and the tadpoles could mature via clay golems transformed into empty flesh-and-blood vessels. The new Eldar Brain (the said Ulitharid) is the heart of essentially a fortress library/university to draw scholars and tradesmen to help sustain the colony, dealing in arcane knowledge and forgotten lore in exchange for dreams, memories, and thoughts (these are actually pulled from the mind and coalesced into tangible objects, think souls and humanity from Dark Souls). Bear in mind, this was the culmination of an entire campaign that I later rolled into the permanent backstory of the setting.

[@Sara3346]

Extrodinarily cool!

[@moonfale]

That Tech-Priest in the back ground, always gives me the impression that he is thinking WTF is that guy talking about?

[@leiyoung6535]

Moonfale *Tech priest attempts scan on Arch* ...scan fails... *Mumbles in binary* guess I’ll go play with my 3 mechanical cocks..

[@bantakkor8039]

Good and Evil in D&D are more like a scale of Altruistic and Egomaniac motivations. The merchant in the example would indeed be evil because although his shop might benefit other people, his personal motivation would be solely egocentric, he only cares for his own riches although the goods he sells might be useful to others. It's not about consequence it's about intention, A Good character might carry an injured person to a doctor, but despite his altruistic intentions the person he just carried is infected with a deadly disease and everyone in the town will die. The Good and Evil scale is about personal motivation and intentions, not about results. And while Good and Evil might be subjective due to biological necessities, intellectual faculties and socio-cultural upbringing (the mindflayers won't consider their way of living Evil), it is to be seen as "how would others consider my actions if they knew my motivations and intentions" which is quite a plain as well as complicated way of creating morality. First you ask for intention and motivation, then you create another person who is seperate from yourself and who knows your intention and motivation (and who usually identifies itself with the target of your actions) and allow this independend observer (Adam Smith: Moral Sentiments) to judge your actions. And in the case of D&D, if this observer will consider those motivations and intentions leading to these actions as Altruistic you're Good, Egoistic you're Evil. Since every mindflayer is solely focussed on domination, consumption and self-preservation, even in interaction with their own kind, there is no mindflayer which could be considered Altruistic, it's all focussed on self, even when they're controlled by the elderbrain they're puppets controlled by a mind which is Egomaniac. Therefore setting a creatures alignment to Evil just means that they will not help you (no matter who or what you are) unless they benefit from it, and they will hurt or betray you if they benefit from it. Your benefit although it might happen, is none of their considerations, unless they intend to hurt you for some reason, like revenge.

[@bantakkor8039]

@@Kryosleep Sure, but I prefer Smith. If you compare Adam Smith: Moral Sentiment to Kant: Kathegorischer Imperativ they are very similar, and Kant was probably inspired by it but (in a very German manner) focusses to much on the pure rational.

[@Furzkampfbomber]

Hm, there is a german saying, 'Das Gegenteil von _gut_ ist _gut gemeint.',_ which roughly translates to 'The opposite of _good_ is _good intentions.'_ I would generally agree with you, even more so in the context of the mind flayers, but I'd also say that from a mere practical point of view this has its limits, at least when it comes to the guy with the good intentions. Let me explain with another german winged word. 'Jemandem einen Bärendienst erweisen. / Provide a bear's service' means that you have all the good intentions in the world, but do (severe) damage explicitly out of those good intentions. This comes from a german folktale about a bear who is best friends with some guy. One day, he sees a bee sitting on this man's neck and decides to kill the bee before it might sting his friend. But since he completely underestimates his own strength, while overestimating his friends sturdiness, he kills his friend. From a perspective of a father who just watched his family getting wiped out, because this damn moron just toted a plague bearer (no, not the Astartes kind, although...) into his village, again, this damn adventurer with his heart of gold _is_ evil. Good intentions are nice, but one still has to care about the consequences. If there is some kind of risk assessment beforehand, then this is a different thing, but in my experience, those gung-ho style good types, who never do that, usually do more damage than good on a regular basis and I rather don't have them around. You know who at least in my book is one of the most evil tv-show characters ever? Steve Urkel. Seriously, I always hated this character with a passion. 'Ooops, was that _me?'_ might be funny when watching it, but when you are poor Carl and have your whole house destroyed for the umptiest time, while the very people who should be sympathetic with you and even tell you to shut up, poor Steve had _good intentions_ in the end, well... EDIT: Just read your comment about Kant now and here, I actually prefer Kant's very rational approach and not only because I am german myself. Kant's categorical imperative _'Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.'_ is exactly what I was trying to explain with my comment. Do you want the way our well-meaning adventurer acts to become a universal law? Thou shall bring the bearers of the most deadly plagues into the population centers of the world, while giving a crap about the consequences?

[@Msoulwing]

Since arguing alignment on the internet is a good idea that will in no way get bogged down, here are some pointers: 1. There are supposedly good mind flayers according to the Book of Exalted Deeds. Remember, the listed alignment in the monster manual is just the typical alignment; individuals can and will vary from it. 2. Evil IS a thing that exists in DnD. There are entire planes basically made of it. 3. You just described a Lawful Neutral character with a minor asshole streak. We have Lawful Evil to describe people who would gleefully sell child debtors to an arena so they can see them get torn to shreds by a manticore.

[@WordBearer86]

@The Martial Lord of Loyalty Ok I'll bite; what do you mean by evil being logically impossible?

[@honestgoblinproductions5663]

ANAND NOW HE HAS COMPLETED THE TRIFECTA OF TABLETOP GAMES!!! D&D, VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE AND WARHAMMER! HE SHALL NOW BE HENCFORTHE GIVEN THE ORDER OF NERDOM FIRST CLASS! PRASE BE THE EMPOROR!!!!

[@sangwonpark8967]

PRASE BE!

[@blackvial]

Praise be!

[@honestgoblinproductions5663]

PRASE BE!!

[@barrybend7189]

You miss one: Battletech.

[@honestgoblinproductions5663]

@@barrybend7189 sorry...

[@happi309]

As a D&D player and DM I love to see you doing lore videos for this great universe. But PLEASE for the love of all D&D pantheons, they are called GITHYANKI and GITHZERAI!

[@asimplenobody7797]

@LE Jimenez but...that's...is this memes?

[@daswordofgork9823]

KITTEN!

[@StevetheWizard2591]

I'm a little disappointed that we didn't hear anything about Alhoons, Neolithids, or Intellect Devourers, but still an excellent video.

[@riftdancer1349]

Needs a part 2 for sure.

[@barrybend7189]

You see a mindflayer be sure to have anti scionic helmets( actually a thing in D&D in scionic expansions).

[@BSOE3058]

Ya mean tinfoil fedora?

[@barrybend7189]

@@BSOE3058 not quite so useless.

[@Siegberg91]

@@barrybend7189 tinfoil fedora + 2?

[@trajanfidelis]

*psionic

[@limeyndixie]

I’m straying to think that Archie is basically the Rainman polymath of tabletop gaming nerd-dom.

[@winfehler]

Thomas Piscopo The idea did cross my mind recently as well.

[@jacobduty28]

Arch is doing DnD lore videos? Prepare me a beer and a steak serving wench! Today shall be a glorious one indeed.

[@zoopdterdoobdter5743]

... This sort of attitude is why your waifu pillow broke up with you and is now fucking your Fleshlight. You know it happens when you leave... *Toy Story was a coded warning.* 😳

[@nigredoooalgown6245]

That will be 7 copper Sir. :3 (1 for the beer ,4 for the steak and 2 for attitude)

[@bandito-yj3in]

Id love a lore video on Beholders, arch! Keep up the great work!

[@expat8460]

BG3 coming up so I am here to learn about the world of D&D.

[@Grim-hr6fl]

Hey Arch, love your videos. This one intrigued me mainly because I love Mind Flayers (Illithids) and am using them in my campaign. I did want to touch on one of your last points about alignment and the nature of Evil. D&D rulings on alignment are suggestions at best. I personally view them as generalities. You can very much have an Illithid of any alignment, but you have to have a story reason as to why this Illithid is good. An important facet of that is: how does this guy eat brains and still maintain it's virtue? Plus, why would you want a good Illithid? They are the perfect villains! Again, I love your content!

[@theswordson676]

Arch plz do more D&D Lore always wanted to know more and only your voice can bring it to life

[@DonKangolJones]

Ah yes, the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3 has brought me back here.

[@Captain1nsaneo]

"No one considers themselves evil" I thought everyone on the internet knew enough about serial killers to not say this.

[@Furzkampfbomber]

But the thing is, usually even serial killers do what they do for reasons other than 'I am evil and want to do evil things, muahahahaaa!'. From their perspective, they might not be good guys, true, but this doesn't mean that they actually think they are _evil_ by a longshot. Mind you, usually serial killers operate within a very warped perception of the world and within this twisted frame, they are not evil.

[@Captain1nsaneo]

@@Furzkampfbomber The Monster with 21 Faces

[@Furzkampfbomber]

@@Captain1nsaneo Never heard of that guy, I would have to look him up, but that is one of many. Still does not make a rule. Which could be said about serial killers in general, how many of them are there amongst almost 9 billion human beings, even when taking into consideration that there must be many, many serial killers who or even whose murders never get discovered? I'd say the number is somewhere in the permille of a permille area, which in my book justifies the 'no one thinks...' statement.

[@yomanyo327]

Don't know much about the lore of this universe, so i would very much like more videos on the topic.

[@reverendnorse]

First 40K and Warhammer Fantasy, then Vampire, now D&D! you just knocked Sargon off of my nr 1 spot for favourite KZbinr you Norwegian bastard XD. Keep up being Awesome!!!

[@omegawilliam95s36]

Arch: Mind Flayers reproduce asexually. Me: Ok. That’s not so bad- Arch: By having their young eat your brains alive! Me: ....Hey, it’s a creative method I guess.

[@LanceEdmunds]

Mind Flayers in 40K? Think about that..

[@hgumen]

D&D lore addition is so good that it is beyond belief. Thank you Arch.

[@draugur345]

I am here to fact check. As a long time D&D nerd.... well done

[@matthuckabey007]

The creation of the Tyranid was a cataclysmic mistake made from a mind flayer ritual sacrifice.

[@connerharless7338]

Being honest when I heard the people who made the divinity games were making baldur’s gate 3 I girly screamed

[@MazzVonMad]

Aw, you didn’t go into the mind flayer taboo of arcane magic or how crazy the “holy shit” levels that is a mind flayer lich is.

[@93Avenger93]

Ah yes ... the mindflayer lich ... one of the major signs, right next to the tarasque, that the DM is absolutely fucking DONE taking the party’s shit, and ye better reform, or the next TPK happens IRL.

[@rateater1857]

During the ceremorphosis, there's a rare "birth defect" for some tadpoles, in which parts of the host's mind are imprinted in the mindflayer. So the mindflayer might find itself suddenly experiencing human emotions, fears, desires and sensibilities. If a colony discovers this, a faulty mindflayer is immediately destroyed, so it really takes an extremely crafty speciemen to dodge being found out, but there's potential for a neutral, independent mindflayer to happen, and even, with some serious stretch, for a "good" mindflayer ;)

[@midshipman8654]

one great thing about themindflayers that Arch forgot to mention was the fact that a mind flayed can sometimes have traits or momentary flash backs of their original hosts mind and memory, which can produce some really neat story beats. Just image after a party wipe everything fades to black, then an undisclosed amount of time latter you come to consciousness look down and see your tentacly horror of your body and a loud voice in your head before getting pushed down into the monsters subconscious. Also in reference to d&d I always saw the good and bad alignment as more of degree of selfishness. So “evil” chapters do things for themselves and “good” characters are more interested in helping others or the group.

[@professorsponge1554]

My favorite bit of lore about the Mind Flayers is that the Aboleth, the primordial first masters of the material plane find the squid men to be unnerving. Not because of their powers, but because the Aboleth don't have any memory of the Mind Flayer's inception. To the Aboleth the MF just... appeared. And the Aboleth never forget anything.

[@RaithSienar]

Aye, the Illithids are invaders from the Far Realm. They came enmasse in the millions and in a blitzkrieg they enslaved hundreds of worlds and held them for millenia till the creation of the Annulus and the rebellion of the Gith.

[@professorsponge1554]

@@RaithSienar that's the current canon. In previous editions they were actually hinted to be from the far, far future when the sun was cold and the material plane was aged, weakened, and totally under their thrall. The Ithilids in the present are trying to bring about this dark future.

[@JDdoesstuff]

This is great! Would love to see more of D&D lore on this channel. Keep up the awesome videos!

[@anilaisor]

(well the last part is more about a rule i would say more to help then anything after a while and understanding the rules you just start to change stuff to fit the game but yeah i do agree that the base rules are quite stifling)

[@DrFranklynAnderson]

35:35 Well, looks like a job for Gorth, the dim-witted half-orc barbarian! I knew getting a 3 in INT would prove useful someday! 😂

[@HappyAspid]

Still remember my first encounter with mindflayer in nethack - "You feel like something has locked on your mind".

[@zenojester1560]

I was hoping to see Mind Flayer liches but hopefully they'll show up in a future video about my favorite undead. Thank you for another awesome video Arch. Hope to see more D&D soon.

[@watchface6836]

This released just as I’m planning an adventure involving Mind Flayers. This is so helpful I can’t even say.

[@sk00b72]

Alright. You explaining D&D as you explain 40k.... AWSOME!!!!

[@cryptosporidium1375]

Gotta love DnD lore coming from the Bridge God.

[@blackvial]

Some rogue Illithids do learn arcane magic and become liches

[@juanpablomontalvo4715]

That is fucking terrifying What would happen to the tentacles tho? Do they have bones in there or like squids are their heads boneless?

[@superdarklink]

In some editions, Mind flayers could become vampires.

[@captainpuffinpuffinson4769]

Lore for the lore God I wrote o the reaction trailer that we needed an Arch touch to the lore of d&d

[@kethos017]

Lore for the Lore God, likes for the ... what kind of throne whould that be?

[@captainpuffinpuffinson4769]

@@kethos017 either made of books, hands in the rigor mortis of the like motion, tounges (like for the lick throne)?

[@paweprokop4190]

24:13 Arch please, there is only so much of GITHNYAKI and GITHZERAKI I can take. The proper names for the two factions of Gith are Githyanki and Githzerai.

[@DarkRonnie]

ah but that was not their name back when they were slaves, and well it does simplify things for those that dont know the Gith species ;)

[@Melantrist]

It was truly painful. Also the way he pronounced Ilsensine and Maanzekorian....

[@StarSage66]

@@DarkRonnie Indeed, listen young ones to the stories of the greybeards who played DnD back when having a high armor class was a bad thing. According to the old books of the bygone "TSR" Githyanki and Githzerai were both descended from a race known as the Forerunners. There was even evidence that the Forerunners were the precursors to humans as well as the gith races, meaning humans and gith are cousins. Of course this dates back to the age of the illithid empire, a time so far ago that none but the crustiest of greybeards has a remotely credible theory for how long ago it truly was.

[@haydenspilman5355]

How have I missed this video? Thank you for the work, Lore Master Arch!

[@bchighlander]

Mindflayers would fit right in 40k as a xenos horrificus race.

[@Siegberg91]

There are the T'Chung Parasites they are mindflayers

[@StarSage66]

Ah the mind flayers, these guys are up there with beholders and owlbears as one of the most iconic of DnD's monsters. They're also one of my favorite villains to use as a DM with aboleth and liches only ranking higher as my favorite masterminds.

[@deadmeme8973]

Good shit man. There's a theory that states Mind Flayers can travel across time, and are trying to reconstruct their empire in different times. And basically, the ones living in the underdark are the offspring of stranded companies.

[@techpriest8965]

Also, a creature known as Neothelid is worth mentioning. A gargantuan worm that grows out of one tadpole that devours all other tadpoles. It happens when a mindflayer colony colapses and the elder brain somehow dies or is killed. That frees the tadpoles from its influence. But since they are no longer fed, they turn to eating one another. Neothelid is a lovely little thing to throw at your players when they are crawling in the underdark :)

[@jcsteele7012]

have a loregasm because of arch doing a dnd lore video

[@SeraphimKnight]

You forgot to talk about the paradox that is the illithid empire. In the far future of the D&D universe, they have once more become an all-encompasing empire, wherein they time travel to the beginning and conquer the universe anew, thus ensuring their continued existence.

[@jakefrost7404]

_Arch would like us to think of him as a kindly, bearded Inquisitor, but we now know the truth... _*_Arch Warhammer is an Elder Brain!_*

[@rateater1857]

he's just a bunch of hyperintelligent cranium rats making youtube videos ;'''D

[@dimble3]

Just when I think you can't get more amazing you go and do a baldur's gate lore vid!

[@Autipsy]

I’d love some more Vampire: The Masquerade lore as well!

[@Auriorium]

I agree with the alignments, there are players who hold them up as a rule while thy are more of a guideline.

[@93Avenger93]

Yeah no. They ARE a rule. A hard one. Morality in DnD is not malleable, it’s not an abstract concept, Good and Evil are physical tangible things, there are entire planes of reality MADE from Good, Evil, Law and Chaos, and combinations of them. Alignments are NOT guidelines, there is some flexibility in what fits into an alignments, but they are far from guidelines one can bend. Play Baldur’s Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal and keep sarevok with you, then try to get his alignment switch to trigger. It’s supposed to be a great feat, an intense work of spiritual self-discovery and enlightenment that alters the very fundamental spiritual nature of a being. The game doesn’t do it enough justice, but it does a least give a serviceable idea of how hard it should be. It’s also why alignment shifts are supposed to be a major decision that in game mechanics terms makes you loose a level. You loose a part of yourself, and start a new path in life. So yeah. They are not guidelines, not in the way the metaphysics of the universe work as established. And while any individual player/GM may choose to implement the system however they choose, to call them guidelines in generals misses the point hard of how the universe is supposed to work.

[@Auriorium]

@@93Avenger93 No thy are guidelines because thy are stupid and yes I did change the alignment of Sarevok and it was interesting. But my point still stands because the rules are limiting the expression of characters that is why thy are guidelines. Because then you arrive to the problem of Chaotic Neutral that by definition would never work with a party because it is completely against the notion of a party or structured government or organization. If you start a Chaotic Neutral character and by the end of the first session you are not leaving the party you would have to change the alignment to Chaotic Good or Evil depending on the party. You see the stupidity of this system. Also Find me a role player who plays out his alignment correctly and I will call bullshit.

[@ambustio9807]

​​​@@Aurioriumthey are not guidelines evil and good are real tangable things one can detect mesure and study. Evil Has a source so does good Evil will effect and change the landscape same with good There are magical items that will only work when carried by good or evil hell in BG you couldnt even carry said Items(probobly game limitation) You cant accept fantasy for what it is alien wierd well fantasy setting that has diffrent laws of the universe Evil and good is just as much of a guide line as gamma radiation is Both can have a source both change the envoirment both can be mesured and detected Also chaotic neutral may be anatchist(as you put it) but they would work with chaotic evil/good neutral against lawful You know bigger enemy and all that Also show me a player who can correctly RP anything other than human and I will call bullshit humans cant RP anything other than human since we are humans with human perception and brain but we will do our best same with being good/evil

[@marcusaustralius2416]

I'm currently writing a campaign at the moment. It starts with the players scattered throughout a small town, the Orc raids have been particularly bad this year, and their various jobs and paths have lead them here as the roads are unsafe at the moment. The town guard is mobilised quickly due to reports of an orc army and quickly crushed, as the flee the field, the orcs smash into the town, bringing the players together. The orc armies will crush everything in their path, as united they're more powerful than anything that can be mustered against them, and everywhere they go, they enslave whole cities. The players will slowly learn that the generals and officers of the army are incompetent, sluggish and lazy, that the rulership of the kingdom is too cozy and self obsessed to realise the magnitude of the threat. They'll have to organise, try and take out prominent orc figures and divide the clans, but on one raid, they'll see a tall figure in highly ornate armour, with a hood casting their face in shadow, with something moving beneath it. They'll come to learn that the orcs are far from in charge, instead being directed by a cabal of mind flayers, attempting to reestablish their old kingdom once more in area free of gith. They've infiltrated the kingdom through religion, with mind flayers in every chapel, hidden by magic to the visible eye, flitting in and out of palaces and war camps unseen in broad daylight. They're manipulating the political and military leadership to weaken the kingdom, while simultaneously leading a war against it, when they're done, they'll have a powerful army and a solid base to build on. If you can kill the elder brain, the psychic shock will cause the majority of flayers to fall unconscious, and the orcs will turn on the ones in their midst before immediately turning on each other as the clan alliances break down. The humans will turn on those within their midst, and attempt to hunt them down, while finally being able to fight back the orcs. You'll have saved the people, but at huge cost.

[@TheDrf1991]

So, essentially they are another type of xenos species with a magic power and an interesting ability to transform into other beings. Is there any kind of "death watch" to deal with them in dnd universe?

[@Brutalyte616]

There's an entire race of creatures known as the Gith that brought down the ancient Mindflayer empire eons ago, and they have made it their sworn duty to hunt down the few surviving Mindflayers across time and space until none of their former masters are left alive; such is the grudge of a race held in slavery to cruel and apathetic taskmasters for the better part of eternity. The problem is that the Mindflayers are a paradoxical existence; in order to escape the genocide of their race, they travelled back in time, seeding their own homeworld with life and fleeing across the universe, becoming cosmic refugees on the many planets they would one day conquer.

[@Qardo]

In truth. Mindflayers dislike Magic. Their powers are purely psionic. Though they can wield magic but it is frowned on a tad. Even doubly so with those Mindflayers that seek power for themselves. They are outcasts. As the Mindflayer society is...well Tau in some degree. For the Greater Good. At least for the Greater Mindflayer Society. If it does not benefit the whole or the Big Brain. Then, there are going to be problems.

[@TheDrf1991]

@@Brutalyte616 Ok I get it. But are they cooperating with the other races to exterminate them and/or spreading the knowledge about their strenghts and weaknesses? You know, something like know your enemy.

[@Brutalyte616]

@@TheDrf1991 ... I'm not all that familiar with the Gith to know how they disseminate information among the races, but the general consensus is that Mindflayers are rare enough to be considered a myth, even by learned scholars and seasoned adventurers, and it is not unheard of for the Gith to eradicate all Mindflayers in a given timeline. It is also not unheard of for the same timeline to be repopulated at a different point in time by the very Mindflayers the Gith just murdered...

[@Gorbz]

Well, there are always the Harpers. They tend to seek out "evil" in order to destroy it, on Faêrun at least

[@L337N1NJ4L1NK]

You merchant example would be lawful neutral unless the man enjoyed the act.

[@krishelfferich3087]

I havent played DnD in 20 years..but dammit...my last character was killed by a mind flayer! Oh the (non) humanity!! 🐙

[@derrabbit7289]

This is very different from the terrors from the far and dark future where the sun has been snuffed out and the far realm has taken over origin that I read from 3.5 and 4.0

[@angrylizardman1472]

By the god emperor a D&D lore video, i never though i would live to see such a holy event.

[@tomtheconqerur]

Old man Henderson would have a grand old time with these things.

[@joshuawall646]

Fucking Mormons

[@UGNAvalon]

So basically, a Goa’uld symbiote goes Parasyte on its host, maturing into Davey Jones, before joining the Borg Collective? (Sorry, new to DnD, but couldn’t help noticing all the nerdy connections.)

[@levilandes1719]

"Naughty Lloyds" had me dying. I love subtitles sometimes.

[@gallendugall8913]

The most important thing to know about Mindflayers is that they are delicious when broiled with a little lemon pepper.

[@alexandercross9081]

Wish Arch would do more D&D lore

[@theodore-jef5664]

Mind Flayers sounds like we need to expand the scope of the Inquisition, Brothers.

[@Gorbz]

The minds of man are too easy for the *Illithid* to dominate. The Inquisition will serve their will.

[@Kimani_White]

37:00 The moral nature of an individual is defined by the net valence of their core motive character. An evil person is someone who primarily operates from a default of ill will towards others _(while a good person is one who defaults from good will)._ A "lawful" evil person is someone who consistently follows some code(s) of conduct, but will still fuck over others within the letter of the law.

[@KillerandUndertaker]

Evil & Good exist as matter of fact energy's is D&D. Great video Arch, hope to see more D&D from you!

[@Severin1111]

"An lawful evil person is not evil." -Arch

[@herbert-kenumera960]

>>Heretic mindflayers Today I learned...

[@ConcreteShaman]

I’ve already read nearly every scrap of mind-flayer (and other aberration) lore but im just here to hear that arch-style dress-up

[@Blahblah-il2dv]

I don't know everything about Forgotten Realms which the Baulders Gate games are based on but......... I am pretty sure Illithides are super strong solo creatures where like breading is done through proxy negotiation and there is no elder brains and they are so strong that they can enslave young dragons. Like if you have more then one Illithid actually working together beyond shaky peace in the under dark, would basically be a world ending event.

[@hunterhough7593]

I love the background music reminds me of back when you did the lore for the various warhammer fantasy factions

[@Dwarfman01]

Having reviewed the Illithid, maybe your next species should be their arch enemy, the Gith and their two factions

[@MrKdub63]

Already an Arch Warhammer fan but my Baulders gate love sent me searching for lore and I struck gold.

[@cadmoon89]

As a lover of both 40k and D&D I couldn't be happier. Hopefully we will see some more D&D more in the future? Here's hoping!

[@TSFCaesar]

YAY! 3 kinds of lore, this is amazing! (Also KZbin has unsubbed me for some reason, so I resubbed)

[@sjoerddz]

really nicely done video arch, im so fortunate we seem to share many of the same hobbies

[@AndusDominae]

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I believe you missed out two things. There are arcane mages among the mindflayers who quickly become outcasts if they're lucky enough to escape the colony before the obvious issue of a hive mind circumnavigating their obfuscation catches up with them. And the fact that they DO regain their power. They have a cyclical history. They become the dominant species as described in the future, then escape into the past during the Gith uprising to become their own ancestors and followed by some Githyanki and Githzerai who are descendants of some of the core playable species (I believe either a type of human or elf). I'm fairly certain this is canon, but the vastness of the source material means we can always find something to the contrary.

[@imerror6224]

So what happens if a mindflayer tadpole burrows inside of a demon or any other divine creature (I don't know all that much about dnd lore)?

[@toxicmongerofthehatefulbro5745]

D&D Headquarters one day: "Hey Guys, You know the Mindflayers?" *"Yeah."* "And you know Ropers?" *"...Y-Yes?"* "Mindflayer Roper." *"...Fucking Genius."*

[@Quasimodo-mq8tw]

A thought after watching the trailer: The Mindflayer Empire place is often referenced as lost in time but considering that dimensions, space and time are just things to play with for these great empires, it is possibly that it is not(only) located back in a half-forgotten age in the distant past, it could very well be located in the distant future....or the very very near future(looking into the sky)

[@rosethorn7255]

That is how I see Lawful Evil as well. Often following the rules in ways to (more often than not) benefit themselves, and can be cruel about it. Though ultimately may help others if only to further their own goal.

[@calimerohnir3311]

your little discourse on the nature of Evil at the end reminds me quite a bit of Rich Burlew

[@mipoleon]

'You can not define evil' - After your defined evil.

[@kaspi001]

As for the alignments, I suggest you look up the Planescape setting (the OG one), authors of which took the Alignment system, arguably the worst system ever put in D&D, and made it into one of the most philosophical, fantastic, and creative settings out there.

[@matthewneuendorf5763]

One of the oddest things about Illithids is that they are stuck in a causal loop. The Mind Flayer empire was founded by time traveling refugees from the far distant future. They went back into primordial time and founded their great empire, only to create the Gith and lose it all. They will inevitably, eventually, hopefully many eons hence rather than any time soon, reforge their empire and become the dominant species once again, only to face a threat so dire that their only recourse is to abandon everything and escape to the past. The Aboleths, another terrifyingly powerful D&D species possessed of a perfect ancestral memory, have no knowledge of the origins of the first Illithids. Amusingly, the MInd Flayers repeated their mistake with human slaves that resulted in the Gith using dwarven slaves, which in turn resulted in the development and eventual rebellion of the Duergar.

[@TheShadowMagister]

Ah Mindflayers, the one race that even the Drow (or at least the sane ones) will refuse to deal with. They also have their origins in The Far Realm, making them essentially Cthulhu style invaders into the prime material plane (if the tentacles didn't indicate that already that is).

[@brodieknight772]

Alignment in D&D is not a restriction. There are absolutely zero restrictions for the DM in D&D. It's even been stated that the enemies in the Monster Manual are just examples, and they aren't all exactly like that. If you want a mindflayer that hates eating brains and only wants to pet fluffy kittens, you can just make it. Nobody will try to stop you.

[@noobiesmurf]

I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy.

[@marcinzysko1653]

11:00 i remember quite well a part of drizzt do'urden story, when he enqountered ilithids and their super brain. He got rescued, thanks to Guenhwyvar.

[@123456gordon]

Ah! this comes in handy since I've unfortunately never played the first 2 games and I'm looking forward to BG3.

[@93Avenger93]

You always can get the Enhanced Editions ... just for the love of fuck google the characters added by them and avoid them like the plague. And don’t play Siege of Dragonspear, because good god it sucks. It’s a small mercy WotC decided to get beamdog off the franchise and passed it to Larian.

[@Steve0C]

If they are anything like they were in Baldur's gate 2, invest in cloud kill. I forget if it was them or just those umber hulks that did confuse attacks, but cloud kill was legit for those fights.

[@drizzt7dourden7]

nice video with lots of information i didnt know ^^ one thing regarding alignement: "Evil" in D&D ist nessesarily "do bad/amoral things" its more the idea of "do what is best for YOU no matter what it costs someone else" so your example would be evil aligned. aka as long as it brings the evil person lots of gains they could be the nicest guys around. as an example running an orphanage were you give your children basic education and martial/magical training to create a group of powerfull adventurers indebted to you might be considered evil especially if you utelise them in a way that gets you lots ofbenefits at the cost of others

[@crushcommando8637]

"Evil is not a thing" idk i feel like beholders would have a word with you arch. :p

[@otiswhitt1129]

My party boarded a Mind flayer nautiloid in last nights d&d game, then I wake up this ?? Hail the Master of Secrets

[@techpriest8965]

I am all up for D&D lore videos :D Keep 'em coming!

[@SangoProductions213]

...You realize that Always [Alignment] only means the vast majority of them are that alignment, right? Of course, pretty hard to not have a callous disregard for other sapient life, when it's your required food source.