Chutlhu as the god of the Mind Flayers?

[ReignofGeekaos]

Alright in a recent moment of either insanity or inspiration I had an idea, what if Chulthu was the God of the Mind Flayers? Would it work as a concept, is it a cool one, has it been done?

Have I truly gone insane, at the moment I'm wishing I had the Monstrous Arcana book on Illithads, so I pose the question to you would this concept work?

And I'm sorry but I really don't know much about Chulthu other then to look on him is to drive you crazy, And he looks like a Giant Octupus with Wings, and a muscular body, and Mind Flayers do seem similiar. .

 

[William Ronald]

Funny, you should mention it. My group covered that territory some time back, years before the worship of any deity by the illithid was addressed by TSR.

The illithid was clearly designed to evoke "Lovecraftian" themes, so we decided why not?

While some attention is paid to other deities, Cthulhu seems a logical choice. Alignment aside. Possibly the lawful evil alignment came about out of the need to run an empire. Or perhaps the Old One is viewed as a force of nature to be emulated, feared, and placated.

In the Illithiad, Bruce Cordell posited various theories on the origins of the illithid. The illithid (in the official books) worship Ilsenine, their primary deity. However, I feel Cthulhu works well if you are not dealing with copy right issues.

(Okay, which is more frightening. Illithids worshipping Ilsenine or illithids seeking to emulate an Old One?)

 

[jester47]

p.293 of the D20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game makes this suggestion: "In Dungeons & Dragons Cthulhu is also served by Aboleths, Mind Flayers and thier kin, and Kraken." So yeah, its an idea that has taken shape before, and not a bad one. Monte and I seem to agree with you.

Aaron.

 

[Creamsteak]

I bet your players will like it better than ilsensine as well... much more interesting than a big brain thing.

 

[William Ronald]

To me, the illithid are meant to be a truly alien race. They seem to be the most logical candidates to worship an Old One.

Hmm, maybe their ultimate goal is to form one big group mind and merge with their creator.

 

[ReignofGeekaos]

Either that or have them each evolve into another Cthulhu...

 

[MulhorandSage]

Funny, you should mention it. My group covered that territory some time back, years before the worship of any deity by the illithid was addressed by TSR.

The illithid was clearly designed to evoke "Lovecraftian" themes, so we decided why not?

(Okay, which is more frightening. Illithids worshipping Ilsenine or illithids seeking to emulate an Old One?)

When I worked up the version of Mind Flayer for the Monstrous Compendium in 2e, I was definitely trying to play on Cthulhuan themes.

Whether they should worship Cthulhu is your call.

Scott Bennie

 

[I'm A Banana]

Wait until you see what *I* have to say about Ilsensine! I mean, you guys saw what Aboleth do! Mwhahahaha!

Oh, but if you'd rather do it with a Great Old One, I say go for it. Mind Flayers are definately one of the D&D things inspired by Cthulu (continuing with the MM2's moonbeasts), so it makes a certain amount of sense.

I'd say they would be servants or willing petitioners, but not worshippers. Humans are insane enough as it is.

 

[jester47]

The thing is there is a defintie psionic element to Cthulhu. In the story Call of Cthulhu, a lot of artists, poets and sensitive people are greatly disturbed by Cthulhu's stirring. While d20 Cthulhu does not have psionic powers (he doesn't really need them) if I was running Cthulhu as a god of mind flayers then I would give him the dream domain and some powerful god or epic level psionics.

Aaron.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

You could even have "False Cthulhus" -- Fiendish Half-Fiend Kaiju Mind Flayers (Kaiju template is in Dragon #289).