Inspired by Lords of Madness (Updated with 65% more ideas, and 74% more confusion)!

[BryonD]

Ok, well that just makes me stupid.....




Oh, well, been there done that before....



Thanks


And I'm trying think of how to retro fit your ideas here into my current game. I've already got versions of the Olympian and Norse gods running around in a panic because the Mythos Old Ones are making a comeback. It isn't a long stretch from that to the stuff you threw out. So thanks twice.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I love the time traveling illithid being both the the response to a problem and the original problem at the same time. So much so, in fact, that I think it really ought to be the "default" truth for the D&D cosmology.

Having said that, damned if I could figure out how to let the players in on any of this. Maybe an alienist historian is recording this into a very strange history book that the players could encounter once he's reclaimed by the Far Realm.

 

[Evilhalfling]

One: the proper tense for an event that you have/need to go back in time to cause is will haven be.

Two: what about everybodies friend the Gith? They could only have been created by the non-aquatic mindflayers, somewhere in other levels of reality. Are they also time travelers?
There was a proto mindflayer in dragon lance, basically the same form - humanoid, brain eating tentacles, Mind blast, but not very bright, and no other psionics. It doesn't fit quite as well into this evelotuionary process that you guys is whippen up.

Hmm for another alternate - the successfull destruction/ dampening of the sun might mean that the only livable place left in the world was geothermal vents far under a sea of Ice. along with the death of humaniod servants, this would force the change to Aboleths. Another difficulty is that Aboleths are considerably scarcer than Ithillids, as the Ithillids have thier own cites, and aboltehs are rarely found in groups of any size.

There really are too many great ideas in this thread, I have no idea which one to steal.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think aboleth experiments to produce superior skum works the best for the evolution of the illithid, because it lets one explain all the illithid relatives as being the products of this experimental process, including explaining why players won't have encountered some of them until their DM picks up LoM. If the only illithidae, or whatever, in the world are the small surviving group of experimental subjects, they can exist in a discrete portion of the world until players stumble across them.

And, of course, illithids coming back in time prior to the aboleths creating them to ensure that they are, in fact, created is just awesome, and gives us yet another set of illithid running around on secret agendas.

I have to say, all these groups of time traveling illithid running around the Underdark keeping their secret agendas to themselves sure beats the heck out of warring drow houses in terms of intrigue.

 

[Andor]

Wonder if Neothelids can reproduce?

Of course. They make Aboleths.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Two: what about everybodies friend the Gith? They could only have been created by the non-aquatic mindflayers, somewhere in other levels of reality. Are they also time travelers?

The illithids who have come back from the future (illithids-2) could have originally arrived far back in the past enough to both predate their creation by the aboleths and have had time to build and lose an empire from which the gith could have fled. You can give this the same sort of historical scale as the real world - imagine the fall of this illithid empire to be five thousand years ago, and that's plenty of time for the githyanki and githzerai to have established their current societies.

There was a proto mindflayer in dragon lance, basically the same form - humanoid, brain eating tentacles, Mind blast, but not very bright, and no other psionics. It doesn't fit quite as well into this evelotuionary process that you guys is whippen up.

Sure it does. The proto-illithids are clearly an intermediate step between aboleth and mindflayers. Perhaps campaign "now" is during the evolutionary process.

 

[Vocenoctum]

The illithids who have come back from the future (illithids-2) could have originally arrived far back in the past enough to both predate their creation by the aboleths and have had time to build and lose an empire from which the gith could have fled. You can give this the same sort of historical scale as the real world - imagine the fall of this illithid empire to be five thousand years ago, and that's plenty of time for the githyanki and githzerai to have established their current societies.

The book says:
"Upon arriving in the human world of several thousand years past, they quickly enslaved the humanoid race known as the gith, seeking to reestablish their empire in their new age. After centuries of servitude, the gith successfully rebelled against the mind flayers."

So, it's just the time frame that's up for grabs.

 

[Gez]

Where did you get this story?

The XPH just gives a brief summary that fits your description, but with vastly less detail.
Is there somewhere else with more details?

Since I haven't seen yet Codex Ana...^R Lords of Madness, it's info I got from the Illithiad.

 

[Vecna]

Aboleth have perfect racial memory, so they can't be devolved illithid. But a tadpole ceremorped into an aboleth could make an (The "first") elder brain.

They remember, they just aren't telling...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Aboleth have perfect racial memory, so they can't be devolved illithid.

Sure they can. They developed racial memory sometime in-between their last truly Illithidic form and their arrival at their current form. The imprint that became their racial memory just happened far enough post-Illithid that they had no real memory of their origin anymore. Unless you're telling me their racial memory predates their existence as a race, which only makes sense in a Far Realms kind of way.