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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 8023358" data-attributes="member: 18182">I can't believe I'm defending MaxPerson's point, but . . . .I take this from a sci-fi angle. If the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise encountered the aboleth on some watery planet out there . . . would Kirk and crew consider the aboleth "people" or "monsters"? Certainly, the aboleth are alien, their thought processes, morality, and drives are inimical to our own understanding. But what about them disqualifies them as a sentient species worthy of just as much respect as humans, dwarves, and orcs?Now, if my starship crew and I encountered the aboleth, and they tried to eat and/or enslave us . . . we would not consider them a friendly or "good" species, they would certainly be antagonists, and it would certainly be OK to take steps to protect ourselves against being eaten/enslaved.Are the aboleth "evil"? Are they free-willed? Are they people (sentient)? As described in D&D, I would argue they certainly are sentient and free-willed, although not inherently evil, just alien to us and with a culture perfectly willing to treat us as non-people that are okay to eat up and/or enslave. I think you can view the aboleth as both "alien" and "people" and at the same time maintain their status as scary and awesome antagonists.Same would go for other D&D aberrations such as mind flayers, beholders, and other "alien" species. I think viewing these creatures as people is just as important, and more interesting, than labeling them simply as "monsters" worthy of nothing but extermination.Heck, we have several examples of various aberrations interacting (somewhat) peacefully with humanoid culture in D&D. There's the good old Xanathar (beholder) who runs a thieves guild in Waterdeep. We've had mind flayers partnering up with various humanoids, sometimes villains, but not always.EDIT: To add . . . I can totally imagine a "D&D in Space" science fantasy campaign where aboleths and mind flayers are legal citizens in the space empire with all the same rights as the more populous humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. But there are strict laws against eating and enslaving other sentients, which some aboleth have adapted to just fine, but it's rumored that many aboleths secretly indulge their ancestral habits . . . . Perhaps the mind flayers grow brains in labs so they don't have to extract them from living sentients, perhaps they grow non-sentient humanoid clones to undergo ceremorphosis to perpetuate the species . . . .</blockquote>

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