Mind Tyrants
"Your kind believes itself to have been created as part of some great design. To serve a grand purpose. You are correct. Your species was meticulously curated and painstakingly bred from a specific pedigree, itself stretching back eons beyond measure, to fulfill a singular glorious end... to feed us.-Penuh'benci, Mind Tyrant Raid Leader
The insidious cephalopodal-helminthic aberrations known as the Yith are a species of parasites that impose a complex pseudo-symbiosis upon unwilling but compatible Hominid species as part of their repugnant life-cycle. This grotesque physiological metamorphic transmutation is known as Mengubah or the "Cephalorphosis". Despite their frail appearances, the Yith are feared throughout Aemaphia for their potent psionics. The entirety of the Yithiid collective possess the innate ability to enthrall the weak-willed or obliterate the minds of those who oppose them with a concentrated blast of psychic energy, leading the Yith to commonly be referred to as Mind Tyrants. Other, more vulgar terms for these aberrations include "Brain Eaters", due to their dietary preference to consume the cerebral flesh of conscious sapient brains. Melting away the skin, sinew, and bone of their victims, Yith can devour the brain of a subdued target in a matter of seconds, adding to their already nightmarish reputation. Worst of all, these despicable creatures are merely the vanguard of an immeasurable interplaner invasive enterprise known throughout The Cosmos as the Pembantaian or the "Abattoir". The obscure agenda of the Abattoir is too vast in its scope to be fully expressed in the limited confines of language, however the term "selected" by the Yithiid themselves to identify their civilization does hint at the potential purpose of these foul Mind Tyrants. To them, all of Existence is a slaughterhouse.
A blight that has already infected every corner of the Cosmos, Yithiid invasion cells have been found on every life sustaining Sphere discovered; although special attention is categorically placed on Garden Spheres over the more volatile Oasis Spheres. Each planetary cell of the Abattoir acts independently but towards the inscrutable goals of the Yithiid collective. These cells, which are made up of several autonomous colonies, are led by a cabal of Ol'yithiid Cerebrodes linked into a loose pseudo-hivemind, in addition to their despotic Uu'yithi-tinggi lieutenants.
Basic Information
Ecology and Habitats
"Our rivals? The Yith do not merit such condescension in this ill-conceived comparison. They are vain-glorious vermin absent-mindedly eroding the very structure they themselves inhabit. They are nothing more than pathetic egomaniacal maggots playing pantomime in the miring muck of mortal filth and, lacking the innate faculties or basic capacity to understand the full scope of their existential surroundings as well as the utter insignificance of their own design, call it empire."There are many subspecies within the larger Yithiid. They include...-The Dweller in the Deepest Sea, Chronicler of the Aboleth Ascendency
Additional Information
Social Structure
"When one beholds the majesty of the Yithiid, the most common response is not awe, but mind-shattering madness. And truly—this is a mercy. Madness shields us from the full devastation of the Yith’s oppressive psionic will, which shreds every neural path in the skull with each blast, locking us inside a twitching, helpless husk. In this blessed delirium, we are spared from understanding the true horror of our predicament: the surgical, psionic precision with which Yith tendrils peel back the flesh of the head, flensing it like ripe fruit. Insanity, in its divine grace, protects us from grasping the unspeakable truth of the Yith—that we are still alive, still aware, as our own brain is devoured, pound by pound and neuron by neuron. What a kindness to bestow upon oneself?
My mind however, when confronted with the glory of the Yith feasting on my fellow companions within the iridescent prison of the Infregercia, endured... much to my own endless horror."-Abjul Alhazrejd, Djinn Scholar of the Far Realms
Civilization and Culture
Common Myths and Legends
The True Origin of the Yithiid
My theory is that in the same way Illithid make lesser monsters to serve them, the Illithid are themselves unwitting weapons of some greater force; the Alithelid (from the Greek Alithis meaning True). These worm-like horrors are physically similar to Neothelid but possess intellectual potency far greater than even Elder Brains. They control all Mindflayers from the safety of the shadows. These Alithelid view illithidae as nothing more than drones or biological weapons.
Furthermore, Neothelid exists as a means to "clean up" collapsed mindflayer colonies. The Alithelid don't want renegade Illithid arcanists or alhoon running around. The Neothelid are a built in failsafe to prevent any colony going rogue.
Lastly how does this connect to the Elder Brain itself? When a colony's Elder Brain has consumed a specific but unimaginable amount of cerebral mass, it will command all Mindflayers to join it. The Elder Brain will consume and merge all the Illithidae into its mass within their brine pool and enter a psychic torpor, leaving the larvae unattended... Just like their primordial ancestors. Slowly the larvae consume each other until one remains. Not yet a Neothelid though, this surviving larvae will begin consuming the slumbering Elder Brain and its vast trove of psychic energy... Become a newly formed Alithelid.
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