Psychotaxis: The Monstrous Biology of Illithid is a description of the life cycle and anatomy of mind flayers as well as an attempt to understand their origin, written by the high elf scholar Istariel Jayler. It clarifies how tadpoles grow in spawning pools and how they can grow either into a slug or infest a sentient brain, with the the slug growing into a neothelid or the infestation forming a mind flayer. Jayler argues the recurring motif of all forms of the underlying biological entity are psychotaxis, or the movement toward increasingly dense psychic environments.
Mind flayers form a threat across the sentient world and are known as fierce adversaries. Due to their literally mind-bending powers, they can attack sentient beings in many different ways. Still, popular mythology is prone to exaggerate their capabilities. Jayler set out to collect first-hand accounts of encounters with illithid in order to better understand the dangers that they pose. Anyone preparing for a conflict with these psionic monsters would to well to carefully study Jayler's work.
Document Structure
The book is divided into different sections.
Home of the Mind Flayers
This section introduces some speculation about the origins of mind flayers. As they are mostly found in the World Beneath, it is often assumed that is where they always lived. Yet some scholars have suggested, based on oral traditions in both the World Beneath and the surface world, that they only recently came to Khandar and have an otherworldly origin.
Mind Flayer Society
Here, Jayler starts inserting original testimony into his work. Based on the experiences of adventurers and stories of underground denizens, he weaves a story about the structure of illithid communities, including the role of the 'elder brain' in binding them together.
Life Cycle
Based on monster autopsies and adventurer anecdotes, this is the section where Jayler shines most. He describes tadpoles in pools, acting as foodstuff for the elder brain. These same tadpoles can grow and escape as a slug, which grows into a neothelid in over 100 years. Yet if the tadpoles are strong enough and are near an appropriate sentient being, they can burrow into brains, digest them and replace them. If this happens, the 'host' slowly morphs into a mind flayer. When dying, mind flayers return to the spawning pools, donating their bodies to the elder brain. In some cases, mind flayers were seen carrying decapitated heads of their peers (or only their brains) into the pool to feed the elder brain.
Abilities and weaknesses
Jayler takes special care to not repeat the common wisdom about mind flayers if they were not correborated by first-hand accounts. He challenges the idea that mind flayers cannot hurt you if you are drunk, for example. Instead, he lists the abilities that mind flayers have shown to use in combat and speculates on the weaknesses that captive adventurers have witnessed.
Besides mind flayers, Jayler also gives attention to the powers of the tadpole, seugathi and neothelid phases of illithids.
The Illithid Essence
Given their different forms, Jayler became intrigued by the question what an illithid really is. In this closing, most speculative and philosophical section, he introduced the concept of psychotaxis as a driver for every form of illithid. Mind flayers, he claims, are the most refined versions of creatures seeking psychic energies, but in the end they are not much different. What makes the mind flayers terrifying, he says, is that they have started to replace this fundamental psychotactic drive with what might be called psychocultivation -- growing sentient thralls that in the end serve as their food. The risk for civilization then, is that it can be captured in the same way that individual 'hosts' are, with whole human societies potentially serving as farm animals for the illithid.
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