Dungeons and Dragons Lore: The Cult of Thoon
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ธ.ค. 2019
- This is not just info about the Cult of Thoon, this is basically the background lore for an entire sword coast Underdark campaign arc.
Mind Flayer Monster Ecology: • Dungeons and Dragons L...
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Timestamps and Ongoing Community Challenge Below!
0:18 Intro, Become a Member!
0:36 General Video < Mindflayer Civil War!
1:54 Basic Rundown on the Illithids (Check out video in Description)
5:55 Creeds of the Mindflayer Colonies
9:01 The City, Thralls, and Patrols
12:34 The Kingdom Below (CH'Chitl)
15:47 Faction 1 of the War: Thalynsar and the Shadow Concord
18:58 Members of the Shadow Concord and their Roles
24:48 The Stage is set,
27:02 Challenger Enters Stage Far Realm (The Cult Returns)
27:40 Quintessence!
31:10 Thoon Disciples, Shadow Flayers
32:33 Thoon Infiltrators
34:24 Thoon Thralls
35:55 Madcrafters and Scythers
38:12 Storm Clouds of Thoon
40:06 Thoon Hulks and using the Cult of Thoon
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That was well worth the wait. AJ Hinted on a video for the cult but that was awesome and gives so many ideas for how to flush out your Underdark adventures and even impact your above world adventures! How have you used the Cult of Thoon in your game? Leave your stories below!
AJ already beat me to linking to the Mindflayer video, but what game with mindflayers would be complete without Intellect Devourers and the Drow! (Links below if you enjoyed this, check them out!)
Drow: th-cam.com/video/AEcNvpX-Qvo/w-d-xo.html
Intellect Devourer: th-cam.com/video/77AhEtt_IAg/w-d-xo.html
The community challenge to get the Netheril Video to 14,000 views is going well, if you have not already checked out the video or just like the content, check it out, and maybe we can get that part 2.
History of the Netheril Empire (Part 1): th-cam.com/video/aPf6f6y3eCw/w-d-xo.html
I'm a member at heart on youtube
I
“Thoon....Thoon we will raithe and theize control of the thurfathe!!”
- Illithid attempting to pronounce “S”.
Mindflayers man..... as a person perpetually stuck below 10th level, and with a sadistic DM, can confirm they are a whole pile of crazy. Even without the loremaster telling us, any cult they start will be nightmarish.😱
The Mind Flayers were connected to the Elder Brain similar to how you and I are connected to the internet.
I feel attacked right now.
Remain Calm human and watch some old Vines : th-cam.com/video/JQf5A4qGnp0/w-d-xo.html
AJ *is* our Elder Brain, proved by the fact I watched that whole thing without planning to.
Ch’Ch’Ch’Chitl!
Just spread on the seeds and watch Mind Flayers grow!
I can't imagine how trade with Mind Flayers would even go down in the Underdark. So many denizens fear and outright hunt them down you'd think they would be attacked on sight. Although I assume it would be similar to dealing with any other powerful entity like a Lich, a powerful Demon or an equally dangerous Underdark race. Keep ranged weapons trained on the leader at all times during the negotiations and don't turn your backs when the transaction is completed.
Walk away backwards slowly... Blink out of sequence... And get everything you've gotten check out by an expert for underhanded play. But really, it's the suspicion and mindless wanton paranoia itself that wards them - not the countermessures you take... Or think you took... 😓🌌😵👍
Maybe they would have the equivalent of some kind of suicide-bomber vest? “If you try to control my brain, or eat it, my friend out of range of your attacks will trigger my demise and I’ll take some of your with me!”
#brainbomb
🧠 💣
Alan Schaub #brainbomb I love it! XD "If you blow my mind, i blow your's."
"Who is this Thoon you speak of and more importantly why should I care?"-------Maldar Harge,(former) village elder of the council of six.
Knowledge is power and *former*
@@Derinma😅😅😅c😅😅c😅y😅 😅Hmm
N m mn hobohhn hittytttttttttftgfcf TX f try u😊mmnnnnob. In 😊😊h😅😅g😅this 😊hogogohihihihigigg😅
I LOVE the idea behind the Thoon. I've been stewing a reason to use it in a game for YEARS.
"The cult of Thoon is coming!"
"Who?"
"Thoon!"
"When?!"
"Thoon!"
Ah, I love any videos on cults. Going to center my game on a long lost undeath cult, the whole "lawful good has gone to far and become chaotic good so balance must be restored with lawful evil" kinda deal
“They’re connected to the elder brain like we’re connected to the internet.”
Me: not an apt analogy
“When it was cut off their minds flooded with panic and desperation.”
Me: oh, extremely apt analogy 😂
Tharizdun! An inscrutable evil in the Far Realms that seeks to bring all of creation under its control? Thune is an aspect of Tharizdun!
Hmmm... Juicy theory
@@AJPickett Well, with that horrifying, mind-breaking, sanity sapping revelation, guess I'd better roll on the indefinite madness table...
*59* "I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know."
Huh, strange... I don't feel any different...
I keep imagining a story line where a group of adventurers run into a group of pirates captained by a Mind Flayer who was kicked out of their group (or had their Elder Brain killed) and decided to take to the high seas. He would control his entire crew threw his mind, effectively, making the whole ship an extension of him 😂 They look so much like Davey Jones from the Pirates of The Caribbean movie I can't help it
Ps. Having a half living kraken ship would be pretty badass also😋
I legit never realized it but Davey Jones would be a mind flayer ship captain! The Dutchman transverses between the mortal realm and the spiritual one in pirates of the Caribbean too so that is totally in line with their dreadnought. Wow...
@@justinbaskall8291 Right?! The fact nothing happens on the ship that he doesn't know about fits well also since Mind Prayers usually live with "living" technology in their colonies. Fits pretty well I think
And his mutated hybridized cursed crew are infact his own experiments. 🐙⛵🎹🎼🌊🎶 And his heart is his philactory as an alhoon, and he is both a warlock and the enemy of a sea godess - these are some pretty good parallel tropes. 💓🔐🦀
I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage right now and my players are getting into the lower-ish levels with more mind flayer shit; thanks!
Ah, this makes me long for an official Psionics system in 5e so much. I'd love to have a Psion character interact with the equivalent to his field of knowledge that a Lich is to a Wizard.
Several of the recent unearthed arcana articles have been establishing psionic abilities in the form of subclasses. Check em out, and work with your dm to roll one into your game
@@coolafman I've seen them, and while the subclasses are pretty neat, I would prefer a wholly Psionic class like the Mystic
@@Mare_Man that may be possible. With these psychic subclasses we could see the Dark Sun Setting and the introduction of the Psion class.
@@zacharygadzinski3147 That would be wonderful! Having Psionics introduced with Dark Sun would also put to rest my growing worry that WotC is just going to make Psions another flavor of wizard instead of their own stand-alone class with a unique source of power
I second this, i love the idea of a psionic lich. Kind of like a doctor manhattan from the watchmen deal. Where he can psionically rebuild his body with his mind.
The end of these videos always make me laugh. The serene music accompanied by pictures of horrific monsters is a hilarious contrast.
Kind of encapsulates the vibe of the whole channel :)
I second this opinion. 😈👍
Illithids can't breath underwater? FLOOD THE UNDERDARK!
The cult of Thoon was one of the best things to come out of the later 3rd edition monster manuals (besides my precious forest trolls). Giving players lower level mind-flayer minions to kill, especially those creepy sleeper agents, is great! I always fold kaorti and neogi into being mind flayer allies too. You combine all those aberrations together and you've got some sickening and powerful enemies for the PCs to rally against. :3
THOON!!!
I've been looking forward to this one :)
If I remember correctly there is a connection to an undead organization called the Twisted Rune.
Best evil organization name ever (can that be my Band name?)
Looks like I got my request for some flesh warping and flesh crafting. Thanks AJ! I look forward to seeing more creeps and crawlers that slop out of the flesh pits of mad scientists.
you forgot the Uchuulons, Chuuls implanted with Illithid tadpoles
Giant mutant hybrid killer lobsters (GMHKL's) under Waterdeep? I don't think they exist. *ominous bubbles*
@@AJPickett I'm picturing a slow pan to the sewers with giggling GMHKLs family guy style.
AJ already made a video on them
@@dangwancie4797 chuuls, yes. Chuul/ilithid hybrids? No
That’s at least 3 levels of nope
Amazing video, can we get a video about Abyssal cities? Like the city of Lemoriax?
Being a crime lord in Waterdeep is like being hit in the central eye with a plank.
I have to watch it again... it’s too much AWESOME all at once!
I've long made Thoon simply a name for Tharizdun at long into the heat death of the multiverse. Tie up Thoon/Tharizdun/Sargonne Prophecy with the illithids and elder brains. ;)
I consider myself quite the dnd expert, but the Thoon was always obscure to me. I’ve only seen 3-4 lines written on it in the expanded psionic handbook. I’m really impressed by this video.
Edit: Since we’re on illithids, a video on Oryndoll, the city of Loretakers would be amazing! It’s one of my favorite cities in the Underdark.
Can do, it's similar to Ch'Chitl in structure, in many ways, Ch'chitl is interesting in how it differs from Oryndoll, which is the archetypical Illithid City.
AJ Pickett True, but it’s their biggest city, and it has been around forever. Also eyeball currencies.
I heard "gene steelers", stop teasing, make the Warhammer Lore! Cult of Thoon already look like organic Necrons.
but what about the Cult of Aye-Dzhay, aka The Picketteers?
My brother in law and I paint miniatures then sell them as a side business. I think I will play your videos while I paint. This is really good stuff... Keep up the hard work!!
I already had homebrewed a storyline that purple worms secretly evolved out of nethelids. In addition, the acid of either was the secret ingredient necessary to process raw adamant ore, combining it with the other ingredients to create adamantine.
Now I am going to add that the difference between the two is that nethelid acid is psychically active in a manner that allows for the extraction of quintessence from raw adamant ore. This can be then recombined to create sentient adamantine weapons and constructs. What do you think?
My current campaign involves a resurrected Netheril cloud tower controlling trade routes through the Anauroch. The Darkeners may conspire to blot out the sun with numerous such floating cities!
Why does this remind me of Dune and the bile of Sandworms? :)
AJ Pickett: Are you saying my ideas are not original? 😉
I like these groups in the FR, and love how they are a dime a dozen. Many of them have multiple layers so you can often just toss them into a campaign if it seems like something that would interest the players.
1 thing the illithids need to start producing are mindflayer bear totem barbarians. That way they'll have some meatshields that are resistant to all damage and they can still use their mindblast while raging. ''come fight the angry squid'' mindflayer zealot barbarian aidded by a mindflayer paladin will be though to fight too.
Oh there are soo many 'broken' mindflayer builds you can throw at your players.
Umber Hulks
My mind flyers are selling high level potions of intelligence for there local community not knowing there just sweetening them selfs haha
Look daddy I'm a farmer.
kick ass illithid dragon using a breath weapon picture at the end
Giant twoheaded Cyclops werewolf mummy lich
Thoon is the “First Worm” ancient tadpole and the first Ilithid to enter the prime from the Far realm….and the first to corrupt a mortal mind.
In almost every edition of Dungeons & Dragons the term quintessence refers to magically or psionically reduced time it's time made physical kind of high-level metaphysical stuff there's a brief description of it in the 2nd edition ad&d Eldritch Wizardry there's a bit of a better description in Third Edition Unearthed Arcana and if I'm not mistaken there's a few other references to it basically you condensed time down to a crystal-like structure that structure that Crystal is referred to as quintessence
A Hopf fibration/hyperspherical, tesseract or 3 simplex lattice crystals, maybe?
"Quintessence"
(spacetime crystal)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal
FINALLY SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT THOON! They're one of my favorite enemy groups
What if Thoon is a possible afterlife realm for the mindflayers, one that needs to be made through the effort of the cult of thoon.
Interesting theory!
Absolutely loved this video. Thanks AJ definitely got the gears moving thinking about incorporating mind flayers in games. Looking forward to your videos following this one. ❤️❤️
This Thoon stuff is still confusing. So somewhere, at some point in time, this Thoon deity does exist and it gives spells to clerics. So they not necessarily need to free or create Thoon, but maybe use the Shard of Ultimate Evil and astral dragon essence to understand Thoon... Perhaps? Still i give at least 50% they are being used and lied to.
Watch the Forbidden Secrets of Dungeons and Dragons video for more info on Thoon.
I did! Tbh i had to watch this and Dark Secrets video multiple times to get better (any) idea what this Thoon business is about. I get that so far only poor spellweavers care to correct mistake they'v made.
Liberties with the lore" is a fine name for a tome of homebrew speculations.. thank you.
So...much...hentai...must...purge with holy fire.
Embrace the tentacle 🐙🐙🐙. Holy fire is nothing to us, you will never discover that our one weakness is sushi chefs......uh oh
Wow, that is an impressive amount of research. Great video AJ, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Then has a 90% chance of being a cover for tharizdun
Agreed.
Indeed.
My thoughts exactly.
I keep rewatching the lore about Illithids. I've already seen the ones u made. I'd love to see more....
What aspect interests you the most?
@@AJPickett how would you set up to play one?
Have you seen the videos mr rhexx made
Im a victim of insomnia :( thankfully i have your videos to watch. i can nerd out without gettin out of bed and hopefully get back to sleep eventually . currently writing a fan fic about two escaped male drow slaves ill be sure to refer to some of your other videos
Heavy hitting Illithid knowledge!
Omg the dracolith!!! Thats actually close to what i envisioned. I was wanting to go with a more insect like shell on it's skin. Almost like in the movie aliens. But still i like it!! Lol I'm sure i wasn't the first to mix these 2 powerful creatures to an uber boss
A video on my day off. Woot Woot. Love the content.
Illithi-Lich i like this new turn of phrase
Illthi-Lich has been around for a while... AJ will tell ya.
@@nikolibarastov4487 1st i heard of the word, always heard them called Alhoons
I like to watch this stuff when I poop.
ok, this is the most impressive research you've done! Feathering the stories together, a masterpiece. can you publish this in the DM Guild or Drive Thu RPG this would make for, an EPIC Campaign Setting!
If you had to select one of any mortal race to be born into on Toril, but Dragon, Elf, and Giant weren't allowed, Illithid would be a decent choice.
a noble illithid sure, but a drone typically controlled? nah
perhaps Thoon is their original progenitor from the far realm, Or one of their gods who ventured their.
Really cool concept. I love the high tech stuff brought into DND.
I can't find the follow up vid. I love this thoon twist on the already fascinating Illthids
Love to see more of these type of lore with adventure hook ideas!
Excellent video sir!! Wow! So much info I never have heard before!
Sounds like some good old Splogorthian biomancy.
Love it AJ, though now I crave stats and lore on Ulithalich, and the many constructs and flayer kin that were mentioned
You mean my imaginary friend that i made up when I was 7?
...
...
...
...
*Oh no...*
6:56 That image is amazing! XD conceptually it reminds me of that "chilled monkey brains." scene, but about 100x worse. 👌😞👨🍳🐵🧠🤤😵🐙😱
I’m the Cult of......I’m the Cult of.........Thooninality!!! 😂🤣🤘🏼
I get that reference!
Waaait! That's a thing? As in you didn't make it up on the spot?
Now I want a game that is a full Thoon mindflayer party - Cleric, Rogue, Artificer, Barbarian and puking factory :D on their way to find Quintessence and snacks
TH∞N IS TH∞N
and TH∞N is ALL
35:50 - Got to love that giant statue of Hawkman from JL.
The Chosen of Thoon are the main villains of my homebrew campaign, I’ve changed a bit of their origin though so that they represent the “black ops division” of the original Illithid multiversal empire, created with the sole purpose of ensuring the survival of their race by any means necessary, (“Thoon” essentially being a Mind Flayer word meaning something between “The Greater Good” and “the inherent principle that we always exist and always have”) including by utilizing arcane magic and other mind flayer taboos, for the purpose of making sure that the time loop that created the Illithids always remains a closed self-generating loop. Essentially the Cult of Thoon worship themselves/the concept of Illithid supremacy itself, believing that the entire multiverse and everything in it only exists because the time loop that created them NEEDS to exist. This was since lost to time when the Chosen of Thoon and their innumerable armies were sealed away in my homebrew world to serve as a prison dimension so that the Mind Flayer empire could be wiped out for good, hence why the remnant cults of Thoon are shunned and hated by their people; their true role and origin was never public knowledge to begin with and now with their vanishing none now remain that remember it.
Ran 3.5e rules stone age tool using chimpanzee game where the only multiclassing character classes were rogue/fighter/ranger. " hunter-gathers ..
End of the storyline was the chimps were collecting shell fish on the coastline in a salt brim pool, and gets infected by a worm/tadpole and slowly morphs into a illithid over the coarse of a month. They freaked and cheer that they just ran a game on a evolutionary home world of the mind flayers.
I think the absolute of baldur’s gate 3 is Thoon
As if Illithid weren't disturbing enough, they get a sort of "Event Horizon" treatment. o.O
WotC d&D3e/Star Wars, .. ran a Star Wars game base of the movie " Event Horizon."
Everyone pulls three index cards with pre written PCs for the adventure of survivor space fantasy horror.
Lucky player gets to pull the Darth Vader card, who sends the advance experimental hyperspace scout ship back as a Sith style going away present.
Just a bit retooling D&D3.5e Psionic handbook mixed with a few Force User levels to create a threat for Darth Vader when dealing with mind flayers.
With first edition of 3rdE rules and not 3.5e rules, Vader's Force Choke on a failed saving throw caused temporary constitution damage and not Hp/vitally point dmg. So Vader could kill a PC within one round on a failed save.
So we twisted the Emperor's Force Lightning range area of effect with the mind flayer illithid Mind Blast with temporary wisdom damage.
Force skill Fear or Illusion was crossed over with Phantasmal Killer and Hallucinatory Terrain.
The illithid is based on Lovecraft, so if you don't lose 3/4th of your PC/ or back up npc fighting them, and survivors dealing with temporary or permanent Wis/Int damage then you ae not running mind flayer encounters correctly. I know, I know .. each DM runs their games to their own tastes and those of their players'. Each their own.
My past gaming groups also played Whitewolf/ World of Darkness: Mage the Awakening and Werewolf. So we had game mechanic systems on harvesting spiritual/mental energy into magic/psionic items. So other than .. brains, and collecting genetic material for .. cloning .. live stock and recording/ down loading memories and mental energies collected from temporary and permanent Int/Wis/Cha stats.
2.) Game story plot outline, ..
Everyone on ship wakes up with 1point of permanent Int/Wis/Cha dmg and are recovering temporary ability lost putting them all a 6 or 7 in given mental stat. Play the events as flash backs over the coarse of a dozen games. Keeps the players guesting.
26:24 Brigathoon.
Vairyo, A O
A Hom Va Ya Ray
Vairyo, A Ray
Jerhume Brunnen G
They went so far outside the D&D Multiverse that they hit the Tellurian in the World of Darkness Multiverse. Thoon's probably just a freakin' Nephandi lol.
When you hear that guttural monk intro... you know it's going to get real.
So Dr Zoidburg if he drank the evil juice?
I go back and watch the long ones constantly
Cant wait for this one
" .. Thoon .. Whoon .. ?"
Sorry, I could not come up with anything better,...
feeding the algorithm ..
Hell of a video, very entertaining and informative, i barely play d and d and thought this was dope
If they mate with a dragon, can they focus their psionics into a thoom, or shout?
You joke...but the Illithid Deep Dragon hybrid that was done up pretty much did have that, psionic breath weapon that could be a number of psionic powers chosen when it used the breath attack. Detonate, Mind Blast, (forget the name, but a psionic Force blast), or Psionic Dominate; in a Dragon Breath Weapon cone.
good video AJ
Then is Thoon and Thoon is All.
this is a monster of a video man
It reminds me of the Goa'uld from Stargate.
Anyone else ever wonder why nobody ever thinks to rid the world of the underdark once and for all by blasting holes at the bottom of the sea and flooding the whole damn thing?
Wouldn't work, you would just destroy pretty much all ecosystems on the surface world.
@@AJPickett Eh, the ecosystems would recover.
So basically Dune with sinkholes of sand draining into a salt encrusted underdark with random giant steam vents from the oceans flash boiling as they reach the core. Sounds like I just found my next campaign world. Thanks @AJ Pickett
Even if you could flood the whole underdark, there are more than a few extremely dangerous races and species that wouldn't be overtly bothered. The mindflayers are a pretty prime example.
I'd love to play a campaign in a version of Toril with a surface world dedicated to flushing out the Underdark for good.
@@ultraman5168 While it's true that there is no shortage of vile races that live in the dark corners of the sea and that a few entities that reside in the Underdark primarily would be able to adapt, it would certainly slow the number of dumb murder hobos that commit suicide by delving into the place.
I also would find a campaign like that interesting. It would be an amazing undertaking.
ROFLMFAO I decided to turn on the auto closed captioning for this one... good comedy
An excellent idea.
"Turtles economy is based on rating"
There is no other thing in D&D I like destroying more....thank you for the enemy intel lol.
Thanks Aj I am looking at a new take on Keep on the borderlands module. I have the anniversary hardcover. So I have the complete storyline. I also have the Night below campaign.
Thinking on combining both but the mindflayers are the real threat.
1:46 that doesn’t look like Drizzt though the art has changed many times over the years
39:35 Hey, that looks just like one of the Sentinel machines in the Matrix series.
Here's a thought, the process of ceremorphosis works best on mammalian humanoid hosts of a certain height and weight, hence the popularity of humans, elves, and the slave race of gith, but the rarity of dwarf, gnome, and halfling illithids, monster entries from the Icewind Dale adventure module not withstanding.
My question is this: what would happen if an illithid colony got ahold of a population of sea elves, tritons, or merfolk? Though deep in the underdark, Skullport does connect to the ocean, yes? Could one assume that a more amphibious or aquatic mind flayer would be the result of such a union, or, like the issue of other monstrous humanoids, simply fail due to biological incompatibility? If successful, I could foresee an undersea colony of aquatic ceremorphs getting into border skirmishes with the sahuagin and ixitxachitl, or perhaps the followers of the demon prince Dagon.
The beauty of illithids and ceremorphosis is that theoretically, just about anything is possible, however improbable, and a seafaring race of mind bending monstrous aberrations is both terrifying, and interesting story fodder.
There were many more varieties back in 2nd Edition and 3E(d20) and you can find many homebrew varieties to cover newer races. There was even Merfolk and Sea-Elf varieties at one point...very useful for world I made that was basically all islands (the only real continent was the size of Australia) with a heavy seafaring emphasis.
Makes a video about the cult of Thoon, doesn't start talking about the cult of Thoon until more than half way into the video
10:30 what happens if one of the mind flayers accidentally slips and falls into the elder brain’s pool?
They get a rash
Best video ever made with bad audio but I'm a fan I love this video
I really love the whole Thoon thing.
So the Thoon Parasite is like John Carpenter’s The Thing.
where did you find the pic at 6:18 this is exactly what I envision the far realm to be like!
My theory is that Thoon may be some kind of obscure Primordial
it could be an aspect of the dead god Auppenser.
@@AJPickett Ed Bonny's fluff says that Auppenser hated slavery and specifically encouraged throwing mental oppression off. Great for resisting Elder Brain domination but problematic regarding their own slaves..
отличная идея для создания персонажа Свежевателя разума класса Изобретатель !!!
Freaking choice I actually have thoon as a major religion in my version of the underdark.
Best video on topic but could use audio upgrade
My personal fav I named illithomes. Gnome illithids. So cute
It's here! It's finally here! "What is it child?" AJ Pickett is talking about Thoon! "Awaken the town!"
Edit: The Far Realm, unknowable madness, antithesis of existance, and gets squidbois friggin' yoked! You could grate brains with those abs.