Come to mind flayer city, who needs dragon dildo's, some of your kind come with 6 tentacles. We can set your mind a blaze with sensation. (painful ones) We can bread some with spiky tentacles two! so no worries, We got you covered for all your insertion delights. Come now to mind flayer city the Vacation destination for the senses and that mush needs stress relieve! (We will relieve you of your brain, don't worry just come over. )
No matter what communities may say, they are the same concept with let‘s say somewhat sinular style. A wise man (Arch) can see beyond the veil that separates all things.
Be an Elder Brain. Plan the overtaking of Athkathla for decades. Have your little band of broken off jolly squids be waltzed over by a completely random band of bored adventurers looking for talking swords in the sewers on the side. Ah, the joy.
Even worse, be killed by random incorporeal undead that just wandered around and decided to touch you a few times because you and 80% of your slaves cant detect it and it you got between 11 to 15 strength. Doesnt work so well/its a bit better with 5e sample monster stats as they are explicitly designed for standard adventurers tho.
i know right? just as you plan to take over the world using your perfect plan and then just SOMEONE has interrupt you! nobody has any manner these days :D
@@ArchTH-cam HA! Interesting. Blessed by the attention of the man himself. I feel honoured (but could also be the 6 beers I had by now ;) ). Keep up the great work good Sir and make sure to give my home boys the the Nosferatu some love as soon as PDX introduces them. PS: any plans you may be at PDX con this year?
I like playing around with the Illithids in my homebrew settings. There's so much you can do once you start playing around with the Rules As Written expectations, and I've found 5E to be particularly homebrew friendly. One region of my setting, Olithiri, has essentially a city-state of lawful neutral Mind Flayers that were altered by a Wish, fundamentally screwing with the lifecycle and ecology of this specific colony. To sum it up as best I can, a Githzerai wizard bent reality to force his own sense of empathy onto the Mind Flayers within the region and burned the pain he'd suffered because of the colony onto the hive mind at large. This caused a feedback loop of emotion that overloaded, the resulting psychic backlash killed the Elder Brain and about half the colony. An Ulitharid caught at the very edge of the backlash prior to leaving the colony later used a Wish so that the colony could feed on thought and dreams to sustain itself instead of needing to consume brains and the tadpoles could mature via clay golems transformed into empty flesh-and-blood vessels. The new Eldar Brain (the said Ulitharid) is the heart of essentially a fortress library/university to draw scholars and tradesmen to help sustain the colony, dealing in arcane knowledge and forgotten lore in exchange for dreams, memories, and thoughts (these are actually pulled from the mind and coalesced into tangible objects, think souls and humanity from Dark Souls). Bear in mind, this was the culmination of an entire campaign that I later rolled into the permanent backstory of the setting.
"I hate how D&D does evil, I would much prefer [the perfect description of how Evil is defined in D&D]" - Arch, man who has clearly played with only 3aboos.
Good and Evil in D&D are more like a scale of Altruistic and Egomaniac motivations. The merchant in the example would indeed be evil because although his shop might benefit other people, his personal motivation would be solely egocentric, he only cares for his own riches although the goods he sells might be useful to others. It's not about consequence it's about intention, A Good character might carry an injured person to a doctor, but despite his altruistic intentions the person he just carried is infected with a deadly disease and everyone in the town will die. The Good and Evil scale is about personal motivation and intentions, not about results. And while Good and Evil might be subjective due to biological necessities, intellectual faculties and socio-cultural upbringing (the mindflayers won't consider their way of living Evil), it is to be seen as "how would others consider my actions if they knew my motivations and intentions" which is quite a plain as well as complicated way of creating morality. First you ask for intention and motivation, then you create another person who is seperate from yourself and who knows your intention and motivation (and who usually identifies itself with the target of your actions) and allow this independend observer (Adam Smith: Moral Sentiments) to judge your actions. And in the case of D&D, if this observer will consider those motivations and intentions leading to these actions as Altruistic you're Good, Egoistic you're Evil. Since every mindflayer is solely focussed on domination, consumption and self-preservation, even in interaction with their own kind, there is no mindflayer which could be considered Altruistic, it's all focussed on self, even when they're controlled by the elderbrain they're puppets controlled by a mind which is Egomaniac. Therefore setting a creatures alignment to Evil just means that they will not help you (no matter who or what you are) unless they benefit from it, and they will hurt or betray you if they benefit from it. Your benefit although it might happen, is none of their considerations, unless they intend to hurt you for some reason, like revenge.
@@Kryosleep Sure, but I prefer Smith. If you compare Adam Smith: Moral Sentiment to Kant: Kathegorischer Imperativ they are very similar, and Kant was probably inspired by it but (in a very German manner) focusses to much on the pure rational.
Hm, there is a german saying, 'Das Gegenteil von _gut_ ist _gut gemeint.',_ which roughly translates to 'The opposite of _good_ is _good intentions.'_ I would generally agree with you, even more so in the context of the mind flayers, but I'd also say that from a mere practical point of view this has its limits, at least when it comes to the guy with the good intentions. Let me explain with another german winged word. 'Jemandem einen Bärendienst erweisen. / Provide a bear's service' means that you have all the good intentions in the world, but do (severe) damage explicitly out of those good intentions. This comes from a german folktale about a bear who is best friends with some guy. One day, he sees a bee sitting on this man's neck and decides to kill the bee before it might sting his friend. But since he completely underestimates his own strength, while overestimating his friends sturdiness, he kills his friend. From a perspective of a father who just watched his family getting wiped out, because this damn moron just toted a plague bearer (no, not the Astartes kind, although...) into his village, again, this damn adventurer with his heart of gold _is_ evil. Good intentions are nice, but one still has to care about the consequences. If there is some kind of risk assessment beforehand, then this is a different thing, but in my experience, those gung-ho style good types, who never do that, usually do more damage than good on a regular basis and I rather don't have them around. You know who at least in my book is one of the most evil tv-show characters ever? Steve Urkel. Seriously, I always hated this character with a passion. 'Ooops, was that _me?'_ might be funny when watching it, but when you are poor Carl and have your whole house destroyed for the umptiest time, while the very people who should be sympathetic with you and even tell you to shut up, poor Steve had _good intentions_ in the end, well... EDIT: Just read your comment about Kant now and here, I actually prefer Kant's very rational approach and not only because I am german myself. Kant's categorical imperative _'Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.'_ is exactly what I was trying to explain with my comment. Do you want the way our well-meaning adventurer acts to become a universal law? Thou shall bring the bearers of the most deadly plagues into the population centers of the world, while giving a crap about the consequences?
Since arguing alignment on the internet is a good idea that will in no way get bogged down, here are some pointers: 1. There are supposedly good mind flayers according to the Book of Exalted Deeds. Remember, the listed alignment in the monster manual is just the typical alignment; individuals can and will vary from it. 2. Evil IS a thing that exists in DnD. There are entire planes basically made of it. 3. You just described a Lawful Neutral character with a minor asshole streak. We have Lawful Evil to describe people who would gleefully sell child debtors to an arena so they can see them get torn to shreds by a manticore.
ANAND NOW HE HAS COMPLETED THE TRIFECTA OF TABLETOP GAMES!!! D&D, VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE AND WARHAMMER! HE SHALL NOW BE HENCFORTHE GIVEN THE ORDER OF NERDOM FIRST CLASS! PRASE BE THE EMPOROR!!!!
As a D&D player and DM I love to see you doing lore videos for this great universe. But PLEASE for the love of all D&D pantheons, they are called GITHYANKI and GITHZERAI!
Hey Arch, love your videos. This one intrigued me mainly because I love Mind Flayers (Illithids) and am using them in my campaign. I did want to touch on one of your last points about alignment and the nature of Evil. D&D rulings on alignment are suggestions at best. I personally view them as generalities. You can very much have an Illithid of any alignment, but you have to have a story reason as to why this Illithid is good. An important facet of that is: how does this guy eat brains and still maintain it's virtue? Plus, why would you want a good Illithid? They are the perfect villains! Again, I love your content!
... This sort of attitude is why your waifu pillow broke up with you and is now fucking your Fleshlight. You know it happens when you leave... *Toy Story was a coded warning.* 😳
Ah yes ... the mindflayer lich ... one of the major signs, right next to the tarasque, that the DM is absolutely fucking DONE taking the party’s shit, and ye better reform, or the next TPK happens IRL.
But the thing is, usually even serial killers do what they do for reasons other than 'I am evil and want to do evil things, muahahahaaa!'. From their perspective, they might not be good guys, true, but this doesn't mean that they actually think they are _evil_ by a longshot. Mind you, usually serial killers operate within a very warped perception of the world and within this twisted frame, they are not evil.
@@Captain1nsaneo Never heard of that guy, I would have to look him up, but that is one of many. Still does not make a rule. Which could be said about serial killers in general, how many of them are there amongst almost 9 billion human beings, even when taking into consideration that there must be many, many serial killers who or even whose murders never get discovered? I'd say the number is somewhere in the permille of a permille area, which in my book justifies the 'no one thinks...' statement.
My favorite bit of lore about the Mind Flayers is that the Aboleth, the primordial first masters of the material plane find the squid men to be unnerving. Not because of their powers, but because the Aboleth don't have any memory of the Mind Flayer's inception. To the Aboleth the MF just... appeared. And the Aboleth never forget anything.
Aye, the Illithids are invaders from the Far Realm. They came enmasse in the millions and in a blitzkrieg they enslaved hundreds of worlds and held them for millenia till the creation of the Annulus and the rebellion of the Gith.
@@RaithSienar that's the current canon. In previous editions they were actually hinted to be from the far, far future when the sun was cold and the material plane was aged, weakened, and totally under their thrall. The Ithilids in the present are trying to bring about this dark future.
24:13 Arch please, there is only so much of GITHNYAKI and GITHZERAKI I can take. The proper names for the two factions of Gith are Githyanki and Githzerai.
@@DarkRonnie Indeed, listen young ones to the stories of the greybeards who played DnD back when having a high armor class was a bad thing. According to the old books of the bygone "TSR" Githyanki and Githzerai were both descended from a race known as the Forerunners. There was even evidence that the Forerunners were the precursors to humans as well as the gith races, meaning humans and gith are cousins. Of course this dates back to the age of the illithid empire, a time so far ago that none but the crustiest of greybeards has a remotely credible theory for how long ago it truly was.
During the ceremorphosis, there's a rare "birth defect" for some tadpoles, in which parts of the host's mind are imprinted in the mindflayer. So the mindflayer might find itself suddenly experiencing human emotions, fears, desires and sensibilities. If a colony discovers this, a faulty mindflayer is immediately destroyed, so it really takes an extremely crafty speciemen to dodge being found out, but there's potential for a neutral, independent mindflayer to happen, and even, with some serious stretch, for a "good" mindflayer ;)
one great thing about themindflayers that Arch forgot to mention was the fact that a mind flayed can sometimes have traits or momentary flash backs of their original hosts mind and memory, which can produce some really neat story beats. Just image after a party wipe everything fades to black, then an undisclosed amount of time latter you come to consciousness look down and see your tentacly horror of your body and a loud voice in your head before getting pushed down into the monsters subconscious. Also in reference to d&d I always saw the good and bad alignment as more of degree of selfishness. So “evil” chapters do things for themselves and “good” characters are more interested in helping others or the group.
Ah the mind flayers, these guys are up there with beholders and owlbears as one of the most iconic of DnD's monsters. They're also one of my favorite villains to use as a DM with aboleth and liches only ranking higher as my favorite masterminds.
First 40K and Warhammer Fantasy, then Vampire, now D&D! you just knocked Sargon off of my nr 1 spot for favourite TH-camr you Norwegian bastard XD. Keep up being Awesome!!!
I was hoping to see Mind Flayer liches but hopefully they'll show up in a future video about my favorite undead. Thank you for another awesome video Arch. Hope to see more D&D soon.
This is very different from the terrors from the far and dark future where the sun has been snuffed out and the far realm has taken over origin that I read from 3.5 and 4.0
Good shit man. There's a theory that states Mind Flayers can travel across time, and are trying to reconstruct their empire in different times. And basically, the ones living in the underdark are the offspring of stranded companies.
You forgot to talk about the paradox that is the illithid empire. In the far future of the D&D universe, they have once more become an all-encompasing empire, wherein they time travel to the beginning and conquer the universe anew, thus ensuring their continued existence.
Also, a creature known as Neothelid is worth mentioning. A gargantuan worm that grows out of one tadpole that devours all other tadpoles. It happens when a mindflayer colony colapses and the elder brain somehow dies or is killed. That frees the tadpoles from its influence. But since they are no longer fed, they turn to eating one another. Neothelid is a lovely little thing to throw at your players when they are crawling in the underdark :)
You always can get the Enhanced Editions ... just for the love of fuck google the characters added by them and avoid them like the plague. And don’t play Siege of Dragonspear, because good god it sucks. It’s a small mercy WotC decided to get beamdog off the franchise and passed it to Larian.
(well the last part is more about a rule i would say more to help then anything after a while and understanding the rules you just start to change stuff to fit the game but yeah i do agree that the base rules are quite stifling)
That is how I see Lawful Evil as well. Often following the rules in ways to (more often than not) benefit themselves, and can be cruel about it. Though ultimately may help others if only to further their own goal.
A thought after watching the trailer: The Mindflayer Empire place is often referenced as lost in time but considering that dimensions, space and time are just things to play with for these great empires, it is possibly that it is not(only) located back in a half-forgotten age in the distant past, it could very well be located in the distant future....or the very very near future(looking into the sky)
Yeah no. They ARE a rule. A hard one. Morality in DnD is not malleable, it’s not an abstract concept, Good and Evil are physical tangible things, there are entire planes of reality MADE from Good, Evil, Law and Chaos, and combinations of them. Alignments are NOT guidelines, there is some flexibility in what fits into an alignments, but they are far from guidelines one can bend. Play Baldur’s Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal and keep sarevok with you, then try to get his alignment switch to trigger. It’s supposed to be a great feat, an intense work of spiritual self-discovery and enlightenment that alters the very fundamental spiritual nature of a being. The game doesn’t do it enough justice, but it does a least give a serviceable idea of how hard it should be. It’s also why alignment shifts are supposed to be a major decision that in game mechanics terms makes you loose a level. You loose a part of yourself, and start a new path in life. So yeah. They are not guidelines, not in the way the metaphysics of the universe work as established. And while any individual player/GM may choose to implement the system however they choose, to call them guidelines in generals misses the point hard of how the universe is supposed to work.
@@93Avenger93 No thy are guidelines because thy are stupid and yes I did change the alignment of Sarevok and it was interesting. But my point still stands because the rules are limiting the expression of characters that is why thy are guidelines. Because then you arrive to the problem of Chaotic Neutral that by definition would never work with a party because it is completely against the notion of a party or structured government or organization. If you start a Chaotic Neutral character and by the end of the first session you are not leaving the party you would have to change the alignment to Chaotic Good or Evil depending on the party. You see the stupidity of this system. Also Find me a role player who plays out his alignment correctly and I will call bullshit.
@@Aurioriumthey are not guidelines evil and good are real tangable things one can detect mesure and study. Evil Has a source so does good Evil will effect and change the landscape same with good There are magical items that will only work when carried by good or evil hell in BG you couldnt even carry said Items(probobly game limitation) You cant accept fantasy for what it is alien wierd well fantasy setting that has diffrent laws of the universe Evil and good is just as much of a guide line as gamma radiation is Both can have a source both change the envoirment both can be mesured and detected Also chaotic neutral may be anatchist(as you put it) but they would work with chaotic evil/good neutral against lawful You know bigger enemy and all that Also show me a player who can correctly RP anything other than human and I will call bullshit humans cant RP anything other than human since we are humans with human perception and brain but we will do our best same with being good/evil
Funny thing happened, with the new 'BALDUR'S GATE: DESCENT INTO AVERNUS' book coming out is so i wanted to make a mindflayer spy, and then comes out a week later... mind blowing
nice video with lots of information i didnt know ^^ one thing regarding alignement: "Evil" in D&D ist nessesarily "do bad/amoral things" its more the idea of "do what is best for YOU no matter what it costs someone else" so your example would be evil aligned. aka as long as it brings the evil person lots of gains they could be the nicest guys around. as an example running an orphanage were you give your children basic education and martial/magical training to create a group of powerfull adventurers indebted to you might be considered evil especially if you utelise them in a way that gets you lots ofbenefits at the cost of others
So basically, a Goa’uld symbiote goes Parasyte on its host, maturing into Davey Jones, before joining the Borg Collective? (Sorry, new to DnD, but couldn’t help noticing all the nerdy connections.)
As for the alignments, I suggest you look up the Planescape setting (the OG one), authors of which took the Alignment system, arguably the worst system ever put in D&D, and made it into one of the most philosophical, fantastic, and creative settings out there.
Well, I first came here just for 40k lore, but Arch made it fun to listen even about gross, Cthulhu-weeaboo walking octopuses. Actually, I would appreciate some lore about Baldur’s gate: maybe some history and stuff
Ah Mindflayers, the one race that even the Drow (or at least the sane ones) will refuse to deal with. They also have their origins in The Far Realm, making them essentially Cthulhu style invaders into the prime material plane (if the tentacles didn't indicate that already that is).
Well, safe to say that you'll probably end up needing to do tons of Lore for Planescape or Spelljammer, now that you have covered a major villain in both of those settings, when those settings in turn effect most of the original low level ones.
Talk about Waterdeep or the Elves. Talk about the demons and devils. Or the military factions : the grey cloaks of neverwinther or the grffon guard of waterdeep
Ah the Mind Flayers. They combine two of Arch's favorite things: Slavery and tentacles.
But sadly no rats.
@@hewitttribe5536 Mind Flayers have Cranium Rats.
Just need some dragon dildos and it's complete
@@matt36866 well their is mind flayer dragons out their quite rare but they exist....
Come to mind flayer city, who needs dragon dildo's, some of your kind come with 6 tentacles. We can set your mind a blaze with sensation. (painful ones)
We can bread some with spiky tentacles two! so no worries, We got you covered for all your insertion delights. Come now to mind flayer city the Vacation destination for the senses and that mush needs stress relieve!
(We will relieve you of your brain, don't worry just come over. )
Sooo Arch....both 40k and D and D lore...words cannot express the joy i feel right now.Keep it going good sir.
No matter what communities may say, they are the same concept with let‘s say somewhat sinular style. A wise man (Arch) can see beyond the veil that separates all things.
You forgot the good kind of Vampire lore.
Variety is good, however 40k alone has enough content for next 10 years of lore videos at current pace. Arch may be stretching himself thin.
True. We need more Vraks, we only have 24,5 hours of him talking about it.
Don't forget the Dark World lore!
Had a feeling we might be seeing some Baldur's Gate lore, enjoying the variety of lore videos.
Be an Elder Brain.
Plan the overtaking of Athkathla for decades.
Have your little band of broken off jolly squids be waltzed over by a completely random band of bored adventurers looking for talking swords in the sewers on the side. Ah, the joy.
Even worse, be killed by random incorporeal undead that just wandered around and decided to touch you a few times because you and 80% of your slaves cant detect it and it you got between 11 to 15 strength.
Doesnt work so well/its a bit better with 5e sample monster stats as they are explicitly designed for standard adventurers tho.
The big brain am winning again! I am the greetest! Now I will leave Faerun for no raisin!
i know right? just as you plan to take over the world using your perfect plan and then just SOMEONE has interrupt you! nobody has any manner these days :D
@JoeRingo118 no! NO! NO! NO! *NO! NO! NO!*
Shame on you. You should know better. Mind-flayer lives do not matter. Not now, not ever.
@JoeRingo118 Agreed, Brain Eating Parasites are just part and parcel of living in a major city today.
Arch: "Due to VtMBL, I have way to much to do atm."
Also Arch: "Guess I throw myself into another massive univers and do lore vids on it."
kill me....
@@ArchTH-cam No. Lore for the lore god.
@@ArchTH-cam HA! Interesting. Blessed by the attention of the man himself. I feel honoured (but could also be the 6 beers I had by now ;) ).
Keep up the great work good Sir and make sure to give my home boys the the Nosferatu some love as soon as PDX introduces them.
PS: any plans you may be at PDX con this year?
Like a nymphomaniac complaining about sex, but wanting to get plowed within the hour. :P
@@ArchTH-cam how would Mind Flayers fare in Warhammer?
That Tech-Priest in the back ground, always gives me the impression that he is thinking WTF is that guy talking about?
Moonfale *Tech priest attempts scan on Arch*
...scan fails...
*Mumbles in binary* guess I’ll go play with my 3 mechanical cocks..
I like playing around with the Illithids in my homebrew settings. There's so much you can do once you start playing around with the Rules As Written expectations, and I've found 5E to be particularly homebrew friendly.
One region of my setting, Olithiri, has essentially a city-state of lawful neutral Mind Flayers that were altered by a Wish, fundamentally screwing with the lifecycle and ecology of this specific colony. To sum it up as best I can, a Githzerai wizard bent reality to force his own sense of empathy onto the Mind Flayers within the region and burned the pain he'd suffered because of the colony onto the hive mind at large. This caused a feedback loop of emotion that overloaded, the resulting psychic backlash killed the Elder Brain and about half the colony. An Ulitharid caught at the very edge of the backlash prior to leaving the colony later used a Wish so that the colony could feed on thought and dreams to sustain itself instead of needing to consume brains and the tadpoles could mature via clay golems transformed into empty flesh-and-blood vessels. The new Eldar Brain (the said Ulitharid) is the heart of essentially a fortress library/university to draw scholars and tradesmen to help sustain the colony, dealing in arcane knowledge and forgotten lore in exchange for dreams, memories, and thoughts (these are actually pulled from the mind and coalesced into tangible objects, think souls and humanity from Dark Souls). Bear in mind, this was the culmination of an entire campaign that I later rolled into the permanent backstory of the setting.
Extrodinarily cool!
"I hate how D&D does evil, I would much prefer [the perfect description of how Evil is defined in D&D]" - Arch, man who has clearly played with only 3aboos.
"3aboos"? Is this in reference to 3rd edition? Care to elaborate? I'm very curious.
Good and Evil in D&D are more like a scale of Altruistic and Egomaniac motivations. The merchant in the example would indeed be evil because although his shop might benefit other people, his personal motivation would be solely egocentric, he only cares for his own riches although the goods he sells might be useful to others. It's not about consequence it's about intention,
A Good character might carry an injured person to a doctor, but despite his altruistic intentions the person he just carried is infected with a deadly disease and everyone in the town will die.
The Good and Evil scale is about personal motivation and intentions, not about results. And while Good and Evil might be subjective due to biological necessities, intellectual faculties and socio-cultural upbringing (the mindflayers won't consider their way of living Evil), it is to be seen as "how would others consider my actions if they knew my motivations and intentions" which is quite a plain as well as complicated way of creating morality. First you ask for intention and motivation, then you create another person who is seperate from yourself and who knows your intention and motivation (and who usually identifies itself with the target of your actions) and allow this independend observer (Adam Smith: Moral Sentiments) to judge your actions.
And in the case of D&D, if this observer will consider those motivations and intentions leading to these actions as Altruistic you're Good, Egoistic you're Evil.
Since every mindflayer is solely focussed on domination, consumption and self-preservation, even in interaction with their own kind, there is no mindflayer which could be considered Altruistic, it's all focussed on self, even when they're controlled by the elderbrain they're puppets controlled by a mind which is Egomaniac.
Therefore setting a creatures alignment to Evil just means that they will not help you (no matter who or what you are) unless they benefit from it, and they will hurt or betray you if they benefit from it. Your benefit although it might happen, is none of their considerations, unless they intend to hurt you for some reason, like revenge.
@@Kryosleep Sure, but I prefer Smith. If you compare Adam Smith: Moral Sentiment to Kant: Kathegorischer Imperativ they are very similar, and Kant was probably inspired by it but (in a very German manner) focusses to much on the pure rational.
Hm, there is a german saying, 'Das Gegenteil von _gut_ ist _gut gemeint.',_ which roughly translates to 'The opposite of _good_ is _good intentions.'_
I would generally agree with you, even more so in the context of the mind flayers, but I'd also say that from a mere practical point of view this has its limits, at least when it comes to the guy with the good intentions. Let me explain with another german winged word. 'Jemandem einen Bärendienst erweisen. / Provide a bear's service' means that you have all the good intentions in the world, but do (severe) damage explicitly out of those good intentions. This comes from a german folktale about a bear who is best friends with some guy. One day, he sees a bee sitting on this man's neck and decides to kill the bee before it might sting his friend. But since he completely underestimates his own strength, while overestimating his friends sturdiness, he kills his friend.
From a perspective of a father who just watched his family getting wiped out, because this damn moron just toted a plague bearer (no, not the Astartes kind, although...) into his village, again, this damn adventurer with his heart of gold _is_ evil. Good intentions are nice, but one still has to care about the consequences. If there is some kind of risk assessment beforehand, then this is a different thing, but in my experience, those gung-ho style good types, who never do that, usually do more damage than good on a regular basis and I rather don't have them around.
You know who at least in my book is one of the most evil tv-show characters ever? Steve Urkel. Seriously, I always hated this character with a passion. 'Ooops, was that _me?'_ might be funny when watching it, but when you are poor Carl and have your whole house destroyed for the umptiest time, while the very people who should be sympathetic with you and even tell you to shut up, poor Steve had _good intentions_ in the end, well...
EDIT: Just read your comment about Kant now and here, I actually prefer Kant's very rational approach and not only because I am german myself. Kant's categorical imperative _'Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.'_ is exactly what I was trying to explain with my comment. Do you want the way our well-meaning adventurer acts to become a universal law? Thou shall bring the bearers of the most deadly plagues into the population centers of the world, while giving a crap about the consequences?
Since arguing alignment on the internet is a good idea that will in no way get bogged down, here are some pointers:
1. There are supposedly good mind flayers according to the Book of Exalted Deeds. Remember, the listed alignment in the monster manual is just the typical alignment; individuals can and will vary from it.
2. Evil IS a thing that exists in DnD. There are entire planes basically made of it.
3. You just described a Lawful Neutral character with a minor asshole streak. We have Lawful Evil to describe people who would gleefully sell child debtors to an arena so they can see them get torn to shreds by a manticore.
@The Martial Lord of Loyalty Ok I'll bite; what do you mean by evil being logically impossible?
I'm a little disappointed that we didn't hear anything about Alhoons, Neolithids, or Intellect Devourers, but still an excellent video.
Needs a part 2 for sure.
ANAND NOW HE HAS COMPLETED THE TRIFECTA OF TABLETOP GAMES!!! D&D, VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE AND WARHAMMER! HE SHALL NOW BE HENCFORTHE GIVEN THE ORDER OF NERDOM FIRST CLASS!
PRASE BE THE EMPOROR!!!!
PRASE BE!
Praise be!
PRASE BE!!
You miss one: Battletech.
@@barrybend7189 sorry...
You see a mindflayer be sure to have anti scionic helmets( actually a thing in D&D in scionic expansions).
Ya mean tinfoil fedora?
@@BSOE3058 not quite so useless.
@@barrybend7189 tinfoil fedora + 2?
*psionic
As a D&D player and DM I love to see you doing lore videos for this great universe. But PLEASE for the love of all D&D pantheons, they are called GITHYANKI and GITHZERAI!
@LE Jimenez but...that's...is this memes?
KITTEN!
BG3 coming up so I am here to learn about the world of D&D.
I’m straying to think that Archie is basically the Rainman polymath of tabletop gaming nerd-dom.
Thomas Piscopo The idea did cross my mind recently as well.
Hey Arch, love your videos. This one intrigued me mainly because I love Mind Flayers (Illithids) and am using them in my campaign. I did want to touch on one of your last points about alignment and the nature of Evil. D&D rulings on alignment are suggestions at best. I personally view them as generalities. You can very much have an Illithid of any alignment, but you have to have a story reason as to why this Illithid is good. An important facet of that is: how does this guy eat brains and still maintain it's virtue? Plus, why would you want a good Illithid? They are the perfect villains! Again, I love your content!
Id love a lore video on Beholders, arch! Keep up the great work!
Arch is doing DnD lore videos? Prepare me a beer and a steak serving wench! Today shall be a glorious one indeed.
...
This sort of attitude is why your waifu pillow broke up with you and is now fucking your Fleshlight.
You know it happens when you leave... *Toy Story was a coded warning.* 😳
That will be 7 copper Sir. :3 (1 for the beer ,4 for the steak and 2 for attitude)
Arch plz do more D&D Lore always wanted to know more and only your voice can bring it to life
Aw, you didn’t go into the mind flayer taboo of arcane magic or how crazy the “holy shit” levels that is a mind flayer lich is.
Ah yes ... the mindflayer lich ... one of the major signs, right next to the tarasque, that the DM is absolutely fucking DONE taking the party’s shit, and ye better reform, or the next TPK happens IRL.
Still remember my first encounter with mindflayer in nethack - "You feel like something has locked on your mind".
Don't know much about the lore of this universe, so i would very much like more videos on the topic.
Being honest when I heard the people who made the divinity games were making baldur’s gate 3 I girly screamed
I am here to fact check.
As a long time D&D nerd.... well done
"No one considers themselves evil" I thought everyone on the internet knew enough about serial killers to not say this.
But the thing is, usually even serial killers do what they do for reasons other than 'I am evil and want to do evil things, muahahahaaa!'. From their perspective, they might not be good guys, true, but this doesn't mean that they actually think they are _evil_ by a longshot. Mind you, usually serial killers operate within a very warped perception of the world and within this twisted frame, they are not evil.
@@Furzkampfbomber The Monster with 21 Faces
@@Captain1nsaneo Never heard of that guy, I would have to look him up, but that is one of many. Still does not make a rule. Which could be said about serial killers in general, how many of them are there amongst almost 9 billion human beings, even when taking into consideration that there must be many, many serial killers who or even whose murders never get discovered?
I'd say the number is somewhere in the permille of a permille area, which in my book justifies the 'no one thinks...' statement.
Mind Flayers in 40K? Think about that..
The creation of the Tyranid was a cataclysmic mistake made from a mind flayer ritual sacrifice.
My favorite bit of lore about the Mind Flayers is that the Aboleth, the primordial first masters of the material plane find the squid men to be unnerving. Not because of their powers, but because the Aboleth don't have any memory of the Mind Flayer's inception. To the Aboleth the MF just... appeared. And the Aboleth never forget anything.
Aye, the Illithids are invaders from the Far Realm. They came enmasse in the millions and in a blitzkrieg they enslaved hundreds of worlds and held them for millenia till the creation of the Annulus and the rebellion of the Gith.
@@RaithSienar that's the current canon. In previous editions they were actually hinted to be from the far, far future when the sun was cold and the material plane was aged, weakened, and totally under their thrall. The Ithilids in the present are trying to bring about this dark future.
24:13
Arch please, there is only so much of GITHNYAKI and GITHZERAKI I can take.
The proper names for the two factions of Gith are Githyanki and Githzerai.
ah but that was not their name back when they were slaves, and well it does simplify things for those that dont know the Gith species ;)
It was truly painful. Also the way he pronounced Ilsensine and Maanzekorian....
@@DarkRonnie Indeed, listen young ones to the stories of the greybeards who played DnD back when having a high armor class was a bad thing. According to the old books of the bygone "TSR" Githyanki and Githzerai were both descended from a race known as the Forerunners. There was even evidence that the Forerunners were the precursors to humans as well as the gith races, meaning humans and gith are cousins. Of course this dates back to the age of the illithid empire, a time so far ago that none but the crustiest of greybeards has a remotely credible theory for how long ago it truly was.
35:35 Well, looks like a job for Gorth, the dim-witted half-orc barbarian! I knew getting a 3 in INT would prove useful someday! 😂
During the ceremorphosis, there's a rare "birth defect" for some tadpoles, in which parts of the host's mind are imprinted in the mindflayer. So the mindflayer might find itself suddenly experiencing human emotions, fears, desires and sensibilities. If a colony discovers this, a faulty mindflayer is immediately destroyed, so it really takes an extremely crafty speciemen to dodge being found out, but there's potential for a neutral, independent mindflayer to happen, and even, with some serious stretch, for a "good" mindflayer ;)
one great thing about themindflayers that Arch forgot to mention was the fact that a mind flayed can sometimes have traits or momentary flash backs of their original hosts mind and memory, which can produce some really neat story beats.
Just image after a party wipe everything fades to black, then an undisclosed amount of time latter you come to consciousness look down and see your tentacly horror of your body and a loud voice in your head before getting pushed down into the monsters subconscious.
Also in reference to d&d I always saw the good and bad alignment as more of degree of selfishness. So “evil” chapters do things for themselves and “good” characters are more interested in helping others or the group.
Ah the mind flayers, these guys are up there with beholders and owlbears as one of the most iconic of DnD's monsters. They're also one of my favorite villains to use as a DM with aboleth and liches only ranking higher as my favorite masterminds.
First 40K and Warhammer Fantasy, then Vampire, now D&D! you just knocked Sargon off of my nr 1 spot for favourite TH-camr you Norwegian bastard XD. Keep up being Awesome!!!
This is great! Would love to see more of D&D lore on this channel. Keep up the awesome videos!
D&D lore addition is so good that it is beyond belief. Thank you Arch.
I was hoping to see Mind Flayer liches but hopefully they'll show up in a future video about my favorite undead. Thank you for another awesome video Arch. Hope to see more D&D soon.
your little discourse on the nature of Evil at the end reminds me quite a bit of Rich Burlew
Ah yes, the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3 has brought me back here.
This is very different from the terrors from the far and dark future where the sun has been snuffed out and the far realm has taken over origin that I read from 3.5 and 4.0
I love the background music reminds me of back when you did the lore for the various warhammer fantasy factions
Having reviewed the Illithid, maybe your next species should be their arch enemy, the Gith and their two factions
Wish Arch would do more D&D lore
This released just as I’m planning an adventure involving Mind Flayers. This is so helpful I can’t even say.
Good shit man. There's a theory that states Mind Flayers can travel across time, and are trying to reconstruct their empire in different times. And basically, the ones living in the underdark are the offspring of stranded companies.
I’d love some more Vampire: The Masquerade lore as well!
Lore for the lore God
I wrote o the reaction trailer that we needed an Arch touch to the lore of d&d
Lore for the Lore God, likes for the ... what kind of throne whould that be?
@@kethos017 either made of books, hands in the rigor mortis of the like motion, tounges (like for the lick throne)?
_Arch would like us to think of him as a kindly, bearded Inquisitor, but we now know the truth... _*_Arch Warhammer is an Elder Brain!_*
he's just a bunch of hyperintelligent cranium rats making youtube videos ;'''D
How have I missed this video? Thank you for the work, Lore Master Arch!
You forgot to talk about the paradox that is the illithid empire. In the far future of the D&D universe, they have once more become an all-encompasing empire, wherein they time travel to the beginning and conquer the universe anew, thus ensuring their continued existence.
I havent played DnD in 20 years..but dammit...my last character was killed by a mind flayer! Oh the (non) humanity!!
🐙
By the god emperor a D&D lore video, i never though i would live to see such a holy event.
have a loregasm because of arch doing a dnd lore video
Also, a creature known as Neothelid is worth mentioning. A gargantuan worm that grows out of one tadpole that devours all other tadpoles. It happens when a mindflayer colony colapses and the elder brain somehow dies or is killed. That frees the tadpoles from its influence. But since they are no longer fed, they turn to eating one another. Neothelid is a lovely little thing to throw at your players when they are crawling in the underdark :)
Already an Arch Warhammer fan but my Baulders gate love sent me searching for lore and I struck gold.
Alright. You explaining D&D as you explain 40k.... AWSOME!!!!
You merchant example would be lawful neutral unless the man enjoyed the act.
Some rogue Illithids do learn arcane magic and become liches
That is fucking terrifying
What would happen to the tentacles tho? Do they have bones in there or like squids are their heads boneless?
In some editions, Mind flayers could become vampires.
Old man Henderson would have a grand old time with these things.
Fucking Mormons
Ah! this comes in handy since I've unfortunately never played the first 2 games and I'm looking forward to BG3.
You always can get the Enhanced Editions ... just for the love of fuck google the characters added by them and avoid them like the plague. And don’t play Siege of Dragonspear, because good god it sucks. It’s a small mercy WotC decided to get beamdog off the franchise and passed it to Larian.
(well the last part is more about a rule i would say more to help then anything after a while and understanding the rules you just start to change stuff to fit the game but yeah i do agree that the base rules are quite stifling)
Gotta love DnD lore coming from the Bridge God.
Just when I think you can't get more amazing you go and do a baldur's gate lore vid!
Mind Flayers sounds like we need to expand the scope of the Inquisition, Brothers.
The minds of man are too easy for the *Illithid* to dominate. The Inquisition will serve their will.
As a lover of both 40k and D&D I couldn't be happier. Hopefully we will see some more D&D more in the future? Here's hoping!
That is how I see Lawful Evil as well. Often following the rules in ways to (more often than not) benefit themselves, and can be cruel about it. Though ultimately may help others if only to further their own goal.
A thought after watching the trailer: The Mindflayer Empire place is often referenced as lost in time but considering that dimensions, space and time are just things to play with for these great empires, it is possibly that it is not(only) located back in a half-forgotten age in the distant past, it could very well be located in the distant future....or the very very near future(looking into the sky)
I agree with the alignments, there are players who hold them up as a rule while thy are more of a guideline.
Yeah no. They ARE a rule. A hard one. Morality in DnD is not malleable, it’s not an abstract concept, Good and Evil are physical tangible things, there are entire planes of reality MADE from Good, Evil, Law and Chaos, and combinations of them. Alignments are NOT guidelines, there is some flexibility in what fits into an alignments, but they are far from guidelines one can bend. Play Baldur’s Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal and keep sarevok with you, then try to get his alignment switch to trigger. It’s supposed to be a great feat, an intense work of spiritual self-discovery and enlightenment that alters the very fundamental spiritual nature of a being. The game doesn’t do it enough justice, but it does a least give a serviceable idea of how hard it should be. It’s also why alignment shifts are supposed to be a major decision that in game mechanics terms makes you loose a level. You loose a part of yourself, and start a new path in life.
So yeah. They are not guidelines, not in the way the metaphysics of the universe work as established. And while any individual player/GM may choose to implement the system however they choose, to call them guidelines in generals misses the point hard of how the universe is supposed to work.
@@93Avenger93 No thy are guidelines because thy are stupid and yes I did change the alignment of Sarevok and it was interesting. But my point still stands because the rules are limiting the expression of characters that is why thy are guidelines.
Because then you arrive to the problem of Chaotic Neutral that by definition would never work with a party because it is completely against the notion of a party or structured government or organization. If you start a Chaotic Neutral character and by the end of the first session you are not leaving the party you would have to change the alignment to Chaotic Good or Evil depending on the party.
You see the stupidity of this system.
Also Find me a role player who plays out his alignment correctly and I will call bullshit.
@@Aurioriumthey are not guidelines evil and good are real tangable things one can detect mesure and study. Evil Has a source so does good
Evil will effect and change the landscape same with good
There are magical items that will only work when carried by good or evil hell in BG you couldnt even carry said Items(probobly game limitation)
You cant accept fantasy for what it is alien wierd well fantasy setting that has diffrent laws of the universe
Evil and good is just as much of a guide line as gamma radiation is
Both can have a source both change the envoirment both can be mesured and detected
Also chaotic neutral may be anatchist(as you put it) but they would work with chaotic evil/good neutral against lawful
You know bigger enemy and all that
Also show me a player who can correctly RP anything other than human and I will call bullshit humans cant RP anything other than human since we are humans with human perception and brain but we will do our best same with being good/evil
The most important thing to know about Mindflayers is that they are delicious when broiled with a little lemon pepper.
really nicely done video arch, im so fortunate we seem to share many of the same hobbies
My party boarded a Mind flayer nautiloid in last nights d&d game, then I wake up this ?? Hail the Master of Secrets
Evil & Good exist as matter of fact energy's is D&D. Great video Arch, hope to see more D&D from you!
My introduction to mindflayers was the neverwinter nights underdark expansion. One of my favourite games ^^
Funny thing happened, with the new 'BALDUR'S GATE: DESCENT INTO AVERNUS' book coming out is so i wanted to make a mindflayer spy, and then comes out a week later... mind blowing
nice video with lots of information i didnt know ^^
one thing regarding alignement:
"Evil" in D&D ist nessesarily "do bad/amoral things" its more the idea of "do what is best for YOU no matter what it costs someone else"
so your example would be evil aligned.
aka as long as it brings the evil person lots of gains they could be the nicest guys around.
as an example running an orphanage were you give your children basic education and martial/magical training to create a group of powerfull adventurers indebted to you might be considered evil especially if you utelise them in a way that gets you lots ofbenefits at the cost of others
You must of saw the Baldur gate 3 teaser trailer as well. I can't wait.
11:00 i remember quite well a part of drizzt do'urden story, when he enqountered ilithids and their super brain. He got rescued, thanks to Guenhwyvar.
So basically, a Goa’uld symbiote goes Parasyte on its host, maturing into Davey Jones, before joining the Borg Collective?
(Sorry, new to DnD, but couldn’t help noticing all the nerdy connections.)
I don’t know if my soul is ready for another Baldur’s gate game. I know my heart is though.
"An lawful evil person is not evil." -Arch
I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy.
As for the alignments, I suggest you look up the Planescape setting (the OG one), authors of which took the Alignment system, arguably the worst system ever put in D&D, and made it into one of the most philosophical, fantastic, and creative settings out there.
Would love to see Arch do the lore of the Drow. Yes yes?
"Naughty Lloyds" had me dying. I love subtitles sometimes.
Well, I first came here just for 40k lore, but Arch made it fun to listen even about gross, Cthulhu-weeaboo walking octopuses.
Actually, I would appreciate some lore about Baldur’s gate: maybe some history and stuff
Had hoped for a little more squid vs eyemonster lore. But I'll take what I can get.
'You can not define evil' - After your defined evil.
I'm up for more D&D lore!
Ah Mindflayers, the one race that even the Drow (or at least the sane ones) will refuse to deal with. They also have their origins in The Far Realm, making them essentially Cthulhu style invaders into the prime material plane (if the tentacles didn't indicate that already that is).
Cant wait to hear arches take on Drizzt
"Evil is not a thing" idk i feel like beholders would have a word with you arch. :p
YAY!
3 kinds of lore, this is amazing!
(Also TH-cam has unsubbed me for some reason, so I resubbed)
Well, safe to say that you'll probably end up needing to do tons of Lore for Planescape or Spelljammer, now that you have covered a major villain in both of those settings, when those settings in turn effect most of the original low level ones.
Talk about Waterdeep or the Elves. Talk about the demons and devils. Or the military factions : the grey cloaks of neverwinther or the grffon guard of waterdeep
I’ve already read nearly every scrap of mind-flayer (and other aberration) lore but im just here to hear that arch-style dress-up
Mindflayers would fit right in 40k as a xenos horrificus race.
There are the T'Chung Parasites they are mindflayers
One of my favourite species in D&D lore.
When I first played BG 2 I was terrified of their part of the underdark.
I'm always surprised you've never done any of the RIFTS aliens; they can be really nasty.
Give us more D&D lore! (flairing my mind-flaying tentacles)