Exclusively Evil: Difference between revisions

*:* Generally, Illithids are an almost universally evil alien race of psychic slavers. The obvious justification being that they have to be, to survive. Not only does their life-cycle demand the sacrifice of sapient humanoids for new illithid to come to be, but they gain nourishment from sentient brains. Eating the brains of non-sapient animals helps, but not all that much. End result: a species that, to survive as a species and to a lesser degree as individuals, both have to consistently and repeatedly act in ways that the rest of universe classify as evil, and it's easier for them to actually be. The Elder Brains that rule their civilization are even worse. In ''[[Spelljammer]]'' they are not very different, but in general are much less aggressive and more cooperative with the others. The eponymous ship also played host to some fairly decent Illithids who peacefully coexisted with the other races and fed on a special type of mold (that of course was secretly sapient in large quantities, or they wouldn't be able to derive nourishment from it). There's even a [[Lawful Neutral]] Illithid NPC (an obsessive [[Adventurer Archaeologist]]). In the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'', there is ''one'' known good Illithid, and that one is a very unusual case. Fortunately for everyone else, Illithid society is a mere shadow of what it used to be thanks to their former slaves, the Githyanki, rising up against them. As a result, the Illithids are [[Pragmatic Villainy|pragmatic]] enough to rein in their desire to eat brains long enough to trade and make deals with other races. That said, your chances of leaving with your brain intact after running into an Illithid in a dark alley all alone are still next to none.