Re: The Illithiad

On Tue, 5 May 1998, Magus Zeroc wrote:

>   What bothered me most in this book was the Maanzercorian entry: when
> the heck did this happen?! WHY?! I mean, couldn't they have changed him
> into a proxy of Ilsensine as well, as Ilsensine is the one true master
> of the illithids?

During the Great Modron March/Dead Gods series of modules for Planescape.
Maanzecorian was one of the Powers killed by Tenebrous during his search
for his talisman.  I'm not sure why it happened, but it is an official
part of TSR now, just like Orcus' death at the hands of Kiranslee and
Mystra's death at the hands of Torm (or was it Helm?).

Of course, you can always ignore that if you don't like it.

>   A theory regarding Ilsensine and illithids coming from somewhere else:
> perhaps Ilsensine is the master of illithids in the known multiverse, a
> creature serving an even more powerful master back home in his own
> 'existance?' If you know about the zerg from Starcraft, there is one
> Overmind who creates servants (cerebrates) to direct the zerg for him,
> accomplishing different purposes/tasks. What if this is the same in
> Ilsensine's case (being a 'cerebrate' for the known multiverse)? Then
> what would happen if Ilsensine's master decided to 'interfere' with the
> known multiverse?

Oooooh...good idea.  I will steal that for eventual use.  One of the many
"eventual use" ideas that I have and haven't used yet.

>   I prefer the psionic illithids having the beaked mouths myself.

So did I.  But that was my only real quibble with the book.  Except that
it didn't use any of the "Sunset World" article from Dragon.

>   Well, perhaps illithids aren't just 'from outer space' after all.

I never thought they were, to tell the truth.  Spelljammer illithids were
difficult to fit into my campaign cosmology--I always thought they were
from an alternate Prime Plane, and were the forerunners of an invasion,
once they had changed things (like the environment, and those uppity
things that walk like an illithid).  I also thought they had a genetic
connection of some kind with the aboleth, but that's neither here nor
there.

Richard Gant