Ecology of the intellect devourer, part 2

Since mind flayers are not open content I had decided to replace them with various open content analogues. I try to spend effort on making each of them distinct from one another rather than variations on the same idea. I gave the tentacle horror aspects to the phrenic scourges (who will appear in another post) and the brain-eating aspects to the intellect devourers. I have expanded the intellect devourers into an entire family of monsters as you can see in the last post of this series. More information below the break...

Variant forms

Although I mentioned that it is possible for intellect devourers to mature into brain collectors and battle devourers and so forth, now I suggest that they may mature into other forms. Some of these are further molts of the hound-like devourer, while others are alternate life cycles from the larval stage. (Long story short, I decided to condense various other mind flayer substitutes into an all-purpose brain-eating family.)

©2009 butterfrog

Paretiophages

(Etymology: parieto- + -phage)

These vaguely humanoid devourers are known as paretiophages (or brilkoun in their own language). Like their juvenile forms they thrive on psychic energy from memories and sensations, so they consume the brains of their prey using an extendable proboscis like an insect. To prevent uprisings they implant their parasitic larvae in the skulls of their slaves, which render the host susceptible to suggestion, and threaten to let the larvae consume the brain if the hosts disobey.

Not to be outdone by juvenile devourers, paretiophages are skilled in illusions to make up for their lack of physical might. They may even disguise themselves as humanoids in order to surprise prey.

Mindolons

(Etymology: mind + eidolon)

Although intellect devourer larvae are nominally parasitoids, some larvae take over the host body as a vessel rather than discarding it as they mature. While the host body dies in the process, the larvae secretes preservative to maintain the husk as an exoskeleton as it grows to replace the nervous system and internal organs. Unlike other devourers, it grows a pair of compound eyes set in the sockets of the host skull. The resulting "mindolon" is a creature that could be mistaken for an animated corpse.

Like their paretiophage kin, the mindolon grows a long proboscis that they use to siphon the brains of prey and have vastly greater potential for developing psychic powers compared to juvenile devourers.

©2012 Stephen Oakley

Abominations

The status of the host body is critical to the development path of the larvae. If the host is alive when the larva starts maturing, then the schism between the host and devourer personalities will drive them both insane. Not to be discouraged, as aberrations are already pretty much insane by our standards, the damaged larvae mature into the infamous hound-like devourer form. If the host is freshly deceased or brain-dead but alive, then the larva will consume and replace the nervous system, instead maturing into the lich-like mindolon/paretiophage form (which are not distinguished as separate forms in this scenario).

If something goes wrong, the host personality survives somehow, the host's ghost haunts the body, somehow, the host is undead or something of that nature... then the result is an "abomination" (a la Alia from Dune, Michael from Underworld, or the "adversary" from The Illithiad). If an existing mindolon becomes a lich, vampire or something, then it is promoted to abomination status. (See Edition Pi for more details on abominations and mindolons in general.)

Addendum 8/21/2018: Alternately we can just ignore all that as overly complicated. If we want to play the horror factor of the intellect devourer taking over your body, then we absolutely have to depict the host as alive and conscious of their minds and bodies being gradually taken over by the parasite. If we used some silly "ceremorphosis" where the devourer simply consumes and replaces the body, the body theft horror factor is completely lost. We already have phrenic scourges kill and eat the brain in order to mature.

Society

Pathfinder did a lot to make the intellect devourer society, such as it was, distinct from the other mind flayer substitutes running around. I took a heavy dose of inspiration from the 13th Age Bestiary as well.

In contrast to the phrenic scourges that supposedly created them (which is still a questionable assumption), the intellect devourers are generally focused on maintaining a society of excess and decadence. While they consider other species slaves and food, they are not expansionist conquerors. Above all else, they are motivated by their hunger for memories and sensations. Ideals and temporal power mean nothing to them.

Perhaps taking after the phrenic scourges' habit of breeding servitor races, the decadent courts of devourers in the remote caverns and forests of the land are served not only by infested slaves but by specially bred "pets" like the norughk and shock beetles. Norughk are reptilian gnomish creatures that ply their skill in torture (although I suppose you could substitute derro or kobolds if you feel there are too many monsters already); shock beetles are aggressive predators that discharge electricity for hunting and defense.

Ilkroun & Mawog ©2003 Andy Hopp/Scott Purdy

Diet

All intellect devourers consume brains and slowly digest the acquired memories (both knowledge and sensations). Intellect devourers wearing host bodies will engage in unspeakable acts to acquire new sensations until the decaying body has worn out. Slaves can expect to be tortured: this provides sensations for the devourers to experience vicariously through telepathy and seasons the brain in anticipation of when they are inevitably eaten.

Indeed, devourers will freely engage in cannibalism of their fellow devourers. They do not seem to consider themselves or each other to be individuals, but rather sums of recollections. Those who are devoured become part of their devourer, and the devourer becomes all the stronger for doing do.

Queens

As a logical extension of their cannibalism, it is possible for intellect devourers to aggregate into "queens" (or as I like to call them, "mother brains"). These gigantic, immobile devourers serve as the leaders and primary reproducers of intellect devourer hives. As the hive ages, the queen grows more powerful as the oldest and strongest devourers are absorbed into its mass.

Quotes

Brilkoun: "Dwellers of intricate, orderly cities in vast caverns, these are a ruling class infamous for their substantial slave collections which they use for labor and amusement alike. To prevent uprisings, they insert parasites that eat brain matter in the heads of their thralls, which they threaten to activate should their slaves become unruly. Brilkoun are purple, insect-like centauresque creatures possessing large heads with bulging veins."

Norughk: "Vile, sadistic creatures that willingly serve the evil brilkoun, who value them as pets rather than implanted slaves. They are about the size of a gnome with short bowed legs, long scaly arms, and long smooth tails."

Paretiophage: "An evil race with an enormous appetite for the brains of intelligent creatures which they consume by means of an extendible proboscis. They have a decadent and complex society."

Shock Beetle: "A three-foot-long multicolored beetle with a wide row of feelers. They are aggressive and predatory. They build up an electrical charge within themselves which can be discharged against creatures that touch them."

Credits

I have referenced several third party supplements in this post. You may want to refer to them for more information on the monsters and help support the authors.

• The paretiophage and shock beetle appear in Complete Minions by Bastion Press and were reprinted in Monster Geographica: Forest by Expeditious Retreat Press.
• The ilkroun and mawog appear in Monsters of the Endless Dark by Goodman Games. They were reprinted under the open content names brilkoun and norughk in Monster Geographica: Underground by Expeditious Retreat Press.
• The mindolon, mindolon queen and mindolon abomination appear in Edition Pi by Daemoneye Publishing.

Similar monsters

There are a number of other monsters with similar characteristics to intellect devourers. What distinguishes intellect devourers is that they are the only ones on this list that eat brains as a matter of course.

• Aboleth: the aboleth come in parasitic forms, which may manipulate living or dead hosts by possession or psychotropic secretions. They do not consume brains or reproduce parasitically.
• Encephalon Gorger: the encephalon gorgers are vampire-like monsters that harvest the cerebrospinal fluid of other species, particularly intelligent ones, not as a form of sustenance but to power their mysterious alien technology. Their method of reproduction is unknown.
• Phrenic Scourge: the phrenic scourges reproduce by implanting larvae in live hosts that consume the brain to start their gestation and to acquire the genetic material of the host and recent memories of the local area. Sometimes the offspring will incorporate the traits of the host and breed true, and in this way the phrenic hegemony has bred a variety of servitors. Otherwise, phrenic scourges do not consume brains for sustenance.
• Puppeteer: Puppeteers are endoparasites which attach to a host creature and control its mind through psychic powers. Puppeteers come in different castes like the flesh harrower and hive brain. They do not consume brains and only incidentally reproduce parasitically.