The illithid of Dungeons & Dragons: the mind flayer of the manual, and what the series kept of it
Universe · Dungeons & Dragons · Illithid
The booklets from 1975 to 1977 come first, then an article from 1983, then a collective brain that arrived later.
The illithid, known in English as the mind flayer, is a monster of Dungeons & Dragons imagined by Gary Gygax and published in 1975: a humanoid with an octopus head that eats brains. In November 1984, Dustin borrows its name for the shadow that possesses Will. The name comes from the manual. The hive does not.
The essentials
- Name: Illithid. Mind flayer in English, for the creature of the game.
- Creator: Gary Gygax.
- First publication: The Strategic Review no. 1, in the spring of 1975
- In the supplements: Blackmoor (1975, first drawing), Eldritch Wizardry (1976), then the Monster Manual (1977)
- In the series: The name Dustin gives the shadow in November 1984, in chapter 8 of season 2
- The hive: Absent from the books available in 1984. The elder brain comes from the second edition.
Contents
The game on one side, the series on the other
The illithid of the game and the shadow of the series share a name. The rest does not overlap.
What is it? In the game, a humanoid with an octopus head, four tentacles around the mouth. In the series, a giant shadow with long legs, in a red sky.
Since when? In the game, the spring of 1975, The Strategic Review no. 1. In the series, November 1984, in chapter 8 of season 2, released on October 27, 2017.
How does it dominate? In the game, the Mind Blast, a wave of psychic force, and enslaved peoples. In the series, possession, through a hive.
What does it eat? In the game, brains, which a tentacle pulls out of the skull before the monster devours them. In the series, no one sees it eat. Dustin only says it likes brains. The shadow, for its part, possesses.
Who thinks for the hive? In the game, the elder brain, added by the second edition. In the series, the shadow itself, from November 1984.
Illithid is the name of the species. In English they are commonly called mind flayers. The English verb to flay means to skin. Why the shadow of the series bears this name, the page on the monster of the second season already explains.
Black case, red side buttons. A large black silhouette with long legs, in a sky streaked with red lines. Below, letters drawn by hand under a string of bulbs, yellow, green and red. The shadow of the series, not the octopus of the manual.
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1975-1977: Gary Gygax's octopus head
According to Wikipedia, Gygax cited among his inspirations the cover of The Burrowers Beneath, a novel by Brian Lumley published in 1974, in the Titus Crow cycle. Tim Kirk had painted it for the first printing. It showed only the tentacles of the Chthonians. A review of March 1974 places the novel in the Cthulhu mythos. The octopus head, Wikipedia notes, recalls Cthulhu.
In the spring of 1975, The Strategic Review no. 1, TSR's newsletter, opens a column called Creature Features. “a super-intelligent, man-shaped creature with four tentacles by its mouth”. The tentacle pierces through to the brain and pulls it out. Then the monster devours it. Its main weapon is the Mind Blast, a wave of psychic force about a meter and a half in radius. The effect depends on the target's intelligence: madness, rage, confusion, coma or death.
The same year, Blackmoor, the second supplement, contains the first drawing, by Tracy Lesch. According to Wikipedia, he imagined it as a cruel emperor from the comics, gifted with a telepath's faculties. In 1976, Eldritch Wizardry, the third supplement, sixty pages, by Gygax and Brian Blume, gives the monster a stat block, with psionic faculties. Wikipedia sees in it its first major appearance. In 1977, the stat block enters the Monster Manual, the monster book of the advanced rules. The four tentacles, for their part, are already in the 1975 description.
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1974 The cover
Tim Kirk paints tentacles for a novel by Brian Lumley.
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Spring 1975 The newsletter
Four tentacles, a brain pulled out, a wave.
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1975 Blackmoor
The first drawing, by Tracy Lesch.
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1976 Eldritch Wizardry
A stat block, in the booklet of psionic faculties.
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1977 Monster Manual
The stat block enters the advanced rules.
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October 1983 Dragon no. 78
In Roger E. Moore's article, the illithids come from no known world.
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1998 The Illithiad
The elder brain, according to Wikipedia. Another date circulates.
Under the earth, far from the sun
The Monster Manual, according to the passages cited by EN World, confines the illithids underground, because they hate the light of the sun. They look at humanity as cattle. They speak their own language. Rumor has it they have a city, far under the earth. The English-language Wikipedia adds that they believe themselves the dominant species of the multiverse, enslave other peoples, and eat their brains. The French-language Wikipedia places them, in most worlds of the game, in the depths, like the Underdark of the Forgotten Realms.
The githyanki and the githzerai, according to the French-language Wikipedia, descend from a people the illithids had enslaved, freed by a heroine named Gith.
Wikipedia also describes the Mind Blast as a cone-shaped wave, without saying from which edition. Wikipedia classes the creature among the aberrations, almost always of lawful evil alignment. It is not a demon. The point is already made on the page about demon names that came from the game.
Issue 78 of Dragon magazine is dated October 1983, the month before the night Will disappears, November 6, 1983. The article is titled The Ecology of the Mind Flayer. It is by Roger E. Moore. The passages cited by EN World are lines from a knight, not the author's words. “Mind flayers are not of your world.” They travel from plane to plane, and have done so for so long that they no longer know where they come from. They send scouts toward new worlds. They have a power of domination. The date the issue went on sale, for its part, is given nowhere. October is the cover date.
The elder brain, a hive that arrived after 1984, and its tadpoles
The elder brain belongs to the second edition. The sources do not give the same date. The English-language Wikipedia attributes it to The Illithiad, in April 1998. A reader of EN World writes in 2017 that the Monstrous Manual already explained it in 1993. In both cases, it is after November 1984.
According to the Forgotten Realms wiki, it is a mass made of the brains of dead illithids, in a pool of salt water, at the center of their city. It guides the community. At the end of life, each one merges into it. This wiki is kept by fans.
According to the English-language Wikipedia, illithids are hermaphrodites and lay eggs two or three times in their lives. The larvae look like small heads, or like tadpoles with four tentacles. They grow in the elder brain's pool. Those that survive ten years are introduced into a host's brain, through any opening in the skull. The larva devours the brain and takes the body. The French-language Wikipedia calls this ceremorphosis. No source consulted dates the appearance of this process. The 1975 entry, as Wikipedia summarizes it, speaks only of the tentacles, the brain and the wave. EN World adds that, in The Illithiad, the elder brain feeds on the tadpoles that share its pool.
A silver ring marked S925, and a translucent red faceted die, engraved in gold. A small pink and silver plate hangs beside it, a horned head. The die, what is left on the table when the manual is closed.
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November 1984: what Dustin could read
The night after the attack on the lab, at Will's, the group understands that the shadow links the boy, the tunnels and the creatures. One of the boys recalls a lesson, the hive mind. Another voice adds: it is the brain. Then Dustin says “Like the mind flayer.” Fandom attributes the comparison to him. On who recalls the lesson, and who talks about the brain, the sources do not agree.
The hive is there before the name. In “The Spy”, a hive intelligence that links the hosts is already mentioned. “It has some sort of a hive intelligence”.
It is Owens who says it, two chapters earlier.
The lesson recalled that evening comes from Mr. Clarke; then come the lines about the monster:
“a monster from an unknown dimension”. Before November 1984, Dragon no. 78: not of this world, and no known origin left.
“it enslaves races of other dimensions”. Before November 1984: the psionic faculties, from 1975 and from 1976, and the domination power of the article.
“It believes it's the master race.” Before November 1984, the Monster Manual: humanity as cattle.
“It wants to spread, take over other dimensions.” Before November 1984, the same article: scouts toward new worlds.
“It likes brains.” Dustin says it to the police chief, to justify, against the creature, an army of the undead: zombies do not have any. In 1975, the tentacle pulls the brain out of the skull.
“The hive mind.” Nothing, in the books available in November 1984. The elder brain comes out later.
EN World, in an article by Michael Tresca of November 13, 2017, notes two things. Dustin cites the Dragon article above all, rather than the Monster Manual. And the hive comes from books published well after November 1984.
What the group does not say: octopus head, tentacles, wave, tadpoles. None of these words is spoken in the chapter. A manual is set on the table; no source consulted says which. When someone objects that it is a children's game, back comes the answer: “No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids.”
What stays in the manual
What stays in the book: the octopus head, the four tentacles, the eaten brain, the Mind Blast, the underground cities, the tadpoles and the elder brain's pool. The series shows in its place a giant shadow with long legs, made of particles. Its portrait is in the Mind Flayer file.
According to the series wiki, the only source on this point, Paul and Christina Graff studied storms and tornadoes to draw it. Matt Duffer, in September 2017, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, speaks of a Lovecraft approach. “There's an H.P. Lovecraft sort of approach”. Gygax started from a cover of the Cthulhu mythos. The series cites Lovecraft. Two paths, the same ancestor.
The weakness changes. The monster of the game flees the sun. The one of the series likes the cold. In chapter 9 of season 2, you hear: “He likes it cold.”
The word stays. In 1985, the chapter that gives the hosts a name is called The Flayed, from the verb to flay. It is the fifth episode of season 3.
In the series, the word pollywog, tadpole, names Dart, in chapter 3 of season 2, The Pollywog. It has no link with illithid larvae.
The series kept the name, the idea of a being come from elsewhere that enslaves minds, and the taste for brains in a line of Dustin's. It left the body in the manual.
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Frequently asked questions
What is an illithid?
A monster of Dungeons & Dragons imagined by Gary Gygax and published in 1975: a humanoid with an octopus head that eats brains. In the game: illithid, or mind flayer.
Are illithid and mind flayer the same creature?
Yes, in the game. The name of the species, and the common name in English.
Who invented the illithid?
Gary Gygax. He cited among his inspirations a cover for a Brian Lumley novel, painted by Tim Kirk in 1974.
Is the Mind Flayer of the series an illithid?
No. The series borrows the name. Its shadow has neither an octopus head, nor tentacles around the mouth, nor tadpoles.
Did the elder brain exist in November 1984?
No. It comes from the second edition: April 1998 according to Wikipedia, 1993 according to a reader of EN World.
Why does Dustin talk about an army of the undead?
Because, he says, the creature likes brains, and zombies do not have any.
