What’s the Deal With These Mindflayers?
Illithids, or Mindflayers, have been part of Dungeons & Dragons since the very first edition of the game, and have long been a major antagonistic race. Hailing from the Astral Plane beyond as well as the Underdark itself, Illithids are psionic, tentacle-headed creatures who seek to physically dominate their foes, harvesting the brains of enemies for sustenance and to turn into minions, or—as is the driving plot of Baldur’s Gate 3’s opening—capturing beings from other races to sustain their own, transforming them through a process called ceremorphosis, where an Illithid tadpole is burrowed into a host’s brain, turning them into a thrall and then a Mindflayer themselves.
Just like in Baldur’s Gate 3, the Illithids have a longstanding beef with the Githyanki in Dungeons & Dragons lore. A race formerly enslaved by the Illithids for generations, the Githyanki eventually built up mental resistances and psionic abilities of their own, leading to a revolution that toppled the Illithid’s empire in the Astral Plane. Ever since, the Gith have traveled the other planes seeking to stop the Illithids from ever trying to rise to such a height again.
