The Illithid Life Cycle
Greetings humans. I would like to share with you the gloriously complex and superior life cycle of the Illithid species.
this will be a multiple-repost series, so if you are interested in more, check the notes periodically.
I hope this will make your kind appreciate the great honor your species is going to be given, to be incorporated into this cycle.
OK, so lets start with something important. The life cycle of the common illithid is not actually the natural life cycle. This should be clear upon analysis of our breeding habits. Our current life cycle is the result of a symbiotic relationship with a species known as the Elder Brains, the mature form of an Intellect Devourer. So in this post, I will cover the natural life cycle first.
An illithid is produced as a batch of tadpoles from the parent. In most cases, this tadpole is excreted from what was once the genitals of the host, which have since been adapted to tadpole production. The tadpole is excreted into some water-based fluid, and if it survives long enough without being euthanized, eaten, or taking a host, it matures into a Larva, seen below.
These larva will remain barely sentient without any consumable grey-matter. They will, however, continue to grow in size and power. Eventually they will attach to a sentient host and consume it, gaining full consciousness in the process. However, since their prey is typically dead when it is consumed, the larva will be driven insane. The influx of psychic energy triggered by the introduction of sentience will in turn trigger massive physiological changes, resulting in the next form, a Seugathi, seen below
Over time, the Seugathi will increase in size, intelligence, and psychic power as it continues to consume not just grey matter (like a respectable Illithid) but the rest of the body as well. Eventually it will reach the next stage in it’s development, a full grown Neothelid, seen below:
These monstrous creatures are utterly insane and hyper intelligent. They will lash out at any sentient creature, including other illithids, hoping to boost it’s own intelligence so that it may continue to ponder the unknowable questions of the universe with increased processing speed. They are likewise capable of producing illithid tadpoles. However, they never lay them in a pool that has an Elder Brain, resulting in them always becoming Seugathi, and they typically eat their Seugathi children before they can fully mature to gain their collected intellect. Only when a Neothelid dies are it’s children able to mature into other Neothelids.
