WEBVTT - From the Vault: Mind Flayers 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:01.920 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:05.200 is Robert Land, I'm Christian Sager, and this is a 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:07.960 classic episode that we were returning to. It was a 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:09.920 fun little one that Robert and I put together about 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.080 a year ago about a D and D monster called 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.040 the mind Flare, and we decided to say, what if 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.360 science broke apart of mind flair looked at its anatomy 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.320 and its biology, how would that work? Yeah? If you 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.599 this psychic alien squid creature that that runs amuck in 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.160 the Dungeons and Dragons universe, what if this was real? 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.920 What can we look to in the actual scientific world 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.360 to understand it? And and you know what science can 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:36.320 we illuminate by looking to the mind Flair? And you 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.479 might be wondering, guys, why are you rerunning this episode? 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.599 And wait, why did this come out on a Friday? 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.560 Well it is because and no spoilers here, the mind 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.240 Flare is brought up in the latest season of Stranger Things. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:50.960 And we know that there are a lot of Stranger 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.360 Things fans out there because last month we did our 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.320 Science of Stranger Things episode. I like to think of you, 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.960 Joe and I as like, what happens when the kids 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.840 from Stranger Things grow up and like this is what 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.760 they do for a living. Uh, And so we thought, hey, 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.679 you know, let's put this back out there and people 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:10.839 who might have binge watched that season in the last 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.240 seven days will go, oh, now I can really dive 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.959 into what a mind flare is. And uh, you basically 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.880 supplement my Stranger Things experience. All right, well let's dive 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:26.880 into it. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. From 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:40.920 How Stuff Works dot Com. A form slightly larger than Drifts, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:45.759 but obviously humanoid, drifted around a nearby stalactite. Drifts kicked 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.360 off a stone to propel himself at it, drawing his 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.280 other scimitar as he went. He knew his peril a 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:55.360 moment later, for his enemy's head resembled a four tentacle octopus. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.000 Drifts had never actually viewed such a creature before, but 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.720 he knew what it was as an ill efid a 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.880 mind flair, the most evil and most feared monster in 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:12.680 all of the under dark. Hey, welcome to Stuff to 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.880 Blow your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and my 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:20.400 name is Christian Sager, and today we're talking about mind flares. 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.720 That's right. As you get from that quote mind flares. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.639 For those of you who aren't aware, we're really diving 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.640 down the geek well today to get a monster that 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.560 we both love and grew up with. But this is 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.720 a creature that was originally created for dungeons and dragons, right, Yeah, 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.080 it also has a long history that I'm just learning 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.200 about in the Final Fantasy Games. And I imagine other 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.400 other properties as well that that that's that were inspired by, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.120 especially early dungeons and dragons. Yeah. But so we're not 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:56.520 just talking about this because we're into geeky stuff, right not. 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:01.240 That's like, yeah, where you using the mind flair as 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.720 a jumping off point to look at some really interesting science, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.880 both in biology but also a little bit in technology today, 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.600 in the same way that drifts our hero in the 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.799 opening narration used that d stalactite as a springboard. Right. 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:22.239 So that was a quote from R. A. Salvatore's Exile, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.320 which is part of the Dark Elf trilogy. It's actually 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.399 booked two in the Dark Elf trilogy. Uh, you may 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.560 be familiar with this. If you're not, look give you 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:37.360 a quick primer. These are Dungeons and Dragons based novels. Uh, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.880 set in the Forgotten realm setting based around this character, 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.920 dritzto Arden, that is pretty popular with that crowd and 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.640 still still part of the property the board games that 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.240 come out He's He's mentioned in the materials for the 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.360 big current under Dark campaign. I'm pretty sure they're still 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.960 coming out with novels with him in it too. Um 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.360 and these I have a fondness for these novels because 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.120 they were like my way to wind down my brain 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.480 after doing too much research, either when I was in 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:11.640 graduate school or sometimes from podcasting. So I've read I 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.880 want to say, there's like these books, and I've probably 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.719 read three quarters of them. Uh mostly I I refer 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.840 to them as sword porn because there's just like whole sections, 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.600 like pages and pages where it's just describing like the 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:28.760 ways in which he moves his swords. I mean just 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.239 in this one paragraph alone, like they've had to mention 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.240 like the way he drew a scimitar and everything. But 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.520 mind Flares are like the primary antagonist in this specific book. 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.560 So I pulled that quote, and then there's another one 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.480 later on where I think that this contributed to the 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.760 lore surrounding them, so you know, we'll refer back to it. Yeah, 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.520 So see we're using this, this creature, this though wondrous creature, 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.359 as as as an opportunity to discuss some some science, 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.400 and we're using science as a way to explain some 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.720 of the more fan tactic aspects all of this fictional monster. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.800 It's kind of relationship we come back to time and 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.760 time again, because, as I like to say, no matter 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:15.320 how fantastic, how crazy the imagined monster is, you can 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.280 you can almost count on nature to have equal or 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.640 surpassed it in weirdness. Yeah, that's that's exactly what's so 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.479 wonderful about using this for an episode of the show. 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:27.599 And I'd like to point out that this is actually 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.440 connected to two other things that we do on Stuff 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.640 to All Your Mind. The first is obviously Robert's Monster 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.120 Science that he's been working on for years. If you 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.000 go to stuff to Blow your Mind dot com, there 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:43.080 are I dare say, a hundred maybe monster science posts 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.800 like you've covered almost every monster in existence. Um well, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.400 well I wouldn't go that far because they're pretty inexhaustible, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.320 but um yeah, the monster the Monster of the Week 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.159 post or kind of like the monster Science versions. And 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.159 then there's the video series Monster Science as well, which 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.600 you can find there or you can find while all 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:02.839 the videos are on our Facebook and in our YouTube 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.120 channel as well. Uh. But also you and Joe are 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.120 doing an episode coordinated with this that's about mind control. Yeah. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.680 It's gonna be titled what Mind Control feels Like, and 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:15.920 it should be the episode that follows this. I think 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.599 this episode right here is coming out on a Thursday, 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.080 and then the following one, the mind control episode, will 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.039 come out on Tuesday. But it'll all come together. So 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.600 brace yourselves, everybody. We're we're really getting into it with minds, 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.599 brains and actual brain eating today. Yeah, because one of 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.520 the things about the mind flares, if you're not familiar 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.159 and if you're not familiar at all with the mind flares, 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.440 just bear with us. We'll get to the real science 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:44.160 as well. But they are not only these these octopus headed, 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:49.200 purple fleshed evil doers that live in the under dark, 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.440 this vast subterranean realm in the Dungeons and Dragons world. 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:58.159 They are also uh psychic or psionically gifted creatures that 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.320 are able to just dominate people left and right with 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:06.039 their amazing psychic powers, you know, throwing mind blasts all 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.800 over the dungeon just really wreaking havoc, but that is 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:14.280 their primary power, and they're finishing move is to grab 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:19.320 ahold of you with their tentacle mouths and suck your 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.880 brain right out of your head. It's like, uh, total kill, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:27.000 like instant kill. I think if you get grappled by 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.240 a mind flare by the head or whatever, you know. 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.960 They actually not to skip too far ahead into their anatomy, 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:36.360 but they're generally represented as having just four digits on 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.160 their hands, so they have three knuckles. And I was 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.960 thinking the other day this would be perfect for a 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.520 t p K tattoo for flair or total party kill. 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.400 That's your like your thug mind flare. Yes, I like it. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.200 I like for those of you not with the game, 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.320 total party Killers. When the creatures in the game were 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.760 more specifically, the dungeon master kills off the entire party 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:02.000 with a generally general this occurs because the encounter is 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.640 not studematically calibrated. Yeah exactly. So yeah, so we're gonna 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.480 use these as a jumping off point. And you guys 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:11.840 are probably saying to yourselves right now, like WHOA, Like, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.720 this isn't what I signed up for. Just bear with us, 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.280 because the thing about mind Flavors in particular that is 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.440 really useful for stuff to blow your mind is they 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.960 were created for this game, and then it's been a 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.640 good almost forty years that people have been working on them, 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.640 whether it's in these novels that I mentioned earlier, or 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.319 for rule books or for video games or whatever. It's 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.600 it's kind of like Star Wars creatures. They've had like 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:41.840 more and more tagged onto their fictional biology and culture 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.960 and philosophy over the years, to the point that it's 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.160 like it's this fleshed out world, you know, and it's 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.559 it's really fascinating what multiple people brought to the table 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.160 with it and how that then subsequently translates because they 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.000 were obviously inspired by you know, creatures from real life 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:03.160 or or philosophy in different cultures. Oh yeah, indeed. I mean, 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.280 and in so many cases either the people adding to 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.760 the mythos so say, the mind flares, they either were 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.720 directly inspired by natural world organisms or they're just weird 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:20.320 creativity managed to to parallel actual natural world weird. That's 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.720 that like somebody needs to do it like a history 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.360 of the mind Flare creation book where they like talk 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.080 to all these people, because in front of us here 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.199 in the studio right now is Volo's Guide to Monsters, 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.080 and it has a pretty comprehensive, like what almost ten 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:40.520 page section on mind flares, more more, I dare say, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.400 than real world encyclopedias have on some of the real 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.200 world animals. We're going to talk about today's episode, but 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.360 it's really impressive and I would love to see how 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.000 all these pieces came together. Yeah, and that just came 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.520 out by the way of anyone out there is interested, uh, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.960 just just published now. In terms of what we're not 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.959 canna attempt to do what we just mentioned here, we're 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.719 not going to actually uh, you know, go piece by 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.600 piece through the generation of the mind flare, but we 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.840 will just touched on its origins, which go back to 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.600 Gary Gygax himself, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons. Indeed, 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.360 he is the guy. He's the guy who started the 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.079 whole thing. And you've got a nice quote from him 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.960 here specifically about mind flares. Yeah, he said, quote the 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.440 mind Flare I made up out of whole cloth, using 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.199 my imagination, but inspired by the cover of Brian Lumley's 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.640 novel in paperback edition, the burrowers beneath. So I've never 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.280 seen this before. What's it looked like? Um? I looked 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:36.920 at it, I will. I looked at the various covers, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.559 and the one that I think most modern readers are 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:40.960 used to is the one that looks kind of like 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.880 an eye in the center of a nautilus, And that 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:48.680 one looks more mine flairy. Um. But the original cover, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:50.480 the one that I think Guy GaX would have seen, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.440 just kind of looks like a silhouette of dark tentacles 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.280 rising out of a hill. But still, I take the 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.480 man into his word. Um lumly of course was Lovecraft influenced, 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.960 and there's definitely a lot of love Crafty and weirdness 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.600 to the mind flare. So just just as the fictional 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.199 race has crossed over from another realm and dungeons and dragons, 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.480 the very inception is sort of a cross pollination from 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.079 a different dimension of literary fantasy. Yeah. I think you 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.520 could probably trace their origins all the way back to 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:26.280 Lovecraft's intense fear of sea life. So, and just to 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:28.680 get this out of the way too, because again I 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.360 know a number of you maybe primarily familiar with these 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:36.520 critters from Final Fantasy are their properties. Eltid is definitely 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.599 a d n D property, but they've got the t 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.240 M on that. Yeah, so you can't just throw e 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:46.720 litids around another games or video games or novels without 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.520 you know, big dungeon getting a cut. But mind flairs 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:55.000 you'll see elsewhere. Yeah, thats right. In fact, we saw 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.360 there was a paper that you've found that stunning all 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:04.640 about the various types of sort of cephalopod monster mollusks 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:06.840 that show up in video games. Oh yeah, yeah, it's 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.959 an article um that was published in geek Studies, and 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:11.760 I'll try to include a link to that on the 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:13.920 landing page for this episode. But yeah, just all about 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.720 weird squid and octopus monsters from sixteen bit videos. And 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.120 there was this amazing chart of all of the various ones, 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.840 uh down to their little like eight bit renderings, and 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.800 there's the mind flare very recognizable in there. So yeah, again, 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.880 these are basically purple people with octopus heads. Their mouths 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.920 are like Lamprey's. We're gonna go through the anatomy pretty 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.160 carefully because that's how we're going to tie it into 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.880 real world science. That's right, all right, So let's dive 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:42.920 in let's talk about their origins real quick, which are 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:47.000 of course shrouded in mystery. So they're basically two origin 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.880 stories in play here. Most likely the mind flarees hail 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.080 from the far Realm, which is an alien dimension of 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.840 cosmic horror, and the dn D universe. But there's also 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.160 this whispered rumor that if from the future and perhaps 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.679 even the distant highly evolved state of humanoid life in 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.599 the multiverse, though I'm I'm not sure much stock is 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.480 actually put in that interpretation. I want to say that 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.640 that is that's the one that's heavily Lovecraft influence, because 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:13.719 there's and I can't believe I can't remember the name 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.320 of the monster from one of the Lovecraft short stories, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.800 but that's one of the things from his This monster 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.280 is from the future and it's come back in time 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.120 to sort of right some wrong or something like that. 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.360 And I think this is again not there's no sources 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.559 behind this, but but if my memory is correct from 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.600 playing D and D for twenty some odd years, uh, 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:38.880 their origin story differs depending on which setting you're playing 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:40.760 D and D. And well, that's right, it's a it's 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.200 a multiverse. And of course they also instill this in you. 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.640 Your game is not necessarily taking place in the same 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:53.720 corner of the multiverse as the campaign across across the Road. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:55.840 So one of the really important plot points with the 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.480 Lipids is that an ages path, they carved out an 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.520 enormous empire for themselves, what the cells one that spanned 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.440 whole worlds and the material plane as well as other 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:09.599 various planes. They they had slash have spaceships called no 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:14.520 Alloids that enable travel across the plains. But they've lost 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.120 the technology of their manufacture, like any you know, decent 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:22.280 elder race. They've they've forgotten how to kind. Yeah, but 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.640 they built their empire mostly on the back of psionically 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.520 dominated slave labor. But after time, as you know happens 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.080 when you build your empire on slave labor, the slaves 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:37.000 rose up, they rebelled, and their their empire fell to pieces, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.480 and so they had to go out and just sort 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.000 of find little corners to survive. And and in particular 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.280 they end up taking up in the under dark. Uh. 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:47.400 And and here they end up, you know, having more 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.200 slave races, and each one they mess up by just 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:55.400 psionically dominating them, altering them changing them into whatever form 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.880 suits the mind flares and just just causing lots of 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.360 trauma and mischief, um, just across the world. They remind 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.840 me kind of of this ant that we've covered on 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.120 the show before. I'm gonna have trouble remembering its Latin 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.560 name off the top of my head, but you might 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:14.000 know it Court Accepts. Oh yes, the court aceps. Uh 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.000 fun guy that end up growing in the ants. Yeah, exactly. Um, 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:22.440 so this this fun guy gets inside these aunt brains 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.840 and it's it sort of controls them to take care 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.840 of its fungal colony and allow it to take the 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:36.240 ant resources and mind flair. I guess sociology is somewhat similar, 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:41.280 and that they they dominate these you know, people of 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:46.400 various D and D species, dwarves, elves, human beings, whatever 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.360 gift Oh yeah, the gift off touching the gift here, 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.800 and they're the slaves that sort of like work and 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.280 do all the labor for the mind flares. They even 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.800 one of the things that the slaves are known to 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.840 do is they have to scrub down the elder brain 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.400 and get massage. Oh yeah, and they all their brains 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.160 important to that. That's the thing all the all these 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.440 different elements that we're touching on here. They might sound 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.040 a bit like fluff, but we're gonna come back to 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.000 them and discuss some science around them. But real quick 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.560 about the Gift. The Gift were the the the biggest 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.200 mistake that they made. These were the thralls that really 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.840 rose up and not only helped bring about the follow 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.520 their empire, but regularly now the Gift regularly venture out 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.800 from their astral plane headquarters to hunt down and eradicate 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.560 elliptid colonies whoever they can find them. And that's one 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.360 of the key reasons that elipids live and you know, 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.640 the safety and secret of the under dark or other 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.120 secluded places and in each separate colonies cut off from 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.040 all the others while while they calculate and scheme and 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.320 figure out how they're going to restore their empire. Right. Yeah, 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.160 So they basically like live in these like deep caves there. 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.880 It's like a it's almost like an ant colony, it is, yeah, Yeah, 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.920 and the it's all based around the center of the 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.160 elder brain I mentioned earlier, which we're gonna get into. Uh. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.000 They but they yeah, they kind of like occasionally just 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.959 go out grab some slaves pull them back in and 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.840 like that's how their society runs. Yeah, it's gonna be 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:14.960 very helpful as we go far, just to think of 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:19.760 them as you social parasites. Yes, they write really like 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.960 they have two options. They either capture somebody and eat 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.080 their brain, or capture them and dominate their mind and 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.040 make them into a slave. Right, So either way an 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.280 encounter with the mind flare is going to end up bad, 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.520 all right, So it's launched into their biology again. Bipedal 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:39.440 humanoid bodies, four tentacles, four claude digits per hand. Diet 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.919 consists mostly of csionic energy, with some additional sub sustenance 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.960 stuff from the gobble brains themselves. Now, technically speaking, their 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.480 troglophiles their cave dwelling creatures that complete their life cycles 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.119 in a cave, but they can also survive above ground. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.119 Help me out with this. Trug l files is a 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.440 real term. Yeah, yeah, this is This is a real term. 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.920 It's not done in dragon's terms. This would be the 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:06.120 the the natural world classification for a creature like this, though, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.440 of course, classifications are difficult when you're considering even fictional 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.600 intelligent creatures. You know, one that is choosing to live 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.040 underground in a subterranean environment for their own purposes, and 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:22.840 now their reproductive system is utterly bizarre. And yet uh, 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.440 there are real world examples that are almost as bizarre. 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:28.840 Oh yeah, I mean they're a real world example. When 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.639 you start looking at complex life cycles, you look at 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.159 some of the the parasite life cycles out there and 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.320 various insect life cycles that are not only just like 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.560 a bizarre circle of parasitic behavior, but also when you 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.439 see branches in the tree, and this is key to 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.040 understanding the mind players, when you see various morphs that 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.040 can emerge. Yeah, so all right, walk us through this. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.280 All right, So you have an egg. That's where it starts, 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.520 an a litid egg, so a mind for an adult 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.520 mind flare. What came first, the mind flare the egg. 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.200 Now an adult mind flare lays an egg. Yes, okay, 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.760 so they lay an egg. That egg hatches into an 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.359 a liftid tadpole, so little squirming us a tadpole, a 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.919 little larval alipid. Now from that point there are a 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.000 few different things that can happen. Ideally. There there's a 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:24.040 process called a sea morphosis, and this is where adult 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.480 mind flares would come and pick up the little tadpole 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.560 and implant in the cranium of a captive humanoid, like 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.760 a captive kind of like psychically washed humanoid, and they 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.280 usually put it through the ear. But there's a drawing 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.359 in Volos Guide of monsters of like it's very based 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.080 on wrath of calm of like the tadpole like crawling 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.439 its way up the face towards the eye socket of 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:49.560 a victim. Yeah. So yeah, that exact scenario. So one 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.080 way or another, they get that dust that puppy into 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.560 the brain and then it eats the brain, replaces the brain, 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.760 and then that host body becomes the new mind flare body. Go. 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.399 You know, I guess it turns per pole, slimy, loses 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.879 a digit on each hand, gets pretty skinny. Yeah, and 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.439 then you've got you've got yourself an adult elithid that 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.840 carries on adult elithid business and eventually it can go 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.680 onto legs of its own. Right now, there are two 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.320 other possible ways that this can go with the elithid tadpole. 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.600 So sometimes the elithid becomes a you letharid and this 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.080 is uh, this is essentially a super mind flare that 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.520 is going to eventually leave the colony with some other 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:35.200 mind flares found a new colony and become its elder brain. Okay, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.199 so it doesn't have human humanoid form. It's just like 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.920 the superpowered tadpole. It's a super powered tadpole, still have 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.520 to be implanted into a humanoid, but it's destined to 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.440 be this uh, this this cedar of the new Calling, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.080 and it will eventually grow into a giant brain right 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:56.240 once it establishes itself elsewhere. And then the other way 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.879 that things can go is the elithid tadpole can become 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.760 a neolithid. And this is when they're nobody's taking care 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.719 of the tadpoles. Nobody, no mind flares are coming around 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.440 to look after them and make sure they're stuffed into 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.119 the right skull. In this case, they all freak out 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.399 and start eating each other, and whichever one is left 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.479 grows into a giant, powerful beast intelligence monster. Huh Okay, 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.000 I have never encountered one of these before. It's just good. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:25.680 It's like a level wow. Okay, but it but what's 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:27.879 going on with both of these cases, and this is 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.080 where there's a there's a real world parallel that will 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:32.960 will break down a little a little more in a bit, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.719 is that you essentially have two morphs springing off from 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:41.439 the tadpole. One is caused by negative environmental constraints and 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.920 that leads to the neolithid, and the other is positive 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.239 environmental constraints, which leads to the leth All right, so 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.560 I'm assuming this is dependent on like how many humanoids 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.160 are available for them to eat brains of, or make 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.880 slaves into, or or or whatnot, how big the cave 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.439 system is that they're living within. Yeah, it has to 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.520 do with population density. In our real world examples that 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:04.879 will get too, so you can think of it in 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:07.480 those terms like is the is the colony successful enough 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:11.040 to send off anything to found a new colony, or 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:15.040 is it even successful enough for the tadpoles to continue 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:16.920 to thrive or should they just all e each other 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.879 out of you know, purely economic cannibalism, which is the 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:25.440 thing that does happen in multiple species. Yeah, right, right, 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:28.480 in real species, but also in this fictional when we're 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.280 talking about right, just in our real world, cannibalism is 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:36.720 always the most economic path to avoid wasting the energy 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:40.520