1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:06,399 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And this is the 3 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:15,280 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 2: In today's episode, we return to the rich world of 6 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 2: Dungeons and Dragons to discuss another creature from its various 7 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 2: monster manuals, and I have to say it's one of 8 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 2: the weirder ones they've ever rolled out. It is the 9 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,520 Speaker 2: Eton Sarah Morph. To back up, we need to establish, 10 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 2: first of all, what an eton is named after? A 11 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 2: giant from French traditions, The d and d Eton is 12 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,360 Speaker 2: a two headed giant whose main superpower is that two 13 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:53,600 Speaker 2: heads are better than one, at least when it comes 14 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 2: to wisdom, perception checks, and related saving throws. Their exact 15 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 2: origins were told in the fifth Monster Manual may involve 16 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 2: cursed Orcs and a temple to the two headed demon 17 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 2: lord Demogorgon, But who can say for sure that's the Eton? 18 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 2: But what is a seramorph eaten? To answer that question, 19 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,119 Speaker 2: we have to enter the world of the mind flares, 20 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 2: more formally known as the Alithids. They're an alien species 21 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 2: that once dominated the inner planes, depending on their own 22 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 2: terrifying psylonic powers to enslave humanoid species and also utilizing 23 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 2: their astral planes spanning not alloid vessels. Individual mind flares 24 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:41,040 Speaker 2: resemble purple fleshed humanoids with heads like tentacled cephalopods. Despite 25 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 2: their power, they are a civilization in decline, reduced to 26 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 2: plotting and studying in their under dark colonies as well 27 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 2: as other far flung locations in the multiverse. Christian and 28 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 2: I devoted an entire stuff to Blow your Mind episode 29 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 2: to these fantastic creatures back in I Believe twenty sixteen 30 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 2: titled The Body Lithid Science of the mind Flares. So 31 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 2: go back and find that if you want a more 32 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,639 Speaker 2: in depth rundown. We can't possibly go into as much 33 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 2: detail today. But the key thing to keep in mind 34 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 2: about the mind flares is their method of reproduction, as 35 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 2: detailed in Volo's Guide to Monsters and Lithids are hermaphroditic 36 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 2: and lay eggs at key points in their life cycle 37 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 2: before succumbing to old age or injury and being dissolved 38 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 2: into the brine of the elder brain, which serves as 39 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 2: a kind of librarian that rules over the tomes of 40 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 2: their collective memories. Parasitic larval tadpoles hatch from these eggs, 41 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 2: and each vital specimen is then inserted into the brain 42 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 2: of a comatose humanoid. There it feasts on the host's 43 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:49,600 Speaker 2: original brain tissue and eventually grows to become the host's 44 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 2: new brain, attaching to the old brain stem, taking over 45 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 2: altering the body in the process. This process is called seramorphosis. 46 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,400 Speaker 2: There are limits to what anlithid tadpole can do, We're told. 47 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 2: There's a reason adult mind flayers are generally medium sized humanoids. 48 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 2: Seramorphosis simply doesn't work on larger bodies, and attempts to 49 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:16,000 Speaker 2: grow giant mind flayers via the introduction of a tadpole 50 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 2: into the brain of various giant species have ended in failure. 51 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 2: The exception, however, is the eaten seramorph the result of 52 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 2: introducing not one, but two eilithid tadpoles into a single 53 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:33,240 Speaker 2: eaten one for each of the host organism's heads and 54 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 2: therefore brains. As Bigbe presents Glory of the Giants describes, 55 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 2: each tadpole devours one of the eton's brains and grows 56 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 2: to replace it, as you might expect, But then one 57 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:49,400 Speaker 2: of the two eaten heads begins to sink into the body, 58 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 2: finally looking more like some sort of grotesque starfish attached 59 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 2: to the giant's torso. Meanwhile, the other head, complete with 60 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 2: idlithid tentacles, takes on a central position atop the shoulders. 61 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 2: The sunken head controls the eaten seramorph's body, while the 62 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 2: other head handles cognition and psionic powers. While not psionically 63 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,720 Speaker 2: as powerful as a typical lithid, the eaten sera morph 64 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,400 Speaker 2: makes up for this with physical size and strength, often 65 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 2: serving as a guardian of one form or another within 66 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:28,280 Speaker 2: a hidden a lithid colony. It's a wonderfully weird monster, 67 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 2: and I love the illustration provided in Big Piece. The 68 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 2: idea of a second brain that controls the body is 69 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 2: an interesting concept, and one that I assume stems from 70 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:42,800 Speaker 2: the real life nature of the octopus nervous system. To 71 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 2: be clear, discussion of multiple brains within a single organism 72 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 2: can get complicated, in part depending on what you define 73 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 2: as a brain. The octopus, for example, only boasts a 74 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:57,360 Speaker 2: single central brain, but each arm has neural cells that 75 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:01,520 Speaker 2: seem to act as partially independent many brains to handle 76 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 2: the creature's complex limbs. As Nora Bradford explained in a 77 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 2: twenty twenty three article for Scientific American, how octopus arms 78 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 2: bypass the brain, It would all seem to enable a 79 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 2: form of decentralized coordination. We can point to cases in 80 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 2: insects and anaalids as well that raise similar questions regarding 81 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 2: what is and what is in a brain. But with 82 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,039 Speaker 2: the Eden Sarah morph we might think of one brain 83 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:30,120 Speaker 2: becoming dominant and the other essentially becoming a mini brain 84 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:35,039 Speaker 2: to handle the larger body. Now, this notion also raises 85 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 2: the specter of an outdated hypothesis, that of the dinosaur 86 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:44,440 Speaker 2: butt brain. Yes, the dinosaur butt brain. Riley Black points 87 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 2: out in the twenty twelve Smithsonian Magazine posts the double 88 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 2: dinosaur brain Myth that this was a nineteenth century hypothesis 89 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,160 Speaker 2: that argued that a canal in the vertebrae over the 90 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 2: hips of the Stegosaurus was larger than the cavity for 91 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 2: the dinosaur's brain, and therefore it might serve as a 92 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 2: place for a secondary brain or a brain like neural 93 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 2: mass to be located to coordinate the creature's hind, legs 94 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 2: and tail. After all, body is big and the tail 95 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,680 Speaker 2: is complex, so perhaps it just needed some extra neural 96 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 2: power back there. Now, that cavity in question still remains 97 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 2: something of a mystery, but palaeontologists are pretty sure it 98 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:26,400 Speaker 2: didn't house a second brain. Could an a lithoid put 99 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 2: one in there, though, well, we'll have to think about that. 100 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:34,320 Speaker 2: Of course. The idea of the pre seramorphosis eaten is 101 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 2: in ways a fantasy extrapolation of real life cases of 102 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 2: polycephaly or multiple heads on a single body, which does 103 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:45,960 Speaker 2: occur in the natural world. But division of control between 104 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,599 Speaker 2: individual brains in these cases seems to vary greatly depending 105 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,839 Speaker 2: on the exact case in question. And of course you 106 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:54,479 Speaker 2: don't have to go this far to think about two 107 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 2: brains in a single body when you consider the two 108 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 2: hemispheres of our own brain. Things like dual brain theory 109 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 2: and some fascinating studies concerning split brains in human beings. 110 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 2: These are enough to make you wonder, well, maybe we 111 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 2: are all eatens to a certain extent, but I digress. 112 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 2: It all makes something like the eaten Sarah more, while 113 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:21,080 Speaker 2: a creature of pure fantasy, an interesting contemplation point, for 114 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 2: considering purpose, identity, and plurality when it comes to brains. 115 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The 116 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 2: Artifact or Anomalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can 117 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 2: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind 118 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 2: dot com. 119 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 120 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,800 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 121 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.