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111-533: Mind flayers were created by Gary Gygax , who has said that one of his inspirations for them was the cover painting of the Titus Crow book The Burrowers Beneath by Brian Lumley . Tim Kirk 's cover art on the book, then in its first printing, depicted only the tentacles of the titular burrowers, the Chthonians. Mind flayers first appeared in the official newsletter of TSR , The Strategic Review #1, Spring 1975, in

222-575: A boxed set . Sales of the hand-assembled print run of 1,000 copies, put together in Gygax's home, sold out in less than a year. (In 2018, a first printing of the boxed set sold at auction for more than $ 20,000.) At the end of 1974, with sales of D&D skyrocketing, the future looked bright for Gygax and Kaye, who were only 36. But in January 1975, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack. He had not made any specific provision in his will regarding his share of

333-459: A business with her involved as a partner." Gygax relocated TSR from the Kaye dining room to the basement at his own house. In July 1975, Gygax and Blume reorganized their company from a partnership to a corporation called TSR Hobbies. Gygax owned 150 shares, Blume the other 100 shares, and both had the option to buy up to 700 shares at any time in the future. But TSR Hobbies had nothing to publish—D&D

444-574: A dozen players. Gygax left Guidon Games in 1973 and in October, with Don Kaye as a partner, founded Tactical Studies Rules , later known as TSR, Inc. The two men each invested $ 1,000 in the venture—Kaye borrowed his share on his life insurance policy —to print a thousand copies of the Dungeons & Dragons boxed set. They also tried to raise money by immediately publishing a set of wargame rules called Cavaliers and Roundheads , but sales were poor; when

555-456: A favored class. The mind flayer received its own chapter in the book Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations (2005). The Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004) re-introduced the psionic mind flayer, detailing the differences between psionic and normal mind flayers, although creating a Psionic Mind Flayer still requires the information from the Monster Manual . The mind flayer appears in

666-732: A few months he spent in Clinton, Wisconsin , after his divorce, and his time in Hollywood while he was the head of TSR's entertainment division, Lake Geneva was his home for the rest of his life. By 1966, Gygax was active in the wargame hobby world and was writing many magazine articles on the subject. He learned about H. G. Wells 's Little Wars book for play of military miniatures wargames and Fletcher Pratt 's Naval Wargame book. Gygax later looked for innovative ways to generate random numbers, and used not only common six-sided dice , but dice of all five Platonic solid shapes, which he discovered in

777-553: A force to be reckoned with in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . Their superior strength stat meant that they'd be able to overpower most adventurers". Creswell included them on list of the seven best monsters introduced in the 5th Edition campaign guide Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft . Brainstealer Dragon : A mix of illithid and dragon , these powerful wyrms occasionally rule over illithid communities that lack an elder brain. Illithocyte : Illithid tadpoles that survived

888-491: A forum for wargamers via its newsletters and societies, which enabled them to form local groups and share rules. In 1967, Gygax organized a 20-person gaming meet in the basement of his home; this event was later called "Gen Con 0". In 1968, he rented Lake Geneva's vine-covered Horticultural Hall for $ 50 (equivalent to $ 440 in 2023) to hold the first Lake Geneva Convention, also known as the Gen Con gaming convention . Gen Con

999-513: A goal somewhat similar to one of the central threats faced by players in Baldur's Gate 3 - ceremorphosis, the process of becoming a mind flayer". Illithids have a humanoid body with an octopus -like head, which has been observed as a similarity to H. P. Lovecraft 's Cthulhu . One of their most feared powers is the dreaded Mind Blast , where the illithid emits a cone-shaped psionic shock wave with its mind in order to incapacitate any creature for

1110-506: A great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide ... At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan." TSR moved out from the Gygax house in 1976 into the first professional location it could call home, known as "The Dungeon Hobby Shop". Arneson was hired as part of the creative staff, but was let go after only ten months, another sign that Gygax and Arneson had creative differences over D&D. The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set released in 1977

1221-517: A hybrid between the third edition of D&D and the original version of the game. In 2004, he had two strokes and narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack; he was then diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm and died in March 2008 at age 69. Following Gygax's funeral, many mourners formed an impromptu game event which became known as Gary Con 0, and gamers celebrate in Lake Geneva each March with

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1332-445: A large collection of 54 mm and 70 mm figures, where they used "ladyfingers" (small firecrackers) to simulate explosions. By his teens, Gygax had a voracious appetite for pulp fiction authors such as Robert E. Howard , Jack Vance , Fritz Leiber , H. P. Lovecraft , and Edgar Rice Burroughs . He was a mediocre student, and in 1956, a few months after his father died, he dropped out of high school in his junior year. He joined

1443-498: A large role-playing game convention in Gygax's honor. Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" (Burdick) and Swiss immigrant and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax. He was named Ernest after his father, but was commonly known as Gary, the middle name given to him by his mother after the actor Gary Cooper . The family lived on Kenmore Avenue, close enough to Wrigley Field that he could hear

1554-456: A list of the game's "10 Most Powerful (And 10 Weakest) Monsters, Ranked" in 2018, calling the elder brain one of the strongest, saying that the 5th "edition of Dungeons & Dragons has toned down the elder brain a lot", it "still represents a grave threat to most adventuring parties, thanks to its range of powerful enchantment spells and psionic attacks, but it isn't quite the epic level threat that it once was." Reviewer Scott Baird also found that

1665-458: A live-action version of D&D . In fact, Egbert was discovered in Louisiana several weeks later, but negative mainstream media attention focused on D&D as the cause. In 1982, Patricia Pulling 's son killed himself. Pulling blamed D&D for her son's suicide and formed the organization B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) to attack the game and TSR. Gygax defended the game on

1776-688: A love of games and an appreciation for fantasy and science fiction literature. When he was five, he played card games such as pinochle and then board games such as chess . At age ten, he and his friends played the sort of make-believe games that eventually came to be called " live action role-playing games ", with one of them acting as referee. His father introduced him to science fiction and fantasy through pulp novels . His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history, eventually led Gygax to begin playing miniature war games in 1953 with his best friend, Don Kaye. As teenagers, Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers with

1887-462: A magazine based around the new game. In 1977, he began work on a more comprehensive version of the game called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . He designed numerous manuals for the game system, as well as several pre-packaged adventures called "modules" that gave a person running a D&D game (the " Dungeon Master ") a rough script and ideas. In 1983, he worked to license the D&;D product line into

1998-524: A mere 150 pages. He also wanted to create a horror setting for the new RPG called Unhallowed . He began working on the RPG and the setting with the help of games designer Mike McCulley. Game Designers' Workshop became interested in publishing the new system, and it also drew the attention of JVC and NEC , who were looking for a new RPG system and setting to turn into a series of computer games. NEC and JVC were not interested in horror, however, so they shelved

2109-511: A mind flayer, they also have the undead strength and bloodlust of a vampire, making them twice as deadly". Hoffer also highlighted that they "were created when Lyssa von Zarovich (a descendant of Strahd ) attempted to create a creature powerful enough to overthrow her great uncle". Jacob Creswell, for CBR , highlighted that "Vampiric Mind Flayers are a classic Dungeon & Dragons monster that combines two terrifying concepts. [...] Originally known as vampiric illithids, vampiric mind flayers were

2220-460: A new product. Gygax announced in 1988 in a company newsletter that he and Rob Kuntz, his co-Dungeon Master during the early days of the Greyhawk campaign, were working as a team again. This time they would create a new multi-genre fantasy role-playing game called "Infinite Adventures", which would receive support through different gamebooks for each genre. This line would explore the original visions of

2331-553: A perverse deity named Ilsensine. In 2nd edition, they have a second deity named Maanzecorian, who is later killed by Tenebrous (Orcus) in the Planescape adventure module Dead Gods . Although Ilsensine is the illithid patron deity, few mind flayers actively worship it, thinking themselves the most powerful creatures in the universe. Currently, the illithids are in a period of intense study and experimentation, gathering knowledge of all sorts that will enable them to eventually reconquer

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2442-750: A protagonist called Gord the Rogue; both sold well. He also hired company manager Lorraine Williams . She bought the Blumes' shares and replaced Gygax as president and CEO in October 1985, stating that Gygax would make no further creative contributions to TSR. Several of his projects were immediately shelved. Gygax took TSR to court in a bid to block the Blumes' sale of their shares to Williams, but he lost. Sales of D&D reached $ 29 million in 1985, but Gygax resigned from all of his positions with TSR in October 1986, and all of his disputes with TSR were settled in December. By

2553-406: A representative of Guidon Games. Gygax saw potential in both games, and was especially excited by Arneson's role-playing game. Gygax and Arneson immediately started to collaborate on creating "The Fantasy Game", the role-playing game that evolved into Dungeons & Dragons . Following Arneson's Blackmoor demonstration, Gygax requested more information from Arneson and began testing ideas for

2664-603: A return to simple and basic rules. Although he was not able to successfully release a Lejendary Adventures computer game, Gygax decided to instead publish it as a tabletop game. Meanwhile, in 1996 the games industry was rocked by the news that TSR had run into insoluble financial problems and had been bought by Wizards of the Coast . While WotC was busy refocussing TSR's products, Christopher Clark of Inner City Games Designs suggested to Gygax in 1997 that they could publish role-playing game adventures that game stores could sell while TSR

2775-448: A romantic relationship with Gail Carpenter, his former assistant at TSR. In November 1986, she gave birth to Gygax's sixth child, Alex. Biographer Michael Witwer believes Alex's birth forced Gygax to reconsider the equation of work, gaming and family that, until this time, had been dominated by work and gaming. "Gary, keenly aware that he had made mistakes as a father and husband in the past, was determined not to make them again ... Gary

2886-431: A sadistic Dungeon Master to use, and a useful bridge between classic game worlds and the planes , as illithids abound in both. Rob Bricken of io9 named the mind flayer as the 9th most memorable D&D monster. SyFy Wire in 2018 called it one of "The 9 Scariest, Most Unforgettable Monsters From Dungeons & Dragons", saying that "Mind flayers are another classic monster like the beholder." Screen Rant compiled

2997-576: A school supply catalog. Gygax cited as influences the fantasy and science fiction authors Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague de Camp , Jack Vance , Fletcher Pratt , Fritz Leiber , Poul Anderson , A. Merritt , and H. P. Lovecraft . In 1967, Gygax co-founded the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW) with Bill Speer and Scott Duncan. The IFW grew rapidly, particularly by assimilating several preexisting wargaming clubs, and aimed to promote interest in wargames of all periods. It provided

3108-651: A segment of 60 Minutes that aired in 1985. Death threats started arriving at the TSR office, so he hired a bodyguard. Nevertheless, TSR's annual D&D sales increased in 1982 to $ 16 million. In January 1983, The New York Times speculated that D&D might become "the great game of the 1980s" in the same manner that Monopoly was emblematic of the Great Depression . Brian Blume persuaded Gygax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Blume's shares. This gave

3219-439: A shield and no armor, then he just has a shield. Shields and half-armor = half-armor rules; full-armor figure = full armor rules. I did rules for weapons as well. Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) in 1970, with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement. Shortly thereafter in 1970, Gygax and Robert Kuntz founded

3330-762: A short amount of time. Illithids are hermaphroditic creatures who each spawn a mass of larvae two or three times in their life. The larvae resemble miniature illithid heads or four-tentacled tadpoles. Larvae are left to develop in the pool of the Elder Brain. The ones that survive after 10 years are inserted into the brain of a sapient creature. Hosts are determined in a very specific manner. Hosts generally are humanoid creatures that are between 5 feet 4 inches and 6 feet 2 inches. The most desirable of races for hosts are humans , drow , elves , githzerai , githyanki , grimlocks , gnolls , goblinoids , and orcs . Upon being implanted (through any cranial orifice),

3441-562: A steady income and gave him more time for game development. In 1971, he began doing some editing work at Guidon Games , a publisher of wargames , for which he produced the board games Alexander the Great and Dunkirk: The Battle of France . Early that same year, Gygax published Chainmail , a miniatures wargame that simulated medieval-era tactical combat, which he had originally written with hobby-shop owner Jeff Perren . The Chainmail medieval miniatures rules were originally published in

Illithid - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-415: A third line of products, which began with an adventure written by Mentzer, The Convert (1987). He had written it as an RPGA tournament for D&D , but TSR was not interested in publishing it. Mentzer got verbal permission to publish it with New Infinities, but since the permission was not in writing TSR filed an injunction for a period to prevent the adventure's sale. During all this drama, Gygax had

3663-554: A variant presented in the Dragonlance campaign setting . Illithids are the rulers of a domain in the Ravenloft campaign setting called Bluetspur, where their God-Brain is the darklord . In the 5th Edition campaign guide Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft , it is revealed that an elder brain became diseased by discovering a "malignant truth" and it began to prey "upon its peers [...]. Horrified by an affliction that infected only them,

3774-424: A way to market more of his Gord the Rogue novels, but Baker had a vision for a new gaming company. He promised that he would handle the business end while Gygax would handle the creative projects. Baker also guaranteed that, using Gygax's name, he would be able to bring in one to two million dollars of investment. Gygax decided this was a good opportunity, and in October 1986, New Infinities Productions , Inc. (NIPI)

3885-558: A week. It was also from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank hex mapping sheets available, which he then employed to design his own games. About the same time that he discovered Gettysburg , his mother reintroduced him to Mary Jo Powell, who had left Lake Geneva as a child and just returned. Gygax was smitten with her and, after a short courtship, persuaded her to marry him, despite being only 19. This caused some friction with Kaye, who had also been wooing Mary Jo. Kaye refused to attend Gygax's wedding. Kaye and Gygax reconciled after

3996-465: Is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of comic books , television , films , video games , and anime . The site came online in 1996 serving as a holding page for sales links and press releases related to comic books under various domain names, before becoming ComicBook.com in 2004. In 2007, Joe Blackmon founded the website as a comic book news site. The site was relaunched in 2014 following Shannon Terry becoming CEO. ComicBook.com

4107-464: Is given in the Ravenloft adventure Thoughts of Darkness , where "vampiric mind flayers are either the result of a Mind Flayer tadpole infecting a vampiric host or a host that becomes a vampire before the tadpole fully converts them". These creatures are hated and feared by typical illithids. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , wrote, "Not only do the vampiric mind flayers possess the psionic powers of

4218-564: Is now one of North America's largest annual hobby-game gatherings. Gygax met Dave Arneson , the future co-creator of D&D , at the second Gen Con in August 1969. I'm very fond of the Medieval period , the Dark Ages in particular. We started playing in the period because I had found appropriate miniatures. I started devising rules where what the plastic figure was wearing was what he had. If he had

4329-569: The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting boxed set. Sales of the D&D game reached $ 8.5 million in 1980. Gygax also provided assistance on the Gamma World science fantasy role-playing game in 1981 and co-authored the Gamma World adventure Legion of Gold . In 1979, Michigan State University student James Dallas Egbert III allegedly disappeared into the school's steam tunnels while playing

4440-539: The Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW. In October 1970, Gygax lost his job at the insurance company after almost nine years. Unemployed and now with five children he tried to use his enthusiasm for games to make a living by designing board games for commercial sale. This proved unsustainable when he grossed only $ 882 in 1971 (equivalent to $ 6,636 in 2023). He began cobbling shoes in his basement, which provided him with

4551-513: The ComicBook Nation podcast, the Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe –centered Phase Zero podcast, A Wild Podcast Has Appeared , and the daily news and entertainment video series Daily Distraction . In 2023, ComicBook.com collaborated with Entertainment Tonight on The Last of Pods podcast for HBO 's series The Last of Us . By October 2024, Phase Zero had ended and

Illithid - Misplaced Pages Continue

4662-406: The D&D Basic Set , and D&D and AD&D became distinct product lines. Splitting the game lines created a further rift between Gygax and Arneson. Arneson received a ten-percent royalty on sales of all D&D products, but Gygax refused to pay him royalties on AD&D books, claiming that it was a new and different property. In 1979, Arneson sued TSR; they settled in March 1981 with

4773-577: The Dangerous Journeys RPG was released by Game Designers' Workshop, but TSR immediately applied for an injunction against the entire Dangerous Journeys RPG and the Mythus setting, arguing that Dangerous Journeys was based on D&D and AD&D . The injunction failed, but TSR moved forward with litigation. Gygax believed that the legal action was without merit and fueled by Lorraine Williams' personal enmity, but NEC and JVC both withdrew from

4884-460: The Marines , but after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia , he received a medical discharge and moved back home with his mother. From there, he commuted to a job as a shipping clerk with Kemper Insurance Co. in Chicago. Shortly after his return, a friend introduced him to Avalon Hill 's new wargame Gettysburg . Gygax was soon obsessed with the game, often playing marathon sessions once or more

4995-647: The Monster Manual for this edition (2008). The mind flayer appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2014). Additional information about the mind flayers is found in Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016). The information includes details about their origins, their reproduction, their dispositions and behaviors, and their elder brain. The book also details this edition's Alhoon, Ulitharid, Mindwitness and Neothelid. The limited edition alternate cover of Volo's Guide to Monsters features an Illithid illustration by Hydro74. On

5106-599: The Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993). The Complete Psionics Handbook (1991) presented ways on using mind flayers with psionic powers. The alhoon , also known as the illithilich or mind flayer lich , was introduced in the Menzoberranzan boxed set, in the booklet "Book One: The City" (1992). The book The Illithiad (April 1998), and

5217-523: The Unhallowed setting in favor of a fantasy setting called Mythus . JVC also wanted a name change for the RPG, favoring Dangerous Dimensions over The Carpenter Project . Work progressed favorably until March 1992, when TSR filed an injunction against Dangerous Dimensions , claiming that the name and initials were too similar to Dungeons & Dragons . Gygax changed the name to Dangerous Journeys . The marketing strategy for Dangerous Journeys: Mythus

5328-506: The beholder and the mind flayer "win starring roles as intergalactic menaces" in Spelljammer, describing the mind flayers as "evil, brain-sucking horrors who have polished up their social skills sufficiently to present a dubiously neutral facade to trading partners as they secretly scheme toward the day when all intelligent races will be their vassals and brain-food". D&D chroniclers Michael Witwer et al. commented on their appearance in

5439-696: The fictional canon of mind flayers, 5th Edition designer Chris Perkins , in a 2019 interview, stated: If something has been consistently true about a monster throughout the game's history, it's a good bet that it holds true in Fifth Edition. Everything that we know is true about mind flayers in Fifth Edition can be found in the 5E Monster Manual and the "Mind Flayers: Scourge of Worlds" section of Volo's Guide to Monsters . The latter resource, in particular, picks up elements of mind flayer lore from earlier sourcebooks, including The Illithiad [from 2E] and Lords of Madness [from 3.5E]. ComicBook.com reported that

5550-467: The " big bads " of the module Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk (2023) are mind flayers, with the adventure including new variants of mind flayers. Christian Hoffer of ComicBook.com commented that mind flayers "have appeared in many 5E adventures over the last decade," however, this module is the first in the edition to have them as the "central villain of the campaign instead of merely one of many side threats. What's more, these mind flayers have

5661-510: The "Illithid Savant" prestige class. The mind flayer appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), in both playable and non-playable forms. One of the differences between the playable Mind Flayer in the Monster Manual and the Mind Flayer racial class in Savage Species is that the racial class has only itself as a favored class, while the normal Mind Flayer has wizard as

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5772-411: The "game's signature monsters", while Backstab reviewer Philippe Tessier called it a "classic of D&D " and Witwer et al. "iconic D&D monsters". The Stranger writer Cienna Madrid described the Mind Flayer as one of D&D's "ghastly fiends". Reviewer Julien Blondel for Backstab described them as vile brain-eating creatures full of psionic energy . He found them delightful creatures for

5883-431: The "satanic" game D&D caused enough friction that the family finally disassociated themselves from Jehovah's Witnesses. Mary Jo resented the amount of time that her husband spent "playing games"; she had begun to drink excessively, and the couple argued frequently. Gygax had started smoking marijuana when he lost his insurance job in 1970, and he started to use cocaine and had a number of extramarital affairs. In 1983,

5994-430: The 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he co-developed Chainmail , a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare with Jeff Perren. He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The next year, TSR published D&D , created by Gygax and Arneson the year before. In 1976, he founded The Dragon ,

6105-552: The Barrier Peaks , The Temple of Elemental Evil , The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun , Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure , Isle of the Ape , and all seven of the modules later combined into Queen of the Spiders . In 1980, Gygax's long-time campaign setting Greyhawk was published in the form of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting folio, which was expanded in 1983 into

6216-448: The Blume brothers a controlling interest, and Gygax and the Blumes were increasingly at loggerheads over the company's management by 1981. Gygax's frustrations at work and increased prosperity from his generous royalties brought a number of changes to his personal life. He and Mary Jo had been active members of the local Jehovah's Witnesses , but others in the congregation already felt uneasy about his smoking and drinking; his connection to

6327-452: The Blumes' employee. Gygax wrote the supplements Greyhawk , Eldritch Wizardry , and Swords & Spells for the original D&D game . With Brian Blume, he also designed the wild west -oriented role-playing game Boot Hill . The same year, Gygax created the magazine The Strategic Review with himself as editor. But wanting a more industry-wide periodical, he hired Tim Kask as TSR's first employee to change this magazine to

6438-608: The CEO of ComicBook.com , with Blackmon becoming the site's president. At that time, the site had eight full time staff, with several part-time writers. Terry relaunched the site in May 2014 with new features, such as message boards, polls, and a larger focus on social media. Jim Viscardi served as editor from 2015, with Sam Savage serving as CEO from 2016. In April 2018, CBS Interactive (which later became part of Paramount Global ) acquired ComicBook.com as well as PopCulture.com . Following

6549-459: The Castle & Crusade Society's fanzine The Domesday Book . Guidon Games hired Gygax to produce a game series called "Wargaming with Miniatures", with the initial release for the series being a new edition of Chainmail (1971). The first edition of Chainmail included a fantasy supplement to the rules. These comprised a system for warriors, wizards, and various monsters of nonhuman races drawn from

6660-407: The Castle and City of Greyhawk by Gygax and Kuntz, now called "Castle Dunfalcon". Before work on this project could commence, NIPI ran out of money, was forced into bankruptcy, and dissolved in 1989. After NIPI folded, Gygax decided to create an entirely new RPG called The Carpenter Project , one considerably more complex and "rules heavy" than his original D&D system, which had encompassed

6771-604: The Elder Brain, both physically and psionically. Alhoons, on the other hand, are more concerned with their own personal survival. When discovered near illithid communities, alhoons are mercilessly hunted down. The alhoon first appeared in second edition AD&D for the Forgotten Realms setting in the Menzoberranzan boxed set, in the booklet "Book One: The City" (1992), and reprinted in Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three (1996). The creature

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6882-473: The Forerunner civilization before it was crushed by the illithid empire. A vast stony column of forgotten beliefs, it is buried deep in the ground. The current inhabitants of Pharagos have no knowledge of the planet's past; the illithid empire's rule over Pharagos and the origin of the gith races on this world are lost to history. They are unaware that the source of mystical power for their numerous cults comes from

6993-646: The Monstrous Arcana module series that accompanies it, greatly develops the mind flayer further. The Illithiad introduced the illithid elder brain and the illithid- roper crossbreed, the urophion . The module Dawn of the Overmind featured an origin story for the illithids. The mind flayer appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000). Savage Species (2003) added the mind flayer "racial class", allowing Mind Flayers to be played from level 1 onward until they reached parity with normal Mind Flayers, and added

7104-492: The West Coast, as he rented an immense mansion, increased his cocaine use, and spent time with several young starlets. Gygax was occupied with getting a movie off the ground in Hollywood, so he had to leave TSR in the hands of Kevin and Brian Blume to oversee its day-to-day operations. He reached an agreement with Orson Welles in 1984 to star in a D&D movie, with John Boorman to act as producer and director. But almost at

7215-583: The acquisition, Savage left as CEO. In April 2024, Viscardi left ComicBook.com to become VP of Business Development at Image Comics , with the site then being led by assistant managing editor Joe Schmidt. In August 2024, Paramount Global sold ComicBook.com and PopCulture.com to Savage's digital media operator, Savage Ventures, as part of its plan to divest assets and achieve $ 500 million in cost savings. At that time, both ComicBook.com and PopCulture.com employed over 40 people. While no layoffs or leadership changes were initially expected, following

7326-538: The acquisition, several employees were let go from the company including Schmidt. The next month, Ben Kendrick was revealed to have joined Savage Ventures and was hired as the editorial director of ComicBook.com , after previously working at Static Media for Screen Rant , Comic Book Resources , and Collider . The site offers news, interviews, and reviews centered on comic books, television , films , video games , and anime among others. ComicBook.com has also produced video content and podcasts, including

7437-546: The agreement that Arneson would receive a 2.5-percent royalty on all AD&D products, giving him a six-figure annual income for the next decade. Gygax wrote the AD&;D hardcovers Players Handbook , Dungeon Masters Guide , Monster Manual, and Monster Manual II . He also wrote or co-wrote many AD&D and basic D&D adventure modules, including The Keep on the Borderlands , Tomb of Horrors , Expedition to

7548-496: The company, simply leaving his entire estate to his wife Donna. Although she had worked briefly for TSR as an accountant, she did not share her husband's enthusiasm for gaming, and made clear that she would not have anything to do with managing the company. Gygax called her "less than personable... After Don died she dumped all the Tactical Studies Rules materials off on my front porch. It would have been impossible to manage

7659-412: The company, then worked with Mohan and Mentzer on a science fiction-themed RPG, Cyborg Commando , which was published in 1987. But sales of the new game were not brisk. As game historian Shannon Appelcline noted in 2014, the game was "seen as one of the biggest flops in the industry." Mentzer and Mohan wrote a series of generic RPG adventures, Gary Gygax Presents Fantasy Master , and began working on

7770-431: The edge of insolvency. Gygax brought his findings to the five other company directors. He charged that the financial crisis was due to Kevin Blume's mismanagement: excess inventory, overstaffing, too many company cars, and some questionable projects such as dredging up a 19th-century shipwreck. Gygax gained control and produced the new AD&D book Unearthed Arcana and the Greyhawk novel Saga of Old City , featuring

7881-880: The fall of a mind flayer empire, they evolved into a new life form and now crawl about in groups seeking psychic radiation on which to feed. Kezreth : A living troop transport and battle platform created from the severed head of a shamed illithid. They serve in this capacity in the hope of redeeming themselves and being allowed to return to the elder brain. Mind Worm : Created by illithids to serve as assassins and bounty hunters, these powerful psionic creatures resemble smaller purple worms . They can attack from far distances with their probe worms. Nerve Swimmers : Derived from immature illithid tadpoles, these entities are living instruments of torture and interrogation. Ustilagor : Mind flayers farm these larval intellect devourers for food and sentries. Vampire Squid : Servitor creatures created by illithids to extend their reach below

7992-465: The fantasy periodical The Dragon , with Gygax as writer, columnist, and publisher (from 1978 to 1981). The Dragon debuted in June 1976, and Gygax said of its success years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon , I thought we would eventually have

8103-510: The game forget the spells that they have learned immediately upon casting them and must re-study them in order to cast them again), and the system as a whole drew upon the work of authors such as Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague de Camp , Michael Moorcock , Roger Zelazny , Poul Anderson , Tolkien , Bram Stoker , and others. The final draft contained changes not vetted by Arneson, and Gygax's vision differed on some rule details Arneson had preferred. Gygax asked Guidon Games to publish it, but

8214-456: The game in a three-volume set: The Lejendary Rules for All Players (1999), Lejend Master's Lore (2000) and Beasts of Lejend (2000). The new owner of TSR, WotC's Peter Adkison , clearly did not harbor any of Lorraine Williams' ill-will toward Gygax: Adkison purchased all of Gygax's residual rights to D&D and AD&D for a six-figure sum. Gygax did not author any new game supplements or novels for TSR or WotC, but he did agree to write

8325-454: The game on his two oldest children, Ernie and Elise, in a setting he called "Greyhawk". This group rapidly expanded to include Kaye, Kuntz, and eventually a large circle of players. Gygax and Arneson continued to trade notes about their respective campaigns as Gygax began work on a draft. Several aspects of the system governing magic in the game were inspired by fantasy author Jack Vance 's The Dying Earth stories (notably that magic-users in

8436-466: The ground. He had been able to keep the rights to Gord the Rogue as part of the severance agreement he made with TSR, so he made a new licensing agreement with TSR for the Greyhawk setting and began writing new novels starting with Sea of Death (1987); novel sales were brisk, and Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels kept New Infinities operating. Gygax brought in Don Turnbull from Games Workshop to manage

8547-521: The illithid, the Brain Slayer. The illithid is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Game License . Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( / ˈ ɡ aɪ ɡ æ k s / GHY -gaks ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ) with Dave Arneson . In

8658-413: The illithids in general "are considered to be one of the most disliked creatures in all of Dungeons & Dragons." Mind flayers appear in other role-playing games, including Angband , Bloodborne , Demon's Souls , Final Fantasy , NetHack , Lost Kingdoms , Kingdom of Loathing and Lost Souls , and the one-player gamebook RPG series Fighting Fantasy includes a creature similar to

8769-545: The larva then grows and consumes the host's brain, absorbing the host's physical form entirely and becoming sapient itself, a physically mature (but mentally young) illithid. This process is called ceremorphosis . Alhoons (also called illithiliches) are illithids that choose to focus on developing arcane abilities in addition to their psionic ones, and have grown powerful enough in magic to become undead liches . Alhoons are generally pariahs in illithid society because they go against most illithids' eventual goal: to merge with

8880-479: The other elder brains united and psionically expelled the diseased brain from existence. Or so they thought. From a place without time or reality, the Dark Powers plucked the dying elder brain and planted it upon a tormented world". Polygon highlighted that Bluetspur is "a world of cosmic horror populated by malevolent mind flayers that will make your heroes question their own memories". According to Ken Rolston ,

8991-425: The point that Mary Jo, pregnant with their second child, believed he was having an affair and confronted him in a friend's basement only to discover him and his friends sitting around a map-covered table. In 1962, Gygax got a job as an insurance underwriter at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. His family continued to grow, and after his third child was born, he decided to move his family back to Lake Geneva. Except for

9102-525: The preface to the 1998 adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors , a paean to Gygax's original AD&D adventure Tomb of Horrors . He also returned to the pages of Dragon Magazine, writing the "Up on a Soapbox" column which was published from Issue #268 (January 2000) to Issue #320 (June 2004). Gygax continued to work on Lejendary Adventures which he believed was his best work. However, sales were below expectation. ComicBook.com ComicBook.com

9213-447: The presence of the dead god under their land. The mind flayer was ranked fourth among the ten best mid-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies . They referred to this unique creation of the D&D game as the "quintessential evil genius" and the "perfect evil overlord". Games journalist David M. Ewalt found them "one of D&D's most popular monsters". Academic Philip J. Clements considered mind flayers of

9324-481: The printing costs for the thousand copies of Dungeons & Dragons rose from $ 2,000 to $ 2,500, they still did not have enough capital to publish it. Worried that the other playtesters and wargamers now familiar with Gygax's rules would bring a similar product to the market first, the two accepted an offer in December 1973 from gaming acquaintance Brian Blume to invest $ 2,000 in TSR to become an equal one-third partner. (Gygax accepted Blume's offer right away. Kaye

9435-399: The project, killing the Mythus computer game. By 1994, the legal costs had drained all of Gygax's resources, so he offered to settle. In the end, TSR paid Gygax for the complete rights to Dangerous Journeys and Mythus . In 1995, Gygax began work on a new computer role-playing game called Lejendary Adventures . In contrast to the rules-heavy Dangerous Journeys , this new system was

9546-776: The roar of the crowds watching the Chicago Cubs play. At age 7, he became a member of a small group of friends who called themselves the "Kenmore Pirates". In 1946, after the Kenmore Pirates were involved in a fracas with another gang of boys, his father decided to move the family to Posey's family home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin , where Posey's family had settled in the early 19th century, and where Gary's grandparents still lived. In this new setting, Gygax soon made friends with several of his peers, including Don Kaye and Mary Jo Powell. During his childhood and teen years, he developed

9657-430: The same time, he received word that TSR had run into severe financial difficulties, and Kevin Blume was attempting to sell the company for six million dollars. Gygax immediately discarded his movie ambitions—his D&D movie was never made—and flew back to Lake Geneva. He discovered that industry leader TSR was grossing $ 30 million, yet it was barely breaking even; it was in fact $ 1.5 million in debt and teetering on

9768-656: The section named "Creature Features". Here, the mind flayer is described as "a super-intelligent, man-shaped creature with four tentacles by its mouth which it uses to strike its prey." When it hits prey with a tentacle, the tentacle penetrates to the brain and draws it forth, allowing the monster to devour it. A mind flayer's major weapon is given as the Mind Blast, a 5-foot radius wave of "Psi force" which affects each opponent differently based on how intelligent it is; possible effects include permanent insanity, rage, confusion, coma, and death. The first illustration depicting mind flayers

9879-489: The setting for the world of Greyhawk, and Gygax was not happy with the new direction in which TSR was taking "his" creation. In a literary declaration that his old world was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk, Gygax destroyed his version of Oerth in the final Gord the Rogue novel, Dance of Demons . With the Gord the Rogue novels finished, NIPI's main source of steady income dried up. The company needed

9990-463: The setting, already featured on the cover of AD&D Adventures in Space : "the illithid, the race of the mind flayers, finally return home to space". In a proposed campaign setting, Pharagos is a lightly populated Earth -like world with three continents and numerous chains of islands. The one remarkable feature of this world is the presence of an immense petrified corpse of a god previously worshiped by

10101-607: The standard six-sided dice. He also collaborated with Arneson on the Napoleonic naval wargame Don't Give Up the Ship! Dave Arneson briefly adapted the Chainmail rules for his fantasy Blackmoor campaign. In the winter of 1972–1973, Arneson and friend David Megarry , inventor of the Dungeon! board game, traveled to Lake Geneva to showcase their respective games to Gygax, in his role as

10212-523: The successful D&D cartoon series . Gygax left TSR in 1986 over conflicts with its new majority owner, but he continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992. He designed the Lejendary Adventure gaming system, released in 1999. In 2005, he was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, which was conceived as

10323-468: The surface of Underdark waters. They have a maw of sharp teeth which can be turned inside out and function as defensive spikes. The 3.5 Edition D&D supplement Lords of Madness provides that the Illithid were a star-faring people who existed at the end of time. Facing annihilation, the Illithid traveled to the past, arriving roughly 2000 years before the present in any given D&D campaign. Gith

10434-410: The terms of the settlement, he gave up his rights except to Gord the Rogue and to those D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg). Immediately after leaving TSR, Gygax was approached by a wargaming acquaintance, Forrest Baker, who had done some consulting work for TSR in 1983 and 1984. Tired of company management, Gygax was simply looking for

10545-461: The three-volume rule set in a labeled box was beyond the small publisher's scope. Gygax pitched the game to Avalon Hill, but it did not understand the concept of role-playing and turned down his offer. By 1974, Gygax's Greyhawk group, which had started off with himself, Ernie Gygax, Don Kaye, Rob Kuntz, and Terry Kuntz , had grown to over 20 people, with Rob Kuntz operating as co-dungeon-master so that each of them could referee smaller groups of about

10656-527: The two got an acrimonious divorce. At the same time, the Blumes wanted to get Gygax out of Lake Geneva so that they could manage the company without his "interference", so they split TSR Hobbies into TSR, Inc. and TSR Entertainment, Inc. Gygax became president of TSR Entertainment, Inc., and the Blumes sent him to Hollywood to develop TV and movie opportunities. He became co-producer of the licensed D&D cartoon series for CBS , which led its time slot for two years. Gygax' life continued to unravel on

10767-561: The universe and hold it for good. They frequently meddle in the politics of other races through subtle psychic manipulation of key figures, not to cause chaos but so as to better understand the dynamics of civilization. They regularly probe the minds of surface dwellers so as to gather intelligence and learn about new advances in magic and technology. They also do a good deal of research themselves, mainly focused on developing new psychic powers. Illithids regularly conduct raids on all sentient settlements to acquire new thralls. The yaggol are

10878-467: The wedding. The couple moved to Chicago where Gygax continued as a shipping clerk at Kemper Insurance. He found a job for Mary Jo there, but the company laid her off when she became pregnant with their first child. He also took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago . Despite his commitments to his job, raising a family, and attending college, Gygax continued to play wargames. It reached

10989-407: The works of J. R. R. Tolkien and other sources. For a small publisher like Guidon Games, Chainmail was relatively successful, selling 100 copies per month. Gygax also collaborated on Tractics with Mike Reese and Leon Tucker, his contribution being the change to a 20-sided spinner or a coffee can with 20 numbered poker chips (eventually, 20-sided dice) to decide combat resolutions instead of

11100-483: Was acquired by CBS Interactive (which later became part of Paramount Global ) in 2018 before Paramount Global sold it to Savage Ventures in 2024, and Ben Kendrick was hired as the editorial director . ComicBook.com began as a holding page containing sales links and press releases related to comic books and had various names used by various companies: in 1996, American Entertainment used it for their websites, Smash , Another Universe , and Mania Magazine . The site

11211-462: Was acquired by Fandom in 2000 before it was changed to Cinescape in 2001. By 2004, the site was renamed ComicBook.com . In 2007, Joe Blackmon and a business partner founded ComicBook.com as a comic book news site, and by 2010, it was co-owned by William King of Magellen Press. At this time, it had formed into its own website, posting news about comic books and other fields related to comics. In January 2014, 247Sports CEO Shannon Terry became

11322-653: Was also a realist, and knew what good fatherhood would demand, especially at his age." On August 15, 1987, on what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Gygax married Carpenter. During 1987 and 1988, Gygax worked with Flint Dille on the Sagard the Barbarian books, as well as Role-Playing Mastery and its sequel, Master of the Game . He also wrote two more Gord the Rogue novels, City of Hawks (1987), and Come Endless Darkness (1988). But by 1988, TSR had rewritten

11433-455: Was an introductory version of the original D&D geared toward new players and edited by John Eric Holmes . The same year, TSR Hobbies released Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ), a completely new and complex version of D&D . The Monster Manual was also released that year and became the first supplemental rule book of the new system, and many more followed. AD&D 's rules were not fully compatible with those of

11544-414: Was announced publicly. To help him with the creative work, Gygax poached Frank Mentzer and Dragon magazine editor Kim Mohan from TSR. But before a single product was released, Forrest Baker left NIPI when the outside investment he promised of one to two million dollars failed to materialize. Against his will, Gygax was back in charge again; he immediately looked for a quick product to get NIPI off

11655-611: Was betrayed by one of her own generals, Zerthimon, who believed she had grown tyrannical and over-aggressive. Civil war erupted, and the race factionalised into the githyanki and the githzerai (and in the Spelljammer campaign setting the Pirates of Gith). The background material of the Chainmail game places the gith forerunners in a subterranean empire called Zarum in Western Oerik , where they dominated many other races from their capital city of Anithor . Traditionally illithids revere

11766-692: Was by artist Tracy Lesch, who envisioned them "like a Ming the Merciless with the mental powers of a Professor X ", which appeared in the Blackmoor (1975) supplement. Game statistics for mind flayers were also included in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement. The mind flayer appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977). Roger E. Moore authored "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer," which featured in Dragon #78 (October 1983). The mind flayer appears first in

11877-495: Was further detailed in the supplement The Illithiad (1998). The alhoon also appeared in third edition in Monsters of Faerûn (2001) and Lords of Madness (2005). The origins of these unique undead mind flayers are unclear. All that is known of these creatures is that they cannot create spawn, need both fresh blood and fresh brains to survive, are more feral than typical illithids, and are barely intelligent. One possible origin

11988-440: Was less enthusiastic, and after a week to consider the offer, he questioned Blume closely before acquiescing.) Blume's investment finally brought the financing that enabled them to publish D&D . Gygax worked on rules for more miniatures and tabletop battle games including Classic Warfare (Ancient Period: 1500 BC to 500 AD) and Warriors of Mars . TSR released the first commercial version of D&D in January 1974 as

12099-515: Was multi-pronged. The RPG and setting were to be published by Game Designers' Workshop, and the Mythus computer game was being prepared by NEC and JVC. There would also be a series of books based on the Mythus setting written by Gygax. He wrote three novels published by Penguin/Roc and later reprinted by Paizo Publishing : The Anubis Murders , The Samarkand Solution , and Death in Delhi . In late 1992,

12210-539: Was otherwise occupied, so Inner City published the fantasy adventures A Challenge of Arms (1998) and The Ritual of the Golden Eyes (1999). Gygax introduced some investors to the publication setup that Clark was using, and although the investors were not willing to fund publication of Legendary Adventures , Clark and Gygax were able to start the partnership Hekaforge Productions. Gygax was thus able to return to publish Lejendary Adventures in 1999. Hekaforge published

12321-505: Was still owned by the three-way partnership of TSR, and neither Gygax nor Blume had the money to buy out Donna Kaye's shares. Blume persuaded a reluctant Gygax to allow his father, Melvin Blume, to buy Donna's shares, and those were converted to 200 shares in TSR Hobbies. In addition, Brian bought another 140 shares. These purchases reduced Gygax from majority shareholder in control of the company to minority shareholder; he effectively became

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