Illithid

After the great purge, and the beginning of the Second Age, the immortal Burzuk returned to the Underdark where he had been enslaved, to settle a score. The mindflayers that had forced him to do their bidding, until he finally escaped, would find no such mercy from him. With power granted momentarily by Stryth, he made them all damaged easily by slashing wounds, that they may never enslave others so easily again. As word got out of the curse upon them, all but a few of their slaves revolted, and the mindflayers were forced to leave the halls of Enthema to find more. Illithids now walk among Serin, seeking to enslave the feeble minds of all its inhabitants, to return them to work in their crystal mines, and to satisfy their hunger for eating fresh brains. Illithids are an evil race of subterranean creatures who are endowed with vast psionic abilities. They possess the intelligence and wisdom to match almost any other race above or below the surface. They have been known to stun foes with a projected cone of force in combat. In cases of emergencies, illithids enter a state of shock, in which their body divert their mental resources directly into healing for a limited amount of time. However, they cannot heal either their body or mind for its duration, and therefore this is used only as a last resort to ward off death. Also, due to the tentacles they use to feed with and the slithery nature of their flesh, they are damaged more easily by slashing wounds, although they resist mental and blunt attacks, and are immune to lightning.

Illithids view all other sentient races through a lens of cold, calculating superiority. To a mind flayer, lesser races are little more than cattle—useful only as thralls to carry out menial labor, subjects for gruesome psychic experiments, or ultimately, sustenance to feed their insatiable hunger for brains. They mask their predatory nature with an air of aristocratic detachment and flawless logic, manipulating others with telepathic ease. True alliances with an illithid are nearly impossible; there is only dominance and submission, and any temporary partnership is merely a stepping stone toward the illithid's eventual control over its so-called allies.