Old Aletain

Content warning: mind control, slavery
Old Aletain, also known as the Dark Mind of the Moon, is a Great Old One. It is believed to be the prime ancestor of all illithids on Urz and in Spiralspace. 
== Description ==
Old Aletain is a massive brain that is covered in jagged shards of black metal. From its underside where a brainstem would be are instead a dozen inky black tentacles that drip with an ink-like fluid. The brain matter that comprises its form sweats a briny fluid and, if it remains in one place for an hour, it will pool enough of it to submerge its entire form granted it is in a space that can contain the fluid. Its current resting place is inside a massive statue of an astral kraken.
=== Worshippers ===
The worship of this great old one has become a less common occurrence since the ancient elder brain was bound into a divinely secure prison on the dark moon of Umbra that has a wide orbit around Urz that only brings it close enough to be visible every decade. Those that end up worshipping Old Aletain will often be the founders or recipients of ancient manuscripts and texts written by his old worshippers. Once one knows of Old Aletain, the Great Old One can hear the whispers of that creature's mind. If one who can be heard were to call out for it or use eldritch rite to call it unto them, it is then Aletain can form a psychic link with the worshipper. Sometimes it makes itself known to the worshipper either fully or in part and at other times gives no means of determining if it is linked or not. 
==== Old Aletain's Pact ====
Once mentally locked with Old Aletain, a pact is formed of mind. The pact-bearer's full knowledge is taken by Old Aletain and the promise of all future knowledge and the matter that composes the brain are forfeit. Upon a pact-bearer's death, the brain will vacate the skull through astral gate and be added to Aletain's bulk. The powers Old Aletain grants have few other demands upon them, though if the great old one imagined some demands, a pact-bearer would be in a terrible position to negotiate against those demands. In this way, Old Aletain's dominance of those that forge pacts with it is unstrict but absolute.
As an option for the Warlock's Otherworldly Patron, Old Aletain can be used with the Great Old One option. For a Warlock's Pact Boon option, Old Aletain's preferred boon is Pact of the Chain.
== History ==
=== Birth ===
Old Aletain was formed with the destruction of a great many mind flayers in some unknown world at some unknown point in time and space. Once fully formed, it was flung into the wilds of the Far Planes, a massive realm of madness and twisting monstrosity that exists outside of Spiralspace.
=== Flight From the Far Plane ===
After its birth, Old Aletain was hunted by many other aberrant beings that had great power verging upon the deities themselves. Aletain was seen as a prize to be devoured for many of these beings, most notably the beings known individually as Daerlethoth. So, in an effort to survive, Old Aletain enslaved many sentient beings in the wilds of the Far Planes that served as carriers for it from the Far Planes towards the nearest light. That light would be known to it later as Spiralspace's great star Atavius shining at its center. Old Aletain was followed from the Far Plane by many of the Daerlethoth, but only one would arrive in the same plane of existence as it. Eagerly, this Daerlethoth entered the Material Plane of Urz and sought out Old Aletain of its own power and, when that wasn't enough, enslaved the early humans of what is known in modernity as the Parnak province to serve it and aid it in its search for Old Aletain. Never did Daerlethoth's tribe nor it lay eyes upon the Old Aletain, which hid deep in the earth in the Foul Deep beneath the Icefang Mountains of the Munio Region of Ocyria. There, the Old Aletain used its mind controlled servants as the stock for its first brood of offspring, the ulitharid.
=== Hiding in Radekorda ===
As the cavern where the Old Aletain rest became a fully working illithid hive, the denizens took to calling the place Radekorda. In an effort to remain hidden from the Daerlethoth, they were instructed to be masters of stealth, impersonation, misdirection, and treachery. They would leave the hive and feast upon the minds of beasts until they came to find sentient creatures that would not only sustain them but also pleasure them with the thoughts, feelings, and emotions they would have had in their lives. This excited the Old Aletain greatly and lead to an awakening of the many disparate factions within its hive that would come to stand in opposition to one another. 
=== Separation of Minds ===
The five great factions of mind flayers splintered from one another with the followers and devout to Old Aletain remaining in Radekorda. 
=== Breaking the Covenant ===
Due to Old Aletain's nature, it was itself considered a divine power though its true nature was simply a mind that had such potent psychic energy that it would rival the divine.
=== Imprisoned in the Moon ===
=== Unexpected Guests ===
=== The False Aletain ===
=== Current ===
== Hierarchy ==
Below are the many important creatures who have served Old Aletain throughout the history of Urz.
== Trivia ==
Old Aletain was a concept completely built around the Elder Brain Lair map designed by map makers Czepeku for inclusion in the aftermath sessions of the story arc Dead of Ages Past.