Dead Verse Teachings

Dead Verse Teachings is a research text written by the gith'zee scientist Varsh as part of a study of species from the Dead Verse. The documents focused especially on mindflayers, as Varsh had live mindflayer prisoners to perform tests on. The chapter "A Study of the Mindflayers" was provided as a handout during Opera for the Fairest. 
== Story text ==
=== Dead Verse Teachings: A Study of the Mindflayer ===
by Varsh, gith’zee scientist
The mindflayers, or kayabek in the Fetchlings’ native tongue (translating literally to “kayal-eaters”), are a semi-immortal species of brain-devouring humanoids. Like all species originating from the Dead Verse, the mindflayers were created by the God Akthos. Their unique physiology demands severe dietary restrictions: the only truly valid source of nutrients for a mindflayer is the still-living brain of another sentient creature. 
The hunting methods of the mindflayer are well-documented by the geth’zee and easy (albeit terrifying) to understand. Mindflayers are capable of stunning targets in their path by emitting a series of psychic pulses. This powerful ability is often referred to as a “mind blast.” Once their target is stunned, a mindflayer will approach and wrap their tentacles around the target, focusing on the head. Once the mindflayer has a good grip, they will insert the tips of 1-4 tentacles into the target through the nose or ears. The mindflayer will then suck the brain of the target out through their tentacles, consuming it and -- obviously -- killing their prey. 
What is less well-documented is why mindflayers hunt this way; that is, why their bodies naturally favor this killing method. This document chronicles the efforts I and the other gith’zee have made to understand mindflayer physiognomy. 
=== Anatomy ===
The phraseology that mindflayers “eat” brains is misleading: mindflayers do not actually use their mouths to eat. The mouth is used to talk, breathe, and smell. Nothing else. The mouth is connected directly to the respiratory and olfactory tracts of the body; mindflayers do not have a stomach in any traditional sense. 
Mindflayers also do not have noses. The tongue is actually the mindflayer’s olfactory organ: not unlike a cat, a mindflayer opens its mouth to scent the air. As their tentacles cover their mouths, this behavior often goes unobserved. Although they do not eat with their mouths, they still possess teeth; this is believed to be a left-over from the mortal bodies they spawned from. 
When a mindflayer consumes a brain, the brain matter is sucked through a tiny aperture on the tip of each tentacle. This aperture is lined with sharp cilia resembling teeth, which latch onto the brain inside of the victim and “pump” the brain in order to break up matter for easier consumption. This is the primary source of agony for the victim (the second, of course, being the loss of brain matter). 
The brain matter is funneled through the hollow center of the mindflayers’ tentacles, where it is deposited into a special organ behind the eyes and in front of the brain. This organ is actually inside of the brain case, sitting flush with the front of the skull. It is a thick, flat organ, similar to a liver but much smaller. Its purpose is to digest the brain matter, separating useable nutrients from waste. 
This organ is not found anywhere on Musea, and is believed to be a common part of physiognomy in the Dead Verse. Indeed, similar tissue has been found lining the stomachs of Fetchling samples (see Dead Verse Generations: The Effects of Multiversal Colonization). As such, it is colloquially referred to as the “Akthos organ.” The tissue found in Fetchlings has been observed to grow smaller in the subsequent generations following their arrival to the Musean Verse. In mindflayer samples, however, the Akthos organ has not changed much at all. 
The Akthos organ separates more than just nutrients from the brain matter. Due to their psychic ability, mindflayers naturally extract memories and sensory impressions from the brain matter they consume. This goes a long way to explain their vast intelligence: the average mindflayer of one hundred or so years contains within themselves the thoughts and memories of countless victims. As most of my subjects are highly uncooperative during interviews, I have struggled to ascertain exactly how this works. What sort of memories do they extract? How strong are these memories? These are questions I cannot answer. 
=== Diet ===
To maintain a healthy diet, mindflayers need to eat a brain one to two times a week. An unhealthy diet is once every 2 weeks. I have seen subjects go much longer, however -- my longest starvation study lasted five months before suddenly perishing. The mindflayer body appears to be naturally hardy: one subject who was not fed for two months made a near-immediate recovery after their first feeding. 
Mindflayers are able to consume normal food, but only in extremely small quantities, and nothing which produces hard waste (see notes on waste production below). I have been able to feed a mindflayer a strawberry, which it was able to break up and process using its tentacles. Another mindflayer, fed a small strip of cooked meat, eventually doubled over in pain and died with foam pouring from its distended tentacles. 
Furthermore, normal food has no nutritional value. The condition of starved mindflayers does not improve unless they are offered a brain to consume. Interestingly, mindflayers do not have any sense of taste. Their interactions with normal food were based entirely on smell. The mindflayer I fed the strawberry was able to describe the sweet smell, but could not taste anything when consuming it, and described it as feeling uncomfortable. 
I was curious about the limits of their diet, so I ran a series of tests using gith’ya prisoners. I brought a few gith’ya into the cell with some starved mindflayers and had the wardens slice their throats. Immediately after, some (but not all) of the mindflayers fell on the gith’ya corpses. They visibly struggled to eat the recently-deceased brains. Some of them “gagged” from their tentacles, expelling brain matter, and were unable to finish the meal. Those that succeeded in eating the brain looked sickly afterwards. But, when I checked on them at hightide, their conditions had improved. 
I then brought some in-tact gith’ya corpses that had died on the warfront to a different group of mindflayers. Although they surely must have been starving, they all refused the meal, calling it “spoiled.” The warriors had fallen only the day prior, but this did not seem to make a difference. One mindflayer was chained and forced to eat. It struggled through the meal, taking nearly a half hour, and continuously displaying the “gagging” motion described above. Although it was able to finish the brain, it was dead in its cell by hightide. 
So it seems that, while not particularly healthy, a mindflayer is able to eat a corpse so long as it just died in front of them. Any longer and it becomes unsafe. 
Prior to the Gith Rebellion, I recall many a time seeing the mindflayers lounging about, sipping wine with their tentacles and smoking cigars. It is strange to me that these things cause them no more harm than the average mortal, yet normal food is fatal. What hideous and inefficient bodies they have. 
=== Waste and Reproduction ===
Waste matter drips out of the Akthos organ through a special tract (running approximately through the area where a stomach would be on a gith) and is processed in much the same way as urine. Mindflayers do not produce solid waste, and thus do not possess any of the organs necessary for this bodily process. Mindflayers expel urine through an organ similar to the female urethra. They produce very little waste (once every two weeks or so). 
As mindflayers do not reproduce in any traditional sense, they also do not possess any sexual organs. Mindflayer larvae, called tadpoles, are stored in a small internal sac in the abdomen. This sac is partially filled with a genetic material, which the mindflayer can pressurize and expel through the tentacles in order to inject a tadpole into a host. There appears to be a direct correlation between how nourished a mindflayer is and how capable they are of producing spawn (i.e., a mindflayer who was just fed could quickly and immediately expel multiple tadpoles, while a mindflayer who was starved for a month struggled to expel even one). 
Rather than eating a prey subject, a mindflayer can choose to inject a tadpole into the brain cavity. The tadpole feeds on the living brain of its host over the course of approximately three days, at which point it consumes the brain entirely, overtaking the body and transforming it into a fully-grown mindflayer. The tadpole itself becomes the new center of the mindflayer’s brain, and the rest of the victim’s body is mutated by it. (The tail of the tadpole actually extends through the naval cavity and splits several times, becoming the new mindflayer’s tentacles. The process is disgusting, but fascinating.) 
It should relieve the reader to know that removing a tadpole without killing the host is fairly straightforward, provided the correct steps are carefully followed. Using a sharp knife, a small incision should be made at the base of the host’s skull. Carefully insert the knife and feel for tension along the blade. If the blade snags or moves of its own accord, you have probably found the tadpole. Quickly take the blade out of the incision, curling it in a U-shape. You should catch the tail of the tadpole and pull it out along with the knife. If you are unsuccessful, it is safe to try again in an hour or so (although obviously this will cause additional stress and harm to the host). 
Tadpoles can also be killed with a remove disease spell, but the reader is cautioned that this does not always work. A tadpole’s natural psychic defenses might keep it alive. The host should be carefully inspected after casting remove disease. 
Most host subjects were able to make a full recovery, even if the tadpole was not removed until the third day. It seems that the tadpole spends the incubation time “preparing” the host’s brain, priming it psychically and physically. Again, this does not appear to have any lasting negative effects, provided the tadpole is removed before incubation is complete. 
Tadpoles have been observed to survive for 3-5 minutes after removal. They are not able to defend themselves or locomote, and simply writhe along the ground. If inserted into another host before death, they will survive and begin incubating the new host. 
As hideous as all this is, I must admit that the mindflayers are remarkably clean creatures. I frequently see them deftly scrubbing their faces with their tentacles, or pushing waste out of their cages with a single sucker so as to avoid dirtying their hands. They remove dead bodies as quickly as possible and often voice complaints about sickness or disease. Despite regular lessons with the whip, they still demand bars of soap. It is actually rather irritating. 
=== Conclusion ===
In closing, it is clear that the physiognomy of mindflayers is both terrifying and inefficient. My people were once their food source, but ironically, the mindflayers were always the prisoners: slaves to their hunger for mortal life. That a species can exist for this long under such disturbing circumstances is testament to their tenacity and little else. Still, there is much we have learned from them. The samples I have taken of the Akthos organ should be a source of valuable scientific study for centuries to come. 
It is my hope that my fellow gith’zee will put aside their rivalry with the gith’ya and focus on the extermination of these disgusting creatures. The sooner they are gone, the better. 
- Varsh, gith’zee scientist
Category:Short stories
Category:Mindflayers