Illithid Imperium

The Illithid Imperium, which holds the majority of Nevullon, the largest continent in Eluseus. Though massive, the empire is isolated by the treacherous Sea of Wrath and Sea of Spears, which surround its only ports. To the south it is bound by the Mandibles, a set of craggy peninsulas between it and Gezair. To the north it is bound by the Sephullon and Tempest ranges.

## History

Ruling with utter absolution, the Illithid Imperium is by far the most centralized of the Dominar. The Illithids, known as Mind Flayers to most commoners, are a chauvinistic race, seeing themselves as the heralds of true order, their perfectly formed Overmind a gift to every being that lives at its whim. While each individual Illithid is an autonomous and intelligent being, all ultimately serve a higher power, the Overmind, an amalgamation of each individual mind flayer’s intelligence, personality, and goals. The Overmind is nebulous and enigmatic, as so are the goals of the Imperium, but it is at least apparent that the Illithids prize order above all else. Each of their cities have been meticulously designed to focus around one central spire from which the local administration of Illithids rule. From there the roads and thoroughfares fan out like synapses, intricately connecting the Imperium and its peoples across the vast northern continent of Nevullon, all centering around the Imperial capital of Cortex. While such an impressive level of organization could easily lead one to classify the Imperium as the most centralized and powerful of the Dominar, the Mind Flayer’s chauvinism ultimately does more harm then good in regards to their power projection.

They see their thralls as children at best, and livestock at worst, crowding them together in collective farms or urban manufactory dormitories and depriving them of even the most basic education. Those that do show inklings of intelligence are all the more likely to be harvested by the Illithids, as they see the consumption of a thralls brain as a high honor to the consumed, and a delicious meal to them.  As a result, non-Illithid intellectuals are something of a delicacy in the Imperium, and they are consequently imported from the rest of Eluseus in exchange for masses of thrall slaves or a drop of the precious knowledge the Illithid Overmind has amassed over its centuries of thought.  However, if a thrall shows exceptional promise, they are selected to ascend to the next strata of Illithid society, undergoing the painful and mysterious process of transformation to become Gith, humanoids with heightened psychic abilities and sadistic dispositions. Given their distaste for inferior beings, the Mind Flayers use these Gith as administrators, soldiers, and enforcers to keep their population in line, granting them privileges in turn, but still keeping them well away from the Overmind itself.

Many of these Gith emulate their masters, showing disdain and cruelty to the thralls they have been tasked with managing. This is not uniformly true however, as around twenty years ago there was a major rebellion of the Gith against the Illithids, led by a particularly adept psychic named Riuk. While Riuk’s Rebellion was ultimately put down, he and a group of fellow Gith adepts managed to escape into the imposing Jyrus mountains, where they remain in hiding, licking their wounds and preparing for battle to this day. In a sheltered natural harbor known as the Maw of Nevullon, they founded the city of Gezair. Once a smugglers stopover, the city has become a bastion for escaped thralls, and a constant thorn in the side of the Imperium whose weak naval capabilities put the geographically isolated city just out of reach of their tentacles. While life in Illithid cities is unbearably bleak, those few thralls that do manage to escape to the mountains of Nevullon make their way to this fabled refuge over the Jyrus Mountains, exploiting the unwillingness of the fragile Illithids to venture after their errant livestock. Although few who make it to these imposing peaks are heard from again, tales are told of minute pockets of freedom hidden in valleys and caves beneath the peaks, a brewing rebellion in the heart of the bleak and commanding Imperium.