Ilsensine

Ilsensine, also called the Tentacled Lord or the Great Brain was the patron deity of the illithids and believed by some to be their creator. It was also the patron of evil mages and psionicists who dominated the minds of others.

Description
A being of the mind and spirit, Ilsensine lacked any physical body, instead incarnating as a cohesive thought. Radiating a lambent, emerald hue this manifestation took the shape of a gigantic, pulsing mass of cerebral matter. As was depicted by the mind flayers and as was actually the case, around the disembodied, brain-like form was a number of ganglionic tendrils radiating outwards in all directions, immeasurable in length and uncountable in number. Running along surfaces and through the earth, the God-brain's tentacles extended beyond sight and to all the nigh-infinite reaches of the multiverse.

When incarnating in an avatar, Ilsensine's floating form was much easier to comprehend, appearing as spectral across, green-glowing brain with only two tentacles.

Personality
Alien and elusive, Ilsensine's thoughts were a relentless tide of dark deceptions and unimaginable deviancy. According to elven myths, before the creation of mortal beings, it surpasssed all its divine peers in subversive intent, always striving to undo what others accomplish and defy established convention, and even loosing the mind flayers to act as a counter-creation after mortals came into existence. It was a cold and calculating being of practically limitless knowledge, and its philosophies mirrored that of the illithids, holding information as the greatest commodity, darkness the greatest illumination, and the mind the greatest strength.

Another dominating facet of Ilsensine's unending thoughts was megalomania for its motivation was the supremacy of the greatest race in its mind; its own illithid creations. Of all those that it knew of, it judged them the most worthy mortals, and sought for them to conquer all planes. Its thoughts unceasingly insisted that they were meant to rule all reality, enslaving, using and consuming the rampant "cattle", and enjoying the conquest as they did so. This was to be done through mental domination, superior knowledge, and the expression will and force of mind that was magic.

Despite its many strengths, Ilsensine was not infallible. Aside from being supremely arrogant, Ilsensine was not impervious to emotion, and in fact, could be overtaken by it. Litanies of hatred constantly radiated from its mind, mercilessly hammering any nearby with its insane (by non-illithid standards) declaration of the illithid manifest destiny. The deeper one delved into its lair, the worse it became, growing from a whisper to a buzz until obscenities were being screamed directly into the unfortunate's mind. More crucially than simply feeling emotions however, Ilsensine's feelings could drive it towards problematic behavior.

Though Ilsensine had experienced fury before, a relatively recent incident raised its anger such that it qualified as a new and strange sensation. It had not only lost a shard of its consciousness, but had no idea how it happened. In its anger, Ilsensine shocked the mind flayers into looking for the artifact, and yet was either not fully aware or didn't care about how its anger affected its people. Even leaving anger aside, despite mind flayers legends on its extraordinary deliberation, Ilsensine had allegedly made mistakes out of impatience in the past. In its discontent with its rate of information reception and craving for mental essences to feast upon it, Ilsensine may have accidentally created a force it was incapable of controlling.

Powers
Ilsensine was ultimately about one thing; power, specifically raw, psychic power. Such was the force of its psionic thought waves that everyone that approached its true form, psionically attuned or otherwise, could sense its energy, and only the mindless could ignore it. This created a condition within its realm known as brain burn, describing the constant sizzle that one could only hope to endure. Within its proximity, psionic powers became nulled and no secrets could stay hidden, nor dark thought or mental illness remain unrevealed, as all willpower and consciousness was inexorably ripped and drained by the god-brain.

Illithid's correctly believed Ilsensine's mental power to be omnipresent, depicting its tendrils as coiling across not only all space, but also all time. It was possessed of an enormous, all-sensing mental capacity, its far-reaching nerves letting it gather information from across the worlds and planes simultaneously and through doing so tap into all knowledge that existed. It was important to note however that Ilsensine was not omniscient, for there were realms beyond even its reach, the happenings of which it could not perceive.

A being of mental energy, Ilsensine's lacked a physical form and as such physical strength, fortitude, or agility, although its avatar could move by levitating through the air. Compensating for this was its incredible magical might, granting its avatar the power to cast any spell the most powerful of wizards could. In particular, it could cast mass charm and mass suggestion each thrice a day, project a prismatic spray once per day, and mind blast at will.

Simply attempting to bring harm to Ilsensine was a formidable task, as it was not only impervious to spells of mental control but also those that would affect a physical body. Weaker magics could not effect it at all, weapons of a +2 enchantment could harm it, and it was further immune to inflict wounds magic, energy draining, paralysis, and petrification. Its own tentacles could only be blocked through magical equipment, draining the minds of those struck (and its choice on whether they sapped intellect or intuition), restoring itself, and reducing those fully drained into mindless juju zombies.

Ilsensine's zombies were thoughtless puppets totally enslaved to the god-brain's will, controlled by a psionic link without which they would be nothing but lifeless husks. Though not particularly dangerous themselves, Ilsensine could channel all its psionic powers through them, albeit at the cost of instantly destroying the conduit. Aside from the touch of its tentacles, as well as poking too hard at its ganglia allegedly frying the brain, all those who remained subject to Ilsensine's brain-burn for long would become zombies, although mind-shielding magic could forestall this indefinitely for as long as it held.

Possessions
Ilsensine possessed at least one hidden cache of strange and alien magical artifacts deep within the Underdark.

Divine Realm
Ilsensine resided in a realm within the Deep Caverns called the Caverns of Thought. The maze-like structure was permeated by psionic energy that grew stronger the closer one moved toward its center, slowly turning its occupants mad or into zombies. In the Great Wheel cosmology, the Caverns of Thought were located in the underground of the Outlands. The tunnels often intersected with the domain of the beholder deity Gzemnid.

Activities
It used its psionics to gather information as well, pulling it from the minds of all mortals within the Prime Material Plane and beyond.

Worshipers
Illithids did not exactly worship Ilsensine, but rather revered its mental capacity. Some elder brains viewed Ilsensine as the culmination of what they aspired to be and often envied it. It also represented unity between the illithids and universal knowledge. Some of its followers sought to attain this sort of union by dominating or even replacing existing deities of knowledge.

Besides illithids, any who sought to dominate and enslave the minds of others may have felt drawn towards Ilsensine. It offered power and control to those faithful to it, along with access to the Mind domain of divine magic. Its clerics were known as accomplished slavemasters, using both magic and psionics to control living and undead slaves alike.

Ilsensine's clergy normally organized themselves into the Venerator Creed.


 * Unworthy of Ilsensine: A 14 century DR cult located under the Giant's Run Mountains in the Dragon Coast, run by the mind flayer Qooql.


 * Oryndoll: Was a holy site of Ilsensine, due to the Encephalithid being the deity's avatar twice. Ilsensine's clergy was powerful in city, and controlled many shrines as well as a full temple to the deity.

History
Ilsensine made itself known in the Realms immediately following the duergar uprising against the illithids in approximately. The city of Oryndoll nearly collapsed from the resulting chaos, and only the sudden appearance of an avatar of Ilsensine saved the city from tearing itself apart. Since then, the mind flayers of Oryndoll developed a highly religious culture, along with many innovations in the field of psionics.

In 1358 DR, during the Time of Troubles, Ilsensine adopted as its avatar the elder brain in Oryndoll, stimulating illithid society. The illithids created new technologies, new psionic items, and more psionic disciplines, as well as renewed their assaults on surface lore holdings.

Temples
Main article: Category:Temples to Ilsensine

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Finder's Bane
 * Card Games
 * Blood Wars