Zhorr’Vael - The Mind Flayer
As the colony’s Synaptic Harmonist, Zhorr’Vael is entrusted with refining and organizing the collective mental chorus beneath the elder brain. Where other mind flayers conquer and consume, he orchestrates.
(In Deep Speech, “Zhorr’Vael” roughly means “Voice That Weaves Thought”)
Role in Its Society:
Zhorr’Vael is a mental architect—a revered and feared figure among his kind. He ensures that thralls, intellect devourers, and lesser aberrations are psychically tuned to optimal resonance for the elder brain’s will. If another mind flayer fails in duty, Zhorr’Vael is summoned to “correct” their thought patterns—an honor that often ends in lobotomy or reconstitution as an obedient husk. He rarely leaves the inner sanctum, unless an external mind proves too discordant to ignore.
Appearance Description:
Zhorr’Vael’s deep violet skin is threaded with glowing cerulean veins that pulse rhythmically, as though echoing some unheard music. A thin metallic circlet floats an inch above his head, spinning slowly—a psionic amplifier made from condensed elder brain tissue. His robes ripple like fluid thought, changing texture with his emotions. His voice (both spoken and telepathic) is layered with faint harmonic overtones—impossibly beautiful and deeply unsettling.
Backstory:
Raised within the Synaptic Wells of an ancient illithid colony beneath The Nevermoors, Zhorr’Vael was identified early as resonant-sensitive—an illithid who could perceive imperfections in psychic linkages. Through decades of ritual feasting and training, he developed psionic abilities specialized in manipulating the structure of sentient thought itself. He is often dispatched when a thrall, a host, or even another mind flayer becomes unstable, corrupted by outside philosophies, or begins to dream independently.
