D&D’s Christopher Perkins delves into dark, horrible secrets of the mind flayer

The illithids are a tentacle-faced scourge in Dungeons & Dragons. They consume, seeking to rebuild a once-mighty planar empire upon the backs of those they deem their lessers (which is just about every other being in the multiverse). Their hunger for power (and brains) shatters worlds, and their actions have created terrifying threats in the cruel duergar, the insane derro, and the ruthless planar pillagers, the githyanki.

And they use humanoids not just as food, not just as thralls … but also as breeding stock.