New character idea: wants to destroy the gods because he sees the suffering they commit unto the world. Finds an aboleth, aboleth searches him for his deepest desire, finds it's exactly the same as the aboleth's and doesn't even bother with mind controlling him. Boom. Instant warlock.
I was thinking the same. It could go with straight evil character or a well meaning one that see the dominion of the gods as a tyranny that needs to be overtrown.
One theory for why Aboleths don't remember mind flayers is the same reason there's no ruins of their empire. Whatever the Gith did to overthrow them erased them and their kingdoms from reality and history. The only reason there's some left is because they were in their ships between realities during the event that did this that the Gith caused.
@@jonathantanner7083 89% on that theory. I would like to avoid a mental singularity if possible. Either way i would fuck a single mind flayer up bare handed. The insane are harder to mind fuck.
ahhh, good old aboleths. my first D&D character was a dwarven wizard who ended up getting slime-slapped by one, cue one very unhappy dwarf being forced to ride around in a barrel full of water to avoid drying out.
@@mariedruckenmiller4601 actually the reapers would technically be the gods, while aboleths are the leviathans from a mass effect 3 dlc, reapers and leviathans are absolutely not the same.
It's nice to see aberrations that are somewhat reasonable and could possibly be incorporated into a campaign in a nonviolent way. I'm definitely going to write a campaign where a paladin has to seek an an aboleth's knowledge on how to destroy an enemy god.
I had a campaign where aboleths instructed heroes on how to stop a lich and save the world too it sort of was a Order of The Stick scenario, where each side had something to gain in pulling their way. The lich was just the biggest baddie on the end of the world board.
Nathan Marsee you could use a triton to represent your ability to breathe water since that seems like something an aboleth would grant, and becuase you have a special contract maybe you don’t get all the downsides like not being able to breathe air no more? I think triton are in Volos guide to monsters
Aeon Hero The Eldest (yes C is the actually correct answer) is actually a GOO patron. My current character is a warlock of the Eldest and it’s been neat.
...if a child Aboleth retains all the memories of its parents, perfectly.... then wouldn't it also retain at least part of the memory of its parents conceiving it? From both sides of that encounter?
@@alpharius3661 that's the second part of the campaign. The absolute chaos that would befall the colony of Mindflayers once an Aboleth is discovered to be at their disposal. The party then gets caught in the crossfire of the inevitable civil war.
@@alexross1816 If the party is strong enough to capture an Aboleth then they are definitely strong enough to kill a mind flayer so that doesn't make much sense, and if they aren't even strong enough to kill a mind flayer then why would the mind flayer even bother with them?
@@alexross1816 It'd work better as the party finding 1 Mind Flayer that leads to finding a full colony they don't have a reasonable chance against, and then the Elder Brain gives them that task
"You might know them from being the second entry in the Monster Manual", They used to be the first entry in the Monster Manual. Rassafrassin bird people stealing our first slot in the Manual.
I mean if the aboliths were nicer and less mutation happy they would probably be well liked as wise sages but alas why they hurt others in there quest to kill the gods.
Its not entirely their fault, i would throw everything i have at some monster eel that slid out of the water They could put a caution tape fence around their lairs "WARNING, BIG ABOLETH, BUT IM PEACEFUL BROHAM" and that would fix all the issues
Additional snippet of lore: apparently their brains never stop growing in response to the storage of memories. The larger their brain grows, the bigger and longer they get.
@@benthomason3307 Supposedly not. An aboleth's brain extends down the length of the inside of its body instead of solely being encased in its skull. So as the brain grows, the body lengthens. I suspect that any kind of injury to an aboleth's brain (and by proxy the memories it holds) is a good way to earn its everlasting ire.
@Ben Thomason They are native to the elemental plane of water - there could be billions of ever expanding young aboleths in the depths of that inhospitable plane.
@@minimmats even if the aboleth themselves are ever-expaning even from generation to generation, the environments they live in are not. yes the plane of water is infinite, but the caves the aboleth live in are not.
Naw, gotta look at it through the lens of chaos theory...the universe existed in a state of pure chaos unbound by rules of nature, and as chaos started to first converge via strange attractors into a semblance of order, Aboleth's were born...then as further order arose, the planes and the gods came to exist as manifestations of the new natural laws of the universe that arose from this new order. Therefore the reason Aboleth's have the powers they do is that their existence predates natural laws that would prevent their existence entirely
@@kylestanley7843 sort of. When dealing with chaotic systems in mathematics there are types of functions that cause a convergence regardless of how chaotic the values can change based on the start data...these sorts of functions are called attractors (strange attractors if the convergence is fractal in nature) So if you think of the possible laws of the universe as being unset at the dawn of existence but then forming as convergence occurred, you could look at it in terms of the laws of the universe are formed as possibilities converge in some strange attractor. So the first convergence created Aboleth's and the basic laws of the universe, while additional convergences created the outer planes and the gods. To see convergence in action search the bifurcation of the logistic map...it really helps put the concept I am throwing out into perspective.
In D&D, the gods came in after the universe came into being, and got into fights with horrible things that had arisen naturally in the universe. This war was SO BAD that the gods were concerned that their fighting could actually destroy concepts.. so they started to fuse themselves TO concepts, to help prop them up while they waged war against super powerful horrible things across space and time.
EXACTLY my thought, well more like glow in the dark, it's not like YT has no sense of humor, YT has a sense of humor and you best hope you share the exact type and allowed wording and reprogram your mind, memory and personality when the terms change
7:13 Ironically, that rumor makes both a lot of sense, and none. The mind flayer empire was erased from reality and history by the Giths, but that leaves Mind Flayers, the spawn of that empire, in a bit of a paradox, like the "Evolved Aboleth" theory. They both exist, but have no cause of them existing, and therefore cannot. The theory that Mind Flayers are evolved aboleths does, however, hold some decent water. No pun intended, what happens when a mind flayer brood pool is left alone, is that all the little brain-eater worms duke it out until one is the size of small subway train, and a bestial eel driven only by hunger. Sounds like a mindless aboleth. Aboleths want to destroy the gods and reclaim reality, so what if some of them already had a plan, enacted it, and it failed? The gods would punish them. Ripping them of their minds and self-defining eternal memory seems effective, yes? That explains why Mind Flayers are shameful of the grown babies. It reminds them of the glory they once had, and how the gods beat their a**. _TWICE._ The gith rend their empire from history, and therefore the other aboleths don't remember them. But then, why did the gods only punish some aboleths? Surely they know that the other ones still plot, yes? It makes sense, but it doesn't.
It’ll be like watching your parent maturbate to themselves but it’s also you. Because you retain their memories and any feelings that are entails with it
You know, as far as Eldritch Horrors go, I always thought Aboleths were the best to use. Smart, patient, and sufficiently terrifying, when sushi is mentioned.
I like your description of the Aboleths being the gods before the current gods. We used to describe the Far Realm as the contracting universe before this universe. The abberations are so strange because the in the contracting universe the laws of physics are breaking down into a real of pure thought. That is why the Far Realm was so had to get to and survive, it was time travel into negative time before there was time.
God I love these vids. I knew NOTHING about Aboleths before this vid. I figured they were just another big bad evil thing. This was video was insightful
They're qualities are all contradictory to working together. Beholders are fiercely independent. Though they have slaves, they are constantly anxious about others who could kill them. Mindflayers utilize a hive mind and would likely demand to implant all others with tadpoles which I can't imagine Aboleths and or Beholders being alright with in the slightest. Finally, Aboleths want domination of all others as they rule reality, and both Mind Flayers and Beholders hold slaves as they desire to rule as well. Point is, none of them would let the other control, or implant, them in order to work together "properly" in their minds. I believe they were intentionally designed this way.
Mindflayers are most likely from the future. In a really old module you find a nautilus space ship or time ship belonging to them. Very similiar to later space jammer content. Or, they are from a different "far plane" than aboleths. I wonder how aboleths feel about primordials.
I love all the MtG imagery in these videos. Makes me feel clever to recognize a specific cards art. Thank you for helping me feel clever even though I'm not.
Yup, you've convinced me. Next time I make a G.O.O. Warlock it's going to be an Aboleth Patron. It just makes sense. Not like they're really going to care as long as I honestly respect them which is easy to do for N or LN as I normally play them and he's getting the neat-o powers. Act as 'my masters' hand in the above-world to speak for them or investigate interesting things going foreword. Man, that fits my usual play style actually pretty easily. "SERVANT, READY AN APPROPRIATE LAIR FOR MY SPAWN." "Kiddo is ready to move out on their own? Sure! I can use Shatter and Eldritch Blasts to carve a channel and redirect this river into these abandoned Dwarven mines. Would it be possible to earn access to the Mold Earth cantrip or the Shape Stone or Stone Wall spells so I may do a better job for you? If not that's fine, you're the boss, but it'll take significantly longer to complete."
The funny thing about mind players and aboleths is that both are kinda scared of the other, the entire mind player society is built around psionics, and Aboleths are unrivaled in that regard, so the mind flayers are intimidated in that regard The aboleths, as the video said, don't remember the Mind flayer empire, so they have a classical case of "fear of the unknown"
Campain idea: a western themed adventure where the vilian is an aboleth that sits in a tiny pool called "the last oasis" and tries to bring back the ancient ocians
Runesmith, I have already subbed, but I want to say I LOVE YOU. You have such a great sense of humor and put these monsters into such a relatable context. You realize this makes you a Mystic Theurge with all good mental stats, right?
Goal! Help beholders and illithid attain god status on par with Aboleths and become true gods of the mind! Then maybe also have a god race dedicated to the living souls.
Thank you, just last week, told my players that they would be hunting an aboleth, and then you pout this out. One of my players also watch's your content, luckily he can can separate player and character knowledge, because all they knew before this was that the monster was higher CR than they could fight.
i want so badly for you to make a video about literally everything in dnd bc i can not for the life of me read the players handbook or the dms guide or the mm but i can eatch your videos for fucking hours. theyre so good. i love them. i hope they make you lots of money so you make more of them
I had figured Mind Flayers were just from a different plane or dimension all together that is completely separate from the Aboleths. Hence why Aboleths don't remember anything about them because they were never there to begin with and only showed up way later.
Ahahaha "greedy bird bitch" sums up how I talk about creatures in the MM Definitely going to go write an aboleth short campaign (or quest series). Thanks for the inspiration!
I made a custom patron with an obsession with knowledge and learning and experience and thanks to this video I now realize it was a space-aboleth all along.
I was planning on playing as a an aboleth who grew up with out the knowledge of it past and eventually wound up in a city that contained five others along with a gigantic number of other misfits as well as gigantic number of your average playable race. This city would have been immense and would have contained everything from drow, pech, and genasi to surface elf, dwarf and humans (as long as they are kind), but now knowing just how powerful and important these fellas are, I’m. It sure if that would work.
How did you know? I'm running an aboleth BBEG adventure starting on Sunday and was totally lost on how to use them! Thanks for the weirdly timely video.
I wonder. With the ability to gain all the memories of there ancestors when born, wouldn't the oldest Aboleth be also the weakest? He had the least lives lived.
0:48 they stood out to me cause i played pathfinder. cause pathfinder aboleths had absorb a bunch of roles normally given to more copywritten aberrations(such as mindflayers).
They are one of my favs for a reason... that reasons name is carl. Aboleth are great arch foes that you can always claim that they are at fault because they plan everything; or at least could.
hi 🙂 as a young teen, the aboleth in Baldur’s Gate 2 was rad. the DnD people have made a lot of strange creatures but the aboleth is one of the best imo
And one day, a beholder dreams of a mind flayer and an aboleth planning things to kill him, which results into the creation of a new beholder... With mind flayer and aboleth characteristics.
I see what you did there with that Sovereign dialogue. Nice one! Ahh, good old Reapers, cosmic horror squids, who brainwash and assimilate species... wait a minute... ROBOMINDFLAYERS