Terror Thursday - Dragon #150 (October 1989) Commentary

This is possibly my favorite Dragon magazine. The issue is Oct 150 & its first edition AD&D all of the way.This is the Halloween issue with an Elmore cover first of all. There's a boat load of Cthulhu 4th edition articles & advice.
Then of course the real reason that I love this issue 

The mind flayers !

According to Wiki "The mind flayer appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977).^[7]The mind flayer appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977).^[7] Roger E. Moore authored "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer," which featured in Dragon #78 (October 1983).^[8]

The article "The Sunset World" by Stephen Inniss in Dragon #150 (October 1989) presented a world that had been completely ravaged by mind flayers. The "Dragon's Bestiary" column, in the same issue and by the same author, described the Illithidae, the strange inhabitants of this world.^[8]

The article "The Sunset World" by Stephen Inniss in Dragon #150 (October 1989) presented a world that had been completely ravaged by mind flayers. The "Dragon's Bestiary" column, in the same issue and by the same author, described the Illithidae, the strange inhabitants of this world."

The wiki entry doesn't begin to do the articles justice. The first article I view as a companion to the second. They actual contradict each other which is fine. Roger E. Moore authored "The Ecology of the Mind Flayer," which featured in Dragon #78 (October 1983). This style of mind flayer is an almost predator type of creature moving through the megadungeons of various worlds. That's how I've used them. The article actually gives an interaction between a Githyanki knight & a college of adventurers. These are more of the Mind Flayer scouts in my mind. A slightly different class biologically the others 

The article "The Sunset World" by Stephen Inniss in Dragon #150 (October 1989) is a completely different matter. This is a full blown expedition to a world ravaged & controlled by the mind flayers. The article could be used for many different game campaigns but actually shows the results of Mind Flayer terraforming efforts. They also show a number of interesting interactions with  the Illithidae, the strange inhabitants of this world. These are bio sculpted species breed by the Mind Flayers. Each & everyone of them is psionic & have been dropped from the current line up of monsters. Since they're 1st edition AD&D they could be used with any retro clone system. 

We get a rare glimpse into the interactions of the Githyanki knights & adventurers. Not combat but an actual planar crossing with them. They're used in a very cool way & DMs should take note. It wasn't until PlaneScape that the monsters were shown to be more then mere stat blocks in the AD&D game. 

The Sunset World articles also had a metric ton of encounter tables for these Mind Flayer ravaged worlds. There were lots of familiar faces on those tables with ropers, trappers, & lots of others. The idea of the Mind Flayer as both invader & provider of invasive species was a new idea.

The whole issue had a very pulpy/Lovecraftian feel to it. The world presented is stark, weird, & very non canon now. That's fine with me. I'm using these versions of the flayer & the "Sun Set World"
 The githyanki/illithid relationship was inspired by Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs. That's not the only science fictional origin though. According to Wiki yet again. 

George Martin's githyanki

"In Martin's novel, the githyanki were called "soulsucks" because of their dangerous psychic powers. They were slaves of another alien race called the hrangans, and were used by them in their long space wars with humanity. Unlike the D&D race, they were barely sentient. No githyanki actually appear in Dying of the Light, as the book takes place after the war between the humans and the hrangans is long over, and the soulsucks are nearly extinct. There is also passing reference to them in Martin's short-story collectionTuf Voyaging." 

This puts a brand new spin on the Mind Flayer relationship & might have some bearing on how the Githyanki were used in the ancient past. Its just a passing thought. All in all this is a hell of a Halloween issue of Dragon & remains one of my favorites 

Perhaps its time for a Sun Set World mini revival. This material could easily be used with any retroclone OSR revival material much of it is actually edition neutral.