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Birth of a beholder

filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
edited January 2017 in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
From to Volo's Guide to Monster:

Beholders give "birth" by dreaming. During the time in which a beholder rests, his mind never stops working. In case he dreams of a beholder, the reality is warped to create that beholder is dreaming of. The new beholder can be an exact copy of the dreaming one, in which case they will probably fight to death, or a different one. The beholder can dream of a hive of smaller beholders. This way he creates its own colony. Finally, due to its huge paranoia, the beholder can dream of immortality, and therefore he became a death tyrant himself.

The D&D world never stop to fascinate me.
Post edited by filcat88 on

Comments

  • filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
    edited January 2017
    SirBatince said:

    That seems pretty rather silly. Wouldn't one of them eventually learn to control their dreams and just give themselves universal power at no cost?

    I always thought a few things were so silly in the bestiary. Like how seeing a ghost ages the viewer by +10-40 years. I mean come on. :neutral:

    Well, I think even in D&D world the dream is something you have no control over. So in this case beholder's birth happens, say, quite randomly. In any case, in that chapter it is not mentioned that a dreaming beholder has more powers or something, it is just that in dreaming about beholder the phychic energy is so intense to create a new beholder.

    It is D&D, so it is crazy stuff.
  • UnderstandMouseMagicUnderstandMouseMagic Member Posts: 2,147
    I figured the title of this thread was meant to read "birth".

    However, I rather like the expression.

    "Wow, that's one bith of a beholder"
    The one in the Sauhagin City for instance.
  • filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
    UnderstandMouseMagic said:

    I figured the title of this thread was meant to read "birth".

    However, I rather like the expression.

    "Wow, that's one bith of a beholder"
    The one in the Sauhagin City for instance.

    Damn, I have only realised that just now....The keyboard and I are not really good friends.
  • LoremasterLoremaster Member Posts: 212
    Shall we trust Volo’s guide?

    This thread reminds me of something I’ve wondered for some time: The anatomy of a beholder. What’s behind the eye and the mouth? Can’t be much room for anything else. Do beholders have a digesting system, a brain? … Hmm, if this is on my mind, then I must have played too much BG. :/
  • DrakeICNDrakeICN Member Posts: 623
    edited January 2017
    SirBatince said:

    That seems pretty rather silly. Wouldn't one of them eventually learn to control their dreams and just give themselves universal power at no cost?

    I always thought a few things were so silly in the bestiary. Like how seeing a ghost ages the viewer by +10-40 years. I mean come on. :neutral:

    Can Beholders brake the first law of thermodynamics? I would think that a beholder would need to devour enough overly curious adventurers, deep gnomes and dark elves to amount enough energy necessary for replication, before his dreams can become a reality!
  • filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
    DrakeICN said:

    SirBatince said:

    That seems pretty rather silly. Wouldn't one of them eventually learn to control their dreams and just give themselves universal power at no cost?

    I always thought a few things were so silly in the bestiary. Like how seeing a ghost ages the viewer by +10-40 years. I mean come on. :neutral:

    Can Beholders brake the first law of thermodynamics? I would think that a beholder would need to devour enough overly curious adventurers, deep gnomes and dark elves to amount enough energy necessary for replication, before his dreams can become a reality!
    Well my guess is that in world ruled by magic the laws of thermodynamics need revisions.
  • SunderSunder Member Posts: 56
    filcat88 said:

    SirBatince said:

    That seems pretty rather silly. Wouldn't one of them eventually learn to control their dreams and just give themselves universal power at no cost?

    I always thought a few things were so silly in the bestiary. Like how seeing a ghost ages the viewer by +10-40 years. I mean come on. :neutral:

    Well, I think even in D&D world the dream is something you have no control over. So in this case beholder's birth happens, say, quite randomly. In any case, in that chapter it is not mentioned that a dreaming beholder has more powers or something, it is just that in dreaming about beholder the phychic energy is so intense to create a new beholder.

    It is D&D, so it is crazy stuff.
    You do know that humans in the real world have the power to affect/control their dreams, right?
  • wubblewubble Member Posts: 3,156
    Yeah but our dreams cant manifest in reality.
  • filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
    Sunder said:


    You do know that humans in the real world have the power to affect/control their dreams, right?

    Somehow you can affect them, but I don't think you have total control over them, like choosing which movie to watch and being actor and director of that movie. Unless I am missed something in my years of dreamer...
  • DrakeICNDrakeICN Member Posts: 623
    filcat88 said:


    Somehow you can affect them, but I don't think you have total control over them, like choosing which movie to watch and being actor and director of that movie. Unless I am missed something in my years of dreamer...

    You are. You are not a proffesional dreamer:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream#Scientific_research

    The field have a bad rep in the science world though, since magicians (no, not the party trick flavor* the Aleister Crowley flavor) love lucid dreaming;
    https://www.google.se/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=lucid+dreaming+and+magic

    *Party trick magicians arent technically magicians, they are illusionists.
  • filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
    DrakeICN said:

    filcat88 said:


    Somehow you can affect them, but I don't think you have total control over them, like choosing which movie to watch and being actor and director of that movie. Unless I am missed something in my years of dreamer...

    You are. You are not a proffesional dreamer:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream#Scientific_research

    The field have a bad rep in the science world though, since magicians (no, not the party trick flavor* the Aleister Crowley flavor) love lucid dreaming;
    https://www.google.se/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=lucid+dreaming+and+magic

    *Party trick magicians arent technically magicians, they are illusionists.
    Yes, lucid dream. But even in the definition you gave me says: "the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment.". So no total control
  • SunderSunder Member Posts: 56
    filcat88 said:

    DrakeICN said:

    filcat88 said:


    Somehow you can affect them, but I don't think you have total control over them, like choosing which movie to watch and being actor and director of that movie. Unless I am missed something in my years of dreamer...

    You are. You are not a proffesional dreamer:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream#Scientific_research

    The field have a bad rep in the science world though, since magicians (no, not the party trick flavor* the Aleister Crowley flavor) love lucid dreaming;
    https://www.google.se/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=lucid+dreaming+and+magic

    *Party trick magicians arent technically magicians, they are illusionists.
    Yes, lucid dream. But even in the definition you gave me says: "the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment.". So no total control
    Which fits nicely as to why beholders haven't used there dreams to become all powerful. ;)
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    I don't remember which book I got that from and it was quite some time ago when I read this, so don't quote me on this because I might remember something wrong:

    Beholders procreate asexually by growing a single infant in a sack below their tongue. They only get pregnant once per lifetime and the preganancy lasts two years during which the parent is particularly easy to anger (even other beholders are scared of pregnant ones).

    So remember kids:
    Don't piss off pregnant eye tyrants!
  • filcat88filcat88 Member Posts: 115
    Buttercheese said:

    Aye, okay, found the passage again. From Dungeons & Dragons - Lords of Madness - The Book of Aberrations:

    Reproductive System

    Beholders are gender neutral, and they become fertile only once in their lives. During this period (which happens within the first forty years of a beholder’s life), the creature grows increasingly more erratic and paranoid in behavior. A strange ovoid organ below the back of the creature’s tongue grows large and swollen; this is the creature’s womb. A typical beholder gestates up to twelve young in its womb over a period of nearly six months, during which time it grows more and more active and cantankerous. A pregnant beholder eats nearly four times its normal amount of food for the fi rst four months of its term, storing up food reserves in its stomach, intestines, and even its lung. During the final two months, the creature’s womb has swollen so large that its mouth becomes incapable of swallowing more food, and its tongue protrudes grossly from its maw. A beholder is at its most paranoid during this time
    and remains hidden in its lair until it gives birth.

    The birthing of new beholders is a sight that few have witnessed and by all accounts, it’s something that even fewer would want to witness. When a brood comes to term, a beholder’s jaw unhinges, and it regurgitates its womb out through the mouth. The creature bites the womb off, and it floats gently in the air. The young beholders are forced to chew their way out of the gory mass to freedom; they are capable of
    flight immediately, but their eye powers develop later in life. Although a beholder gives birth to up to a dozen young at once, only a handful survive. The parent observes its young and decides which look most like itself. The others are eaten by the ravenous parent, along with the discarded womb, and the surviving young are forced from the parent’s lair within the hour to fend for themselves.
    Breakdown:
    - Beholders are intersex
    - They become fertile once per lifetime, within their first 40 years
    - They become 'erractic and paranoid' when pregnant
    - Their wombs are under their tongues
    - They are pregnant for six months
    - They eat four times of what they usually eat when pregnant
    - They give birth to up to twelve babies, but only few survive
    - The birthing process is frickin gross: They unhinge their jaws, spit out the womb sack and the babies have to bite their way out of it.
    - The parent eats the babies that look the least like itself and the remaining womb sack
    - The babies are then chased out of the lair and have to fend of their own

    Well, it seems that the Sundering has altered the reproduction system of beholders.... otherwise Volo is not trustworthy.
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