For those that don't know what ceremorphosis is, its the natural process of reproduction of illithids (AKA mind flayers*)
I am asking this because I have a character whose backstory involves a tiefling farmer that survived (psychologically speaking) an illithid tadpole inserted into her. What occurred that led to her survival was that, coincidentally, the illithid tadpole that infected her was deformed (either with a birth defect or was a runt) and (or at least I was thinking this) a nearby town/city that was able to kill the colony's Elder Brain. This coupled with the defective tadpole resulted in the transformation being halted, and them retaining their personality and mind (or at least what wasn't eaten by the tadpole). However, this came at the expense of them becoming a twisted half-breed - a tiefling (who, DND lorewise, are already looked upon with prejudice for their heritage) with characteristics of mind flayers. To elaborate, their appearance includes:
A few tentacle like growths near her mouth (smaller there) and longer ones where the neck connects to the chin
a few tentacles come out of her mouth while she's eating, and doesn't need to survive purely on brains like the mind flayers do. This doesn't mean she is completely free from eating them, however. She still needs to every so often consume brains to stay functioning and to prevent the ceremorph part of her from going "hunting". To combat this, she's begun growing a variant of myconid that is smaller than other members of their species, and are much easier to manage.
One of her eyes has gain the qualities of an illithid's
parts of her head had begun to change to the cephalopod-like features of ceromorphs, resulting in these areas to lose their original coloring and hair.
A much more gaunt appearance, and her right hand had begun to morph to the 4-digit members many layers have
After the character (who is a simic hybrid that is an escaped genetic experiment/test subject) meets them, she finds out he was also turned into a savage form that still functions like his previous form while still being treated as a monster. She has the mind-reading capabilities of mind-flayers (which is about it), so she was able to communicate with him telepathically since his transformation made it harder for him to speak the languages of people. Knowing the nature of two languages she knew, one she already knew and the other she gained from her transformation - Infernal and Deep Speech. These were languages spoken by monstrous creatures, and so were better suited for one with the speaking parts he now had, thus explaining his semi-fluency in the languages.
*or really anything related to them, as creatures infected by tadpoles become something related to mind flayers but are another creature altogether (for example, brainstealer dragons, or mindwitnesses)
Sorry if this was extremely long to read, just wanted to know if this could've been something that was theoretically possible and felt it would make sense to give the background of the idea
A ceremorphosis that didn't quite take is one offered explanation for the orign of an Aberrent Mind Sorcerer's powers, so yeah.
I think though you're missing the time table as to the morphology of the morphis part of things. The tentacles and the rest of the Illithid anatomy doesn't really begin to develop until after the tadpole has consumed the entirety of the host brain.
On the other hand you also have the gnome squidling seen in Rime of the Frost Maiden. Some folks interpret the phenomenon as unique to Gnomes undergoing ceremorphosis, but I don't see anywhere in the monster explanation that asserts that.
If you go way back in D&D lore you have Cordell's trilogy of Illithid modules that were sort of a companion to his Illithiad 2e sourcebook. There's a secret alley who is a transformed Illithid who somehow retained their original consciousness. So like any other biological process, even fantastical, there's room for things going weird(er) with an Illithid.
Yes it is, and there is a subclass that is specifically catered to that character creation and that is the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. Its the DND ask the DM if he will allow it. Also I think Ceremorphosis stops completely when the Tadpole is either dormant or dead. A Mind Flayer would assure that the Tadpoles wouldn't be deformed though when they do such Ceremorphosis because they can detect it. So its Either Dormant or Dead, but that's up to you and the DM to decide. But if the Tadpole is still inside them but still dormant them or their children would likely become an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. But yeah it is Infact possible. Just work with the DM.
For those that don't know what ceremorphosis is, its the natural process of reproduction of illithids (AKA mind flayers*)
I am asking this because I have a character whose backstory involves a tiefling farmer that survived (psychologically speaking) an illithid tadpole inserted into her. What occurred that led to her survival was that, coincidentally, the illithid tadpole that infected her was deformed (either with a birth defect or was a runt) and (or at least I was thinking this) a nearby town/city that was able to kill the colony's Elder Brain. This coupled with the defective tadpole resulted in the transformation being halted, and them retaining their personality and mind (or at least what wasn't eaten by the tadpole). However, this came at the expense of them becoming a twisted half-breed - a tiefling (who, DND lorewise, are already looked upon with prejudice for their heritage) with characteristics of mind flayers. To elaborate, their appearance includes:
After the character (who is a simic hybrid that is an escaped genetic experiment/test subject) meets them, she finds out he was also turned into a savage form that still functions like his previous form while still being treated as a monster. She has the mind-reading capabilities of mind-flayers (which is about it), so she was able to communicate with him telepathically since his transformation made it harder for him to speak the languages of people. Knowing the nature of two languages she knew, one she already knew and the other she gained from her transformation - Infernal and Deep Speech. These were languages spoken by monstrous creatures, and so were better suited for one with the speaking parts he now had, thus explaining his semi-fluency in the languages.
*or really anything related to them, as creatures infected by tadpoles become something related to mind flayers but are another creature altogether (for example, brainstealer dragons, or mindwitnesses)
Sorry if this was extremely long to read, just wanted to know if this could've been something that was theoretically possible and felt it would make sense to give the background of the idea
A ceremorphosis that didn't quite take is one offered explanation for the orign of an Aberrent Mind Sorcerer's powers, so yeah.
I think though you're missing the time table as to the morphology of the morphis part of things. The tentacles and the rest of the Illithid anatomy doesn't really begin to develop until after the tadpole has consumed the entirety of the host brain.
On the other hand you also have the gnome squidling seen in Rime of the Frost Maiden. Some folks interpret the phenomenon as unique to Gnomes undergoing ceremorphosis, but I don't see anywhere in the monster explanation that asserts that.
If you go way back in D&D lore you have Cordell's trilogy of Illithid modules that were sort of a companion to his Illithiad 2e sourcebook. There's a secret alley who is a transformed Illithid who somehow retained their original consciousness. So like any other biological process, even fantastical, there's room for things going weird(er) with an Illithid.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yes it is, and there is a subclass that is specifically catered to that character creation and that is the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. Its the DND ask the DM if he will allow it. Also I think Ceremorphosis stops completely when the Tadpole is either dormant or dead. A Mind Flayer would assure that the Tadpoles wouldn't be deformed though when they do such Ceremorphosis because they can detect it. So its Either Dormant or Dead, but that's up to you and the DM to decide. But if the Tadpole is still inside them but still dormant them or their children would likely become an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. But yeah it is Infact possible. Just work with the DM.