The Phratry of Fulin'Delp was an organization of aliphids present in the southeastern Caverealm, primarily in the neighborhood of Zann'Elth and yuan-ti Assenssa. Its aim was the creation of an aliphid dominion by taking over the minds of other races.

History

Mimenvoolp was an aliphid citadel of several hundred, run by a pair of elder brains. From the unearthly smooth pillars, the aliphids ruled over a host of mind-dominated thralls including goblins, orcs, and a few drow. To the aliphids' dismay, a clan of orcs managed to free their minds and escape, to return not too long after alongside a druegar mercenary host. The mind flayers were slaughtered, but a small group managed to escape along with a few of their best thralls, including five drow. The most potent of their number, an aliphid called Fulin'Delp, became the leader of the splinter group.

Phratriarch Fulin'Delp, 198 - 52 b. OW

Fulin'Delp, nicknamed Phelip, was an extremely able and ambitious individual born from the mind of a drow mage. Like most aliphids, his ultimate goal was the subjugation of the world under a psionic aliphid empire, but for the more foreseeable future he intended to rebuild an aliphid community - though he was more ambitious than Mimenvoolp, and intended to start bigger. Accordingly, with the help of the drow thralls, his phratry took up residence in a dingy, forgotten corner of the Zannyr warrens.

The phratry began extending its tendrils of influence. It was very careful, however, enthralling very few individuals and making sure they were absolutely dominated with no chance of freeing their minds. The aliphids also directly approached some drow factions, including merchant guilds and minor houses, promising psionic power. Eventually, Fulin'Delp successfully made a deal with the Thayren Vale Coster, a trade guild that purchased goods from fungal farms beneath the citadel and resold their wares in bazaars. The Coster was interested in aliphid help because they faced tough competition and intended to gain an edge against them. Fulin'Delp helped the guild by carefully eliminating key competitors, simultaneously gaining control by dominating the minds of Coster leaders. It was during this period that the aliphids gained a taste for drow brains.

Within a century, the phratry had come from a small group of refugees to controlling one of Zann'Elth's most successful internal trade guilds and commanding considerable funds and personnel. The aliphids became used to enriching their diets with humanoid brains; in fact, the phratry started consuming almost a brain a day. A cluster of caves at the rear of the Thayren Vale Coster's main compound was converted into a pen where future meals, from various cheap slaves rounded up on markets, humanoids kidnapped in the warrens, or drow commoners mysteriously disappeared. By keeping humanoids in a mental stasis for a while, then giving them lucidity again for the final moments, their brains were properly "ripened". Additionally, the aliphids had twice succeeded to implant a tadpole in a drow brain and create a new member of their own race.

Emboldened by the success of their operation, and by the creation of new aliphids, the phratry began seeking to extend their influence and create new, more powerful members of their race. Tsseh traders from the south began visiting the city, and the Coster capitalized on the situation by investing early on in southern trade. The Coster's wealthiest partner, the pureblood yuan-ti merchant-princess Issensess, piqued the mind flayers' interest; in 76 b. OW, she was enthralled and a new hideout in the city of Assenssa was established.

Fulin'Delp's Master Plan

Phelip knew that to succeed, the phratry had to grow its numbers, and he felt confident it could be done. The aliphids had realized that, without the tools of Mimenvoolp, the best subjects for creating powerful aliphids were drow spellcasters. Knowing that priestesses of Lolth were the strongest, Phelip successfully approached the Mistress Tazunel Zuunafel of Zinith-Lolth. She was mostly interested in growing her personal power, and in exchange gave the aliphids an apprentice priestess now and again. The aliphids' numbers grew, and two megaphids - very powerful individuals - were created.

However, the aliphids had gone too far; the other instructors grew suspicious of the high rate of disappearing students under Tazunel, and the inquisition was alerted. In an effort to cover his traces, Phelip devoured Tazunel's brain. But he was spotted and stopped while trying to leave her quarters, and was summarily executed. It took half a year for the inquisitors to find the rest of the mind flayers, but they eventually succeeded by following a few humanoids the aliphids intended to eat; the vast eating chamber behind the Coster was simply too suspicious. The drow attacked, and most aliphids - including a megaphid - died. The Coster was destroyed, and so was - the drow believed - the entire infestation of mind flayers in Zann'Elth.

An aliphid about to implant a tadpole, 28 b. OW.

Phratriarch Tuneneth, 52 b. OW - 17 OW

Tuneneth, the Blunt, was a megaphid of great psionic strength. He, along with two other aliphids, were hiding in the warrens when the Coster was destroyed. He was determined to try again and take over drow society, and he had the support of the remainder of the phratry in Assenssa. He refused to leave Zann'Elth and go to the yuan-ti city, because drow society was much more hierarchical and centralized, thus easier to take over, and drow priestesses had proven far better hosts, and had more delicious brains, than any snathed creatures.

The Blunt decided not to take the same approach as Phelip. Instead of taking over a huge compound, with an almost industrial production of brains to eat, which was easy to spot and vulnerable because all aliphids were in one spot, he decided to split up the few remaining aliphids and each infiltrate a drow house. They succeeded, with Blunt and another becoming advisors to minor matrons, and the third aliphid helping a house master-at-arms plot for power against the matron's patron. In time, Blunt succeeded to dominate the mind of his matron and take over House Mein'Mart. The house nobility was all dominated, and the aliphids built a small hideout in the matron's chambers and the house chapel. After half a century, the aliphids were seven, and they had a network stretching over several minor houses.

Phratriarch Meizen-Sight, 17 - 82 OW

Meizen-Sight the Seer was an aliphid created out of a human in the Assenssa hideout, who joined the Mein'Mart group in 4 b. OW. He realized that all three aliphids Blunt had created in Zann'Elth were born from drow priestesses, which were extremely hard to come by - the disappearance of a dozen priestesses had caused several dangerous situations where the phratry was almost discovered, and none of the three were exceptionally powerful. When Seer proposed to Blunt to try other subjects for ceremorphosis, the megaphid flatly rejected him and argued only priestesses with untouched minds were usable subjects. This caused Seer to believe that "Tuneneth is clearly blinded by his belief that only dark elf priestesses are good subjects [...] perhaps the exquisite queer taste of their minds has misled him". Instead of silently accepting Blunt's obsession with priestesses, Seer decided to attempt a ceremorphosis of his own on an enthralled male house wizard, with barely any tools and in a dingy warren cell. He succeeded, creating a new aliphid whose psychic power could outdo two of Blunt's spawn together.

This led to the emergence of two factions within the phratry, with one stubbornly arguing for a focus on priestesses led by Blunt, and the other wanting to open the spectrum of subjects under Seer. Eventually, it grew clear that near everyone supported Seer, so Blunt grudgingly gave up his role as phratriarch and, together with another aliphid, went to Assenssa. As the new phratriach, Seer widened the group's area of operations, enthralling or kidnapping drow mages for use as well. As it turned out, bodies trained in arcane arts were much more propice to successfully withstanding ceremorphosis and creating powerful aliphids. Their numbers slowly grew, but Seer always maintained strict discipline: the aliphids remained in the shadows, rarely met, and brains were almost never consumed.

Exodus, 82 OW

The phratry's network had become supremely powerful: a dozen noble houses, including the major house Mal'Maern, had been infiltrated; the aliphids had seven safe rooms where they could keep humanoids in stasis and perform ceremorphosis; the hideout network had spread to two new Zannyr settlements, and three new Tsseh ones; and numerous organizations, including the mercenaries of Malen'Feir, the majority of the First and Second City Guards, were all under aliphid control. Seer intended to take over the Tyrana and make Zann'Elth his dominion in no more than a decade, but to his great dismay, the phratry was uncovered by the Tyranaen Inquisition; around half the infiltrated houses were discovered, and Seer himself was now known.

Instead of fighting the aliphids, which would be a very risky endeavour and most likely result in some aliphid cells remaining alive to continue infiltrating Zann'Elth, the Tyrana approached Seer and proposed a deal. She would allow the aliphids to leave with all their thralls and assets, as well as 2'000 slaves of their choice, along with Zannyr protection for the way, under the condition that they left Zann'Elth and set up an aliphid city of their own. Seer accepted the deal, and all his phratry moved away, setting up the citadel of Meizenunth south of Tsseh's caves.