A Metaphor of Psyche

Fraternity of Order

Bureau of Planar Races

Merrin Tetchler

Submission CXP235JF95

            This paper is a collection of my reflections of the work of Simon Grazelder concerning his recently published paper on a subject he terms the “psychological classification” of the human mind. In his paper (submission FHR786J98T in the Psionic and Metalist Bureau of the Fraternity) he identifies three different aspects of human psyche, the id, the ego, and the super-ego, which collectively make the foundation of human thought. While his paper remains cautious on application of this theory to non-humans, Grazelder himself and his colleagues remain optimistic. Upon reading this paper, I am compelled to explore themes included in Grazelder’s study and in my own area of study, that of the githzerai and githyanki races as well as their former enslavers the “mind-flayers” or illithids. The connections I observe between categorizations of human thoughts and the overarching themes of my own field of study are striking, as the reader will see.

            The first aspect explored in Grazelder’s paper is the id, so named because it is concerned with the self-centered desires of the individual. These thoughts are sometimes considered selfish, because they are often pursued at the expense of others’ needs. The id seeks the fulfillment of an individual’s desire, comfort, and control, all introverted pursuits. One can easily see echoes of this concept in the illithids’ domination and enslavement of other races, a pursuit of comfort and prosperity for the masters that comes at the extent of their slaves’ needs. While some would consider it an understatement to consider the aspirations of the illithids to be merely “selfish,” at a fundamental level they are extreme extensions of self-centered thoughts, of the id, existent in the minds of humans.

            The next categorization presented by Grazeleder is the ego, the extroverted counterpart to the id. The ego interprets and assimilates reality as encountered by an individual’s senses, distilling the myriad facets of one’s environment into clear thoughts. What a central thought in my mind as I recently traveled among the githzerai settlements on the chaotic plane of Limbo! The famed anarchs of these people, shaping the boiling “chaos soup,” as they call it, into clear objects and ground, certainly seem to parallel the role of the ego. They clarify the confusing reality of that plane into shapes that outsiders can understand, serving as a lens through which one might perceive the confusion of the plane’s medium. Further, the religion of the zerth, purportedly founded by the githzerai savior Zerthimon, holds at its core the idea of knowing where one belongs in the multiverse, in reality. What is more central to the role of the ego?

            The final section of the human psyche outlined by Grazelder, the super-ego, is likewise connected conceptually to the final section of my field, the githyanki. As described by Grazelder, the super-ego is concerned with conscience and causality. While most would consider the society of the githyanki to be an amoral culture, my own studies have revealed a heavily emphasized, if manipulated and self-serving, morality. The need to protect and further the ambitions of the lich queen is central to all githyanki actions and the basic motivation for many of their decisions, a clear code of conduct. The super-ego’s role as an "advocate of a striving towards perfection" even more clearly reflects the drive of githyanki culture. Every githyanki youth, warrior or warlock, is expected to push himself to the limits of his abilities and reach the pinnacle of his chosen path, again for the goals of the lich queen.

             While I would not consider myself a scholar the work of Grazelder, there are still very few of those, I am an accomplished scholar of on the subject of the gith races and illithids. The similarities between Grazelder’s “psychology” and my own subject matter compel me to explore this topic and discern the extent of the connections. It has not escaped my notice either that these species are among the most psionically gifted individuals in the known multiverse, nor that their mental abilities all seem to arise from the gith enslavement under the illithids. Could this time period has drawn the collective psyche of the illithid overlords and the gith races together? Might the subsequent divisions between these races have led to a shattered psyche, wherein the various aspects of a healthy mind, normally in balance, have since come to dominate the minds of each species? These questions are merely rhetorical now, and generations of changing racial memory may make them unanswerable, but one can never afford to quickly dismiss such probes on the subject of gith and illithid.