So, I got Daermon to hand me over the in-game descriptions of all NPC illithoids so I could put this together. The older races never got an unified reference of what they're supposed to look like, meaning we got anything from totally anthropomorphic people with fur, to digitigrade, six-nippled bipedal cats. I'm trying to keep this from happening. Now:

Animal analogy: if dracnari are lizards, merians are bony fish, and aslaran are cats, illithoids most resemble a lamprey.

Illithoid skin: Ranges from grey (pale) to purple (flushed), passing through blue and possibly blue-black or purple-black. Is crossed with veins; they're tan coloured in the illustration, but all Illithoid NPCs have purple veins. Illithoid are NOT scaled. Illithoid skin is something between leathery and slick like a mugwump. Would make good wallets.

Illithoid nose and ears: Absent. No external ears and just a little protrusion for the nose, with two holes there. Think Voldemort here.

Mouth: Sharp, dagger-like teeth (Look at the lamprey pictures). Mouth is obviously still humanoid, able to open and close like everyone else's, but no prominent lips; I also believe they would open to be more circular than a human mouth.

Eyes: From NPC descriptions, always red, sunken and slanted.

Head: TOTALLY BALD. Illithoid DO NOT HAVE HAIR, not even female ones. Forehead and brow seems to be ridged, more or less like a klingon but less prominent.

Body: Spindly, slender, cartilaginous.

Sternal mouth: Two possibilities here, not sure which is "canon" but I never expect the admin to confirm those things. Either it's placed above the sternum - between the clavicles, underneath the trachea, or it is the sternum, which opens up (Like in open heart surgery, but without the need of bone saws or retractors.). The rigid spot in the centre of the chest is the sternum; above that there's a soft spot where the trachea recedes. That's place A. The alternative is that the sternum itself opens, making inner worms somewhat like Quaato. Externally, it probably doesn't show up or looks like a long vertical scar (Possibly with teensy tiny, criss-crossing vestigial teeth)

Inner worm: No idea. I always picture them somewhat like a horrible tentacular thing, each tentacle ending in a feeding mouth like a lamprey's, but who knows? Can someone kill an illithoid and look at it for me?

Hey thanks!

The mouth of the lamprey picture looks like what ate Captain Jack Sparrow.

This is awesome! I'd like to see one for Kephera because I'm too lazy to traverse the Undervault looking for some.

Quoted for Truth!

Do the females have glow-butts?

edit: Though it's not so much that I'm lazy, it's just I'm waiting for the map to be finished and put up on the website cause I get lost sooooooooooo easily.

I hope so. Glowbutts are seksay.

Edit: Actually, looking at the picture, the one with the glowbutt is bigger, and the bigger ones are the females.

Thanks thrax

I'm not doing Kephera, though. I don't like them enough and I don't have the info.

ETA: BTW can we get correction/confirmation from an admin on all that?

After extensive peering at the descs of the NPC Kephera and the art, I have something to say.

NON-QUEEN FEMALE KEPHERA DO NOT HAVE GLOWING ARSES.

There are female kephera in the hives other than the queens, and they have larger abdomens, but NO GLOW. Just NO. You abdomen doesn't have any right whatsoever to glow until you have made level 50 and done HIVE DECLARE. Thank you.

On a similar tangent, Kephera do not simply have to have boring black exoskeletons. The ones in the hives were various dark colours, with coloured blotches depending on their rank and job.

EDIT: I just remembered to note that the GlowButtsâ„¢ do not have to be turquoise-ish. They can be almost any bright colour. In the hives, there are ones with red, yellow, etc abdomens. Also, I'm pretty sure the descs don't mention a shell on top of the abdomen, but I might be wrong there.

EDIT II: Also, the only non-queen female I've seen in brown. I think they are designed to draw attention to one female, and one female only.

Dsiri has fleshy tendrils instead of hair. Let's say he is an anomaly.

Let's say you're wrong. There's no need to go diluting the identity of a race so godamn early on.

Probably, but I like it. So I will keep it.

FYI, since kephera and illithoid are now no longer isolated within the Undervault, they are now open to becoming contaminated by...er, I mean, exposed to--the human race. Remember humans have the uncanny abillity to intermix with every other race and there's certainly a case to be made for future generations of kephera and illithoid to have hair and other human characteristics. So a PURE illithoid may be grey-purple with protruding veins, bald with a lamprey mouth, etc., there's no reason future generations might be ... a little less alien!

Just FYI, kephera have all right to have glowing abdomens. Just because the queens do, does not mean that only queens do. Take note also that not all queens have glowing abdomens. The top is normally smooth and sleek, and the underbelly has the possibility to glow. The exoskeleton can potentially be most neutral tones, ranging from browns, to blacks, to dark greens, dark blues etc. I have trouble imaging gold ones, etc, but I'm by no means the be-all-and-end-all of kephera exoskeleton expertise.

Yay for glow-butts! If I ever make a Kephera, she'll have a glow-butt for sure!

Hmm, interesting, but why exactly is it that not all NPC Kephera have GlowButtsâ„¢? In real hives of bees, which Kephera culture seems to be based on, non-queen females are generally either workers (in which case there is no reason for their abdomen, which houses the digestive and reproductive organs, to be particularly active) or Queens-to-be. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any female kephera that don't fit either of these criterion. And in the descs of queens I looked at, it didn't say anything about the abdomens only glowing on the underside. I didn't see all the descs, but you'd expect them to be consistent.

Also, I didn't say the exoskeletons couldn't be any of the colours you mentioned, only that it was unlikely that they wouldn't be dark, possibly with brighter patches (or a vibrant/glowing abdomen, under certain circumstances)

Meh. I'd focus your policing on the really objectionable descriptions that are wandering about the basin. Prescriptive rules this anal aren't really in anyone's best interests.

Uhmm... Let's see. Not all kephera have glowing abdomen because of simple variation, as far as I know. It would be akin to saying all humans have tanned skin, or all viscanti have wings.

As to your second paragraph, my last post wasn't meant to be contradicting you. I just find myself wandering off on tangents midpost, and ended up leaving it in a flow that seemed to do just that. So, sorry about that confusion.

I apologise in advance for if the level of coherency in this post is minimal. It is quite possible it's abysmal.

Yeah, pretty soon we'll have "He is a sinuous ilithoid and looks exactly like a human."

Humans can mix with them? They lay eggs...