Grrl Power #1086 – Befuddle a beholder
There’s definitely some wires crossed in Sydney’s brain, right?
So yeah. Cthillia is an anthropomorphic beholder of some flavor. That’s “beholder” not “Beholder(C)” because Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/D&D owns the copyright on “Beholders(C).” I thought they also held the copyright on Drow, but I looked it up but couldn’t find anything to back that up. Not sure about Lolth. They’ve definitely (C)ed Carrion Crawlers, Displacer Beasts, Mind Flayers, and a few others. But as Cthillia is humanoid, I’m probably in the clear. All this isn’t to say that she’s a chaotic evil bipolar agoraphobe necessarily. She has eyestalks with powers and moderate budget for scale polish for sure, but her mental state and interpersonal skills are a little more up in the air.
Anyway. I had actually planned a far more dramatic reveal for her at some point in the near-ish future, but I couldn’t really see how the current storyline would lead to what I’d originally imagined. Plus it’s also super funny to me that Sydney just badgered it out of her.
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I’m with Sydney on this one… Kind of wish he kept the cloth on just so I can imagine something scarier. Has this guy not seen the other weird baddies beyond the Veil?
The fact that he looks like a Salarian from Mass Effect in the last panel probably helps a lot as far as making this seem “normal”.
It’s a woman btw.
IIRC, Cthillia is a female.
My first thought after”How does a beholder and a human have a hybrid baby?” was that he most likely doesn’t even make the top 10 scariest things she saw on the alien station.
Cthillia’s definitely not your classical eyeball beast, as Frost Ray/Cone of Cold isn’t one of the typical stares of doom.
That does make me wonder if once they get that fleshcrafter knife recharged, they’ll LOSE their powers when they remake themselves into something normal looking.
She could always pull off something like Philo in UHF: Normal looking face that *unfolds* to reveal multiple eyes on stalks. Best of both worlds that way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y646jhHjJqI
That’s still not (reportedly) as scary as when Beetlejuice split his face open for the Maitlands. From what I heard, they did film that from the front too, but some bigwig or another said it was too scary so they could only use a shot from behind.
Ah, Sidney never change.
The thing that bothers me the most here is that two of the six eyes we see are the same color.
Also I like that Sidney DID react like a normal person (panel 5), she just recovered extremely quickly.
Sorry if this is a TRIPLE post…. stupid website….
>The thing that bothers me the most here is that two of the six eyes we see are the same color.
Actually i think one is orange and one is yellow, and unless i’m mistaken they are the same colours as Sydney’s orbs
8 eyes, there’s 2 on top facing backwards by the look of it
Probably just 6. Those two facing backwards will loop back to the front.
No, the two back-facing stalks are not as long as the others (you can see the ends)
If I recall correctly most of the times we have seen Cthillia before her shown eyes were the same color.
I want to think Sydney’s reaction in panel 5 is more from Cthillia suddenly getting in Sydney’s face and raising her voice rather than from her appearance.
Sydney: HNNNNRG! Must… stop… flow… of time….
Hernia: Sydney, continue to change.
Oh no she’s hot
Oh did not know she was a she
Very much the same. All this time, I thought Cthillia was a male being, or at least a being of a species that doesn’t have genders.
It has been identified that Cthillia is female but it is also noted early on that she is unique as in one of a kind. Other than as a convenient convention how meaningful is gender for a one of a kind being. Lots of questions arise. It may be that she is the last of her kind or that she has never met another of her kind and believes her self unique but her people are actually pretty common some place else. It’s possible that she was created in a lab someplace. Sciona questions whether or not she is immortal. Chtillia doesn’t know if she is immortal but perhaps she is a Winslow. it would be cool if she has existed long enough to be the originator of the Gorgon or basilisk legends.
Chthillia wants to be human again. This is one of the reasons that Deus wanted the knife that allows you to change what you look like as long as you kill enough people to power it.
‘Again’? Who said she was ever hyu-mon to begin with?
Maybe she wants to lose the bipedal form?
Her attitude about her appearance implies that she doesnt LIKE looking inhuman. The fact that she wears the wrap around her head, even when not around humans, implies she hates how she looks. Multiple times, she’s talked about how she is hideous looking, despite how there are other monsters who look as inhuman or moreso than she does, including on the Council. And her attitude also implies that she’s tried to just bury her self-hatred of her appearance by saying ‘I don’t care’ about things which would be considered insulting about her appearance – mainly because she KNOWS she’s hideous looking by human standards. She doesnt seem like a naturally bad person, but her view about herself is such that she’s willing to kill 99 people to finally look ‘normal.’
It seems doubtful that she wants to look even LESS human based on her behavior.
And there’s no guarantee that she was ever human to begin with, it does seem odd that a monster who was born a monster would have that much self-hatred of her appearance, although the fact that the veil doesnt work on her could be a reason why she’s less well-adjusted to it than other monsters are.
So one of the theories people have had is she never became okay with her appearance because it’s not her ORIGINAL appearance, and she wants to use the epimorph to look like she originally looked, or at least human again. It’s a plausible theory at the very least.
Well…at the risk of baiting the usual suspects…this is very possibly an excellent example of internalized bias, no different from – an arguably stemming from – patriarchy or whiteness.
As women, we internalize patriarchy from an early age, based on how we are treated (read conditioned) by not only men and boys, but also other women. Everything around us proclaims that we have an obligation to be attractive, both in terms of appearance and comportment, lest we risk being denied the social support that we need as human beings. Yes, variation exists, and also yes, there are examples of women who very much do _not_ conform…but on the whole, patriarchy does a really good job of conditioning us. We internalize certain expectations and become not merely self-critical, but self-hating, when we fail to live up to what believe those expectations to be.
The same is true of whiteness, as any African American women of a certain age can tell you. Ask about young black girls being made to iron their hair in order to look “normal”
By which we of course mean, “like the pretty little white girls.”
Consider the market for skin-bleaching. Or for a less obviously horrifying, and subsequently more pervasive example, the fashion industry. Everything is designed with European-descended features in mind. All the way down to speech patterns, as has been highlighted in films like The Black Klansman, and Sorry To Bother You.
Cthillia is undoubtedly bombarded by the same sort of pressures, and there’s no great stretch of imagination required to see why she would be prepared to kill in order to escape what is – quite realistically – an existential threat. And while I must – as a socialist – condemn the sacrifice of other lives like that…I can completely understand the motivation. I’m just a normal, ugly human, and I have to admit that I can easily imagine the temptation.
Would I be prepared to trade a hundred other human beings in order to change my body?
…I don’t honestly know. Part of me immediately says, “abso-fucking-lutely,” while another part keeps reminding me that I am not, in fact, a killer by nature. I’m not ashamed to admit any of that, but I’m horrified by my own willingness to even _imagine_ such an act.
Regardless of whether this is Cthillia’s native shape or not, the pressure exerted by the world is still there. At a minimum, I feel grateful that Deus has got her on a less-dark path towards her desired goal. And I hope that it ends with her not merely “getting what she wants,” but wanting what she gets.
People deserve to be happy.
And Cthillia is undeniably People.
There was an episode of the animated Batman (can’t remember which series) in which they ‘fixed’ Two-face’s face to make him look like how he use to be, but he commented on how that, to him, was the hideous side, and the ‘deformed’ side was what he preferred
This page clearly shows that she is not hideous by hyu-mon standards (Carrier is either being a dick, or there is some pheromonal or non visual stimuli going on)
You re noting how she covers up even when alone, but are assuming it’s for the non-hyu-mon’ness when it could be the hyu-mon’ness she finds repugnant
It’s racist to assume that a half-hyu-mon who finds their appearance repugnant has to be repulsed by the non-hyu-mon part
“It’s racist to assume that a half-hyu-mon who finds their appearance repugnant has to be repulsed by the non-hyu-mon part”
I don’t see how it’s racist.
1) It’s literally how she’s been acting since she first appeared.
2) She’s wanting to power up an item to make her no longer look like she currently looks.
3) She had a whole back and forth with Sciona about how she DOES find herself to be hideous looking, and that Wyrmil is a dreamboat in comparison to her.
4) She wears a face covering the entire time, even in places where she doesnt have to hide her appearance. Including around other monsters, or people who already know she looks inhuman and are already fine with it. Like Deus.
That’s not called being racist. That’s called reading the room. She clearly finds her face repugnant.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-531-the-gangs-all-here/
Also I doubt its the human part she finds repugnant because she covers up in front of sciona. And sciona likes having a humanish body and facial type, since slari are very human-looking save for the skin and eye color and the wings.
No, you are assuming it’s the non-hyu-mon part she wants to remove
Again, just like with Two-Face, the part she finds repugnant may not be what everyone else (ie, you) feels she should
See above post.
Well, not necessarily unique. Unique in her own experience, at least. But the universe is incredibly vast, and I’d guess from her response to ‘alien’, she’s not aware of having been from somewhere besides Earth. It’s conceivable she’s not been off planet.
Seems like you have just created the need to make the half-beholder race to any D&D player.
Agreed, but. None of the shenanigans involved were magical, mystical or deity driven. Alchemical, possibly, scrumble also (if you don’t know ask your grandpapa I ain’t explaining it)
Well, when a beholder and an adventurer.. charm person eyestalk.. there’s some chemistry.. andninemonthslater, a bouncing baby Cthillia!
well, now we know who to ask, after all beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
*beefing up anti-ninja defenses*
Surprised you haven’t gotten an earful by now.
Either this doesn’t count as a pun, or Pander is a TTRPG fan, and decided to role with it.
COVID is bringing down my effectiveness in combating puns this week. Plus it wasn’t really a pun anyway.
I mean I guess it is sorta but not enough to merit ninja assassination. Palmvos has done so much worse in the past.
Although your ‘role with it’ one was a pun. A ninja will be en route.
PS – I’m more into Storyteller System btw. An ex once tried to get me into playing DnD… I made a Beguiler. Tried to do something involving the light spell to sus out an ambush. The DM said ‘That’s an excellent plan. You can’t do it because the story won’t work then.’ At which point I was really not into DnD. :)
On a related note – Gang Member Ninjas, Chinese Wizards, and and Long-Haul Truckers are already beholder’s natural enemies if Big Trouble in Little China has taught me anything. Which it has.
*grins and breaks out the Mage: the Ascension books*
Shall I regale you with the tale of how my Gangster-Queen-turned-Socio-Economic-Druid reinvented the Technocracy’s entire Sphere of Prime Utility in order to divide the Syndicate against itself and close the Quintessence Gap between the Traditions and Technocrats?
Impressive. My characters tended to be in much, much dumber scenarios.
I just had a Son of Ether Awakened Creation that made a spaceship out of a Winnebago (she had never watched Spaceballs) then started thinking that Mel Brooks was a fiendish member of the Technocracy that somehow time travelled to steal her idea retroactively when she was told about the movie. Then she met him at the Gernsback Continuum…. and he turned out to be another Son of Ether instead.
OK, I love the bizarre long face in the last panel. Sydney definitely throws “monsters” for a loop by not falling for the old Loom & Leer.
That’s right! It didn’t work for Ingvar either.
Between her exposure to the loom and lear pros at the council meeting, and going up against a total of four different Mecha-Cthulus, I’m betting her sense of that-which-is-big-and-scary has been heavily recalibrated.
*squeeeeee* Finally we can see what Cthillia looks like!
More than 2 eyes was a surprise. I wonder if each one of them has different ability. Like… You know. Magitech power-giving orbs for instance.
Yeah. You have to wonder if Sydney has got eyes of the beyolder.
It looks like Cthillia has 8 eyestalks, so maybe Sydney’s orbs only work if they come from a still living beholder-kin? Maybe Sydney is carrying around the eyes of Cthillia’s mom.
I only see six eyes. Seven if that big thing in the middle is a closed eye (like the death stare eye).
The death glare really looks to me like it’s radiating from her left eye, and not the center of her face. I’m kind of inclined to think that’s not an eye at all, just from the shape of it.
Possible. It’s a ‘I don’t know’ thing for me yet because it could just be decorative, or it could be a closed central eye, which would be very in line with a Beholder type monster.
Seven orbs for seven eyes.
Not the only strange pairing of 7 for 7.
Except for the Light-Hook, the eyes match the orbs.
As DaveB says she’s beholder-akin, it seems likely every eye has a special effect.
And yeah, Syd’s definitely gonna befriend her. It’s what she does.
Cthilia: I’m a beholder!!
Sydney: So? I’m a befriender!!
When making eye-contact, which eyes should you be looking at?
Also, are those two Dicks on his head? Is he a dickhead?
Or are those eyestalks mounted backwards?
1) Cthilia is a she
2) I was going to ask the same thing. I guess she can look in 8 different directions at once. Her optical cortex must be suuuuper developed.
I’ve generally found it really difficult to focus on multiple objects at once, regardless of how many eyes I have.
Based on what we’ve seen Cthilla do, I’d guess at least some of her eyes have individual stare powers. It’s not clear if she can use multiple at once, and if she does attempt multiple at different targets, does she have an accuracy penalty for that?
But I also note that her visible eyes are looking at Sydney here, so I’m guessing with more eyes, she can focus better, and probably in ways that we’d find difficult to imagine. Well, maybe a bit more than difficult, it’s been literally forever since i had more than five working eyes, and I cannot properly remember what that’s like.
So that’s why her eyes were a different colour than what we saw before. A very cool detail
Cool it looks like the eye stalks fit into grooves in the side of her head and can be detached to look in different directions.
Deffinaly not scarey in daylight beyond the 4th wall. If the head were more asymmetrical maybe? But the fact that they are having a reasonable conversation goes a long way to reduce the freak factor for me.
Cthilla should have been protected by the veil. I’m wondering why this lifting super didn’t see something not freaky. Unless that is part of the problem. If the veil does something worse looking than Cthilla in an attempt to make her look more human, it sounds like the veil just needs adjustment for her species.
The veil apparently only works for the weird stuff that’s common enough to be programed in, doesn’t cover one offs. She’d need her own routine written into it.
The veil has never seemed to have worked on Cthillia. Remember back when Coot was introduced, all the other monsters had the veil protecting their appearance (even Wyrmil), but Cthillia still looked monstrous so they had to come up with the story that she was a monster that wanted to end her existence after the caper was done.
I would say that Cthilla is not a “monster”, as the Veil is designed to cloak supernatural, monsters or alien beings. The Veil doesn’t cloak supers, so I would say Cthilla is a super with a monstrous appearance.
I don’t think Cthillia is a super either. She doesn’t have the body type of supers (even if she wasnt a monstrous appearance).
The best guess I’ve seen is Cthillia is a human who is cursed to look like a beholder, or some sort of human/beholder hybrid, and since she’s human or part human, the veil does not work on her, or does not work on her well (like it doesnt work well on supers).
Or maybe Cthillia is so unique that the Veil doesn’t cover her. Seems less likely considering the ‘Miscellaneous’ monster that the veil DOES cover, like Choris (sp?).
She’s not mammalian, so why would she have mammary sacks on her chest?
Or are you claiming that only hyu-mons can be supers? Have you forgotten Pixelicious? She’s only a super when in were-form
“She’s not mammalian, so why would she have mammary sacks on her chest?”
How do you know she’s not mammalian? She literally just said in this comic page that she is NOT a reptile.
“Or are you claiming that only hyu-mons can be supers?”
No. I’m claiming CTHILLIA is not a super, because literally last comic strip, Cthillia said, and I quote:
“Snuff those fires out before I ice them. Only supers seem to enjoy a nearly bottomless well of energy.”
In other words, Cthillia does not have a bottomless well of energy, because Cthillia is not a super.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1085-attention-deficit-handshake-protocol/ (panel 1)
She also says she’s a monster. Not that she’s a monster and a super.
“Have you forgotten Pixelicious?”
Again not sure why you’re assuming Cthillia is a super, when she literally just said that she’s a monster, and does not have a bottomless well of energy like supers have. Because she’s not a super.
Also humans can be bitten and become werecreatures. They went over this as well, It’s not JUST being born that way. Pixel might have been a super that became a werecreature. And when that happened, she also wound up having super powers in her different forms, because she’s unique.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-494-phenomenal-cosmic-power-itty-bitty-well-shes-short-anyway/
(panels 1 and 2 and 4)
Although eventually, once Deus finishes unlocking the secrets of the superion field, there will be super monsters. It’s going to be chaotic and awesome and terrifying.
She very much implies that she is not a super on the previous page.
What Brett said, plus if I’m not mistaken, the veil doesn’t necessarily block an intentional reveal. Flotilla knew *something* major was going to be revealed, so even if Cthilla was tight with the Twighlight Council and got programmed in, he’d have seen something that freaked him the fuck out. I mean, what he saw could’ve been different, but still a huge shock.
Except I’m pretty sure that Cthilla *isn’t* tight with the Council. Yes, she knows a couple of vampires who are on the Council, but they don’t seem like the sort who would do favors for people like that. Or even admit that they were possible. They’d note “this person already knows how to conceal themselves well enough, good. The less we’re connected with them, the better. If she gets caught but nobody knows we know her, then we’re still OK.”
So speculation; the eyes connect to a central nerve in back of head, and so her brain is actuality in the upper chest. May be able to survive decapitation and regrow head. Reaction times a little slower than humans because of the greater distance between eyes and brain. Maybe another sense is compensating, or even primarily sense? Not visual as everything is usually covered up…. energy sensing organ located in chest area?
Also are the eyes interchangeable when tucked into cavities around head, or did she need to move the cowl to get other eye effects?
She really needed that hug, good for Sydney.
Also what actually is she, magical creature? Changed human, as they are so familiar with human culture reference and idioms.
Regardless of what she is, she’s been around humans for a long time. I had the impression from the conversation prior to the vault breech that she knew Sciona for long enough for Sciona to note that she doesn’t seem to age. That probably means she’s been around long enough that if she wasn’t keeping tabs on human culture, she would have no current human culture references.
I like how her eyes cool! The colours. I think she looks cool, would normal people be scared by her?
Yeah… my response would be, “you look so cool. You shouldn’t hide your face.”
Well, my birth family’s certainly not “normal people”, but I feel like most of them would be scared shitless by her, assuming that they hadn’t met enough other non-human sapients to be comfortable with them. Most of the people I went to high school would have a harder time dealing with her than my birth family.
My chosen family, on the other hand, would be about as horrified as Sydney here. “Oh my god, you poor person. You need a hug.” Except that they’d then follow that with, “May we hug you? We don’t want to violate your personal boundaries.”
Your chosen family is pretty cool. ^_^
I wanna cook for them sometime.
That is a fantastically awesome design.
drow I am pretty sure originates from scandinavia mythology as a term for elf or troll i think
That alone would not stop Big Corporate from trying to copyclaim it.
True, but it has been enough to stop Big Corporate from winning court cases when combined with opposing council who’s savvy enough to realize it.
What a sight to behold. Is this the perfection beholders dream of or the nightmare of mortality? Great design overal though. Shame he’s missing the giant central eye. An antipower gaze would kick all the ass.
Central giant eye is closed.
That’s the death ray one.
She. Also, “central giant eye” and “central giant eye is a death ray” are both details from TSR’s Beholder(C) that I’m not certain are present in other sources. “Beholder is a creature with many eyes on stalks and has gaze attacks” on the other hand, does feel like something I’ve read in stuff that predates TSR. So from a legal perspective, it’s possibly recommended to not have those bits.
(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.)
Central giant eye on a beholder is an anti-magic ray, not a death ray, unless they’ve changed something.
The biggest thing that weirds me out here is the fact that two of the six eyes we see are the same color.
Also I like that Sidney DID react like a normal person (panel 5), she just recovered extremely quickly.
I’m not sure about Sidney reacting like a normal person. She was surprised. But was it a normal surprise? That’s a bit harder to tell. Was it surprise from the face or surprise from the anger shown on the face?
Ha! I love Sydney. I think she has an actual super power: Social Judo. No matter the situation she seems to throw people off their balance, their stride, for a loop. It’s always funny.
I’m surprised they aren’t falling out of the air, Flotilla looks like he’s too shocked to keep his power going.
For a few seconds I thought that Cthilias eyes matched Sydneys orbs and that they somehow were connected. Then the reality caught up with me. Curious if the fact that she has two golden eyes is significant somehow.
I think one is gold and one is yellow. But Dave had to make the yellow one less lemony to keep it eyeball looking.
I really am disappointed with the veil though it should have been able to deal with this. Maybe a baseball cap and a hoodie with the lower eyestalks around the neck like like a necklace.
Looks like Jeeper Creepers.
The thing that bothers me the most here is that two of the six eyes we see are the same color.
Also I like that Sidney DID react like a normal person (panel 5), she just recovered extremely quickly.
Sorry if this is a double post….
Honestly, the only thing that bothers me about her face is that her two lowest eyestalks on each side are asymmetrically placed on her head lol
They are on tentacles that fit into cavities in the lower side of the head. They can be symmetrical if C wants them to.
Sydney gives compassion. Cthillia’s not getting a lot of compassion lately…
Yes, she does do a pretty good job of that and it’s obviously not something Cthillia’s used to getting, that and acceptance.
Gygax didn’t invent the beholder, I forget who’s myth it is but it’s from somewhere pretty ancient, the Drow are renamed Norse Svartalfar, D&D didn’t have a whole lot of original material. Looks loke WotC is trying to copyright stuff they culturally appropriated.
The Displacer Beast design is basically a Coeurl from the 1939 short story “Black Destroyer”. It just has different powers.
I remember that story! Displacer Beasts always reminded me of that creature.
Gygax hardly invented anything, he was pulling stuff in from all over the place. Mythology, about 20 different fantasy series, you name it.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drow#Conception_and_creation, drow is an alternative spelling of trow, which was a term for evil spirits. The name therefore fits with the Brett’s statement that creatures from ancient mythologies were used in D&D. Another way of getting names for fictional works is to look at maps. For example, Binghamton (McHale’s Navy) is a city in New York, and Rockford (The Rockford Files) is a city in Illinois and also appears in several other states. Lothian is a region in Scotland, and King Loth (alternate of King Lot) was a figure in the King Arthur stories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lot
OMG! I love Sydney giving Cthillia the big hug of eyeglass-wearers camaraderie! Also love Cthillia’s eye colors and entire look. …also Sydney showing perfect gamer’s acceptance is wonderful!
That’s so strange, suddenly mine and one other poster’s comments disappered. Am I the only one who doesn’t see them anymore?
Was beginning to wonder that as well
Can remember posting on the first page, but now those posts are gone (thought maybe was reading the wrong page)
Seems they got moved to the second page
I think there probably was some kind of an issue with the server because after refreshing a few times, I finally saw my comments again.
Looks like the eye colors match the orb colors.
Sydney has used Scoville personality.
While using Scoville personality Sydney is only affected negitivly by people and objects that are full of hostel intent towards her.
Any other person or object will be treated as a normal and their perceived shortcomings are an adequacies will elicit sympathy rather than fear or distrust.
While using Scoville personality apply a plus 15 cute to any non-human personnel. This includes were’s in were form. Reptiles and pan-dimensional entities.
There are two know users of Scoville personality
Not quite. Weres in animal or half forms get an additional +20 cute, beyond their normal +15 cute for not being (fully) human. Same for anyone who looks like an anthropomorphic animal, such as a woof.
That might explain her near instant attraction to her current boyfriend. He just had to prove he had the nerd cred to keep her happy. Being an engineer on a successful ship probably covered that.
Also a plus 20 on top of the plus 15 might be a little too overpowered. Now plus 20 instead of a plus 15 might explain her reaction to both Gregor and I think the werehare’s name was Kate
The funny thing is, WotC might hold the copyright for the term ‘Displacer Beast’, but call it something different, change some abilities and they will have a problem suing for copyright as the Displacer Beast was heavily inspired by the ‘Coeurl’ from A. E. van Vogt’s short story ‘Black Destroyer’ (1939).
It would have been fun if the eyes had been the same colors as the orbs… the theories would have gone nuts
Copyright is automatic you don’t have to apply for it. The “Beholder” is classic DnD, it might just be best to stay away from the name entirely. I think you might be referring to Trade Mark. Individual words without context are not subject to copyright according to the US Copyright office, for example short phrases or names. You *can* register, but this is frankly unnecessary as long as you can prove you’re the originator. This basically means that you would need to use ‘mind-flayer’ in context to mean the same creature, but you’re quite welcome to use the word otherwise.
I recall for example the Tolkien estate going after people using ‘Mithril’, the case appears not to have succeeded as various games not affiliated with the Tolkien estate have been using it for donkeys years.
Might I suggest… Enthraller? If I recall we’re looking for something that has a huge amount of psychic energy and can stun an individual or group for some time, even charm them. I never quite saw the reason for the name Beholder. I assume there’s lore in there somewhere.
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has a character named Bob the Beholder that they have been using for years. AFAIK the author has never been given a Cease & Desist order.
“Copyright is automatic you don’t have to apply for it.”
That’s a bit of an over-simplification, but not by much.
“I thought they also held the copyright on Drow, but I looked it up but couldn’t find anything to back that up.”
TSR (who owned all the DnD stuff before Hasbro) was **SUPER** aggressive in trying to assert legal rights of every kind over every bloody thing they could (they were the Games Workshop of their time), so yeah, they tried.
But “drow” meaning “cave elf” was in the bloody dictionary many decades before they existed, so the lost that one.
Cthillia is even more awesome-looking, though less reptilian, than I expected! This explains the different eye colors and powers. I’m guessing the stalks don’t have dedicated slots, and that she can freely rearrange them?
hmmmmmmmmmmm,
puts to mind 3 possibilities for those eyes:
1.) they look similar to sydney’s orbs. future plot device perhaps? this is option i favor for now. maybe cybernetic versions of her orbs. or magic. but am pretty sure each eye will have different abilities
2.) also reminds me of marvel comics infinity stones/gauntlet. one was energy stone, so maybe one eye can realease or absorb energy like heat/cool?
3.) in DC comics, reminds me of different color rings used by the different lantern corps, for what they call the emotional spectrum, each color working differently with minor differences in abilities
as for sydney not freaking out, especially everyone else shows fear, remember her ADHD could be distracting her from focusing on it. or one of her meds. or one of orbs protects her. but with her comic knowledge combined with recent experiences, maybe she just doesn’t think its that big a deal. or her alien glasses
I’ve been thinking about this since reading some of the comments on page 3 suggesting this. It feels like there might be something there, except there’s just enough difference that I think if there is one, it’s more of a nod to their past than it is a tie to the powers the orbs actually have.
Basically, Cthilla’s gaze abilities seem different enough that they are almost certainly not an ancient source for sort of powers contained within the orbs. As such, I don’t think Sydney’s orbs come from the eyes of Cthilla’s people. That said, Cthilla’s people could plausibly be the race that developed that technology, and she’s a lost orphan. Maybe she’s even a lost orphan from the prior orb user.
Like maybe somebody decided to run away from their homeworld with their daughter, and met with an unfortunate fate on Earth. I’m not sure how this story explains Cthilla being safely on Earth, however.
Maybe somebody kidnapped the daughter of one of the Nth and took her to Earth. The parent followed like an avenging angel, except miscalculated slightly on the landing speed and cratered into what’s now the Gulf of Mexico. The daughter remained on Earth, not being at the landing site. I’m not sure exactly how that story has Cthilla free from the kidnappers.
Ok, someone kidnapped an Nth kid, took her to Earth. Hid her somewhere. Went to where the Gulf of Mexico was about to form and sent a ransom note. Story from the last paragraph, now the kidnappers and parent are dead, Cthilla’s around somewhere.
In this story, the orbs would probably be attuned for someone like Cthilla, but might also be responsive to someone who could accept her. Sydney was the first such person to encounter them, so she got them.
the fact that the abilities are different could just be how they comprehend their own abilities.
in larry niven novel, the long arm of gil hamilton, there is police detective for future version of united nations that gets telekinetic ability, but only can see it as a 3rd arm so is limited to how far he can use it by how far he can reach with his normal arms, and what he can normally do with his natural arms. no lifting and throwing cars, no stopping bullets. he could use it thru walls but only if he was by the wall. another telekinetic might picture their ability as like magnetism so can only affect metal. someone else might see it as air or water and only be able to affect them.
in a dc comic about green lantern, i read issue where they described how the different green lanterns used the powers of rings, had one, jon stewart, had to be able to think of how a machine was built or worked, another used it more like a raygun to blast things, another hal jordan i think, always used the ring to punch things with giant boxing gloves cuz he imagined power to be like punching someone.
Does she think she’s terrifying? Anyone who’s played the recent Bethesda Fallout games has seen things that are far more fearsome of visage.
A lot of the time after using the character creation tool to customize their Sole Survivor or Courier.
In the “Wearing the Cape” universe, Sydney’s response is considered an important social skill. Astra & Artemis call it “Laconic Acceptance of Weird Shit.”
Okay, an anthropomorphic beholder. My theory? Biologically engineered.
I don’t know what any of that means either :(
Neither did I, but I did manage to find a reference.
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-series
SCP is an online literary project… sort of sci-fi/horror/creative writing. It’s been around (and growing) for a long time online. Fun read. Sort of a time sink like TV Tropes is.
Definitely better-looking than Sciona-troll, Wyrmil, or Cooter.
My dude, a herd of hippo’s hit by a train looks better than Cooter and that’s before he became a room decoration. Also, nothing wrong with Sciona-troo or wyrmil. Now, some of those weaponized aliens that while tough became nothing more that easy level boosts that were pate. Those were only slightly off putting.
Weirdest looking and acting things in the universe are humans…
Oh, I get it. She wants all those wrinkles gone because they make her face look so old. Makes sense to me.
Jeeper, creeper, where’d you get that peeper?
Jeeper, creeper, where’d you get that eye?
And that one? And that one? And THAT ONE? Ooh, definitely have questions about that one…
https://images.cults3d.com/rQTmSUOKNSlRvZL26y-lmM412RE=/https://files.cults3d.com/uploaders/20843931/illustration-file/5413d4f1-74c6-4763-9af2-877ebc780a4d/May-render-V2_00001.jpg