The History of Schliss: Part I

The 'Shliss' outpost was founded during the height of the Illithid Empire over ten thousand years ago, before the time of Tain McLir and during the time of the great races. It was founded by an illithid Empire colonial fleet. The Fleet made landfall on Talamh and built a colonial city. It was from here that the illithids spread throughout the underdark of Talamh and throughout the planes in the Peering Eye world.

The outpost was named Shliss, which means 'Focus', in the Ancient Illithid Tongue. Shliss was initially very successful and many Nautiloids arrived at the great dock of Shliss to deliver and trade in slaves and other valuables.

Several other colonies were founded in various other parts of the underdark and this process led to inevitable clashes with other races beneath the surface. These wars raged for hundreds of years as the illithid struggled for dominance of the underdark. Once the underdark was theirs they intended to take the surface world and claim the entire planet for the Illithid Empire.

They may have succeeded on Talamh as they had on countless other worlds but for two major obstacles.

First they paid no heed to the Gods, Fallen, Chosen or Risen and so had no divine allies, secondly the Gith revolution overthrew the Illithid Empire and so they had no off-world allies to send reinforcements. These two major setbacks meant that they were unable to conquer the underdark and that they were unable to match the power of the great races.

Needless to say the Illithid leaders persevered and hoped to achieve their goals nonetheless. The Illithid of Talamh were one of the few who managed to prevent the Gith uprising, by slaughtering thousands of Gith slaves and then sealing their city against extraplanar travel and communication. Their massive colonisation and trading fleets were at their greatest size and were used with tactical brilliance against the Gith Navy in great battles in Eyespace. The losses were horrendous on both sides and so they both sought easier targets, vowing destroy their foe once their strength was increased sufficiently.

The colonisation had stalled considerably due to the losses in the Gith Wars and so the Illithids began a long period of consolidation, growing their strength, in preparation for their eventual conquest.

They declined to worship any gods though. The Risen were anathema to their beliefs, the chosen required them to renounce their dreams of planar conquest. And while The Fallen suited their purposes and outlook, they were too few in number and worshiping them provoked to much antagonism from both the chosen and the risen. The Illithids didn't feel that is was necessary to share power with anyone.