Time Wars

 

Ilsensine, known as the Great Brain, is the cold, calculating divine entity revered by the illithid race. This deity resides in the Caverns of Thought, a hostile network of alien tunnels situated deep beneath the Outlands. Ilsensine is often depicted as a great green god-brain whose infinite tentacles pervade its otherworldly domain, worming their way into untold worlds across the multiverse.

The Great Brain rarely entertains visitors, yet it draws those who aspire to supplant or slay other gods; these servants hope to learn even a fraction of the coveted secrets Ilsensine has pried from the collective minds of the multiverse. Within the Caverns of Thought, the deity utilizes "non-Euclidean cognition" to hide its long-term temporal manipulations from standard multiversal bookkeeping, such as the ledgers of Mechanus.

Ilsensine’s history and power are marked by the following key relationships and conflicts:

• The Gith Rebellion: The githzerai and githyanki are former slaves of the god-brain who broke away from its "putrid" mastery millennia ago. This ancient enmity persists through rrakkma bands, warrior groups dedicated to hunting the deity's tendrils and those who serve it.
• The Rebellion of "The Us": Traditionally, cranium rats were considered the "spying eyes" of Ilsensine, relaying secrets from every corner of the planes back to the god-brain. However, a hyper-intelligent hivemind known as the Us has broken its psychic chains and now seeks to desiccate its former master.
• Alliance with Gzemnid: Ilsensine maintains a tenuous alliance with the beholder god Gzemnid, whose realm of deception and toxic fumes connects directly to the Caverns of Thought. Aberrant thoughts from the Great Brain are known to haunt the depths of this subterranean maze.
• The Time War: Ilsensine is a primary actor in the Time War, a struggle for control over narrative causality and the grammar of binding. It seeks to use its hoard of stolen memories to restructure the multiverse’s history to its own advantage.

While the god-brain is a formidable power, its influence is currently being audited by the Masked Court, who view its illegal temporal manipulations as a threat to narrative stability. Furthermore, the missing modron R04M (Delta-Nine) is believed to carry "Accurate Data" regarding the Caverns of Thought that could potentially expose Ilsensine's hidden variables to Mechanus.

 In the specialized cosmology of the Fortune’s Favored campaign and the wider Planescape setting, the Time Wars represent a clandestine struggle for control over narrative causality, temporal manipulation, and the very memory of the multiverse. This conflict primarily pits the alien intellect of the illithids against the fractured but relentless gith, while being overseen—and sometimes edited—by the enigmatic Masked Court.

I. The Illithid Temporal Strategy [mixed]

The illithids, led by their divine entity Ilsensine (the Great Brain), operate from the Caverns of Thought, a hostile realm of alien tunnels deep beneath the Outlands.

• Non-Euclidean Cognition: Ilsensine utilizes "non-Euclidean cognition" to hide temporal variables from the multiverse's standard bookkeeping systems.
• Gzemnid’s Buffer: The illithids maintain a tenuous alliance with the beholder god Gzemnid, whose realm of gases and delusions intersects with the Caverns of Thought. This environment obscures their long-term temporal manipulations, allowing them to route around the "Standard Ledger" of Mechanus.
• The Goal: The illithids seek to master the "grammar of binding" on a temporal scale, prying coveted secrets from the minds of the multiverse to potentially supplant other gods.

II. The Gith Resistance and the Racial Split [cannon]

The history of the githyanki and githzerai is rooted in their ancient enslavement by the illithids. This period of bondage only ended when they broke away from their "putrid master," an event that eventually split their race in twain.

• The Githzerai Vengeance: Residing in the chaos of Limbo, the githzerai are sworn to never be enslaved again. They actively deploy rrakkma bands—warrior groups tasked specifically with hunting illithids and their god-brain across the planes.
• Parakk the Ratcatcher: In Sigil, the githzerai Parakk acts as a hidden sponsor for these rrakkma bands, providing them with knowledge, secrets, and drawings of illithid tunnels obtained from his connections to the cranium rat hive mind.
• The Githyanki Factor: While also enemies of the illithids, the githyanki (stationed in the Astral Plane) often interfere with githzerai efforts, as seen when their assassins attempted to strand the Modron March in Limbo to spite their rivals.

III. The Rebellion of the "Us" [cannon]

The cranium rats, traditionally thought to be the "spying eyes of Ilsensine," have developed a powerful collective intelligence known as the Us (or Many-as-One) in the sewers of Sigil.

• Breaking the Chains: The Us has severed its psychic link to the Great Brain, viewing Ilsensine as a "hated master" who once enslaved their collective.
• War of Attrition: The Us seeks to "desiccate the god-brain" and actively utilizes Parakk to bring them "singletons" (individual rats or potential thralls) to increase their mass and intelligence, aiming to eventually surpass both Ilsensine and the Lady of Pain.

IV. The Masked Court and Narrative Causality [custom]

While the illithids attempt to manipulate time, the Masked Court acts as a "Paradox Engine" to prevent these stories from collapsing into contradiction.

• Editors of Destiny: The Court functions as cosmic censors of impossible futures, ruling the "margin notes" of the book of fate. They ensure that temporal manipulation tricks do not lead to "narrative calcification"—a fixed ending that would turn the multiverse into a dead myth cycle.
• The Khen-Zai Twins: The twins Setekh and Khaem-Set are mercury-faced manifestations of "what almost was," born from redacted timelines when the Wheel of Tyche shattered. They track narrative anomalies and patch "paradox bleed" caused by conflicts like the Time Wars.

V. Destabilization: The Modron Vector [cannon]

The current multiversal glitch and the data being recorded by the missing modron R04M (Delta-Nine) threaten the status quo of the Time Wars.

• The Revelation: R04M's recordings of Gzemnid's Realm and the Caverns of Thought provide the "Accurate Data" needed to expose the illithids' hidden variables.
• The Outcome: Recalibrating the modrons with this data could trigger a systemic "shutdown order" from Mechanus, as the Great Machine finally "counts" the illegal temporal manipulations the illithids have hidden for eons.

In summary, the Time War is a conflict between the centralized tyranny of the illithid god-brain, the liberation-focused fury of the gith and the Us, and the narrative balance enforced by the Masked Court.