Did they?

The subtext of Emperor's story is that he's full of shit. He was mind controlling people like crazy including his 'partner', and there's no reason to think he was only eating badguy brains aside from his word.

He starts his interactions with you by lying to you, then lies more to you, then during his reveal he says a bunch of lies (eg, Orpheus will definitely kill you), then refuses to work with Orpheus even though Orpheus will work with you as a mindflayer, etc.. At the end of the story if you trust him and hive him take over the brain it turns out he lied and he enslaves you. And if you don't trust him and ask him to take any personal risk of sacrifice, he immediately leaves and joins up with the hivemind.

The only thing we really know for sure about him is that he was an illithid who got separated from the hive mind in a fluke and then immediately started plotting to get as much power as possible. That's in line with aberrations.

Did they?

The subtext of Emperor's story is that he's full of shit. He was mind controlling people like crazy including his 'partner', and there's no reason to think he was only eating badguy brains aside from his word.

He starts his interactions with you by lying to you, then lies more to you, then during his reveal he says a bunch of lies (eg, Orpheus will definitely kill you), then refuses to work with Orpheus even though Orpheus will work with you as a mindflayer, etc.. At the end of the story if you trust him and hive him take over the brain it turns out he lied and he enslaves you. And if you don't trust him and ask him to take any personal risk of sacrifice, he immediately leaves and joins up with the hivemind.

The only thing we really know for sure about him is that he was an illithid who got separated from the hive mind and then immediately started plotting to get as much power as possible. That's in line with aberrations.

Did they?

The subtext of Emperor's story is that he's full of shit, which you see when you investigate his lair. He was mind controlling people like crazy including his 'partner', and there's no reason to think he was only eating badguy brains aside from his word.

He starts his interactions with you by lying to you, then lies more to you, then during his reveal he says a bunch of lies (eg, Orpheus will definitely kill you), then refuses to work with Orpheus even though Orpheus will work with you as a mindflayer, etc.. At the end of the story if you trust him and hive him take over the brain it turns out he lied and he enslaves you. And if you don't trust him and ask him to take any personal risk of sacrifice, he immediately leaves and joins up with the hivemind.

The only thing we really know for sure about him is that he was an illithid who got separated from the hive mind and then immediately started plotting to get as much power as possible. That's in line with aberrations.

Did they?

The subtext of Emperor's story is that he's full of shit, which you see when you investigate his lair. He was mind controlling people like crazy, and there's no reason to think he was only eating badguy brains aside from his word. He starts his interactions with you by lying to you, then lies more to you, then during his reveal he says a bunch of lies (eg, Orpheus will definitely kill you), then refuses to work with Orpheus even though Orpheus will work with mindflayers, etc.. At the end of the story if you trust him and hive him take over the brain he enslaves you. And if you don't trust him and ask him to take any personal risk of sacrifice, he immediately leaves and joins up with the hivemind.

The only thing we really know for sure about him is that he was an illithid who got separated from the hive mind and then immediately started plotting to get as much power as possible.