Mind Whippers

Mind whippers are a race of be-tentacled psychic predators which lived in the subterranean dungeons of early Sosaria.

Description
Mind whippers are roughly humanoid in build, with faces which resemble the bodies of mid-sized cephalopods. Unique in their hunger for the mental energies of other beings, mind whippers feeding habits have never been fully observed, save for the gruesome end results. The victims of such horrors, if they survive, emerge as incoherent madmen, with their spiritual and mental essences rent apart by ministrations of the feeding whipper.

For reasons unknown, these beasts disappeared from Sosaria following the death of Mondain - presumably either being driven to extinction or becoming withdrawn from the sight of mankind.

Trivia

 * Mind whippers are almost certainly derived from the "mind flayers" (also called illithids) from early installments of the table-top role playing game,  Dungeons & Dragons. The carrion crawlers first appeared in the TSR Newsletter The Strategic Review #1 in the Spring of 1975, and are described near identically to the "whippers" of Ultima, using their head tentacles to feed off of the brain matter of their prey. The race was later expanded upon in further editions of the game, evolving into a race of lawful evil psionics attempting to assert their dominance over all other species in the multiverse