Do you enjoy committing genocide?

[Souplex]

So the thought has been bouncing around in my head for a while now: Can you ethically justify genocide against the Illithids?
Background for people who don't know D&D minutiae: The Illithids or "Mindflayers" are a psychic race of universally-evil brain-eating squid men.
In order to live, they must eat the brains of other sentient races, and they are biologically programmed to see other species as little more than cattle and slaves.
In order to reproduce they place a larva into the head of a living humanoid which then eats the brain and re-purposes the body into a new illithid.
tldr: They can only function by murdering other sentient beings.
Therefore, would genocide against them be justifiable?

Edit: The title isn't the actual question, it's just meant to be eye-catching. It's a reference to Mass Effect. (If you kill the last rachni queen the Turian councilor asks you "Do you enjoy committing genocide?" to which you can respond "Depends on the species; Turian."

 

[The Lunatic]

I don't really need much excuse to genocide.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Justifiable? It would be inevitable.

 

[Elijin]

Is this a question of ethics, or are we allowed to acknowledge its a game universe. Because I never completely kill off anything until I'm totally done. I mean, what if I want to kill more of them later? Have to leave them just enough to rebuild in case I'm up for round 2.

 

[Frankster]

Well don't know about enjoying it per say, but in this case it's a clear example of species totally incompatible with yours that would otherwise gladly subjugate yours for their own ends.

Ethically? I think it's hard to somehow come out of this as a paragon of virtue, it's not like the illithids are the way they are for the lulz, they were born that way and are as much whims and subjects to their own nature as most living creatures out there, i think that's true even in fantasy still.
This is more of a "do what you have to do if that's what you need to do but don't delude yourself into thinking you're a grand and noble hero" situation imo.

I don't really need much excuse to genocide.

Eugh it's so wasteful.

Why bombard and kill when you can just round them up and use them as cattle and food? Here have a piece of human and see if it won't change your mind on plain old genocide *hands a human leg*. Those business aliens from the Oddworld games had it right.

Worm that lies beyond bless the utopia expansion for stellaris :')

 

[Souplex]

Well don't know about enjoying it per say, but in this case it's a clear example of species totally incompatible with yours that would otherwise gladly subjugate yours for their own ends.

The title is a reference to a line from the first Mass Effect if you kill the rachni queen.

I don't really need much excuse to genocide.

Eugh it's so wasteful.

Why bombard and kill when you can just round them up and use them as cattle and food? Here have a piece of human and see if it won't change your mind on plain old genocide *hands a human leg*. Those business aliens from the Oddworld games had it right.

Worm that lies beyond bless the utopia expansion for stellaris :')

Humans are an inefficient meat-race. They takes a 9-month gestation period, and then they don't even reach full size until 16-20 years later. At full size they're like 350 pounds at most.
Compare this to a cow. Their gestation period is 9.5 months. That's longer than a human, but from there in a mere 2 years the males reach full size at 2400 pounds. About half of that is viable meat. Plus it tastes better than human.
Humans are better for subjugating to manage their plentiful livestock.

 

[DoPo]

Humans are an inefficient meat-race. They takes a 9-month gestation period, and then they don't even reach full size until 16-20 years later. At full size they're like 350 pounds at most.
Compare this to a cow. Their gestation period is 9.5 months. That's longer than a human, but from there in a mere 2 years the males reach full size at 2400 pounds. About half of that is viable meat. Plus it tastes better than human.
Humans are better for subjugating to manage their plentiful livestock.

Great... Now all I can think of is illithid cows. It's both more terrifying and...not at the same time. Can you just imagine it? Tentacled bovines who go around eating other cows?

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Hmmm. Suppose so, insofar as stopping them from reproducing would count as genocide. Ideally they should be put in a situation where they cannot murder, which will lead to their extinction. But alternative is to allow murder so yeah, that'd be the way to go.

 

[Souplex]

Hmmm. Suppose so, insofar as stopping them from reproducing would count as genocide. Ideally they should be put in a situation where they cannot murder, which will lead to their extinction. But alternative is to allow murder so yeah, that'd be the way to go.

Even if we stopped them from reproducing they still need to eat the relatively fresh brains of sentient beings to feed on the residual psychic energy.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Hmmm. Suppose so, insofar as stopping them from reproducing would count as genocide. Ideally they should be put in a situation where they cannot murder, which will lead to their extinction. But alternative is to allow murder so yeah, that'd be the way to go.

Even if we stopped them from reproducing they still need to eat the relatively fresh brains of sentient beings to feed on the residual psychic energy.

Ah. Well then, starvation it is for them. RIP. Unless sufficient brains can be donated

 

[Baffle]

What game is this? I need to play it for about 30 seconds before I realise I don't have the patience (attention span) for this type of game.

 

[Frankster]

Humans are an inefficient meat-race.

But..but..but, humans are a delicacy for my species :'( Also they are venerable, so 16 years gestation time ain't too bad when your species counts their lifespan in centuries. And likewise when your galactic empire spans most of the galaxy, you can get away with a bit of inefficiency here and there.. Worst case scenario, the lesser races and thralls in my empire have their living standards reduced, but so long as my primary species live a life of luxury to go with their humain-au-filet, that's all that matters. Truly i am a good person <3

What game is this? I need to play it for about 30 seconds before I realise I don't have the patience (attention span) for this type of game.

Stellaris. Have you played a paradox game before? If so you should be able to pick up easy enough, it's imo one of the more accessible paradox games.
If you've never played a paradox game or grand strategy title then.. Yeah your prophecy will probably come true :S

 

[Baffle]

Stellaris. Have you played a paradox game before? If so you should be able to pick up easy enough, it's imo one of the more accessible paradox games.
If you've never played a paradox game or grand strategy title then.. Yeah your prophecy will probably come true :S

Ah. I've played quite a few Paradox games because I love the idea, but I do fall down on the attention span issue. I shall return to Golden Axe.

 

[the December King]

So the thought has been bouncing around in my head for a while now: Can you ethically justify genocide against the Illithids?
Background for people who don't know D&D minutiae: The Illithids or "Mindflayers" are a psychic race of universally-evil brain-eating squid men.
In order to live, they must eat the brains of other sentient races, and they are biologically programmed to see other species as little more than cattle and slaves.
In order to reproduce they place a larva into the head of a living humanoid which then eats the brain and re-purposes the body into a new illithid.
tldr: They can only function by murdering other sentient beings.
Therefore, would genocide against them be justifiable?

Certainly would have to be contemplated. Perhaps if the Illithid actually took humans and humanoids as threats to their existence (a laughable concept to any DM who loves his monsters), then they could be convinced to alter their needs through dietary and sexual (and likely magical) experimentation, or perhaps settling on other options, like eating the brains of the recently deceased through civil permissions. In these cases, they would have to adapt to survive.

Nonetheless, as I see it from the rest of the intelligent race's point of view (possibly excluding the Children of Gith of course, who are all twisted by their racially ingrained desires for revenge against the Mind Flayers), the necessary acts taken would have nothing to do with "enjoying" them.

Cool question!

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

So the thought has been bouncing around in my head for a while now: Can you ethically justify genocide against the Illithids?
Background for people who don't know D&D minutiae: The Illithids or "Mindflayers" are a psychic race of universally-evil brain-eating squid men.
In order to live, they must eat the brains of other sentient races, and they are biologically programmed to see other species as little more than cattle and slaves.
In order to reproduce they place a larva into the head of a living humanoid which then eats the brain and re-purposes the body into a new illithid.
tldr: They can only function by murdering other sentient beings.
Therefore, would genocide against them be justifiable?

Certainly would have to be contemplated. Perhaps if the Illithid actually took humans and humanoids as threats to their existence (a laughable concept to any DM who loves his monsters), then they could be convinced to alter their needs through dietary and sexual (and likely magical) experimentation, or perhaps settling on other options, like eating the brains of the recently deceased through civil permissions. In these cases, they would have to adapt to survive.

Nonetheless, as I see it from the rest of the intelligent race's point of view (possibly excluding the Children of Gith of course, who are all twisted by their racially ingrained desires for revenge against the Mind Flayers), the necessary acts taken would have nothing to do with "enjoying" them.

Cool question!

I mean for magical solutions maybe just a ring of sustenance for dietary needs

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Only if i get to eat the remains. Yes, all of it.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Can we bread them?

I only like calamari when it's breaded.

 

[cleric of the order]

Enjoy, no but dealing with creatures so vile he only thing we can do is drive them into the earth and make them fear where good creatures stride.

 

[Souplex]

Only if i get to eat the remains. Yes, all of it.

Can we bread them?

I only like calamari when it's breaded.

According to Volo's Guide to Monsters Illithid brains are poisonous, and drive humans insane with a flood of memories at every bite.
I assume eating the rest of them is a bad idea too.

Humans are an inefficient meat-race.

But..but..but, humans are a delicacy for my species :'( Also they are venerable, so 16 years gestation time ain't too bad when your species counts their lifespan in centuries. And likewise when your galactic empire spans most of the galaxy, you can get away with a bit of inefficiency here and there.. Worst case scenario, the lesser races and thralls in my empire have their living standards reduced, but so long as my primary species live a life of luxury to go with their humain-au-filet, that's all that matters. Truly i am a good person <3

But humans are also nuclear-armed, obstinate, and xenocidal. (Literally nobody in this thread has condemned this theoretical genocide) Pigs taste almost exactly like humans (Many cannibalistic cultures call human flesh variations on "Long Pig", "Tall Pig", "Upright Pig" for this reason) have a similar texture, and have comparable meat-race traits to the cow. Any space-faring race could simply trade their space-resources (Helium-3, Iridium, metals mined from asteroids, or services that can only be achieved with their advanced technology such as terraforming to counteract global-warming) for these meats with much less effort and cost than an invasion.

 

[Frankster]

But humans are also nuclear-armed, obstinate, and xenocidal. (Literally nobody in this thread has condemned this theoretical genocide) Pigs taste almost exactly like humans (Many cannibalistic cultures call human flesh variations on "Long Pig", "Tall Pig", "Upright Pig" for this reason) have a similar texture, and have comparable meat-race traits to the cow. Any space-faring race could simply trade their space-resources (Helium-3, Iridium, metals mined from asteroids, or services that can only be achieved with their advanced technology such as terraforming to counteract global-warming) for these meats with much less effort and cost than an invasion.

I admit I'm a bit lost. But then..I'm getting the impression you are taking me more literally then intended in that you seem to be treating my comments on human eating legit seriously, quoting science and stats.

Basically I'm just recounting how my most recent space empire in Stellaris (the comment i was replying to and the related pic were from that game) would see things, aka view purging as a great waste of good food.
The humans in my games are xenophiles (i'm playing the xenophobic spiritual authoritarian race ty vm), had much better then nukes when i invaded them with my armies of psionics and fleets of ships bigger then planets, and i'm building ringworlds and dyson spheres.... So it just seems a bit odd to single out the human eating prospect and go scientific on me on that particular thing, especially when I'm now trying to summon elder gods from beyond the void to utterly destroy the galaxy.

That said, on an actual serious response to some of what you said: We humans do innefficient things all the friggin time for all sorts of reasons, we ain't machines whose every decision is based on mathematical logic.
I don't think it's out of the question that this would also apply to extraterrestial forms of life even if super advanced, and you look at things very dryly.. I can easily see plenty of reasons why an alien species might want to seek out human meat over pig one even if it does taste the same :3 Cultural value? The symbolism of eating a sentient species (aka eating the brain makes you smarter!)? The only limit here is your lack of imagination frankly. And those ressources you quote can be found in abundance by your own admission, whereas the humans only come from 1 planet.. Seems rare enough to me especially if we are talking about a hypothetical space empire numbering in the millions of planets. Make it a food only for the elite, like caviar!
Gotta love how I suddenly finding myself in the corner for the advocation of human eating though..
But yeah seriously, this is how my current game of stellaris is. Don't worry, it's a one off, I usually prefer to play xenophiles but i wanted to be "evil" for once and do all the things i normally don't do in the game.

And i'm always doubly confused when I see us tooting our own horns as prospective space badasses even though we have yet to actually meet a space faring species to which we can compare ourselves to. Right now our only basis of comparison is based entirely on our own fiction, and for all we know nukes isn't really the trump card we think it is. Cue a race like the elerians (from masters of orion 2, just to make clear i'm referencing a game once again) simply coming over and mind controlling everyone so they meet 0 resistance and 0 nukes and take over the world without firing a single shot and people actually volunteer to be food and walk into the meat mincer machine of their own "free" will. Friggin elerians, so OP.

Ah. I've played quite a few Paradox games because I love the idea, but I do fall down on the attention span issue. I shall return to Golden Axe.

Fair enuff', yeh paradox games ain't for everyone.
Good taste for Golden Axe, ain't played the recent ones but 1-3 back in the day were amongst my favorite games. And now you reminded me of that i'm gonna go listen to the orchestra remix of the golden axe 2 ost...Yey.