Beholder
Encyclopedia
The beholder is a fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy role-playing game
. It resembles a floating orb of flesh with a large mouth, single central eye, and lots of smaller eyestalk
s on top with deadly magical powers.
The Beholder is among the most classic of all Dungeons & Dragons monsters, appearing in every edition of the game since 1975. They are one of the few classic Dungeons & Dragons monsters that Wizards of the Coast
claims as Product Identity
.
's brother Terry
thought up the beholder, and Gary Gygax
detailed it for publication.
The beholder was introduced with the first Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Greyhawk
(1975), and is depicted on its cover (as shown in the section below). It is described as a "Sphere of Many Eyes" or "Eye Tyrant," a levitating globe with ten magical eye stalks. The beholder later appears in the Companion Rules
set, in the Dungeon Masters Companion: Book Two (1984). In 1991, it appears in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia.
With the release of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition, the beholder appeared in the first edition Monster Manual
(1977), where it is described as a hateful, aggressive, avaricious spherical monster that is most frequently found underground. Ed Greenwood and Roger E Moore authored "The Ecology of the Beholder," which featured in Dragon #76 (August 1983). Second edition supplements to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, especially those of the Spelljammer
campaign setting
, added further details about these classic creatures' societies and culture. Beholders feature prominently in the Spelljammer
setting, and a number of variants and related creatures are introduced in the Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space
campaign set, in the Lorebook of the Void booklet (1989). It also appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993). The book I, Tyrant (1996), and the Monstrous Arcana module series that accompanies it, develops the beholder further.
Based on Tom Wham
's depiction in the first edition Monster Manual, TSR
artist Keith Parkinson
characterized its popular appearance with plate-like armored scales and arthropod-like eyestalks. Jeff Grubb
cites Keith Parkinson's artwork as the inspiration for the beholder-kin created for the Spelljammer
campaign setting
. The Beholder's xenophobia towards other subraces of Beholders was added after Jim Holloway
submitted multiple designs for the Beholder's spelljamming ship and Jeff Grubb
decided to keep them all and used xenophobia to explain the differences in design style.
The third edition of Dungeons & Dragons included the Beholder in the Monster Manual (2000) with the expanded monster statistics of this release. Beholder variants appear in Monstrous Compendium
: Monsters of Faerun (2001). The beholder then appears in the revised Monster Manual for the 3.5 edition (2003). The beholder receives its own chapter in the book Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations
(2005). With the release of the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the beholder once again appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the beholder eye of flame and the beholder eye tyrant. Variants of the beholder also appear in Monster Manual 2 (2009) and Monster Manual 3 (2010).
and as such is not released under its Open Game License.
A Beholder is an aberration
comprising a floating spheroid
body with a large fanged mouth and single eye on the front and many flexible eyestalks on the top.
A beholder's eyes each possess a different magical
ability; the main eye projects an anti-magical cone, and the other eyes use different spell-like abilities (disintegrate objects, transmute flesh to stone, cause sleep, slow the motion of objects or beings, charm animals, charm humans, cause death, induce fear, levitate objects, and inflict serious wounds). Many variant beholder species exist, such as "observers", "spectators", "eyes of the deep", "elder orbs", "hive mothers", and "death tyrants". In addition, some rare beholders can use their eyes for non-standard spell-like abilities; these mutant beholders are often killed or exiled by their peers. Beholders wishing to cast spells like ordinary wizards
relinquish the traditional use of their eyestalks, and put out their central anti-magic eye, making these beholder mages immediate outcasts.
In 4th edition, different breeds of Beholders have different magic abilities. Beholder Eyes of Flame only have Fear, Fire, and Telekenesis Rays ; Eyes of Frost are the same, with fire replaced by frost. The Beholder Eye Tyrant is mostly unchanged from traditional beholders, but the Death Ray causes ongoing necrotic damage rather than an instant kill, and the Disintegration Ray is replaced with Withering Ray (necrotic damage). Other Beholder types each have their own set of abilities. In this edition, the Beholder's central eye no longer cancels out magic, instead dazing or giving some vulnerability to its victim.
. They will sometimes take members of other, non-beholder races as slaves, however they will engage in a violent intra-species war with others of their kind who differ even slightly in appearance. This intense hatred of other beholders is not universal; the most prominent exceptions are Hive Mothers, who use their powers of mind control to form hives with other beholders and beholder-kin. Beholder communities in the Underdark
often, when provoked, wage war on any and all nearby settlements, finding the most resistance from the drow and illithid
s.
Beholders worship their insane, controlling goddess known as the Great Mother
, though some also, or instead, follow her rebel offspring, Gzemnid
, the beholder god of gases.
Some beholder strains have mutated far from the basic beholder stock. These are aberrant beholders, of which there are numerous different types. These aberrants may have differing abilities and/or appearances but the unifying feature among beholders and the various aberrant beholders seems to be a simple, fleshy body with one or more grotesque eyes.
campaign setting
, where they infiltrate and seek to control many sectors of society—many beholders are allied to the Zhentarim
, some work with the Red Wizards of Thay, and a particularly powerful beholder, known as "The Eye" or "Xanathar" controls Skullport's influential Xanathar's Thieves Guild. Beholders also compete to control the Underdark
from where most of them originate, with their base of power in the City of the Eye Tyrants, Ootul.
campaign are common antagonists, like the deadly neogi and sadistic illithid
s. However, one thing prevents them from being the most dangerous faction in wildspace: the beholders are engaged in a xenophobic civil war of genetic purity.
There are a large number of variations in the beholder race with some sub-races having smooth hides and others chitinous plates. Other noticeable differences include snakelike eyestalks or crustacean-like eyestalk joints. Some variations seem minor such as variations in the size of the central eye or differences in skin colour. Each beholder nation believes itself to be the true beholder race and sees other beholders as ugly copies that must be destroyed.
Lone beholders in wildspace are often refugees who have survived an attack that exterminated the rest of their nest or are outcasts who were expelled for having some form of mutation. The most famous lone beholder is Large Luigi, who works as a barkeeper on the Rock of Bral.
Beholders use a large number of different ship designs. Some of these ships feature a piercing ram but others have no weaponry. All beholder ships allow a circuit of beholders to focus their eye stalks into a 400 yard beam of magical energy. These ships are powered and navigated by the "orbus" (plural "orbii") race of beholders, who are stunted, albino, and very weak in combat.
, beholders do not reproduce naturally and have not created a culture of their own — they are simply the immortal servants of the daelkyr. Most continue to serve their masters, commanding subterranean outposts of aberrations or serving as the hidden leaders of various Cults of the Dragon Below. Others lead solitary lives, contemplating mysteries or studying the world. Such lone beholders may manipulate humanoid communities, but their actions are rarely driven by a desire for personal power.
Members of the Cults of the Dragon Below believe that these creatures function as the eyes of a greater power. Some insist that they serve Belashyrra, a powerful Daelkyr who is also known as the Lord of Eyes. Others claim the beholders are the eyes of Xoriat
itself — that while they serve the daelkyr, they are conduits to a power even greater and more terrible than the shapers of flesh.
magazine's top 100 greatest villains ever list selected the Beholder as the 99th greatest villain.
The beholder (gauth) was ranked sixth among the ten best mid-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. The authors described the true beholder as an iconic creature of the game, "What could be more fantastic than a giant floating eyeball with little eye stalks sticking out, all of which shoot magic rays?" Of the gauth, the authors say "its ability to inflict a bewildering variety of damage on a party of heroes is unparalleled... until they fight a true beholder, that is."
. The Dungeons & Dragons
TV cartoon series featured a beholder in the 1983 episode Eye of the Beholder. A beholder also appears in the interactive movie Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
. The Futurama
episode How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
features a beholder who guards the Central Bureaucracy. He is a Grade 11 bureaucrat who begs the Planet Express crew not to tell its supervisor that he was sleeping on the job. He has another cameo in Lethal Inspection
, still working at the Central Bureaucracy.
Beholders appear in a number of Dungeons & Dragons computer and video games, most notably the Eye of the Beholder
series. Beholders appear regularly throughout the RPG Baldur's Gate 2. All but one of these are hostile. The non-hostile individual is a Spectator, which the player has to persuade to be allowed to retrieve an item from a chest it is guarding.
Other video games have also included beholders. In the Tibia
computer game, a beholder can serve as a magical creature. There are also Elder Beholders gazers and braindeaths (extremely old beholders whose brains have grown out into their eyes, rendering them blind). As of August 23, 2010, the name for the Beholder in Tibia was replaced with "bonelord". In the Xbox 360
game, Castle Crashers
, it is possible to have a beholder as a pet. In Age of Wonders
, the Azraks can train beholder units; in addition, beholders sometimes guard spaces such as caves, castles and prisons. In Westwood's Nox, beholders guard an underground temple. They can partially paralyze the hero, making him slow to walk, and can emit dangerous bolts of energy. In 2010 Cipsoft had to change beholder names to bonelords.
The roguelike
game Angband includes a variety of different types of beholder, including the unique beholder "Omarax, the Eye Tyrant". A beholder also appears on a special level of the NetHack
offshoot Slash'EM
. The original NetHack game has "floating eyes", which appear somewhat beholder-like, but actually gained their inspiration from an entirely different Dungeons & Dragons species.
The Beholder Eye Tyrant was included as a random packed figure in D&D Miniatures: Dangerous Delves (#5/40) (2009).
The Beholder Ultimate Tyrant was available as a visible piece Legendary Evils set (#6/40) (2009).
}
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
fantasy role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. It resembles a floating orb of flesh with a large mouth, single central eye, and lots of smaller eyestalk
Eyestalk
In anatomy, an eyestalk is a protrusion that extends the eye away from the body, giving the eye a better field of view than if it were unextended. It is common in nature and in fiction....
s on top with deadly magical powers.
The Beholder is among the most classic of all Dungeons & Dragons monsters, appearing in every edition of the game since 1975. They are one of the few classic Dungeons & Dragons monsters that Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
claims as Product Identity
System Reference Document
The System Reference Document, or SRD, is a set of reference role playing game mechanics licensed under the Open Game License by Wizards of the Coast and based upon their Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. The SRD forms the basis of WotC's various d20 System role-playing games, including the...
.
Publication history
Unlike many other Dungeons & Dragons monsters, the beholder is an original creation for D&D, as it is not based on a creature from mythology or other fiction. Rob KuntzRobert J. Kuntz
Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is most famous for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.-Works:...
's brother Terry
Terry Kuntz
Terry Kuntz is a game designer who was an early associate of Gary Gygax and employee of TSR.-Biography:...
thought up the beholder, and Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
detailed it for publication.
The beholder was introduced with the first Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Greyhawk
Greyhawk (supplement)
Greyhawk is a supplementary rulebook written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game...
(1975), and is depicted on its cover (as shown in the section below). It is described as a "Sphere of Many Eyes" or "Eye Tyrant," a levitating globe with ten magical eye stalks. The beholder later appears in the Companion Rules
Dungeons & Dragons Companion Set
The Companion Set is an expansion boxed set for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was first published in 1984 as an expansion to the Basic Set.-Publication history:...
set, in the Dungeon Masters Companion: Book Two (1984). In 1991, it appears in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia.
With the release of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition, the beholder appeared in the first edition Monster Manual
Monster Manual
The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically...
(1977), where it is described as a hateful, aggressive, avaricious spherical monster that is most frequently found underground. Ed Greenwood and Roger E Moore authored "The Ecology of the Beholder," which featured in Dragon #76 (August 1983). Second edition supplements to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, especially those of the Spelljammer
Spelljammer
Spelljammer is a campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastical outer space environment....
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
, added further details about these classic creatures' societies and culture. Beholders feature prominently in the Spelljammer
Spelljammer
Spelljammer is a campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastical outer space environment....
setting, and a number of variants and related creatures are introduced in the Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space
Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space
Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space is a boxed set accessory published in 1989 for the Spelljammer campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:...
campaign set, in the Lorebook of the Void booklet (1989). It also appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993). The book I, Tyrant (1996), and the Monstrous Arcana module series that accompanies it, develops the beholder further.
Based on Tom Wham
Tom Wham
Tom Wham is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games.Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he worked for the Guidon Games hobby shop in Maine where he got his first game, a variant...
's depiction in the first edition Monster Manual, TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
artist Keith Parkinson
Keith Parkinson
Keith Parkinson was an American fantasy artist and illustrator known for book cover and game artwork for games such as EverQuest, Guardians, Magic: The Gathering and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.-Early life:...
characterized its popular appearance with plate-like armored scales and arthropod-like eyestalks. Jeff Grubb
Jeff Grubb
Jeff Grubb is an author and game designer. He has worked on a number of computer and role-playing games and has written a number of successful novels, short stories and comics...
cites Keith Parkinson's artwork as the inspiration for the beholder-kin created for the Spelljammer
Spelljammer
Spelljammer is a campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastical outer space environment....
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
. The Beholder's xenophobia towards other subraces of Beholders was added after Jim Holloway
Jim Holloway (artist)
-Background:Jim Holloway was self taught in illustration, although he was able to study some oil paintings by his father.-Works:Jim Holloway has continued to produce interior illustrations for many Dungeons & Dragons books and Dragon magazine since 1981, as well as cover art for The Land Beyond the...
submitted multiple designs for the Beholder's spelljamming ship and Jeff Grubb
Jeff Grubb
Jeff Grubb is an author and game designer. He has worked on a number of computer and role-playing games and has written a number of successful novels, short stories and comics...
decided to keep them all and used xenophobia to explain the differences in design style.
The third edition of Dungeons & Dragons included the Beholder in the Monster Manual (2000) with the expanded monster statistics of this release. Beholder variants appear in Monstrous Compendium
Monstrous Compendium
The Monstrous Compendium is a series of accessories for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Volumes:MC1 Monstrous Compendium, Volume One was published by TSR in 1989...
: Monsters of Faerun (2001). The beholder then appears in the revised Monster Manual for the 3.5 edition (2003). The beholder receives its own chapter in the book Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations
Lords of Madness
Lords of Madness is an official supplement for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy roleplaying game.-Contents:It includes new content for aberrations including new aberration monsters and monsters related to them, and information on how to hunt aberrations.-What Is an...
(2005). With the release of the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the beholder once again appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the beholder eye of flame and the beholder eye tyrant. Variants of the beholder also appear in Monster Manual 2 (2009) and Monster Manual 3 (2010).
Licensing
The beholder is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
and as such is not released under its Open Game License.
Physical description
Aberration (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, aberration is a type of creature, or "creature type". Aberrations generally all have bizarre anatomies, strange abilities, alien mindsets, or any combination thereof....
comprising a floating spheroid
Sphere
A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
body with a large fanged mouth and single eye on the front and many flexible eyestalks on the top.
A beholder's eyes each possess a different magical
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
ability; the main eye projects an anti-magical cone, and the other eyes use different spell-like abilities (disintegrate objects, transmute flesh to stone, cause sleep, slow the motion of objects or beings, charm animals, charm humans, cause death, induce fear, levitate objects, and inflict serious wounds). Many variant beholder species exist, such as "observers", "spectators", "eyes of the deep", "elder orbs", "hive mothers", and "death tyrants". In addition, some rare beholders can use their eyes for non-standard spell-like abilities; these mutant beholders are often killed or exiled by their peers. Beholders wishing to cast spells like ordinary wizards
Wizard (Dungeons & Dragons)
The wizard is one of the standard character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A wizard uses arcane magic, and is considered less effective in melee combat than other classes.-Creative origins:...
relinquish the traditional use of their eyestalks, and put out their central anti-magic eye, making these beholder mages immediate outcasts.
In 4th edition, different breeds of Beholders have different magic abilities. Beholder Eyes of Flame only have Fear, Fire, and Telekenesis Rays ; Eyes of Frost are the same, with fire replaced by frost. The Beholder Eye Tyrant is mostly unchanged from traditional beholders, but the Death Ray causes ongoing necrotic damage rather than an instant kill, and the Disintegration Ray is replaced with Withering Ray (necrotic damage). Other Beholder types each have their own set of abilities. In this edition, the Beholder's central eye no longer cancels out magic, instead dazing or giving some vulnerability to its victim.
Society
Beholders are extremely xenophobicXenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
. They will sometimes take members of other, non-beholder races as slaves, however they will engage in a violent intra-species war with others of their kind who differ even slightly in appearance. This intense hatred of other beholders is not universal; the most prominent exceptions are Hive Mothers, who use their powers of mind control to form hives with other beholders and beholder-kin. Beholder communities in the Underdark
Underdark
The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore...
often, when provoked, wage war on any and all nearby settlements, finding the most resistance from the drow and illithid
Illithid
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark...
s.
Beholders worship their insane, controlling goddess known as the Great Mother
Great Mother (Dungeons & Dragons)
In many campaign settings for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, The Great Mother is the creator and primary racial deity of beholders, gibbering orbs, and the various races of beholder-kin. The Great Mother is the beholder deity of magic, fertility, and tyranny...
, though some also, or instead, follow her rebel offspring, Gzemnid
Gzemnid
Gzemnid is a fictional deity in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It is a beholder deity. Gzemnid is the beholder deity of gases, fogs, obscurement, and deception.-Publication history:...
, the beholder god of gases.
Some beholder strains have mutated far from the basic beholder stock. These are aberrant beholders, of which there are numerous different types. These aberrants may have differing abilities and/or appearances but the unifying feature among beholders and the various aberrant beholders seems to be a simple, fleshy body with one or more grotesque eyes.
Forgotten Realms
Beholders are especially prominent in the Forgotten RealmsForgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
, where they infiltrate and seek to control many sectors of society—many beholders are allied to the Zhentarim
Zhentarim
The Zhentarim is a fictional organization in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Also known as the Black Network, it is an evil organization based on the continent of Faerûn. One of its goals is to dominate the lands from the Moonsea to the...
, some work with the Red Wizards of Thay, and a particularly powerful beholder, known as "The Eye" or "Xanathar" controls Skullport's influential Xanathar's Thieves Guild. Beholders also compete to control the Underdark
Underdark
The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore...
from where most of them originate, with their base of power in the City of the Eye Tyrants, Ootul.
Spelljammer
Beholders in the SpelljammerSpelljammer
Spelljammer is a campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastical outer space environment....
campaign are common antagonists, like the deadly neogi and sadistic illithid
Illithid
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark...
s. However, one thing prevents them from being the most dangerous faction in wildspace: the beholders are engaged in a xenophobic civil war of genetic purity.
There are a large number of variations in the beholder race with some sub-races having smooth hides and others chitinous plates. Other noticeable differences include snakelike eyestalks or crustacean-like eyestalk joints. Some variations seem minor such as variations in the size of the central eye or differences in skin colour. Each beholder nation believes itself to be the true beholder race and sees other beholders as ugly copies that must be destroyed.
Lone beholders in wildspace are often refugees who have survived an attack that exterminated the rest of their nest or are outcasts who were expelled for having some form of mutation. The most famous lone beholder is Large Luigi, who works as a barkeeper on the Rock of Bral.
Beholders use a large number of different ship designs. Some of these ships feature a piercing ram but others have no weaponry. All beholder ships allow a circuit of beholders to focus their eye stalks into a 400 yard beam of magical energy. These ships are powered and navigated by the "orbus" (plural "orbii") race of beholders, who are stunted, albino, and very weak in combat.
Eberron
Beholders served as living artillery during the Daelkyr incursion, using the terrible power of their eyes to shatter whole goblin armies. In EberronEberron
Eberron is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, set in a period after a vast destructive war on the continent of Khorvaire...
, beholders do not reproduce naturally and have not created a culture of their own — they are simply the immortal servants of the daelkyr. Most continue to serve their masters, commanding subterranean outposts of aberrations or serving as the hidden leaders of various Cults of the Dragon Below. Others lead solitary lives, contemplating mysteries or studying the world. Such lone beholders may manipulate humanoid communities, but their actions are rarely driven by a desire for personal power.
Members of the Cults of the Dragon Below believe that these creatures function as the eyes of a greater power. Some insist that they serve Belashyrra, a powerful Daelkyr who is also known as the Lord of Eyes. Others claim the beholders are the eyes of Xoriat
Far Realm
The Far Realm is a plane found in various settings in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Creative origins:The Far Realm is a mix of horror, madness, and Lovecraftian geometries....
itself — that while they serve the daelkyr, they are conduits to a power even greater and more terrible than the shapers of flesh.
Variants and kin
Information about beholder variations and related creatures has been made available in Dungeons & Dragons publications.| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Elder Orb | A rare variant of the traditional beholder. These creatures have a long lifespan and are more powerful than traditional beholders. |
| Hive Mother | These are even rarer than elder orbs. Although their name implies a feminine gender, these beholders are as gender-neutral as typical members of their species. Their name stems more from the fact that they have the ability to magically dominate other beholders. |
| Death Tyrant | A Death Tyrant is an undead beholder that has retained some magical ability. |
| Death Kiss | This creature’s eyestalks are replaced with blood-draining tentacles, and its body roils with a powerful electric aura. |
| Director | A director is often found dwelling in a beholder community led by a hive mother or an overseer. It has six eyestalks and three clawed tentacles with which it bonds with monstrous vermin mounts. |
| Eye of the Deep | An eye of the deep rarely comes into conflict with true beholders, for this aquatic variant dwells deep underwater. It has only two eyestalks, but its massive pinchers make it a dangerous combatant. |
| Eyeball | An eyeball is a Tiny beholderkin with four eyestalks; they are popular familiars in some wizardly and sorcerous circles. |
| Gauth | A gauth is a beholder-kin that feeds on magic as well as flesh. A gauth has six eyestalks (one of which is used to drain magic from items) and four feeding tendrils. The most obvious feature of a gauth is that its central eye (which affects the viewer's mind) is surrounded by a ridge of flesh and many small eyes used for sight. |
| Gouger | A gouger’s ten eyestalks are magically useless. Its central eye retains the antimagic properties of true beholders, and four small legs hang from the creature’s underside. A gouger’s most hideous feature, though, is its long, barbed tongue, which is adept at temporarily neutralizing beholder eyestalks. |
| Overseer | An overseer is the most dangerous of the known beholderkin. Rivaling the power of a hive mother, an overseer resembles nothing so much as a large, fleshy tree with mouths on its trunk and eyes on its branches. |
| Spectator | A spectator is an extraplanar beholderkin with four eyestalks. Somewhat mild and even-tempered, spectators have even been known to form friendships with other creatures, a trait that no other beholderkin or true beholder ever displays. |
| Umbrascarred | Once a proud member of the infamous race of Eye Tyrants, these Beholders were captured by the Umbragen and immersed within the writhing pits of shadow. This cruel and vicious process warped their very flesh, amputating eyestalks and tearing out their central eye, and transforming them into feral beasts who no longer seek their own ends but instead tirelessly pursue the destruction of all that lives. |
Reception
WizardWizard (magazine)
Wizard or Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by Wizard Entertainment from July 1991 to January 2011...
magazine's top 100 greatest villains ever list selected the Beholder as the 99th greatest villain.
The beholder (gauth) was ranked sixth among the ten best mid-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. The authors described the true beholder as an iconic creature of the game, "What could be more fantastic than a giant floating eyeball with little eye stalks sticking out, all of which shoot magic rays?" Of the gauth, the authors say "its ability to inflict a bewildering variety of damage on a party of heroes is unparalleled... until they fight a true beholder, that is."
Appearances in other media
The beholder has appeared in several films and television programs. Two beholders are seen briefly in the 2000 motion picture Dungeons & DragonsDungeons & Dragons (film)
Dungeons & Dragons is a 2000 American fantasy film directed by Courtney Solomon and ostensibly based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game...
. The Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons (TV series)
Dungeons & Dragons is an American fantasy animated television series based on TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. A co-production of Marvel Productions and TSR, the show originally ran from 1985 through 1987 for three seasons on CBS for a total of twenty seven episodes.The show focused on a...
TV cartoon series featured a beholder in the 1983 episode Eye of the Beholder. A beholder also appears in the interactive movie Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
A Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure is an animated film or interactive adventure. In each scene, it allows the user a choice, and different endings or different paths to the same ending will be displayed depending upon that choice....
. The Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
"How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" is episode eleven in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 2, 2000...
features a beholder who guards the Central Bureaucracy. He is a Grade 11 bureaucrat who begs the Planet Express crew not to tell its supervisor that he was sleeping on the job. He has another cameo in Lethal Inspection
Lethal Inspection
"Lethal Inspection" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom, Futurama, and originally aired on July 22, 2010 on Comedy Central. In the episode Bender learns that he suffers from a terminal manufacturing defect, effectively rendering him mortal...
, still working at the Central Bureaucracy.
Beholders appear in a number of Dungeons & Dragons computer and video games, most notably the Eye of the Beholder
Eye of the Beholder (computer game)
Eye of the Beholder is a role-playing video game for computers and video game consoles developed by Westwood Studios. It was published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1990 for the DOS operating system and later ported to the Amiga, the Sega CD, and the SNES...
series. Beholders appear regularly throughout the RPG Baldur's Gate 2. All but one of these are hostile. The non-hostile individual is a Spectator, which the player has to persuade to be allowed to retrieve an item from a chest it is guarding.
Other video games have also included beholders. In the Tibia
Tibia (computer game)
Tibia is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game created by CipSoft GmbH. It is one of the oldest MMORPGs and was considered most noteworthy in its early years; however, with the development of MMORPGs its popularity has grown much slower than other gaming communities...
computer game, a beholder can serve as a magical creature. There are also Elder Beholders gazers and braindeaths (extremely old beholders whose brains have grown out into their eyes, rendering them blind). As of August 23, 2010, the name for the Beholder in Tibia was replaced with "bonelord". In the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
game, Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers is a beat 'em up console video game independently developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It features music created by members of Newgrounds. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008 via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade...
, it is possible to have a beholder as a pet. In Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders is a turn-based strategy PC-game often likened to Master of Magic. Originally titled World of Wonders, the game incorporated several role-playing video game elements that were dropped when simultaneous turns were implemented...
, the Azraks can train beholder units; in addition, beholders sometimes guard spaces such as caves, castles and prisons. In Westwood's Nox, beholders guard an underground temple. They can partially paralyze the hero, making him slow to walk, and can emit dangerous bolts of energy. In 2010 Cipsoft had to change beholder names to bonelords.
The roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
game Angband includes a variety of different types of beholder, including the unique beholder "Omarax, the Eye Tyrant". A beholder also appears on a special level of the NetHack
NetHack
NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of Rogue...
offshoot Slash'EM
Slash'EM
Slash'EM is a variant of the roguelike game NetHack that offers extra features, monsters, and items...
. The original NetHack game has "floating eyes", which appear somewhat beholder-like, but actually gained their inspiration from an entirely different Dungeons & Dragons species.
- The online comic Planescape Survival Guide features a beholder as one of the main characters.
- The original Japanese Famicom and MSX versions of Final FantasyFinal Fantasyis a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
had creatures called beholders and eyes that looked like the traditional beholder. However, for the US release and later editions, the sprite was changed and the beholders were renamed. - A beholder appears briefly in The Order of the StickThe Order of the StickThe Order of the Stick is a comedic webcomic that celebrates and satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy through the ongoing tale of the eponymous fellowship of adventuring heroes...
along with a mind flayer as a joking reference to the non-inclusion of "product identity" monsters in the Open Game License materials and SRDSystem Reference DocumentThe System Reference Document, or SRD, is a set of reference role playing game mechanics licensed under the Open Game License by Wizards of the Coast and based upon their Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. The SRD forms the basis of WotC's various d20 System role-playing games, including the...
. - Several kinds of beholder appear as aerial enemies in DrakengardDrakengardDrakengard, known in Japan as , is a PlayStation 2 action role-playing game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix and Take-Two Interactive. It was released on September 11, 2003 in Japan, on March 5, 2004 in North America and on May 21, 2004 in PAL territories.The game was originally...
and Drakengard 2Drakengard 2Drakengard 2, or in Japan, is an action RPG for the PlayStation 2 system and is a direct sequel to the original Drakengard. Like the original, Drakengard 2 combines on-foot hack and slash with aerial combat stages reminiscent of Sega's Panzer Dragoon...
. - The beholder is also present as a unit type for the Dungeon in Heroes of Might and Magic III.
- The beholder appeared as a monster in the PlayStation 2PlayStation 2The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
game RPG Maker 2. - In the Rachel dungeon of the mmorpgMMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
Ragnarok OnlineRagnarok OnlineRagnarok Online , often referred to as RO, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG created by GRAVITY Co., Ltd. based on the manhwa Ragnarok by Lee Myung-jin. It was first released in South Korea on 31 August 2002 for Microsoft Windows and has since been released in many other...
, players can fight against monsters called beholders, and looking like them. - In the Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
Arcade game Castle CrashersCastle CrashersCastle Crashers is a beat 'em up console video game independently developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It features music created by members of Newgrounds. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008 via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade...
, a beholder is one of the animal orb familiars that the main characters can acquire. - A spherical creature called a "tribal beholder" appears in the Xbox 360 and PC game Divinity II: Ego Draconis. It is simply a glowing sphere in the game.
- A beholder appears briefly several times in the webcomic Looking for GroupLooking for GroupLooking for Group is a fantasy-themed Canadian webcomic written by Ryan Sohmer and drawn by Lar DeSouza. The Comic follows the adventures of Cale'Anon and Richard , as well as their companions...
. It is the eternal companion of the Kethenecian Archmage. - A beholder is a character hired as security in episode 16 of Regular ShowRegular ShowRegular Show is an American animated television series created by J. G. Quintel...
, Peeps which aired on January 17, 2011. - The game MagickaMagickaMagicka is an action-adventure video game based on Norse mythology and developed by independent developer Arrowhead Game Studios. It was released via Steam for Microsoft Windows on January 25, 2011. A free demo was also made available for download...
features Beholder-like creatures called "watchers". The game itself points out the connection in the tutorial, where a Watcher named "Behold" must be defeated as the boss. - The MMORPG TibiaTibia (computer game)Tibia is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game created by CipSoft GmbH. It is one of the oldest MMORPGs and was considered most noteworthy in its early years; however, with the development of MMORPGs its popularity has grown much slower than other gaming communities...
featured beholders and elder beholders as common enemies. These were later renamed to bonelords. - Beholders also make an appearance in a very popular mod for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. They are called "Beholden" and are featured in the "Midas Magic Spells of Aurum" mod, and have their own quest that allows them to become summoned creatures.
- The beholder appears in the game Age of Wonders 2 expansion pack, as a tigran unit.
D&D Miniatures
A beholder is featured in D&D Miniatures: Deathknell set #32 (2005).The Beholder Eye Tyrant was included as a random packed figure in D&D Miniatures: Dangerous Delves (#5/40) (2009).
The Beholder Ultimate Tyrant was available as a visible piece Legendary Evils set (#6/40) (2009).
Additional reading
- Cagle, Eric. "Worshipers of the Forbidden." Dragon #296 (Paizo PublishingPaizo PublishingPaizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
, 2002). - Collins, Andy, Bruce R. Cordell, and Thomas M. Reid. Epic Level HandbookEpic Level HandbookThe Epic Level Handbook is a rulebook by Wizards of the Coast for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons.-Contents:This books contained rules for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition characters to attain levels above 20, the limit in the core rulebooks...
(Wizards of the CoastWizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, 2002). - Demokopoliss, Dougal. "The Ecology of the Spectator." DragonDragon (magazine)Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#139 (TSR, 1988). - Greenwood, Ed. "The Ecology of the Eye of the Deep." DragonDragon (magazine)Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#93 (TSRTSR, Inc.Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
, 1985). - Mearls, MichaelMike MearlsMichael Mearls is a writer and designer of fantasy role-playing games and related fiction.He worked as a freelance writer and designer for various gaming publishers for several years before being hired in June 2005 as a designer by Wizards of the Coast. He was a Lead Developer for Dungeons &...
. "Eye Wares: Potent Powers of the Beholders." Dragon #313 (Paizo Publishing, 2003).
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