Item from baldurs-gate-3 by Larian Studios
A parasitic worm implanted behind the eye that should transform its host into a Mind Flayer within days — but doesn't, because of the Astral Prism's protection, creating a ticking clock that also happens to grant psionic powers.
The tadpole is BG3's central metaphor: power that costs you your humanity, offered freely and repeatedly. It grants telepathy, psionic blasts, and the ability to dominate weak minds. Each time you use it, you feel it growing. Each time you resist it, you wonder what you're missing. The Absolute's True Souls are people who accepted their tadpoles fully. The Emperor — the Mind Flayer in the Astral Prism — was once a person who didn't accept his in time. The tadpole forces the game's defining question: how much of yourself will you sacrifice for power, and at what point does the thing using the power stop being you?
Also known as: Tadpole, The Tadpole, Illithid Tadpole, The Parasite, Mind Flayer Parasite