01 Mirtul 1457
Ceremorphosis is an exacting process that walks a razor's edge between death and rebirth. We of the Nourisher Creed oversee all aspects of the transformation, from the selection of tadpoles and hosts for implantation, to the care and education of newborn illithids joining our colony. I, Videxthrod, have trained no less than thirteen apprentices during my time at the Ceremorphosis Unit, and have significantly improved our success rate from 78% to 89%.
Much of that improvement has come from promoting a more active involvement in the process. Past generations of Creed members have treated this as a passive role, simply depositing the unfortunate hosts into ceremorphosis pods and returning a week later to see what has emerged. Perhaps this laissez-faire approach is based on historical precedent, since our ceremorphosis pods are mere shadows of what our planeshifting ancestors of the Illithid Empire must have possessed. But even if our predecessors had access to sophisticated technology and a near-infinite pool of thralls, we do not, and so we cannot afford to waste members of our potential food supply and labor force by leaving them at the mercy of this notoriously unpredictable process.
Our mission here at Ceremorphosis Unit #3 is to go above and beyond the minimum standards and achieve the highest success rate possible, all while maintaining a safe and productive workplace environment.
Author's Note: This idea was vaguely inspired by real notes/posters seen around my workplace, but with a dark illithid twist. Not sure how many more of these there will be, but unless stated otherwise, their in-universe author is Videx, my mind flayer OC who features in some of the other stories in this series. Hope you enjoy this odd sort of "fanfic"! Please leave a comment if you liked it or have any ideas for other topics you want to see for a memo/poster/document. So far my ideas include an overview/timeline of ceremorphosis, various things that can go wrong with the transformation, specific incident reports, etc.