[Fantheory] The Mind Flayer, Its Plan, and What the UD Is

!As I watch Stranger Things, I'm always amazed at the way in which D&D is drawn from as source material from a narrative standpoint, and through storytelling style. While we are clearly not in a swords n' sorcery setting, there's something that feels as much like a good campaign as watching Brennan Lee Mulligan build a mysterious world's history through the events of Cloudward Ho. But as I watch this season, I can't help but believe that the characters we meet actually are DnD characters - specifically in a Psionic modern setting with no non-psychic casting.!<

!Now, I'm not saying they are actually using 5E rules in the background and actually playing this out, but the concepts of 'leveling up' certainly seem to be present. Some characters seem to give 'inspiration' to the others in a mechanical sense. Some characters seem to have a 'rage' like class feature - others are freakishly accurate with ranged weapons. We seem to have a tinkerer in the party, and obviously we have a psychic caster or two in the party. So in thinking about the world of ST in more Planar Adventures terms, how would we describe the Upside Down?!<

!It is a separate plane cut off from our world completely, except within Hawkins. Within the bounds of Hawkins, it appears that this 'veil' is permeable by psychic entities by something akin to gate spells. This permeability seems to change over time and in response to certain events, allowing more or fewer rifts to the real world to appear. The Upside Down appears as a dark reflection of Hawkins, overgrown with the strange organic tissue that forms its planar boundaries, wall, and inhabitants - the demogorgons, Mind Flayer, and Henry/Vecna. You know what we've never seen? What those inhabitants typically eat. I don't think they've been waiting around for millenia, waiting for that first sweet bite of Barbara. We've also never seen anything outside of the town of Hawkins in the Upside Down - which brings me to one of my mini-theories: what we've seen is actually a demiplane at the border of one of the darker portions of the psychic plane and the Prime Material plane. There isn't a 'wall' around Hawkins in the UD, that is simply how big the Upside Down is (currently).!<

!Now let's back up to the initial action of the plot, Henry's backstory and the experiments at the DOE. In his childhood, Henry somehow slips into this plane and is touched by the mind flayer. After this event we see Henry (a) begin developing his powers, which start getting much stronger after he begins killing with them / getting EXP (b) becomes rapidly and almost inexplicably sadistic and (c) eventually come to the conclusion that he wants to destroy humanity using the Upside Down. This gives him a Psychic sorcerer bloodline.!<

!Eventually the government tries to weaponize this, creating more with his bloodline abilities, including 11. Henry goes apeshit and kills a bunch of them, and then we see what we think is El banishing or killing Henry. I submit that this is not what occurred.!<

!What have we seen happen when psychics die, I believe every single time? Rifts open. The stronger the psychic or more of them, the larger the rifts, radius, and number of them. El didn't open the first rift - 001 killing the other children weakened the barrier enough that the Mind Flayer could finally open one to admit his dark scion. What happens when Vecna gets killed? It allows for an enormous rift to rock through the town, admitting the particulates that link creatures to the Mind Flayer's will. The only reason Hawkins isn't already a town of puppets is that the Flayer's proxy body was destroyed, and there hasn't been a rift opened big enough to admit its true form. The Flayer takes Vecna back, and casts something like create undead or true resurrection. So why does Vecna want 12 kids, who he appears to be imbuing with his psychic powers? Kids who have tragedy enough in their lives to be linked and visible to the Flayer, kids who won't realize they can fight back?!<

!They are sacrificial lambs. Once they reach the fullness of their power (unbeknownst to them), he kills them all and cuts the barrier wide open. The other effect is that Vecna will be able to grow his demiplane to encompass a much larger area - which gives access to more corresponding areas of the Prime Material. The Flayer can cross over, and links with anyone who ingested his particles. Game over. Will was his prototype for this endeavor. He picks those vulnerable, those already psychically attuned to fear/shame, and reinforces the imagery of their weakness and helplessness. This is critical, because Will just showed us what happens when one of his kids realizes the power they've been primed with and how to use it.!<

!In essence, the Flayer is something like an enormous hive of psychic detritovores - filling us with shame and fear, which we then inflict on one another to multiply it. They then feed off the increased yield, but are only able to draw a limited amount through the veil. It wants to come to our world, and is using conflict between psychics to shred the barrier that keeps it in its psychic plane. Even if the kids kill Vecna again and save the other kids, just doing that is likely to weaken the barrier further - resulting in a large conflict in Hawkins.!<

!The kids will need to attack the Mind Flayer directly, by having those in the bloodline face their inner demons, and infusing the Flayer with the power of love and friendship - anaethema to his psychic alignment.!<