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In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the beholder is a fictional monster comprised of a levitating spheroid body with a large fanged mouth and single eye on the front and ten flexible eyestalks on the top; it was once described as "a big eye with a bunch of little eyes that eats adventurers for breakfast". A beholder's eyes each possess a different magical ability; the main eye projects an anti-magical aura, and the other eyes cast different spells (for example, they can disintegrate objects and transmute flesh to stone). Many variant beholder species exist, such as "observers", "spectators", "eyes of the deep", and "elder orbs".
A similar creature is a gas spore, which superficially resembles a beholder, but explodes violently when punctured.
The beholder was introduced to the game in its first supplement, Greyhawk (1975), and is depicted on its cover. Second edition supplements to Dungeons & Dragons, especially those of the Spelljammer setting, added further details about these classic creatures' socities and culture, describing them as extremely xenophobic and racist, to the point of being engaged in a violent intra-species war with others of their kind who differ even slightly in appearance. They were also described as having "queens" who piloted large ships of their kind between solar systems. More recent editions of the game have not incorporated these changes.
In the Ultima computer role-playing games, there exists a beholder-like monster called a gazer; when slain, it explodes into a cloud of bees (possibly a pun on "bee holder"). The very similar cacodemon from the Doom first-person shooters was inspired by D&D's beholders.
References
- Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III v.3.5. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast, Inc. See also previous editions.
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