Clarota

Clarota is an arcanist Illithid. He is portrayed by Matthew Mercer.

Background
Clarota originally was part of the Illithid hive that Vox Machina traveled to. He was cast out from his hive for having The Mark of the Arcane, something that his people viewed as an ill omen. He watched as his people were taken over by K'Varn. In an effort to protect himself from K'Varn's influence over his mind, he created a helmet that hid himself from K'Varn's mind. He made his way up closer to the surface to avoid being found by K'Varn's forces.

The Duergar Warcamp
Clarota was first encountered by Keyleth and Vex'ahlia when they decided to scout on their own, against their parties wishes. They found a path leading to his home in a cave behind a waterfall. He was dirty, wearing rags, slowly starving, and had a large scar on his face. He would use a walking stick when not levitating.

He was enticed to join Vox Machina on their quest further into the mines when he was promised revenge against K'varn. He wanted to free his hive from K'varn's influence, in hopes that by becoming their hero, they would be forced to allow him to rejoin the hive.

The group managed to come up with a plan to attack the Duergar warcamp situated across an underground canyon by flying over to the barracks and attacking the leaders of the army. They were ultimately successful, and managed to get information on how to breach the Duergar stronghold known as the Emberhold from the general. Clarota ended up eating the general's mind when he tried to escape. The entire party was forced into a quick escape when an alarm sounded, during which time Clarota was nearly killed by an arrow.

Breaching the Emberhold
Making their way down, the group was able to use knowledge gained from the Duergar general to find a hiidn backdoor into the Emberhold. However, in so doing they alerted the strongholdto their presence. Making their way from the bottom floors, Vox Machina completed their mission of finding Lady Kima when they raided the dungeons. Kima and Clarota immediately hated and mistrusted each other. Kima stated that he would betray them once they had used up their usefulness while he stated she would kill him in her sleep. It took nearly all the members of Vox Machina to convince them to form a temporary truce.

Making their way up towards the Throne room, the group created a diversion that allowed them to attack the king and queen directly. However, during the conflict Kima and Tiberius were turned to stone by basilisks, and Grog was mentally dominated and captured by the queen who broke the throne room ceiling, causing lava to quickly fill the Emberhold. Clarota ended up saving Kima as the group fled, and Vax sustained very bad burns on his foot when lava engulfed it. Finding safety, the group decided to rest an recover, during which time Kima and Tiberius were unpetrified. When Vex noticed the queen was on the move using her Hunter's mark, the group pursued.

Glass and Bone
During their pursuit, the group encountered a field made up of glass, bone, and stone that emitted an evil presence. They decided to fly over it to avoid any potential threats. While crossing the field, they encountered an abomination created by K'Varn and ended up fighting it. They also discovered that the field would attempt to pull anybody in who stood only a few seconds on it. The creature was defeated and the party continued on. Up ahead and past the fields they found Grog along with Duergar, brainwashed mercenaries, the queen, and an Illithid. After battling with them, they were able to capture the queen and free Grog. While interrogating the queen, K'Varn possessed her to see who had been causing him so much trouble. When he was done, he psychically killed the queen.

Temple Showdown
The party eventually made their way to the Illithid island, and spent their time preparing to face K'Varn. During which time they encountered a Fomorian giant which tried to kill them. However, Keyleth was able to control the creature which they later used to break into K'Varn's stronghold. After a long battle, during which Grog was almost killed, the K'Varn was slain and his artifact, The Horn of Orcus, was taken and sealed inside Vox Machina's Bag of Holding.

Betrayal and Death
Following K'Varn's demise, the Illithid colony allowed Clarota to return to their hive. As soon as he was reconnected with his people, he immediately turned against Vox Machina. Just as Scanlan was about to be permanently killed by Clarota eating his brain, Percy was able to shoot Clarota through the head, ultimately killing him.

Aftermath
Vox Machina barely managed to escape with Kima, who had been petrified once again, from the now enraged Illithid colony.

Personality
Clarota did not view himself as being able to be friends with anyone, but was willing to see himself as an ally to the party. The party frequently attempted to call him Clarence due to his odd name, but he quickly grew angry and insisted that they call him by his real name. He ultimately betrayed them when they had fulfilled their role to him by helping him reconnect with his hive, stating that it was time to feed.

Clarota seemed interested in others who could also wield magic, as shown when speaking with Tiberius.

He once told Vox Machina that eating a creature's mind and seeing their memories was rapturous.

Clarota seemed to enjoy music, as he found Scanlan's tunes enjoyable. It is possibly why he tried to eat Scanlan's mind so that he could hear the tune's within his head.

Abilities
Besides having a mind flayers natural abilities, Clarota also had the ability to create lightning from his hands similar to Scanlan. This proved to be a very dangerous weapon in battle. It also almost cost Grog his life when Clarota accidentally "fed" an acid creature K'Varn created, causing it to split into two smaller forms that each dealt as much damage as their large form did.

Illithid Abilities

 * Mind Control
 * Psychic Damage
 * Levitation
 * Teleportation (Assumed based off of encounters with other Illithid)

Arcane Abilities

 * Magical Barrier
 * Arcane Fire
 * Lightning
 * Mage Hand