To my mind the Illithids should have had much more involvement with Athas in the distant past. The githyanki city of Yathazor is too great an undertaking to simply be about dominating a chunk of an obscure Prime Material world IMHO. One thing guaranteed to get githyanki going is their ancestral enemy.
Whole heartedly agreed. I’ve said as much in other posts. Most recently here:
I my campaign history the rhulisti and illithid had many conflicts in the early Blue Age. Mostly from due to rhulisti unlocking the basics of lifeshaping from captured illithid grafts and tadpoles.