User blog comment:Le Rottweiler/Can Shubby use mind control?/@comment-3547390-20150414120814

I don't know, I thought the probes were part of the mutation from man to child of Shub-Niggurath. What made you change your mind? It sounds rather inhumane to implement these probes in the military, plus a rather complicated procedure. I also don't see how the brain is a pleasure center. The Enforcers probably have the same probes as they are Grunts.

It is entirely possible that they are all controlled by Shub-Niggurath. This is due to every Enemy in Quake actually being Shub-Niggurath. I would advise reading some Lovecraft (especially The Silver Key and its sequel) to understand exactly what I am talking about, but basically every being in every world is controlled by an Old One, who is a central being from which all others are formed. The universes are made up of angles of consciousness, this is what manifests the illusion of time as well as the differing appearance of entities. The Old Ones control the angles, possibly therefore also controlling the beings affected by the angles which are in-fact just a separate consciousness of themselves thrown into a world of illusion with a very limited knowledge of the workings of the world.

I don't actually believe any of those creatures are undead, but rather that they were mutated beings with brains so deformed that they think only with animal-like urges.