Githyanki
Encyclopedia
The githyanki are a fictional humanoid
race in the Dungeons & Dragons
role-playing game. They are cousins to the githzerai
. In the Dark Sun
setting, they are simply called gith. Githyanki appeared in, and on the cover of, the 1981 edition of the Fiend Folio
.
in his Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Stross borrowed the name from a fictional race created by George R. R. Martin
in his 1977 science fiction
novel Dying of the Light
. George R. R. Martin himself was not aware that the name had been borrowed until the 2000s. The githyanki/ illithid
relationship was inspired by Larry Niven
's World of Ptavvs.
The Githyanki have appeared in all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy role-playing game since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. They were also featured in the official campaign for the licensed Neverwinter Nights 2
computer game and in Baldur's Gate II
.
.
#12 (April/May 1979), in the "Fiend Factory" column, which was later reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles (1980). The githyanki then appears in 1981 in the first edition Fiend Folio
, and even appears on the book's cover (see above).
Stross later wrote a follow-up article on the githyanki which appeared in White Dwarf #76 (April 1986). The module Tales of the Outer Planes
(1988) describes a githyanki lair.
The githyanki was further detailed in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994). Githyanki society and their Astral cities are further developed, and their leader Vlaakith
the Lich-Queen are described in A Guide to the Astral Plane
(1996).
(2001).
(2006).
The "Incursion" storyline running through July 2003's Dragon #309 and Dungeon
#100 focused on the githyanki heavily. Dungeon #100 included the duthka'gith, the kr'y'izoth template, the tl'a'ikith template, and Vlaakith the Lich-Queen.
The githyanki captain, the gish githyanki, and the githyanki soldier appeared in Monster Manual IV (2006).
The githyanki then appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the githyanki warrior, the githyanki mindslicer, and the githyanki gish.
and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License
.
.
from the Material Plane. Their fortress-cities are built on chunks of Astral stone or on the titanic stony corpses of dead gods. They have fortress-outposts on many planes and Material Planar worlds, especially near illithid lairs, as well as brood-chambers to incubate their eggs.
in appearance, but taller and much gaunter, averaging six feet, three inches tall and weighing an average of 170 pounds. They have leathery, pale yellow skin, and red or black hair. Their black eyes are sunken in their skulls, and their ears are pointed and serrated in back.
strongholds is considered a rite of passage.
The current queen, Vlaakith
CLVII, is an undead wizard who has ruled her people for more than a thousand years. So paranoid is she, that when any githyanki achieves a certain level of power and skill, she summons them to her palace to consume their souls, thus preventing them from ever threatening her power. Most githyanki willingly present themselves out of blind loyalty and pride, whilst those who try to flee this fate are hunted down and dragged before her in shackles. These victims afterwards become some form of undead servant under her direct control.
Vlaakith will sometimes present powerful githyanki with an incredibly rare silver sword. These swords possess several unique properties, most notably the ability to sever the silver cords that act as lifelines to travelers on the astral plane, killing the traveler instantly. These swords are highly sought after, and a cult of githyanki knights called the Sword Stalkers is tasked with recovering any swords that fall into the hands of the unworthy, i.e. non githyanki.
The githyanki use a unique form of writing called tir'su. It is an alphabetical set of runes in which words are formed in circles instead of linearly, with the letters of a given word being linked around a ring clockwise from the top. Sentences are formed from a series of these rings. Much as runes were given a mystical significance, the Githyanki employ the tir'su when creating magical wards and symbols.
, and many speak Draconic. In the githyanki language, apostrophes (which are not pronounced) separate different morphemes which have been combined into a single word. For example, gish'sarath combines the word gish, or "skilled," with sarath, or "sergeant." Githyanki who have trained with great heroes add the prefix gi' ("student of") to their trainer's name.
s ruled a vast empire known to some as Nihilath. The illithid empire held many worlds and even a few planes of existence in their tentacled grip. After a thousand years of engineering, they constructed an artificial world known as Penumbra, a vast disk that circled a sun, the planet's radius something like a hundred million miles.
And of course the empire kept slaves. Many of the slaves had originally, some sources (Polyhedron
#159) say, originated on a distant world known as Pharagos, which the illithids had conquered and added to their empire. Other sources (Dragon #298) mention a subterranean empire called Zarum in Western Oerik, where a race of humanoids dominated many other races from their capital city of Anithor. These humanoids seem to have been divided into a rigid caste system, their lives ruled by ancient ritual. The ruins of Zarum overflow with sacred spaces and temples, though the names of their ancient gods are unknown today. At some point, the illithids invaded Zarum from a neighboring plane of existence. Though the natives fought fiercely, they were no match for the psionic might of the mind flayers, and soon they were enslaved. The River of Angry Souls is a remnant of one of the terrible battles between the illithids and the soon-to-be enslaved Zarumites. Many were brought to the Outer Planes and elsewhere to serve as illithid slaves. Other cities in Zarum were transformed into work pits where illithid overseers forced their slaves to toil for countless generations. For thousands of years these once-human beings, who are remembered today only as the forerunners, were thralls of Nihilath. Some were engineered to become the ancestors of the grimlocks
and distributed throughout the worlds of the empire to serve their illithid masters in their subterranean realms. On every world, the slaves were unable to escape their masters' psionic power, and illithid might was unquestioned. It is said that the fiends
paused in their eternal Blood War
to determine if anything could stop the mind flayers as the empire expanded throughout the Astral Plane
and Ethereal Plane and threatened the Outer Planes themselves.
It was then that the illithids first encounted the voor. The voor were one of the greatest threats the illithid empire ever faced. An insectoid race utterly immune to psionics, the voor reproduced using spores capable of floating through the airless reaches of outer space indefinitely before finding a place to transform into larvae, using whatever inorganic materials were on hand to create their bodies. The standard slave armies of the illithids were unable to stop the voor invasion, so in desperation a long-vanished illithid Creed constructed tumerogenesis tanks to impart certain physical, spiritual, and psionic enhancements on selected slave-soldiers. After thousands of years of slavery and controlled breeding, the illithid thralls were no longer recognizable as the humans
they once were. They were longer of limb, with skin the tawny color of old ivory and slightly pointed ears.
After the long war between the illithids and voor ended, the voor all but extinct thanks to the efforts of these new modified battle-thralls, the balance of power in the illithid empire changed. The thralls were now battle-hardened and had become increasingly psionically adept. The illithids became more brutal in order to ensure their slaves remained obedient, which only invited more revolts and more brutal reprisals.
Then came Gith
. Some say she was the personal bodyguard of a powerful illithid noble, while others claim she was only a lowly foot soldier and little more than a child. But her mental and physical powers were great, and her rage, hatred, power, and charisma was sufficient to guide the thralls to victory. The illithid empire was shattered by the slave rebellion (remembered by them as the Thrall Uprising). Not every illithid stronghold fell, but the ties that bound the empire together were broken, and even today the mind flayers have not recovered from that ancient war. They hid themselves away in the Underdark
s of countless worlds, vowing to rebuild their strength and take vengeance against their treacherous former slaves, something they have not managed to do.
Having won the war, Gith continued to treat her people (who would become known as the githyanki, a word meaning "children of Gith") as a conquering army rather than a free people. Having just won a war, she prepared to launch a new one, an Eternal Crusade that would exterminate every last illithid once and for all.
While some githyanki were comforted by Gith's military discipline, others chafed against it. One leader, Zerthimon
, was the most vocal of the dissidents. He claimed that Gith would replace the illithid tyranny with her own, and that though she had been successful in the past as a leader of war, she was unfit to lead the People in peace. He called for her to step down. Gith refused, but Zerthimon and his followers would not allow themselves to be ruled by a new tyrant. Having just won a war, now a civil war began among the githyanki, with Zerthimon's loyalists battling Gith's. During the civil war, an already wounded world was reduced to an uninhabited cinder.
What happened to Zerthimon is a matter of dispute. Some (A Guide to the Astral Plane
) say Zerthimon was killed, while others (The Plane Below) say he defeated Gith in single combat, but chose to spare her life. Regardless, the followers of Zerthimon—now known as the githzerai
, or "those who spurn Gith"—retreated to Limbo
. Meanwhile, the losses the githyanki sustained in their war were too great for Gith to continue her crusade, so they retreated to the conquered illithid settlements on the Astral Plane to rebuild their numbers to the point when they could exterminate both the illithids and the githzerai.
Soon after, a wizard called Vlaakith
began advising Gith in matters of state. It was Vlaakith who advised Gith to find allies to help their diminished people survive. When no god would treat with her and negotiations with the chaotic slaad
i failed, she traveled to the Nine Hells
, where she spent time negotiating with the archdevil Dispater. Dispater's price, however—the souls of all githyanki—was too high for her to contemplate. Dispater had other ways of manipulating those foolish enough to bargain with him, however, and he suggested she meet with Ephelomon, the red dragon
consort of Tiamat
, to see if she could make a bargain with the Dragon Queen similar to the bargain between Tiamat and the Hells that permitted the devil
s to borrow Tiamat's abishai
. With all other possibilities of alliance having failed, Gith traveled to Tiamat's realm. There, Ephelomon agreed to send a wing of red dragons for the githyanki to ride in exchange for the aid of the githyanki whenever Tiamat required it. Dispater suggested that a hostage would be required to seal the deal, so Gith agreed to become Dispater's prisoner in his iron city of Dis, thereby giving Dispater the soul of one of the greatest rebel leaders who ever lived. Ephelomon came to the Astral Plane alone and gave Vlaakith, whom Gith had designated her successor, a magical scepter that symbolized the Dragon Queen's acceptance of the pact.
Vlaakith continued to rule as queen of the githyanki, and after her death her scepter passed to Vlaakith II, and thence to Vlaakith III, and so on until the reign of the current queen, Vlaakith CLVII. With a total of 157 queens since the illithid rebellion, a long time must have passed (according to the Forgotten Realms novel Dawn of Night, it has been approximately 10,000 years, though some sources imply the time has been longer or shorter). The githyanki have become somewhat fragmented, forming isolated groups instead of a single nation. Though they almost all ultimately serve their revered Lich-Queen, each group has their own separate goals as well.
Githyanki played a significant part in the recent Priestess Wars in the city of Erelhei-Cinlu, allying with the drow house of Tormtor against their rivals, the Kilsek, who had allied themselves with the illithids.
Humanoid (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, humanoid is a type of creature, or "creature type". Humanoids are any creature shaped generally like a human , of Small or Medium size, with few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities...
race in the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
role-playing game. They are cousins to the githzerai
Githzerai
The githzerai are a fictional race of creatures in the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.Githzerai are extraplanar humanoid creatures that reside on the Plane of Limbo.-Publication history:...
. In the Dark Sun
Dark Sun
Dark Sun is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting featuring the fictional desert world of Athas. The original Dark Sun Boxed Set campaign setting was released in 1991....
setting, they are simply called gith. Githyanki appeared in, and on the cover of, the 1981 edition of the Fiend Folio
Fiend Folio
Fiend Folio is the title shared by three products published for successive editions of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...
.
Publication history
The githyanki were introduced by Charles StrossCharles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
in his Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Stross borrowed the name from a fictional race created by George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...
in his 1977 science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel Dying of the Light
Dying of the Light
Dying of the Light is a 1977 science fiction novel by George R. R. Martin, his first. Martin's original title for the novel was "After the Festival" but was later changed before its first hardcover publication.; it was nominated for both the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978, and the British...
. George R. R. Martin himself was not aware that the name had been borrowed until the 2000s. The githyanki/ illithid
Illithid
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark...
relationship was inspired by Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
's World of Ptavvs.
The Githyanki have appeared in all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
fantasy role-playing game since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. They were also featured in the official campaign for the licensed Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a computer role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari. It is the sequel to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, based on the Dungeons & Dragons pencil and paper fantasy role-playing game...
computer game and in Baldur's Gate II
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released on September 26, 2000. The game is the sequel to Baldur's Gate, and, opening only a few months after the events of the earlier game, continues the story of the player character, whose unique heritage...
.
Martin's githyanki
In Martin's novel, the githyanki were called "soulsucks" because of their dangerous psychic powers. They were slaves of another alien race called the hrangans, and were used by them in their long space wars with humanity. Unlike the D&D race, they were barely sentient. No githyanki actually appear in Dying of the Light, as the book takes place after the war between the humans and the hrangans is long over, and the soulsucks are nearly extinct. There is also passing reference to them in Martin's short-story collection Tuf VoyagingTuf Voyaging
Tuf Voyaging is a science fiction novel by George R. R. Martin, first published in 1986. It is a darkly comic meditation on environmentalism and absolute power...
.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)
The githyanki was first published in White DwarfWhite Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
#12 (April/May 1979), in the "Fiend Factory" column, which was later reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles (1980). The githyanki then appears in 1981 in the first edition Fiend Folio
Fiend Folio
Fiend Folio is the title shared by three products published for successive editions of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...
, and even appears on the book's cover (see above).
Stross later wrote a follow-up article on the githyanki which appeared in White Dwarf #76 (April 1986). The module Tales of the Outer Planes
Tales of the Outer Planes
Tale of the Outer Planes is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, set in that game's Outer Planes. TSR, Inc. published the module in 1988 for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module is a collection of adventures designed by Deborah A. Christian, Vince...
(1988) describes a githyanki lair.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)
The githyanki appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix (1991), which also included the g"lathk githyanki, the hr'a'cknir githyanki, and the mlar githyanki. The githyanki and these variants are reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).The githyanki was further detailed in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994). Githyanki society and their Astral cities are further developed, and their leader Vlaakith
Vlaakith
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Vlaakith is the name of the first ruler of the githyanki race after the disappearance of Gith, the rebel leader that united them against the illithids...
the Lich-Queen are described in A Guide to the Astral Plane
A Guide to the Astral Plane
A Guide to the Astral Plane is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1996....
(1996).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)
The githyanki first appears in the Psionics Handbook (2001), and then in this edition's Manual of the PlanesManual of the Planes
The Manual of the Planes is a manual for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. This text addresses the planar cosmology of the game universe....
(2001).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)
The githyanki appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), and was further detailed in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004) (along with the psionic githyanki) and the Complete PsionicComplete Psionic
Complete Psionic is a supplemental rulebook for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game published by Wizards of the Coast released in April 2006...
(2006).
The "Incursion" storyline running through July 2003's Dragon #309 and Dungeon
Dungeon (magazine)
Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...
#100 focused on the githyanki heavily. Dungeon #100 included the duthka'gith, the kr'y'izoth template, the tl'a'ikith template, and Vlaakith the Lich-Queen.
The githyanki captain, the gish githyanki, and the githyanki soldier appeared in Monster Manual IV (2006).
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)
The githyanki was initially featured in the 4th Edition preview book Worlds and Monsters.The githyanki then appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the githyanki warrior, the githyanki mindslicer, and the githyanki gish.
Licensing
The githyanki is considered a "Product Identity" by Wizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License
Open Gaming License
The Open Game License may be used by game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics.-Language of the licence:The OGL describes two forms of content:...
.
Ecology
Unlike their mammalian ancestors, githyanki reproduce by laying eggs. Because biological processes temporarily stop for those on the Astral, the githyanki must travel to other planes to breed, normally the Prime Material PlanePrime Material Plane
The Prime Material Plane is the central plane of existence in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game...
.
Environment
Githyanki are considered to be native to the Astral Plane, though their distant ancestors were humansHuman (Dungeons & Dragons)
Humans are a race available for player characters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although short-lived by comparison, humans are the most populous of all Dungeons & Dragons races. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specializations like...
from the Material Plane. Their fortress-cities are built on chunks of Astral stone or on the titanic stony corpses of dead gods. They have fortress-outposts on many planes and Material Planar worlds, especially near illithid lairs, as well as brood-chambers to incubate their eggs.
Typical physical characteristics
Githyanki are vaguely similar to humansHuman (Dungeons & Dragons)
Humans are a race available for player characters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although short-lived by comparison, humans are the most populous of all Dungeons & Dragons races. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specializations like...
in appearance, but taller and much gaunter, averaging six feet, three inches tall and weighing an average of 170 pounds. They have leathery, pale yellow skin, and red or black hair. Their black eyes are sunken in their skulls, and their ears are pointed and serrated in back.
Alignment
Githyanki are almost always evil, though they can be chaotic, neutral, or lawful. Non-evil githyanki are one-in-a-million exceptions, and good githyanki are unheard of.Society
Githyanki society is martial, with both males and females training heavily in magic and swordfighting. Although they are loyal to each other, they are also fiercely individualistic. Raiding illithidIllithid
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark...
strongholds is considered a rite of passage.
The current queen, Vlaakith
Vlaakith
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Vlaakith is the name of the first ruler of the githyanki race after the disappearance of Gith, the rebel leader that united them against the illithids...
CLVII, is an undead wizard who has ruled her people for more than a thousand years. So paranoid is she, that when any githyanki achieves a certain level of power and skill, she summons them to her palace to consume their souls, thus preventing them from ever threatening her power. Most githyanki willingly present themselves out of blind loyalty and pride, whilst those who try to flee this fate are hunted down and dragged before her in shackles. These victims afterwards become some form of undead servant under her direct control.
Vlaakith will sometimes present powerful githyanki with an incredibly rare silver sword. These swords possess several unique properties, most notably the ability to sever the silver cords that act as lifelines to travelers on the astral plane, killing the traveler instantly. These swords are highly sought after, and a cult of githyanki knights called the Sword Stalkers is tasked with recovering any swords that fall into the hands of the unworthy, i.e. non githyanki.
The githyanki use a unique form of writing called tir'su. It is an alphabetical set of runes in which words are formed in circles instead of linearly, with the letters of a given word being linked around a ring clockwise from the top. Sentences are formed from a series of these rings. Much as runes were given a mystical significance, the Githyanki employ the tir'su when creating magical wards and symbols.
Religion
The worship of gods is forbidden in githyanki society, and because they often make their homes on the floating, stonelike corpses of dead gods drifting in the Astral Plane, they aren't very inclined to piousness in any case.Language
Githyanki have their own language, much like that of their cousins the githzerai, commonly known as Gith. They also speak CommonCommon
Common may refer to:* COMMON, the largest association of users of mid-range IBM computers* Common , a British Thoroughbred racehorse* Common , a part of certain Christian liturgy* Commoner, someone does not hold a title of peerage...
, and many speak Draconic. In the githyanki language, apostrophes (which are not pronounced) separate different morphemes which have been combined into a single word. For example, gish'sarath combines the word gish, or "skilled," with sarath, or "sergeant." Githyanki who have trained with great heroes add the prefix gi' ("student of") to their trainer's name.
Fictional History
Long ago, before many of the worlds known in the present day were born, the illithidIllithid
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, illithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations with psionic powers. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, they live in the moist caverns and cities of the enormous Underdark...
s ruled a vast empire known to some as Nihilath. The illithid empire held many worlds and even a few planes of existence in their tentacled grip. After a thousand years of engineering, they constructed an artificial world known as Penumbra, a vast disk that circled a sun, the planet's radius something like a hundred million miles.
And of course the empire kept slaves. Many of the slaves had originally, some sources (Polyhedron
Polyhedron (magazine)
Polyhedron was a magazine which started out as the official publication of the RPGA . Publication began in the year 1981, and the target audience was players of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game...
#159) say, originated on a distant world known as Pharagos, which the illithids had conquered and added to their empire. Other sources (Dragon #298) mention a subterranean empire called Zarum in Western Oerik, where a race of humanoids dominated many other races from their capital city of Anithor. These humanoids seem to have been divided into a rigid caste system, their lives ruled by ancient ritual. The ruins of Zarum overflow with sacred spaces and temples, though the names of their ancient gods are unknown today. At some point, the illithids invaded Zarum from a neighboring plane of existence. Though the natives fought fiercely, they were no match for the psionic might of the mind flayers, and soon they were enslaved. The River of Angry Souls is a remnant of one of the terrible battles between the illithids and the soon-to-be enslaved Zarumites. Many were brought to the Outer Planes and elsewhere to serve as illithid slaves. Other cities in Zarum were transformed into work pits where illithid overseers forced their slaves to toil for countless generations. For thousands of years these once-human beings, who are remembered today only as the forerunners, were thralls of Nihilath. Some were engineered to become the ancestors of the grimlocks
Grimlock (Dungeons & Dragons)
Grimlock is a fictional monstrous humanoid that lives in the Underdark, a vast interconnected system of caves underneath various Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings. Based on subterranean humanoids called "morlocks" created by H.G...
and distributed throughout the worlds of the empire to serve their illithid masters in their subterranean realms. On every world, the slaves were unable to escape their masters' psionic power, and illithid might was unquestioned. It is said that the fiends
Fiend (Dungeons & Dragons)
Fiends is a term used in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game to refer to any malicious otherworldly creatures within the Dungeons & Dragons universe. These include various races of demons and devils that are of an evil alignment and hail from the Lower Planes...
paused in their eternal Blood War
Blood War
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the Blood War is an eternal conflict between the fiends of the Lower planes. The Tanar'ri are the demonic forces of the Abyss, an evil plane of chaos. Representing the equally evil but lawful realm of Baator are the Baatezu, the dominant caste of...
to determine if anything could stop the mind flayers as the empire expanded throughout the Astral Plane
Astral plane
The astral plane, also called the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical , medieval, oriental and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions...
and Ethereal Plane and threatened the Outer Planes themselves.
It was then that the illithids first encounted the voor. The voor were one of the greatest threats the illithid empire ever faced. An insectoid race utterly immune to psionics, the voor reproduced using spores capable of floating through the airless reaches of outer space indefinitely before finding a place to transform into larvae, using whatever inorganic materials were on hand to create their bodies. The standard slave armies of the illithids were unable to stop the voor invasion, so in desperation a long-vanished illithid Creed constructed tumerogenesis tanks to impart certain physical, spiritual, and psionic enhancements on selected slave-soldiers. After thousands of years of slavery and controlled breeding, the illithid thralls were no longer recognizable as the humans
Human (Dungeons & Dragons)
Humans are a race available for player characters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although short-lived by comparison, humans are the most populous of all Dungeons & Dragons races. They are renowned for their diversity and ambition, and although they lack specializations like...
they once were. They were longer of limb, with skin the tawny color of old ivory and slightly pointed ears.
After the long war between the illithids and voor ended, the voor all but extinct thanks to the efforts of these new modified battle-thralls, the balance of power in the illithid empire changed. The thralls were now battle-hardened and had become increasingly psionically adept. The illithids became more brutal in order to ensure their slaves remained obedient, which only invited more revolts and more brutal reprisals.
Then came Gith
Gith
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Gith is the fictional leader of the thrall rebellion that toppled the illithid empire thousands of years in the past, and founder of the githyanki and githzerai races.-History:...
. Some say she was the personal bodyguard of a powerful illithid noble, while others claim she was only a lowly foot soldier and little more than a child. But her mental and physical powers were great, and her rage, hatred, power, and charisma was sufficient to guide the thralls to victory. The illithid empire was shattered by the slave rebellion (remembered by them as the Thrall Uprising). Not every illithid stronghold fell, but the ties that bound the empire together were broken, and even today the mind flayers have not recovered from that ancient war. They hid themselves away in the Underdark
Underdark
The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore...
s of countless worlds, vowing to rebuild their strength and take vengeance against their treacherous former slaves, something they have not managed to do.
Having won the war, Gith continued to treat her people (who would become known as the githyanki, a word meaning "children of Gith") as a conquering army rather than a free people. Having just won a war, she prepared to launch a new one, an Eternal Crusade that would exterminate every last illithid once and for all.
While some githyanki were comforted by Gith's military discipline, others chafed against it. One leader, Zerthimon
Zerthimon
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Zerthimon is the prophet-leader of a group of humanoids called the githzerai, cousins of the githyanki.-History:...
, was the most vocal of the dissidents. He claimed that Gith would replace the illithid tyranny with her own, and that though she had been successful in the past as a leader of war, she was unfit to lead the People in peace. He called for her to step down. Gith refused, but Zerthimon and his followers would not allow themselves to be ruled by a new tyrant. Having just won a war, now a civil war began among the githyanki, with Zerthimon's loyalists battling Gith's. During the civil war, an already wounded world was reduced to an uninhabited cinder.
What happened to Zerthimon is a matter of dispute. Some (A Guide to the Astral Plane
A Guide to the Astral Plane
A Guide to the Astral Plane is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1996....
) say Zerthimon was killed, while others (The Plane Below) say he defeated Gith in single combat, but chose to spare her life. Regardless, the followers of Zerthimon—now known as the githzerai
Githzerai
The githzerai are a fictional race of creatures in the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.Githzerai are extraplanar humanoid creatures that reside on the Plane of Limbo.-Publication history:...
, or "those who spurn Gith"—retreated to Limbo
Limbo (Dungeons & Dragons)
In Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy role-playing game, Limbo or more fully, the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, is a chaotic neutral-aligned plane of existence...
. Meanwhile, the losses the githyanki sustained in their war were too great for Gith to continue her crusade, so they retreated to the conquered illithid settlements on the Astral Plane to rebuild their numbers to the point when they could exterminate both the illithids and the githzerai.
Soon after, a wizard called Vlaakith
Vlaakith
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Vlaakith is the name of the first ruler of the githyanki race after the disappearance of Gith, the rebel leader that united them against the illithids...
began advising Gith in matters of state. It was Vlaakith who advised Gith to find allies to help their diminished people survive. When no god would treat with her and negotiations with the chaotic slaad
Slaad
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, slaad are a fictional race of Outsiders that resemble giant humanoid toads of various colors.-Development and licensing:...
i failed, she traveled to the Nine Hells
Baator
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Baator, also known as the Nine Hells of Baator or the Nine Hells, is a lawful evil-aligned plane of existence...
, where she spent time negotiating with the archdevil Dispater. Dispater's price, however—the souls of all githyanki—was too high for her to contemplate. Dispater had other ways of manipulating those foolish enough to bargain with him, however, and he suggested she meet with Ephelomon, the red dragon
Dragon (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game , dragons are an iconic type of monstrous creature used as adversaries or, less commonly, allies of player characters...
consort of Tiamat
Tiamat (Dungeons & Dragons)
Tiamat is the name of a powerful draconic goddess in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The name is taken from Tiamat, a goddess in ancient Mesopotamian mythology who is substantially different ....
, to see if she could make a bargain with the Dragon Queen similar to the bargain between Tiamat and the Hells that permitted the devil
Devil (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, devils are a powerful group of monsters used as a high-level challenge for players of the game. Devils are Lawful Evil in alignment and originate from the Nine Hells of Baator. True to their Lawful Evil alignment, devils are locked in a strict and brutal...
s to borrow Tiamat's abishai
Abishai
Abisai may refer to:*Abishai , the eldest son of Zeruiah, David's sister, or the Semitic chief who offers gifts to the lord of Beni-Hassan*Abishai , a type of monster in Dungeons & Dragons...
. With all other possibilities of alliance having failed, Gith traveled to Tiamat's realm. There, Ephelomon agreed to send a wing of red dragons for the githyanki to ride in exchange for the aid of the githyanki whenever Tiamat required it. Dispater suggested that a hostage would be required to seal the deal, so Gith agreed to become Dispater's prisoner in his iron city of Dis, thereby giving Dispater the soul of one of the greatest rebel leaders who ever lived. Ephelomon came to the Astral Plane alone and gave Vlaakith, whom Gith had designated her successor, a magical scepter that symbolized the Dragon Queen's acceptance of the pact.
Vlaakith continued to rule as queen of the githyanki, and after her death her scepter passed to Vlaakith II, and thence to Vlaakith III, and so on until the reign of the current queen, Vlaakith CLVII. With a total of 157 queens since the illithid rebellion, a long time must have passed (according to the Forgotten Realms novel Dawn of Night, it has been approximately 10,000 years, though some sources imply the time has been longer or shorter). The githyanki have become somewhat fragmented, forming isolated groups instead of a single nation. Though they almost all ultimately serve their revered Lich-Queen, each group has their own separate goals as well.
Githyanki played a significant part in the recent Priestess Wars in the city of Erelhei-Cinlu, allying with the drow house of Tormtor against their rivals, the Kilsek, who had allied themselves with the illithids.