Gith (race)

The gith were a race of humanoids who had been enslaved by mind flayers for countless generations. Although some sages claimed that they were once descended from humans, their original race was in fact unknown. After breaking free from their enslavement, philosophical differences led the gith to become divided into two main different races in constant conflict with each other: the githyanki and the githzerai.

Society
The gith were an utterly sundered race. Divided by generations of conflict and ideological differences, the tho sects of the gith people regarded each other with nothing but contempt, hate, and weariness.

However, a splinter faction of renegade githyanki and githzerai known as the Sha'sal Khou sought to overcome the differences between the two races and bring them together as a single people. They worked secretly within the two races discouraging violence against each other in the hopes of becoming able to call their people simply "gith".

A third subrace existed among the gith. The pirates of Gith chose to remain in the Prime Material plane and did not follow their cousins into the Astral Plane or Limbo. Instead, they chose a lifestyle of piracy in Wildspace, although retaining their extremely militarized society.

Origins
The ancient origin of the gith was clouded in mystery. Even the name of that original race was lost to time, as some referred to it as "the forerunners". Some claimed that they were originally humans from an unknown crystal sphere that had been conquered by the illithids during the expansion of their empire, and who had been slowly altered by the mind flayers' genetic experiments. Others claimed that they might have been created by the illithids themselves through mixing humanoid hosts with powers from the Far Realm.

Eventually, these slaves developed mental resistance to their masters' mind control and, under the guidance of their leader Gith, revolted, causing the downfall of the illithid empire.

Gith, however, was not satisfied with the destruction of the illithids alone, and sought to spread the war to any race that could potentially enslave her people again. She was opposed in this endeavor by the followers of Zerthimon, who believed that such a path would lead their people to corruption and ruin. Thus, at the Pronouncement of Two Skies, the gith race fractured into the githyanki and the githzerai. Battle was waged on the Blasted Plains, and the githyanki retreated to the Astral Sea while the githzerai withdrew to the chaos of Limbo. The githyanki hate the githzerai because their betrayal allowed the surviving illithids to retreat to isolated subterranean strongholds; the two races have remained enemies ever since.

Appearances

 * Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage