Githyanki

The githyanki (, meaning "followers of Gith" or "children of Gith" in the Gith language) were a race of Astral Plane-dwellers. Survivors of a long enslavement by mind flayers, they became ruthless pillagers and raiders of many worlds in the Prime Material plane. "What would become of this multiverse if githyanki didn't guard the Astral Plane from the illithid menace? What would reality become if beings of thought ruled the plane of thought?"

- Mordenkainen

Description
Like all gith, Githyanki were tall and slender humanoids with rough, leathery yellow skin and bright black eyes, that were sunken deep in their orbits. They had long and angular skulls, with small and highly placed noses, and ears that were pointed and serrated in the back side. They typically grew either red or black hair.

As a result of their long period of enslavement and manipulation by the mind flayers, all githyanki possessed psionic abilities. They were all capable of minor telekinesis in a similar fashion as the mage hand spell and could also hone their abilities to become capable of innately casting jump and misty step.

Personality
Githyanki were typically arrogant and aggressive. The few exceptional individuals who deserted from the rigid githyanki militaristic society tended to develop a disdain for rules.

As a result of their long-lasting presence in the Astral Plane, where time did not pass, the githyanki developed a decadent lifestyle, picking up hobbies, arts, and studies in an endless search for novelty. After centuries, they developed a hollow culture of shallow and unfinished undertakings, never truly mastering any task or seeing any personal project to completion. This constant interest with novelty also reflected in their dressing style: githyanki were fond of collecting and wearing extremely ornate and elaborate tokens of their defeated foes. It was common for their armor and weapons to be overly decorated with gems, feathers, precious metals, and other ostentations ornaments.

Combat
As a culture of combat, the githyanki were merciless warriors. They excelled at blending their psionic abilities with their combat skills, in an effective and deadly combination. Typical githyanki wariors had the ability to innately reproduce the effects of the mage hand, jump, misty step, and nondetection spells, while the more powerful knights were also capable of plane shifting and telekinesis.

Githyanki military hierarchy was divided in companies of ten warrior, each led by a sarth. Each group of ten sarths was in turn supervised by a kith'rak, and every group of ten kith'raks was led by a supreme commander. At the top of the hierarchy stood Vlaakith herself.

Knights stood outside of the military hierarchy. Their deadliest weapons and a signature of githyanki culture were their silver swords, which were wielded by every knight. Silver swords damaged the opponents' minds as well as their bodies, and, in the Astral Plane, were capable of severing the silver cord that connected the soul of a traveler using the astral projection spell to their body in the Material Plane. These weapons were treasured by all githyanki, who relentlessly pursued any outsider who wielded them.

Githyanki who honed their psionic skills as well as combat were assigned the rank of gish. They were typically employed as assassins and spies and were capable of casting spells such as fireball, magic missile, counterspell, and haste, among others.

Society
Githyanki society was martial and meritocratic, with both males and females training heavily in magic and combat. Although they were loyal to each other, they were also fiercely individualistic. Raiding illithid strongholds was considered a rite of passage.

Dwelling in the timeless Astral Plane, the githyanki inhabited numerous fortresses constructed from materials imported to the plane, as well as numerous cities built upon god-isles, the corpses of dead deities that could be found throughout the Astral Plane. Their capital and largest city, Tu'narath, was built on the corpse of a deceased power known only as The One in the Void.

Raids
The central aspect of githyanki society was its culture of plunder. Their ultimate goal, under Vlaakith, was to treat all worlds of the Material Plane as the githyanki's gardens, which they could loot at will and bring the spoils to their home in the Astral Plane, where they would never have to worry about food, water, and other concerns that were considered to be beneath them.

Participation in raids was seen as a great honor, met with excitment and anticipation by all members of githyanki society. Raiders expected to honor Vlaakith's will by maximizing plundering and the destruction left in their wake.

Raids were organized by the opening of gates into a Material Plane world by Vlaakith herself, who could hold it open long enough for thousands of soldiers and tens of sky ships to pass through in tight formation.

Raiding ships consisted of different kinds of flying ships operated by spelljamming helms, whose technology the githyanki obtained from the mind flayers' nautiloids. Typical githyanki fleets consisted of small astral skiffs, capable of carrying about a dozen passengers; larger astral brigs that were more heavily armed and could carry up to 60 passengers; and a few planar raiders, their largest ships that could transport up to 100 passengers and served as their mobile headquarters during the raid. Each ship was usually piloted by a gish. Supreme commanders usually rode their red dragons into battle.

The faction of githyanki society that remained most loyal to their original project of revenge against the mind flayers was known as the gul'othran. They were usually the first responders whenever an illithid threat was detected, and they usually organized their main offensives on illithid colonies outside of the Astral Plane. Their ultimate goal, however, was to eliminate the illithid threat by conquest, permanently occupying worlds they invaded in order to prevent mind flayers from ever presenting a threat to those worlds again. Their goals differred from the rest of githyanki society, in the sense that they sought permanent conquest instead of mere plunder.

Family and Parenting
Githyanki reproduced by laying eggs. It was unknown whether this trait had been acquired during their period of enslavement or as a result of exposure to the Astral Plane.

Since it was impossible to age while in the Astral Plane, githyanki needed to raise their young in other planes of existence until they reached maturity. This difficulty, added with the githyanki's extremely long life span while in the Astral, led to a very low birth rate. Their favored locations to raise and train young githyanki were hidden crèches located in remote places of the Prime Material plane. There, caretakers known as varsh were responsible for hatching the eggs and collectively raising the young. There were no families in githyanki society.

From a very young age, githyanki went through a rigid regime of training and combat practice, with increasingly higher expectations and more severe punishments, all the while hearing tales of their leader Vlaakith and her immortal warriors. Fights to the death during training were not uncommon. Finally, at the conclusion of a young githyanki's training, the last test was to slay a mind flayer and bring its head to Vlaakith in Tu'narath. This rite of passage marked the githyanki's entry into adulthood and into the community.

Relationships
As a people, githyanki were generally proud and xenophobic. They viewed all other races with contempt.

A small contingent of red dragons served high-ranking githyanki as mounts and companions, following a treaty established with Tiamat early on in their history. They served their riders dutifully and without complaining or offering advice, which kept them outside of githyanki politics. Typically, the dragons served the githyanki during their young age, stationed at Tu'narath waiting to be dispatched to raids or as guards protecting their crèches in the Prime Material plane. As soon as they reached adulthood, the red dragons were dismissed, keeping the wealth accumulated over their years of service. They were then replaced by younger dragons, who were recruited by githyanki promising large treasures and long lives.

Since dragons did not age while in the Astral Plane, their preferred postings were those that allowed them to spend the most time in the Material plane, such as overlooking crèches or participating in raids as frequently as possible.

The dragons resented their time of servitude, but were easily convinced to participate in raids by the promise of treasure and of growing in power. The terms of the treaty forbade the githyanki to influence the dragons' behavior with psionics, but the dragons remained loyal as long as they were treated respectfully and were given ample opportunities to pillage. Although not all red dragons participated in the alliance with the githyanki, most did not consider them as enemies.

Githyanki generally abhorred flumphs and attacked them on sight.

Language
The githyanki spoke their own dialect of the Gith language, which used a unique form of writing called tir'su. It was an alphabetical set of runes in which words were formed in circles instead of linearly, with the letters of a given word being linked in a ring clockwise from the top. Sentences were formed by a series of these rings. Much as runes were given a mystical significance, the Githyanki employed the tir'su when creating magical wards and symbols.

Dissidents
There was a small sect within githyanki society that fostered a reunification between the githyanki and the githzerai, known as the Sha'sal Khou. Led by Zetch'r'r from his stronghold in Tu'narath and composed of both githyanki and githzerai agents, the group acted by discouraging skirmishes between the two gith races, while at the same time looking for new recruits. The group maintained redoubts in the Prime Material plane and hoped to build a nation where members of both races would call their children simply "gith".

Another sect of githyanki society broke off from their hierarchy at the time of the founding of Tu'narath. Pledging to never give up their freedom and mobility, the group, which became known as the far travelers, adopted a nomadic lifestyle of raiding and pillaging, living aboard their ships and never settling down in any location. Cut off from the rest of githyanki society, the far travelers did not participate on the pact with red dragons and did not have access to silver swords, but they still honored the rest of their race by sending annual tributes to Tu'narath.

History
The origin of the gith race before their enslavement was largely unknown. Not even the original name of the race was remembered. Some historians believed, however, that the ancestors of the githyanki were once humans that had become slaves of the illithids, a race devoted to mentally dominating sentient humanoids to work as the backbone of their vast empire. According to that hypothesis, these slaves were transformed through selective breeding for several millennia. After eventually developing mental resistance to their masters' mind control, the slaves revolted. Led by Gith, the several rebellious factions united, thus causing the fall of the illithid empire.

Not satisfied with regaining their freedom and splintering the illithids' empire, Gith advocated for a campaign of total annihilation of the mind flayers, and that after that the war spread to any race that could potentially enslave them again. However, a faction within the society fostered peace, arguing that the race should focus on rebuilding their society in seclusion instead of persisting in a tyrannical conflict. Led by Zerthimon, the splinter faction started undermining the githyanki's war efforts. After a long civil war, Zerthimon was killed and the githyanki moved to the Astral Plane. The defeated faction, who called themselves githzerai, retreated to Limbo. A third faction chose to relocate to wildspace to hunt down spacefaring mind flayers. They were known as the pirates of Gith.

In the aftermath of the civil war, the once-slave race had been splintered into the githyanki and the githzerai, the latter of whom were hated by the githyanki because their betrayal allowed the surviving illithids to retreat to isolated subterranean strongholds. The two races then began pursuing their separate agendas, but they grew a deep hatred of each other and were at war ever since.

Years after their exile in the Astral Plane, during the continuing war with the illithids, Gith's advisor, Vlaakith I, suggested that she searched for allies in the Outer Planes, in particular from Tiamat. Gith agreed to visit the Nine Hells for an audience, but never returned. Instead, the red dragon envoy Ephelomon returned with a pledge from Tiamat that all red dragons would be allies to the githyanki and that a small contingent of red dragons would serve them as steeds. The envoy also decreed that Vlaakith I and her descendants would rule the githyanki in Gith's stead. Vlaakith played a crucial role in securing the githyanki's position in the Astral Plane. Ephelomon remained Vlaakith's consort ever since.

The latest descendant of the Vlaakith bloodline was Vlaakith CLVII, the Lich-Queen, who had no heirs. She was the first of her line to follow the path of lichdom, feeding off the souls of her most powerful knights. She also aspired to ascend to godhood by capturing the spark of divinity from The One in the Void.

In the late 15 century DR, a group of githyanki led by Al'chaia maintained a crèche in Stardock, which they called Crèche K'liir. The githyanki also controlled the Crystal Labyrinth level of Undermountain, from which they launched attacks against the mind flayers who dwelt in the neighboring Seadeeps level.

Appearances

 * Adventures:
 * Tales from the Infinite Staircase • Into the Dragon's Lair • Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
 * Novels:


 * Charon's Claw
 * Video Games:
 * Planescape: Torment • Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn • Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal • Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone • Neverwinter Nights 2 • Baldur's Gate III