Gith

Gith  was one of the leaders of the thrall rebellion that toppled the illithid empire thousands of years in the past and the first leader of the githyanki. "Live, but only if you live free."

- Gith

History
Gith was once a slave of the vast illithid empire, although she later led her followers to the Astral Plane after defeating their illithid masters.

Gith's past as a slave was unclear. Some stories told that she was a high-ranking slave to a powerful mind flayer, acting as its bodyguard and as its champion, while others maintained that she was a young and unremarkable footsoldier. What is known for sure is that she possessed a mutation that prevented elder brains from maintaining the illithid hive mind, leaving their servants disoriented and helpless.

During the long centuries of the vast illithid empires, rebellions from gith slaves against the mind flayers were frequent, but never posed a significant threat. It was Gith who first united the different rebel groups against their masters, truly sundering the illithid empire and dealing it a crippling blow from which the illithid race never recovered.

After the gith defeated the illithid empire, Gith, the leader of the rebellion, insisted that all remaining illithids in the multiverse be hunted down and destroyed; then, the People would be free to conquer all planes of existence. Many of the People's hearts shared this goal. However, another leader, Zerthimon, argued that the People were already free and should instead start mending the damage done to their race. He too expressed a goal that was in the hearts of many of the People. Still, Gith insisted that hers was the only path and that they would be "under the same sky" in the matter.

Zerthimon then told Gith that there "cannot be two skies." This became known as the Pronouncement of Two Skies, a declaration of war that splintered the People into the races of githyanki (those who followed the warrior-queen Gith) and githzerai (those who followed the prophet Zerthimon). 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 two races have remained enemies ever since.

Gith was said to have gone to the Nine Hells to serve Tiamat, the queen of evil dragons, as part of a pact between the githyanki and red dragons which was brokered by her advisor, Vlaakith.

After this pact was made, the red dragon consort of Tiamat, Ephelomon, went to Gith's followers to tell them of her sacrifice and convey Gith's final decree, making Vlaakith the first queen of all the githyanki and ordering them to continue their conquests while they awaited Gith's prophesied return.

The discovery of Gith's son Orpheus and his long imprisonment began to shed doubt about the true nature of the pact with Tiamat, with some githyanki and Orpheus himself claiming that Vlaakith had knowingly sent Gith to die in order to seize power for herself and deny Orpheus his rightful throne.

Background
Gith was created by Charles Stross for his Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. She was first mentioned in the 1981 Fiend Folio.