Gith (race)

The gith (they referred to themselves as “the People”) are a group of natural outsiders, descended from humans enslaved by the illithids. The gith are divided into two different races, the githzerai and githyanki. Additionally, there are gith who went their own ways after the gith split. These powerful individualists are not precisely a "race," but are collectively referred to as githvyrik.

History
The gith were once slaves to the illithids, a race of powerful telepaths who mentally enslaved sentient humanoids to work as the backbone of their vast worlds-spanning empire. It is believed these slaves were originally humans transformed through selective breeding. 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.