Gith
Made with Hero Forge
(from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes - 2018 - [credits])
The story of the gith is rooted in a cruel twist of cosmic fate. Inspired by the great leader for whom the race is named, the gith rose up to overthrow the mind flayers that held them in servitude. But after they won their freedom, two factions among the gith disagreed on what kind of civilization they would forge. That disagreement quickly flared into open hostility, and the two groups distanced themselves from one another to pursue their separate agendas. They remain bitter enemies today, each side willing to fight to the death whenever they cross paths.
The githyanki were motivated by revenge and convinced that they deserved to take whatever they wanted from the worlds they traveled. Ranging out from the titanic city of Tu’narath on the Astral Plane, they send raiders out to plunder the Material Plane and other worlds, bringing treasures and slaves back to their ageless realm. At the same time, they hunt down and kill mind flayers whenever possible, as recompense for what the illithids did to them.
The githzerai believed that the path to an enlightened civilization lay in seclusion, not conflict. Their dedication to the principles of order is so strong that they can manipulate the stuff of chaos and use it to their benefit; thus, they have carved out a stronghold for themselves on the plane of Limbo that is virtually impervious. Though the githzerai are pacifists by nature, they share the githyanki’s racial hatred for mind flayers, and from time to time they send out squads to destroy illithid outposts.
If the two races were ever to team up against the illithids, a combined force of gith could conceivably tip the balance in their favor. But as long as the githyanki and githzerai stay at each other’s throats, their goal of ultimate victory over their original common enemy will likely remain unachieved.
GITHYANKI
Since winning their freedom from the mind flayers, the githyanki have become corrupt raiders and destroyers under the rulership of their dread lich-queen, Vlaakith. They dwell on the Astral Plane in the city of Tu’narath, a metropolis built on and in the corpse of a deity.
Vlaakith commands the loyalty of the githyanki from her personal stronghold, Susurrus, also called the Palace of Whispers, which is located deep inside the floating city. She sits on her Throne of Bones, a mighty artifact fueled by the intellects of mind flayers and elder brains that were defeated by her minions. It is crafted from mind flayer skulls and extremities, and the cushion she sits on is made of leather produced from the cured remains of an elder brain. A grand statue of Gith, an obsidian monument over 100 feet tall, stands beside the palace.
The Revered Queen:
Vlaakith sits at the center of everything concerning the githyanki. She is their ruler in every sphere of activity and, as such, demands and receives utter obedience.
During the war with the illithids, Vlaakith urged Gith to seek out allies from among the planes and in particular advised her to seek counsel with Tiamat. Gith agreed to venture into the Nine Hells to forge an alliance with the Queen of Dragons. She didn’t return. Instead, the great red dragon Ephelomon brought news to the gith: Tiamat had pledged many of her red dragon servants to the gith cause. They would refrain from attacking gith and would provide support against the illithids and protection for the gith’s outposts on the Material Plane. In return, a few select young dragons would serve alongside the gith for a time, for purposes known only to Tiamat. Ephelomon also proclaimed that Vlaakith was to rule in Gith’s place until she returned.
After the gith overthrew the mind flayers and Zerthimon’s followers began to emerge as a threat to Gith’s preeminence, Vlaakith played a critical role in ensuring that the githyanki under her rule were protected from an immediate, direct assault by their kin. Using her mastery of arcane magic, she helped the githyanki establish a permanent stronghold on the Astral Plane. From there, she began making plans to strike back at both the hated mind flayers and the traitorous githzerai.
The Grand Poclamation. Vlaakith cemented her position as the supreme ruler of the githyanki with a grand proclamation that defined the githyanki’s all-encompassing mission. They had been bred and trained for war by their one-time masters and had never known anything other than a martial existence. They needed a clear purpose and a forceful commander to spur them on, and Vlaakith provided both.
Vlaakith decreed that, having defeated the mind flayers, the githyanki would take the place of the illithids as sovereigns of the Material Plane. The many worlds of the Material Plane would be the githyanki’s gardens, prime for harvesting as they saw fit. The Astral Plane would be their home domain, because in that timeless realm they could ignore the need for food, water, and other mundane concerns that plague lesser races.
Vlaakith also proclaimed that githyanki who proved themselves skilled in battle would ascend to an even greater paradise. A long lifetime of service would earn any githyanki a journey to the boundless delights of her innermost court — the wondrous realm that Gith discovered in her journeys, and where she awaits those who have proven themselves worthy.
The Bitter Truth. In the time since Vlaakith made this promise to her people, she has called many of the most formidable githyanki warriors to their reward. At the culmination of a grand ceremony that supposedly readies them for their journey to where Gith awaits, the supplicants enter her inner sanctum and are never seen again.
In truth, instead of sending them to paradise, Vlaakith drains their souls and absorbs their strength, gaining more power with every “ascension.” Her knowledge of arcane magic equals that of a conclave of archmages, while her combat skill matches the combined talents of hundreds of sword masters.
Perhaps the lich-queen’s promise isn’t a complete fabrication, but no others can say for sure. If Vlaakith knows anything more, she has taken drastic measures to keep it secret. A few sages and spellcasters have sought to learn the truth about Gith’s fate using arcane magic, only to fall victim to a bizarre curse that transforms them into the formless creatures known as allips.
All attempts to learn about Gith through divine magic return utter silence. Those who try experience a strange sensation, as if their minds were teetering on the edge of a great abyss, one that spans time, space, and memory.
Born to Serve:
From birth, githyanki are conditioned to fight and die for their queen. Children endure a brutal upbringing that constantly preaches devotion to Vlaakith. Each of the fortified settlements where young githyanki are raised and trained is a combination of military academy and cult headquarters.
Only the Best Survive. The githyanki raise their young in hidden crèches that they construct in far-flung places on the Material Plane. Such measures are necessary because birth and growth are impossible on the Astral Plane, whose occupants don’t age. The adult overseers in these places train young githyanki to harness their psychic and physical abilities.
Githyanki hatch from eggs. Each newborn enters the world alongside other eggs deliberately laid so that all hatch at the same time. Since githyanki adults must return to the Astral Plane to keep from aging significantly, the roster of instructors continually changes, with no adult staying longer than a few months and none ever returning for a second stint.
The instruction that young githyanki undergo is unrelenting and unforgiving. As a crop of youngsters grows older, more and more is demanded from each student, and the penalties for failing to keep up become more and more severe. In the early stages, combat practice lasts only until a wound is scored. Later, near the end of training, a drill of the same sort might be a fight to the death — the ultimate way of weeding out all those who don’t meet Vlaakith’s standards. To the githyanki, it’s better for a weakling to die in training than to undertake a mission and imperil a war band.
Final Test of Loyalty. By the time a group of githyanki come of age, they have heard years of stories of Vlaakith and her immortal warriors dwelling in the silvery void. The young are told they are on the verge of entering the queen’s realm, each one of them destined to take a special place in the society. Their skills have proven them worthy, and now only their loyalty to the Revered Queen remains to be determined.
As their last test, a group of githyanki entering adulthood must slay a mind flayer as a sacred rite of passage before they are permitted to join their people on the Astral Plane. When the victors enter Tu’narath for the first time, they carry the bounty of their hunt directly to Vlaakith. She accepts the gift and intones a ritual chant that marks the youngsters’ induction into githyanki society.
Vlaakith's Dilemma:
Long gone are the days when the gith race was fully embroiled in conflict. When the githyanki settled Tu’narath and took up residence in the Astral Plane, they no longer had to fight constantly for survival, and in that respect the lives of all githyanki became easier.
The mission laid out by Vlaakith in her grand proclamation remains of utmost importance. Her rule remains absolute, in part because she suffers no competition or divergent viewpoints. And her regime is in no danger, yet to an outsider in Tu’narath it might seem as though the place is in decline.
Indeed, in a way the githyanki are victims of their own success. After centuries of staging lucrative raids throughout the multiverse, the folk of Tu’narath have become spoiled and decadent. Vlaakith can still summon her people to action, and when she does so they obey her willingly. But when they aren’t otherwise occupied, many of the citizens of the city spend their time in self-indulgent activities.
For all her seeming invincibility, Vlaakith finds herself in an awkward situation that — in her paranoid mind — has no easy resolution. If she keeps her people busy more often by ordering an increase in raids, she risks her best warriors and marauders becoming experienced and powerful enough to challenge her rule. Also, if she sends out too many raiding parties at one time, the security of Tu’narath might be compromised. So she addresses the problem by not dealing with it directly, but by trying to encourage her indolent followers to find purpose in meaningful activities that don’t involve plundering and killing. She isn’t always successful in that effort.
Merciless Marauders. When Vlaakith decrees that another githyanki raid is in the offing, Tu’narath comes alive with anticipation. The knights and other soldiers selected for the mission consider it a high privilege. All the raiders do their best to honor Vlaakith by savaging their target — killing creatures indiscriminately, taking whatever treasures catch their fancy, and leaving destruction in their wake.
When one of the githyanki’s astral vessels returns home after a raid, it is laden with the spoils of the incursion. Vlaakith makes no specific demands but allows each individual raider freedom of choice in what they bring back. Some might seek exotic spices and herbs, while others pillage to find scrolls or tomes of knowledge. As a result, Tu’narath is cluttered (if not crowded) by a nearly infinite variety of objects that the githyanki have pirated from other planes, ranging in size from enormous buildings down to the smallest pieces of exquisite jewelry.
Indolent Dilettantes. As a race bred and shaped by the mind flayers for a life of fighting, the githyanki never knew anything else while they were enslaved. Now that they aren’t constantly at war, keeping her people occupied is perhaps the greatest challenge Vlaakith faces.
When githyanki aren’t on raids or other missions for Vlaakith, they enjoy a languid existence in Tu’narath. Since time doesn’t pass on the Astral Plane, the githyanki have no need to labor for food or water. To keep their minds sharp, Vlaakith orders them to pursue a variety of arts and studies. She regularly arranges contests, scavenger hunts, and other trials to keep her servants involved in purposeful activity, but the attraction of such diversions wears off after a brief time. Most of the citizens of Tu’narath, when they haven’t been called for duty on a raid or for some other mission, indulge themselves in any way they see fit.
Githyanki, with an infinite amount of time on their hands, crave novelty. They expect every returning raid to provide new forms of entertainment. This preoccupation with newness stands at the hollow center of githyanki culture. They dabble in creating art, but never master it. They stand among treasures taken from countless worlds but are never truly appreciative of them. The githyanki flit from topic to topic, craft to craft, never settling on one endeavor for long. Tu’narath is littered with half-built sculptures, partially completed frescoes, and other unfinished works of all sorts. The githyanki simply abandon personal projects that bore them, and every such endeavor they undertake ends in this manner.
A Blade Kept Sharp. Despite the decadent lifestyle the githyanki indulge in, they remain in fighting shape. All are required to attend weapon and combat drills, which serve as a brief respite from their boredom.
Vlaakith, of course, stands atop the githyanki military hierarchy. Under her serve the supreme commanders, each of whom oversees a regiment of one thousand githyanki warriors. Ten kith’rak, each responsible for a company of one hundred, answer to a commander. Each kith’rak in turn commands ten sarths, each of whom leads a party of ten warriors. A githyanki war leader retains that status in times of peace, looking after her underlings and maintaining their discipline and combat training.
GITHZERAI
The githzerai were born as a race at the end of the gith’s bloody, genocidal uprising against the mind flayers. A gith named Zerthimon, who had gained a significant following during the conflict, challenged Gith’s plans and her leadership. Gith was evil, the newcomer proclaimed, and she would lead the people into darkness and tyranny not unlike the one imposed by the illithids.
Thus, no sooner had the gith defeated their sworn enemies than they were plunged into a bitter civil war. In the ensuing conflict, Zerthimon was killed and his followers, naming themselves githzerai, relocated their civilization to the plane of Limbo.
Today, under the leadership of the Great Githzerai, Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith, the githzerai continue to stand fast against the githyanki, as well as taking their revenge on the mind flayers. Through forays into the Material Plane and other realms, they provide stiff opposition to their enemies’ plans for world domination.
Order in a Sea of Chaos:
Strong-minded philosophers and austere ascetics, the githzerai pursue lives of rigid order. Their society focuses on enhancing the potential of the mind through meditation, education, and physical tests. The most accomplished among them stand as exemplars of the githzerai’s monastic principles, but even those who perform mundane duties in a community have a significant measure of the same mental fortitude.
Living in the ever-turbulent churn of Limbo requires all githzerai to harness the power of thought to counteract and hold at bay the chaos-stuff of the plane. If they were not relentless in this effort, the tides of Limbo would overwhelm and destroy them.
The githzerai have a unity of purpose that comes from their reverence for their great heroes and their desire to emulate the virtues of those figures in their everyday lives.
Menyar-Ag, the Great Githzerai. Menyar-Ag led the githzerai into Limbo at the culmination of the conflict between Gith and Zerthimon. Thanks to unimaginable arcane and psionic power, he has survived far beyond the life span of an ordinary githzerai. Time has nevertheless taken its toll, and Menyar-Ag today is a decrepit, corpse-like entity — capable of tremendous feats of magic and psionics but barely able to move a finger or lift his own eyelids. A host of servants constantly attend to Menyar-Ag and see to his every need.
Although Menyar-Ag is no longer capable of physical actions of any consequence, his mind is as active and sharp as ever. He never sleeps, using a rotating staff of attendants to spread his commands and counsel to all githzerai. If needed, he can call upon his own psychic energy to contact his people, even across the planes.
Anarchs. A githzerai community works constantly to maintain a stable base of operations protected from the wilds of Limbo. The mental energy of the collective that keeps the plane’s forces of chaos at bay is funneled through the exceptional githzerai known as anarchs. One or more anarchs maintain each community by serving as both the receptacle for the psychic power of other githzerai and the means by which that power is employed.
Anarchs have a special gift for stabilizing and controlling the chaos-stuff of Limbo. In their communities on Limbo, they can create matter and energy out of nothingness with a thought. They can control the direction of gravity. The environment around them can be whatever they want it to be.
Anarchs are exceedingly rare among githzerai. When a githzerai in an existing community demonstrates the ability to become an anarch, that individual might leave the community to found a new colony or might remain where it is and ascend to a leadership position.
Zerths. Zerthimon’s mortal form died in battle, but his sacrifice freed the githzerai from Gith’s dark designs. They believe that Zerthimon, in his new godly form, will return someday and usher them into new age of freedom. Until that happens, the githzerai known as zerths fill the symbolic role of Zerthimon in society, as accomplished wielders of psionic power who can move themselves and others between planes.
The githzerai believe that when Zerthimon returns, he will first gather all the zerths and take them to their new paradise to prepare it for those who follow. Zerths are similar to what other races would call priests, although githzerai don’t have a religion as such, beyond their admiration for Zerthimon and Menyar-Ag.
Fortress Cities:
The monasteries of the githzerai are massive outposts of stability that sail through the chaos of Limbo. Githzerai anarchs keep the fortresses stable and control their interior design, opening portals to the outside only as needed. Most fortresses drift through Limbo at random, but none of them are ever isolated. When Menyar-Ag sends out a call to them, the anarchs of the other communities can instantly communicate with him.
Aside from its inhabitants, the most well-defended element of a githzerai fortress is its food supply. Because Limbo provides no sustenance, the githzerai rely on crops and livestock they appropriate from elsewhere. Plants are grown in hydroponic chambers, and livestock are raised in pens where light, temperature, and other conditions are tailored to their needs.
A community’s activity is overseen by monks who assign duties to each occupant. Everyone participates in mock combats and ongoing academic instruction, and each fortress allocates personnel and resources as needed. Every fortress is designed to be self-sufficient, even though no two of them are ever out of psychic contact.
Shra'kt'lor. Shra’kt’lor is a fortress city that houses the largest concentration of githzerai. It serves as both the capital of the civilization and the headquarters of the githzerai military forces. The greatest generals, spellcasters, and zerths of the race meet here to plan or refine their strategy for battling the githyanki and the mind flayers.
Shra’kt’lor is the most well defended of the githzerai outposts — no force in Limbo could readily threaten the city or its inhabitants. Teleportation circles are barred except on the fringes of the place, at always-guarded locations beyond the city’s outermost defenses. Those who use plane-shifting magic to arrive at these sites or who approach through the chaos of Limbo aren’t admitted to the city without the approval of an anarch.
Beyond the entrance to the city wait six layers of nested defenses. Each one is dominated by a fortress maintained by a powerful anarch chosen by Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith, who dwells at the heart of it all.
Githzerai in the World:
It’s natural for githzerai to prefer to remain in Limbo. They have carved out a well-ordered civilization in an environment that they can freely manipulate with their minds. When they visit other realms, particularly the Material Plane, githzerai feel sluggish and aren’t comfortable functioning in a landscape that they see as being locked in immutability. Despite their disinclination toward travel, the githzerai send groups away from Limbo on a regular basis to keep from giving ground in their battles against the githyanki and the mind flayers.
Adamantine Citadels. When githzerai travel, they sometimes bring a sliver of Limbo along. Before they set out, a cadre of powerful anarchs craft a citadel of adamantine out of the chaos-stuff around them. Inside the structure is more of Limbo’s essence, left in raw form until it’s needed. Then, in an eruption of psionic and arcane power that only Menyar-Ag can produce, the citadel and its accompanying githzerai are transported to another plane.
After the transfer is complete, at least one anarch must always attend the citadel to maintain its form and shape as well as to utilize the chaos-stuff within. When a citadel is ensconced on another plane, the githzerai create a teleportation circle inside it to facilitate travel between that plane and Limbo.
The appearance of an adamantine citadel on another plane creates a blot on the natural world. Life, the one thing that can’t be spontaneously created from the stuff of Limbo, is driven away from the location in a wave of dread. Depending on the size of the citadel, the affected area can have a radius of between several hundred feet and several miles. Birds avoid flying over or near it, other animals flee the area, and plants in the vicinity wither and die. Intelligent creatures can act normally, but being in the affected area is unnerving to them, and if they investigate, they soon identify the citadel as the cause. The githyanki, however, find it in their best interest to keep their citadels safe from discovery. Menyar-Ag prefers to plant them in desolate and rarely frequented places such as barren deserts or remote locations in the Underdark.
The primary purpose of an adamantine citadel is to watch over the activity of some foe of the githzerai, such as an illithid colony, and to provide a base of operations for a possible attack. Citadels are also used to collect foodstuffs and other material goods for transport to Limbo. When the githzerai are finished with a citadel, they vacate it and return to Limbo. Immediately after the last anarch teleports away, the citadel vanishes, leaving only a scarred landscape to indicate where it once stood.
Spreading the Word. The githzerai see their cause as not just a provincial concern, but one that they strive to impress upon others. As such, they have taken the initiative in preaching the philosophy of Zerthimon and sharing their knowledge of how to fight illithids and githyanki. To this end, zerths sometimes venture to other planes with the intent of founding a new monastery or joining an existing one. These “missionaries” are always looking for those with psionic potential who can bring those powers to bear against the githzerai’s foes. Most often, they operate in secret or behind the scenes as they pursue their agenda and try to swell the ranks of their allies. Who can say how many monasteries are in truth secret recruiting stations for the githzerai?
Going on the Attack:
The githzerai know full well that they can’t make progress in the war against their enemies by staying inside their fortresses on Limbo. To check the advances of the illithids and the githyanki and keep their foes’ numbers down, squads of githzerai often travel to other planes with the express intent of destroying the objects of their hatred.
Githyanki. Githzerai rarely confront githyanki on their home turf in the Astral Plane, but on other planes they maintain steady surveillance, always on the lookout for githyanki plots to foil and crèches to exterminate. During a mission of this sort, the githzerai don’t intentionally endanger the natural denizens of the plane, but they never compromise a planned attack on the githyanki just to protect innocent bystanders. In battling githyanki, the end justifies the means.
Githzerai sometimes employ mercenaries on the Material Plane to aid them in battling the githyanki, primarily to keep their enemies off-balance or to provide reinforcements. For those who need such enticement, they offer the promise of sharing the bounty of great treasures held by the githyanki.
Mind Flayers. Though they devote most of their military efforts to the constant campaign against the githyanki, the githzerai’s enmity for the illithids is even older. On one thing the githyanki and the githzerai can agree: the mind flayers must pay for what they did to the gith eons ago.
As their means of vengeance against the mind flayers, the githzerai send bands of warriors called rrakkmas — illithid hunting parties — to other planes to do battle with any mind flayers they come across. It is in these circumstances that the natives of the plane most often encounter githzerai away from their monastery. With their attention focused only on their mission, the githzerai pay little heed to those around as long as they don’t interfere with the hunt.