Githyanki (Gith-Yawn-key)

Githyanki are typically cruel, arrogant, and aggressive. The few exceptional individuals who desert the rigid githyanki militaristic society tend to develop a disdain for rules. The high value they place on individuality also cause them to become ambitious and self-centered. They are also known for their long memories.
Even the most open-minded githyanki come across as smug, sarcastic, rude, and overconfident, but they are generally capable of withstanding adversity without complaining. Clever and resourceful, githyanki adventurers are not known for their loyalty or ability to make new friends, but they are extremely persistent in the face of danger. Although rare, it is possible for githyanki to become disillusioned with their people's unsavory habits and to try to set up a reputation on their own acts.

Society
Githyanki society is extremely well organized and orderly. It has a martial and meritocratic structure, with no regard for blood ties, and with both males and females training heavily in magic and combat. Although they are loyal to each other, they are also fiercely individualistic. Raiding illithid strongholds is considered a rite of passage.
Githyanki society is divided into three main castes. Although rigid, there is the possibility of moving between castes through intense competition. The major caste is the military, followed by the smaller mlar, who are in charge of crafts and specialized tasks, and the g'lathk, who are in charge of food production and labor.
Within each of the castes, there are further subdivisions according to specialized professions. The military caste includes the knights and the warriors within the military hierarchy, in addition to the gish and other spell casters.
Githyanki military hierarchy is divided in companies of ten warriors, each led by a sarth. Each group of ten sarths is in turn supervised by a kith'rak, and every group of ten kith'raks is led by a "supreme commander". At the top of the hierarchy stands the leader of all githyanki, Vlaakith CLVII.
Knights are among the most influential githyanki and stand outside of the military hierarchy. Their deadliest weapons and a signature of githyanki culture are their silver swords, which are wielded by every knight. Silver swords damaged the opponents' minds as well as their bodies, and, in the Astral Plane, are capable of severing the silver cord that connects the soul of a traveler using the astral projection spell to their body in the Material Plane.
Githyanki who hone their arcane skills as well as combat are known as gish. They ware typically employed as assassins and spies and are capable of casting spells such as fireball, magic missile, counterspell, and haste, among others.
The mlar are responsible for the construction of weapons, including silver swords, and astral ships. They are also in charge of repairing all githyanki ships and tools, as well as the occasional art piece. Mlar used their psionic abilities to replicate the effects of the fabricate, stone shape, and wall of stone spells, as well as other unique abilities to decorate and repair structures at a much higher efficiency than that of a regular worker.
The g'lathk are most closely associated with farmers and caretakers. Their main duty is to raise and train the young on the material plane until they are old enough to rejoin the fleet. They also cultivate food and gather materials at the same hidden crèches where they raise the young that they will then furnished the fleet with.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

All gith 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. They take about 4 months to gestate. In the case of the githyanki since one cannot age while physically on the astral plane, their eggs are laid and hatched in hidden crèches.
Like all gith, githyanki are tall and slender humanoids with rough, leathery yellow skin and bright black eyes that are sunken deep in their orbits. They have long and angular skulls, with small and highly placed flat nose, and ears that are pointed and serrated in the back side. They typically grow either red or black hair, which they style in topknots. Their teeth are pointed.
The long years of enslavement and manipulation at the hands of the mind flayers have given them natural psionic abilities. they use this enhanced intellect to master magic and blend it with their fighting styles.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Most live among the great ships of Tu'narnath the Void Fleet. This fleet is in constant motion in the Astral Sea in search of illithid hives. However there are others that live in hidden crèches on the material plane.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Though githyanki are very orderly and militaristic, they also treasure individuality. Thus names are chosen by the individual. When a githyanki reaches adulthood and presents their taken illithid head before The Lich Queen, the proclaim their chosen names and are referred to as such from that point on.
Some examples of githyanki names are;
Male: Ant’i’am, Dyl’e’min, Loc, Lykaldaath, Rak’i’th
Female: Ga’alas, Jisseg, Trys’a’an, Varstuth, V’naindunal, Yk’a’ardoth

Relationship Ideals

Since it is impossible to age while in the Astral Plane, githyanki need to hatch their eggs and raise their young in other planes of existence until they reach maturity. This difficulty, added with the githyanki's extremely long lifespan while in the Astral, led to a very low birth rate. Their favored locations to raise and train young githyanki are hidden crèches located in remote places of the Prime Material Plane. There, caretakers are responsible for hatching the eggs and collectively raising the young. The length of an egg's stay in the Material Plane is timed carefully so that all eggs in a clutch hatched simultaneously. There are no families in githyanki society.
From a very young age, githyanki go through a rigid regime of training and combat practice, with increasingly higher expectations and more severe punishments, all the while hearing tales of 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 is to slay a mind flayer and bring its head to Vlaakith on the Death Fleet's flagship. This is accomplished by leading the surviving adolescence on a raid of an illithid colony. Those who survive and claim at least one illithid head rejoin the fleet. This rite of passage marked the githyanki's entry into adulthood and into the community.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

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

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

The Rite of Choosing is a highly regarded tradition among the githyanki. Githyanki are ruthless and very orderly but they treasure individuality. After spending eons under oppression at the hands of they illithids, devoid of free thought they believe that all githyanki should have a say in their own fate.
After the naming ceremony where an individual proclaims their name to Vlaakith as well as all other githyanki, they immediately are set with a series of tasks and trials. These trials are nearly as brutal as the training endured while young, however it serves to test the aptitude of each member and divide them into one of the three caste. After their soon to be caste is decided they are given a choice, they can accept their caste and serve the Lich Queen dutifully in that roll or they can deny their caste. If they choose to deny their cast, they are exiled to the material plane and may never rejoin the Void Fleet.

Common Taboos

The legendary and iconic silver swords are treasured by all githyanki, and it is the greatest sin amongst the fleet for an outsider/exile to wield or possess one. Though there is no recorded instance of an outsider successfully stealing or even touching one, you can be assured that if it where to happen they would be relentlessly pursued to the ends of what ever plane the heretic lives or has fled too.

History

Long ago the Githyanki where one people with the Githzerai known as the gith. They were enslaved by the mind flayers for eons. Then the great hero Gith rose up and with his shimmering silver sword struck down their illithid masters and cast of his peoples bonds.
Gith led his people to the astral plane to chase their subjugators and eliminate them, however there was a dissenting group of gith who wanted to instead find a new home and live a life apart from war. Soon tension arose and blood was spilt, the gith would be forever fractured. The cowards, the Githzerai, fled to the ever changing chaos while the Githyanki took up the heroes' crusade in his stead.
For an uncounted time they wandered the Astral Sea Until they found The One in the Void. This being or what was left of it was the corpse of a god long forgotten. The Githyanki pillaged its body for divine material to build great astral ships so they could travers the Astral Sea faster and track down their quarry more expeditiously. With their newly built armada the illithid presence within the astral sea quickly dwindled.

Historical Figures

Vlaakith I is spoken about in almost the same reverent tones as the hero Gith himself. Some even say that she was his advisor and consort before the great schism that would claim his life. Years after their exile in the Astral Plane, during the continuing crusade on the illithids, Vlaakith I, supreme commander at the time petitioned the previous ruler to search for allies and or slaves on other planes, in an effort to expand the githyankis' force and bolster their efforts against the illithids. The githyanki's ruler agreed and she journeyed from the fleet to seek these allies but never returned. Instead, the red dragon envoy Ephelomon returned with a pledge 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. Vlaakith I also played a crucial role in securing the githyanki's position in the Astral Plane.
The latest descendant of the Vlaakith bloodline is Vlaakith CLVII, the Lich-Queen, who has no heirs. She is the first of her line to follow the path of lichdom. Additionally she is somehow able to maintain her lich form without consuming a great deal of souls. Some have even claimed that she has obtained a level of divinity and this is why she does not require any souls. This rumor is spread and backed by a new cast of zealots known as ch'r'ai. They say that through her great wisdom and power she was able to capture a fragment of what divine spark remained within the One in the Void. Though there is no way to prove this, it has been noted some of the ch'r'ai have been able to magically heal allies and some of Vlaakith's most devout knights have exhibited abilities very similar to paladins.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

As a people, githyanki are generally proud and xenophobic. They view all other races with contempt and are generally unwilling to learn anything about other cultures, including other languages. They view Material Plane–dwellers as ignorant and incompetent, or, in worse cases, as potential slaves. They can only bring themselves to use magic items not of githyanki design if they were extremely powerful, and even then by rationalizing that any such items must have been designed with githyanki knowledge to begin with. It is uncommon, but not impossible, for a githyanki to overcome the prejudices of its people and start regarding others with respect.
A flight of red dragons serve high-ranking githyanki as mounts and companions, following a treaty established with their leader early on in their history. They serve their riders dutifully and without complaining or offering advice, which keeps them outside of githyanki politics. Typically, the dragons serve the githyanki during their young age, stationed within the fleet waiting to be dispatched on raids or as guards protecting their crèches in the Prime Material Plane. As soon as they reach adulthood, the red dragons are dismissed, keeping the wealth accumulated over their years of service. They are then replaced by younger dragons, who are recruited by githyanki promising large treasures and long lives. Although not all red dragons participate in the alliance with the githyanki, most do not consider them as enemies.
Additionally most githyanki harbor a burning hatred of mind flayers and githzerai. They never pas up an opportunity to harm either, but are not above teaming up with githzerai against the illithids, their common enemy.

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Gith

Lifespan

Indefinite in the Astral Sea