Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Gith
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ธ.ค. 2015
- With a name borrowed the name from a fictional race created by George R. R. Martin in his 1977 science fiction novel Dying of the Light. George R. R. and the githyanki/illithid relationship inspired by Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs.
The githyanki have appeared in all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and remain a very popular race to include in both Planar exploration and prime material game settings.
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It is believed that Gith herself turned herself and her eternal soul over to Tiamat in return for the eternal pact with the red dragons represented by the Sceptre of Ashardalon (named after the red dragon consort of Tiamat), which was carried back by Zerthimon to the "Sons of Gith" before the schism between both races. The red dragon pact was an essential part of the rebellion along with Gith necromantic mastery.
+Ben Harrop awesome info, thank you Ben!
The deal came After (which is why there's part Demonic/ Draconic Githyanki, but Not Githzerai).
In fact, the schism was the very reason She felt such measures were Necessary, because their forces had been Slashed due to the combination of the Mindflayer Rebellion, Then the schism, then the War because of the Schism.
It was the first Vlaakith, not Zerthimon, who brought it back. (Zerthimon was already dead by then).
Sage: So, what part of your origins is true?
Gith: It's all true.
Sage: Too much conflicting information, it has to be mostly falsehoods... lies.
Gith: It's all true, especially the lies.
DS9, a man of culture I see.
I hate how the later editions have made the Githyanki and Githzerai utterly indistinguishable in the art. Originally, Githzerai were considerably more human-looking than Githyanki.
Thagomizer agreed the fiend folio cover made me fall in love with the Githyanki
I love your channel.
It's the WORST wiki-wormhole, because I can fall down it during anything that doesn't require ears.
Endure. In enduring grow strong.
In knowing the teachings of Zerthimon, I have become stronger.
Save and defend and never lose hope
In *knowing* the teachings of Zerthimon, I have become stronger
Updated my journal.
Torment?
Interesting how you speculate that Gith are hybrids of Humans, Orcs, Elves and Goblinoids. I think I requested Mongrelfolk earlier, so I wonder what this theory means for them.
+imlaughing2death Yes you did, I took a look at the Mongrel folk and wondered if we would see them in 5th edition. They tend to be pretty mutated, with animal parts for limbs and such, so, you could have them as experiments that were less useful to their creators.
They also seem to have some Lizardfolk / Dragon-kin in Githyanki lineage, since they in lore lay eggs naturally among themselves. It's hard to speculate if this was part of their own biology or something built up since they lost Gith and gained Tiamat's influence, since the Githzerai went to Limbo at the stage they left Gith and ventured to Limbo.
Gith are the successful strain of hybrids. There could be many failed attempts
the githyanki invaded the plane of athas, aka darksun campaign. they created a fortress city named yathazor, but the githzerai using stolen planar keys attacked yathazor with a psionic devastator, destroying their psionic affinity, leaving the remenants to evolve into the gith race of darksun. ~ to read more find the black spine adventure for darksun
From what I've read from multiple sources, and concludes : The Githyanki also suffers from "the victim now executionner's syndrome". Like : "The Illithids were meant to rule the entire reality, but we've overthrown them. Now, it's up to us to suceed where they've lost and colonise all the planes, showing them how weak they are. It's the only way to prevent them to be the future rulers of everything." while the Githzerai mostly tries to avoid this syndrome by self-conditionning and self-discipline, even if it implies to whipe out who they are, where they came from and where they're going. To not be the victims or the creations, but only "the people", just like Githzerai means in their language. Their fear is to become tyrans just like their former masters did, because they know they have this potential and this power. This is why Githyankis lives in the Astral, perfect place to get rid of time consequences, and planing future invasions, while the Githzerai lives in Limbo, the plane of the many possibilities, like a blank slate. It's a kind of a somewhat twisted buddhist philosophy.
They hate each others, because Githyankis sees weakness, withdrawal and cowardice in the Githzerai's attitude.
And Githzerai sees a tyranny in Githyanki's behavior which is the same as the Illithid's rule, with cruelty and violence.
And the fact that both people are so looking alike doesn't help at all, because they sees in the other their worst nightmares and pessimistic future.
Thank you so much, the bit about undeath gave me the missing link to a campaign I am working on. Needed a way for my Out of the Abyss crew to get their gear back from the astral plain. They'll get it back from Githyanki hiring the party as mercenaries to steal Orcus' staff for the Gith.
Until I saw the thumbnail I thought it was about Athasian Gith from DarkSun and was like, ooooh, that's deliciously obscure. Disappoint.
I shall treat this as a viewer request and add it to the list.
I had been talking to my DM about making a Gith character and this was very informative,. THANK YOU!
you describing the war between the gith and mind flayers reminds me of The Last Great Time War from doctor who. Two highly advanced races diametrically opposed duking it out throughout time and space employing insane mind bending super weapons against each other and finally bringing each other to the brink of extinction
very much so.
Oh man. I would absolutely love to learn more about Vlaakith. Excellent video!
Did you ever make the videos for the individual races? I can't find them. You're the best at this, my friend. Keep em coming.
Do Gith also travel backward through time? If, as the aboleths observe, the illithid appeared out of nowhere (after traveling back in time from a future at the brink of defeat led by the Gith), why are there also Gith in the present? That is to say, if the mind flayers went back through time to a point before their initial existence, how does the very race the illithid later created (gith) and that in turn drove the illithid into exile also exist in that pre-mindflayer point? There may be a straightforward lore answer here but I don't know it from these videos, from Forgotten Realms Wiki, nor from the 5e sources. Thanks to anyone who can help.
We don't know exactly when the illithids teleported into the past.
@@AJPickett Thank you for all your work, and for replying to a new comment on an old video. I'm one of many people very grateful for everything you do.
We know from the Grand History of the Realms (p. 14) that illithid refugees arrived on Toril and founded Oryndoll in the Underdark around -11,000 DR, and then by 1362 DR if not earlier we have accounts (GHotR:126) of Githyanki attacking the illithid foothold in Waterdeep. It's not the original future origin or time-travel arrival of the illithid so much as this post-time travel present that confuses me.
It's not that I need answers to everything, I really enjoy the empty spaces where I have even more license than normal to creatively fill in gaps, but I feel like I don't understand the basic chronological relationship between the illithid and gith. If the gith are a slave race produced by the illithid in the future, quite plausibly as you have suggested out of other humanoid groups, and if they then go on to lead the rapid rebellion that ends the illithid empire in a single year before going out hunting the last of them down across the multiverse, and then the illithid travel back in time to escape that fate, why do we have gith here at this time they have gone back to (about 12,000 years after their arrival on Toril)? Did the gith chase them back through time? Are the gith of the present (ca. 1500 DR) a new generation of gith that the illithid re-created once again after their arrival ˜12,000 years ago? Something else? I've consulted the MM, Mordenkainen's, Volo's, the Forgotten Realms wiki, your videos, and the GHotR to no avail.
The trans-temporal nature of the illithid makes sense to me just fine, but it doesn't make sense to me why there are gith chasing illithid today when the illithid are only here today because they came here yesterday to escape a tomorrow where the gith were about to permanently eradicate them. Thanks for any direction you or others can point me in to try to come up with a way of making sense of this.
These videos are so inspiring. I have had many ideas for writing just on your musings. Thank you. =)
Most welcome :)
really appreciate your willingness to do these videos, AJ. also am very taken with your skills as a story teller. excellent work again here. before watching this i went back and watched first the Mind Flayer video and then the Aboleth one. and now just finished with this. really incredible cosmic stuff here.
i was reminded of a Next Generation Star Trek episode ("The Chase", 6th season, episode 20) where the crew of the Enterprise unravels an ancient myth buried in the DNA sequencing of humans, Vulcans, Romulans, Cardassians, and Klingons -- in which it was revealed there was a proto-race or primeval race that combines several races populating the Start Trek universe.
Rp Sketchbooks. The Githyankl originated from a conquered Race of Evil humans
Man I remember these guys from the D&D RPG computer game Neverwinter Nights 2 from 2006. In that one of your main opponents was the Githyanki & one of your companions was a Githzerai. Awesome game. I feel like replaying that son of a bitch after watching this.
I was talking to a friend who is fairly experience with planescape and according to him, one of the traits most psychic beings share is when you first meet them you instantly dispise them or enjoy their company. especially the ones with unconscious psychic abilities such as githzerai's dodge or a slaad's ability to understand and be understood despite language barriers. this applies to the individual however. so if a githzerai walked through a portal and introduced his/her self you would know instantly whether you like them or not regardless of how you feel about gith. the only ones this doesn't apply to are ilithid and aboleth because, well, they are ilithid and aboleth. nuff said.
Ironic I met some very charming and personable ilithid over the years, some of them are more than willing to be helpful.
They make wonderful trade partners.
As always, thanks!
I always liked the idea of playing a campaign with the Gith and Githyanki that is less like star wars in style, and more of a mixture of both star wars and doctor who, while with abit of elements of star trek in there as well during parts of the campaign that take place in the future.
Jedi and Sith works, but I find Romulans and Vulcans more on the nose.
I feel like there's a mirror to the Gith in the Verdan. Both are green mutated humanoids with psionics, a drive for personal excellence becoming very skilled. Having unique origin stories containing an Exodus and are not created by for beholden to any gods. The Gith are very old and rigid. While the Verdan are young and flexible. So like a reflection the same but reversed.
Please as soon as you finish the monster manual, especially now that you've done a handful of other out of the temporal loop of things, it would be really nice to get both of the serai and Yankee down pat
Very well done AJ! I really like your ecology of the Gith. As much as I love the Star Wars genre, I think the Gith are great enough without a Jedi/Sith comparison but that was cool nonetheless. I'm glad to see someone else has read a great deal on mind flayers, githzerai, and githyanki. I love all of those races. I play Pathfinder now. As you may well know, all three of those races could not be placed in the Pathfinder universe. I still use them to this day in Pathfinder anyway.
By cannon, no, they do not fit into Pathfinder cannon.
But....
Remember that the Astral Plane is infinate, and Astral Tubes can lead almost anywhere. Who is to say that an Astral tube can't reach from D&D's cosmology to Pathfinders, and what would be the consequences if the Githyanki found it... or the illithids.
Campaigm seed I am using, enjoy mulling it over.
Evil sounding "YES..." ?
Less from an ability perspective, and more from a cultural perspective, Githyanki give me Klingon vibes, and Githzerai give me Vulcan vibes.
I really like your videos, I just wish your audio quality was just a tiny bit better. I'll check your more recent stuff and see if anything is clearer.
+Matthew Walker That tiny bit carries a heavy price tag.. I make best use of what I do have, I am just happy the volume problem got fixed :)
Thanks for the feedback.
I like the story but i don't see where all the mix of races comes from. I mean that's homebrew or speculations, because as of now, the writers at WotC don't know really how the rise of the Gith happen or at least they didn't deliver on that part. I've known the Gith since Fiend Folio, read all the gith campaign like the 3 parters Dungeon, Dragon & Polyhedron, and a lot of bits here and there from numerous scenarii. I'm curious because i'm running actually a campaign involving both MF, Giths and elder gods :)
Ooo I like that idea of the gith being the sum of all humanoids. Might just have to steal that one from ya. 😉
most excellent AJ,
i can't remember if i requested this before ... if you don't mind, for the official list: doppelgangers and changelings.
i was getting out of playing D&D around when 3.0 and Eberron hit the scene. so i had no idea until very recently that a half-doppelganger species had been offered up as a PC race. also, i'm very curious about how the doppelgangers and changelings were used in that setting. what i've read so far seems fragmentary.
in most sci-fi literature doppelgangers tend to represent "evil" ... though it might be more accurate to say they represent "fear." that is to say, story-tellers seem to understand that replacing one group of people with an identical group whose motives are different from the first nearly always produces fear in us -- regardless of the intentions of the 2nd group. even when the 2nd group makes generic copies instead of specific ones and simply tries to blend in with the populace. doppelgangers are "xenophobia made flesh" in a way. yet its possible to imagine doppelgangers infiltrating the human race for more benign or at least neutral reasons, as happened in the film Cocoon, or Starman.
i'd be very interested to hear your take on the possibilities of doppelgangers and changelings as a major race in a campaign, regardless of game system really.
Where did you learn about the whole beings from the future that came back to the past?
Sourcebooks, Bruce Cordell's work is required reading.
Space Grinch
Although i know alot of people love Eberron, but i really wish we could have seen James Wyatt's Pharagos setting fleshed out during that contest that got Eberron released.
In my version of the Forgotten Realms, Slarkrethel has joined the githzerai and githyanki in their eternal war on illithids. Freed from the horror of being grafted to an elder brain by a doughty coalition of indefatigable heroes at the end of the adventure Call From the Deep, he began a personal vendetta against that eternal race of aberrations.
The gith in a star wars setting are basicly the yuzon vong they look exactly alike
lol that's true they do look like them
Psychicly contained lasers. (Visible cringe!)
The monk path is the right one in both doctrines. Why? Because in fighting mind flayers you want mobility and willsave DUH
I want to know more about the Gith now.
Maybe I should go into more detail on the individual races of the Gith.
@@AJPickett that would be so cool, I love learning more and deep diving into these awesome creatures
Loved playing this campaigns with the gith chasing me because i have A BOX full of their fallens swords.... they really sensitive about their swords...😂😂😂😂
could probably draw from the Vulcan/Romulan dynamic
they would be cool to play as planer police chasing mind flayers
I SWEAR I read something like the following years ago, but a quick google search turns up nothing now.....
I remember reading years ago when the now non-canon Star Wars books dealing with the invasion of the Republic Galaxy by the extra-galactic race called the Yuzzahn Vong. The primary writer of that series, R.A. Salvator (famous for the various tales of Drizzt Do'Urden the Drow), mentioned that this race may have been inspired from something he saw in other work he has done ^_^
To me that just seemed to scream that they were inspired by the Githyanki/Githzerai, but of course if he said that out loud I'm sure some lawsuits would have happened.
From another author, that might be the case, but R.A. Salvatore is on good terms with WotC still so far as I'm aware and Hasbro's got the Star Wars toy license (and thus a reason to not see a lawsuit war about licensing with Disney). I doubt that it would go to litigation, even if the books had still been canon.
I hate to condradict ya, AJ, but youre a bit off about lightsabers. They arent laser beams, theyre plasma contained within force fields (lasers wouldnt deflect eachother like lightsabers do). They also are only wielded primarily by force sensitives because theyre too dangerous for most without enhanced senses and reflexes to use without lopping off their own limbs. General Grievous is one example of a non-force user who wields lightsabers, so the force isnt required to use them. You can melt through bulk heads and such without burning yourself if you keep your distance and dont inhale the vapors but this could also just be a plot hole. I dont recall exactly how close their hands got to that bulk head in episode 3. So, really, theyre just normal weapons that are too dangerous for most non-jedi to attempt to use. Not like the gith's psychic swords.
Can u do the ranger class and the monk class plz and if u know anything about the darksun campian that woukd be cool
Fwiw Original Queen Vlaakith is not the same entity as current Lich Queen Vaakith, she is like the 16th Vlaakith or something.
yes
Redo this video please! We need updated version with better audio and new info.
Just started playing Baldurs Gate 3 EA. :p
Hey A.J. as a heads up, I've been researching your vids recently and I think youtube isn't marking all of my likes. So I'm going back through and reliking all of your vids.
there is also the special giths that come at once a year. the christmas giths
Always help the gith.
Pre-date-ors 😂
But seriously great vis
Im thinking of making a LN githyanki knight
Would it be sensible for a shardmind and a gith to work together?
Where you get the art you juse specialy the ships in the begining.
Thanks for the your opinion of Gith
+FrostWolfPack I source images from google image search, which means, pretty much everywhere it is displayed publically on the internet.
Ok, great video, one question - could a high-level vampire create a vampire slaad? Would that endanger the species given they will devour each other?
I don't know, very good question.
Githyanki speak no language but their own,due to their enslavement they also never fight among themselves also due to slavery! Gith Pirates ,Githzerai and Giyhyanki are not the same species although they have similiar origins. According to the description of githyanki they're actually a race of humans enslaved by the illithids for both food and experimentation.Githyanki children are not born and raised in the Astral due to lack of gravity. Only after they have achieved adulthood and gone on an impossible quest,usually on the lower planes,will they be allowed to join their brethren on their true plane....i love the way they farm for food on the Astral with vast artificial food chambers, growing plants and other fungi. It's hands down my favorite monster in D&D I allowed my nephew to have a player character gith which has already gone beyond the levels allowed that race....it makes it terribly difficult for him to continue playing him due to the raids the race has gone through to try and slay him...lol good times
Githyanki dont make alliances with ANY other race save red dragons!
AJ never judge Star Wars by the modern post Disney buy out. It’s not a good litmus. The EU novels are far more representative.
Lightsabers are probably contained plamsa, not laser. Just speculating.
Your theory that Gith are a mix of the other main humanoid races is the opposite of what I was thinking and that Gith a the originator species of all other humanoids but this works both way if you consider how the Mind Flayers will have transported them back in time too...
Timey wimey, wibbily wobbly
A lightsaber is made out of Phozons. A phozon is made out of crystalized light. Phozons do not eminate heat, but anything that might immediately touch them is subject to all of the energy contained at that focused point. Phozons are atoms made out of light in crystalline form and their bonds are only atoms thick before they start to break down. Thusly a light saber can cut through anything and melt a steel bulkhead but not burn the hand or handle of the wielder.
The coolest thing is that phozons are real, although you should probably just google "crystalized light" because you won't find a Wikipedia article on them yet.
Calling it real is a huge stretch.. the results of the experiments, which are largely simulations and observations of behaviors (such as where they took 100 billion atoms and used this to simulate one atom, next to a superconducting wire containing photons, there were tightly confined photons and they did not form into a crystal, they just started to act more like particles than waves) is not confirmation or demonstration of crystallized light.. interesting stuff for sure! But a very long, long way from a lightsaber.
There are, however specific metals that can block a lightsaber such as Cortosis or "True Mandalorian Iron" (which Jango and Boba Fett only had a cuirass and helmet of, hence why it didn't help them that much as the neck is a vulnerable spot and Boba effectively got screwed by "do not puncture or incinerate" warning being violated in regards to his jetpack).
Can you play as a gith ranger monster slayer
How do Gith feel about duergar? They both hate illithids.
Probably a teeth-clenched uneasy alliance at best.
Everyone hates the Illithids, they're the Illithids.
@@Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1024 Another problem with the Purist ilithid psionist are trying to wipe out the arcane ilithid. The hate is mutual between the two groups, the bias between the two groups is so strong that they will team up and wipe out any multi-class psionic/wizard they hear of.
Say AJ, would you say a Githyanki Red Dragon sorcerer is a plausible player character?
Yes
There cannot be two skies.
Does 5th edition do away with psionics? I recall the 3.5 Gith being masters thereof.
Believe it or not, the designers of 5th edition are still messing around with exactly what psionics are and are not... its been how many years now? Personally, I just run them as spells, even though I think they make more sense as advanced monk Ki powers.
@@AJPickett That's sad. I enjoyed psionics as something mystical but different than magic. Felt like added depth to the world. Admittedly, it makes life Lot more complicated.
what do you think a githyanki warrior would taste like if you roasted and ate one? this will probably be a question I need to answer next session.
Pork
They're an interesting group, particularly because I like Psionics, but I often catch myself wishing other people could, somehow, forge silver swords. I get they'll hunt someone to the ends of the earth to reclaim one, but it could be nice if my psion could make their own? I also feel Luke I wish they were a more psionic battle race. Much like the Duergar, I just wish they were more...magical, and not just TK and physical combat. Oh well. Since they spend so much time on the Astral Plane, I like to imagine that was where the greatest of the Illithid Empire was; where its Elder Brains' links were, and maybe a place of thought, and time, that the Mind Flayers figured out how to bend reality through, before the plane-shifting Githyanki destroyed that greatest citadel, and then occupied it, to make sure they never returned, because someday, some Illithids would, to build that fortress of thought. I might actually go do a little writing!😊
On a side bit, one of the reasons I like these programs is the willingness to go back to older lore, and the knowledge to talk about it. On that, in my 2e Monster Manual, there are Gith, and they look like silly pirates. I don't remember if they have psychic powers, but they don't seem to be Fighters, with silver swords, or monks, so they feel like a different, unrelated thing, except they share a number of the weird features. What are they, compared to these two? Just alien pirates, for Spelljammer? Members who couldn't live up to either strict lifestyle? Curious.
This may have been retconned but my understanding was that the current Lich Queen wasn't the original, just used the same name (ala Dread Pirate Roberts). I wanna say she was the 17th of that name..
This is true.
@@AJPickett wasn't trying to nitpick.
Baulders Gate III just has me rewatching all sorts of illithid related content.
@@KS-PNW I was agreeing with you 🙂
@@AJPickett I know. Was just clarifying that I only knew because I had JUST watched another video.
Love your channel btw!
@@KS-PNW Thank you :D
I think Romulan/Vulcan history applies more than Sith/Jedi.
I am deeply disappointed that you did not also cover the third branch of the race. The pirates of Gith who think the other 2 races both abandoned the war and the legacy of Gith
Is that the same race as the sojourner from the everius Cale books?
Isn't there a time god on the planet that is in charge of stopping paradoxes?
The Mind Flayers are supposedly outside that sphere of influence due to their status as aberrations (basically a case of "Your rules are not my rules") given that the Inevitables aren't exactly hunting them down en masse like the Gith are.
So Yoda is a gith I knew it
Would you say they are like Romulans and Vulcans?
No, but I see what you mean. Part of the reason that analogy breaks down quickly is because of the exotic environments each half of the species lives in.
@@AJPickett Ah I see what you mean. Thank you for clarifying. I was trying to get a better understanding. I am thinking of writing a story, mostly for fun, and the main character will probably be dealing with Mind Flayers. They are a Duergar and I was wondering if they did run into Gith what they might have to deal with. In terms of not just culture but personality.
@@beckaldo8741 very interesting! Yeah the Duegar would seem to have common ground with the Gith, particularly the Githzerai, however, their religion twists the story of their origin considerably so, who knows? Lots of narrative scope for character interactions and rich pickings for a writer. Good choice.
@@AJPickett That is what I was thinking. Thank you though. I appreciate the compliment. Your videos really did help with gathering information and also helped me with figuring out the psychologies of the races.
TNG episode where the Enterprise crew were being drawn into a sub-space bubble and experimented out by an outside species, Worf had his forearm removed and reattached.
My gaming shops ran 3.5e D&D/ Star Wars and had the Gith attack Vader's star destroyer. We used the WotC Star Wars system to run Star Trek games where the ilithid invaded.
Princess Leia, " I've resist Vader mind probes, I will resist you !"
A cabal of ilithid speaking telepathic into Leia's head, " Tell us more about this .. Vader."
so basically Jedi and Sith but in reverse order of creation
Yeah, pretty much.
Yoda's a gith
Liz aka Lea'zeal is my main girl in bg3 so I came back to get some hints. Wow that mic, Lotta lip smacking in this video.
Totally GMO ppl, cool ! Gives me material for a short story or 2.
1:05
Hi AJ (•◡•) /
Hi!
Screw the universe!
*mentions the lore deflowering that is the Far Realm, closes video*
AJ it is excrutiatingly evident this is one of your earlier videos.
Your presentation skills have improved considerably - can I suggest remaking this vid at some point? Compared to your newer content, it's somewhat difficult to listen to
Oh very much so, yes.
I.always forgit bout da giff I mean gith.ones a hippo one ain't.one kills those terrible evil vile mindflayers who are scary